LEAVING AN UGLY TRAIL OF ULTIMATUMS, BAD FEELINGS, AND SPLIT VOTES Some two years after the whole process of developing a new campus for Hendersonville High School began and after deep divisions and disagreements evolved between city and county government, it now appears that it’s a “done deal”. and the Clark Nexsen-designed new $53 million campus for Hendersonville High School will be built on the former Boyd property at Five Points. As WHKP reported in “live” on-line internet coverage Thursday night, Hendersonville City Council tentatively approved zoning changes and the closure of a portion of Ninth Avenue West Thursday night in a 3 to 2 split vote to make room for the new campus. Then city council met again Friday afternoon to finalize the vote and reportedly to try and achieve the 4 to 1 or 5 to 0 super majority vote city ordinances reportedly require for zoning changes. City council did, in fact, vote to approve the closing and the zoning changes Friday reportedly in a 3 to 2 vote. and it’s not clear what happened with the required super majority. City council said on Friday that they wanted a guarantee from the county that the 90-year old Stillwell building on the current Hendersonville High School campus would be saved. But in a noon meeting of the Henderson County Commissioners, commissioners voted 5 to 0 to turn down that request and give no guarantee the Stillwell building will be preserved or how it might be used going forward. School board chairman Amy Lynn Holt was at the county commissioner’s meeting Friday and spoke in favor of an “up or down” vote on the proposed but controversial new Hendersonville High School campus with no conditions. She said the Stillwell building is owned by the school system and implied the school board would make the decisions about the future of that historic building. which, by the way, has been at the heart of the opposition to the proposed new campus from the beginning. City Council members Ron Stephens and Jerry Smith voted Thursday night against the closing of Ninth Avenue and the zoning change; Mayor Barbara Volk and council members Jeff Miller and Steve Caraker voted in favor of them. After a disagreement over school building priorities, the elected county school board, in a split 3 to 2 vote---and after being given an ultimatum by county commissioners---some months ago endorsed the proposed new campus. and a few weeks later county commissioners agreed to build a new $25 million Edneyville Elementary School. A few weeks ago, Hendersonville’s Planning Board, in yet another split vote, turned down the county’s request for zoning changes and the Ninth Avenue closing for the new campus. which placed the whole issue squarely before
Hendersonville city council this week. Even though the future of the proposed new Hendersonville High School campus is apparently resolved now, what is NOT resolved are the deep hard feelings between city and county government. and that will likely not be put to rest until some new elected officials and staff mend these tattered and bullet-riddled city-county fences at some point in the future. By WHKP News Director Larry Freeman (Hendersonville High School Class of 1966)
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