Town looks at purchase of BREMCO's Sparta office

The town of Sparta is eyeing a plan to purchase Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation's current Main Street office to use as a new town office.

However, the building will not be available for some time — at least until the county renovates the former Lowe's Hardware building to accommodate the utility.

At the council meeting April 3, Mayor John Miller made the announcement after a closed session during the meeting. "We're in serious negotiation with Blue Ridge Electric about the town acquiring their building when they move to Lowe's," said Miller.

Miller's statement followed a 10-minute closed session. He said the possibility of the purchase was the subject of the session.

The county board of commissioners last week approved a plan to purchase the building formerly occupied by Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse with most of the funds provided by Blue Ridge Electric.

The county will then exchange that building with Blue Ridge Electric for the old Cash and Carry building, which is occupied by Alleghany Campus of Wilkes Community College, the Alleghany County Chamber of Commerce, JobLink, the Employment Security Commission office and Child Care Resources.

Those organizations will thus have a permanent home, with the opportunity for the college to expand into the lower floor of the building. Blue Ridge Electric and its subsidiary, Blue Ridge Energies, will then move into the Lowes building.

After the plan was announced last month, Town Manager Tom Douglas said he would like to have the present Blue Ridge Electric location on South Main Street for a town office building. He said the town was given first option on the building, which has an asking price of about $1.1 million.

"I feel like we can buy it without raising taxes and without raising water and sewer rates,"
 
 

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