| 110th Year, 37th Issue | Thursday, April 22, 1999 | Sparta, North Carolina |
The Alleghany County Board of Commissioners nixed school facility plan four by a 3-2 vote on another surprise vote Monday.
The school plan was not on the commissioners' agenda for the meeting; however, Commissioner Ken Richardson revised the agenda with the approval of the other commissioners to include the "school plan or school issue" at the end of the agenda, which put the issue after the board's closed session. The issue was discussed prior to the closed session at the request of Commissioner Bob Greene, who was not feeling well near the end of the meeting.
Voting for the complete plan were the same two commissioners who voted for it earlier - Walter Jones and Charity Gambill.
Plan four was an option that included the complete school requests for classrooms and other facilities in addition to a gymatorium (a combination of a gymnasium and an auditorium) for Alleghany High School.
No school officials, supporters or board members were in attendance at the 10 a.m. meeting - a sharp contrast to the throng of supporters who showed up at the commissioners' last meeting on April 5.
On April 5, the board stalemated on a vote to build plan four, with Chairman Ken Richardson and Commissioner Eldon Edwards offsetting the votes of Gambill and Jones.
At that time, school board Chairman Bobby Irwin, who was in attendance at the meeting, said that the vote would have been different had Greene been in attendance.
Indeed the vote was different with Greene present, but the result was defeat for the approval of the complete plan instead of the approval apparently anticipated by the school board.
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