Several residents showed up for Monday’s scheduled public hearing on the future of the Twin Valley High School property, but Buchanan County supervisors postponed the hearing, and any vote on the issue, until necessary paperwork is ready.
Garden District’s Jeff Cooper, chairing the meeting in the absence of board chairman Tim Hess, said the persons interested in purchasing the property at Pilgrims Knob are expected to visit the area in October with information about their plans; they then will hold a public meeting before a rescheduled public hearing, which is expected at the supervisors’ November meeting.
Board counsel Lee Moise said the deed to the school property has not yet been received from the school board. With the consolidation of the county’s four high schools into the new Southern Gap High School, the emptied properties revert back to supervisors. Plans have been announced to raze Hurley High School and attempt to repurpose others.
The party interested in purchasing the Twin Valley property has been identified as Maverick Partners Holdings LLC “or its affiliates.” The Voice has been unable to locate any information about such a company; it is not registered with the Virginia Secretary of State’s office. An internet search revealed that “it appears to be a recent or privately owned entity (notably tied to regional development discussions in Southwest Virginia).” No further information was offered Monday night.
“We don’t have the deed yet,” Cooper said, “so we got we just kind of got ahead of our horses and we were premature on this but the understanding that I have is that — and I think the county has — is that this is going to be an energy project to develop and utilize Buchanan County’s natural gas resources to construct and develop an industrial project in the Pilgrims Knob area.”
Cooper, who represents the district that includes the Twin Valley High School property, added, “We have got a commitment from the people, who would like to work with Buchanan County to invest some money and create some jobs and take energy and turn it into something else.”
The company’s officers also plan to hold a public meeting before the November supervisors’ meeting, he said. “They are committed to coming in and being as frank as they can be about what they want to do before they do it.”
If the development is approved, Cooper said, “we’re going to go back and follow the normal process of property that’s going to be developed into any kind of job creating or investment creating format: to hopefully deed it to our Industrial Development Authority and that, the way we think right now, would happen at a public hearing on the November meeting,” tentatively Nov. 4.
Cooper, who works in the gas industry, said several times that he was not at liberty to speak more about the project, but “they are talking about some large investments and the majority of the investments are going to be related to energy, which is only three things here so you know it’s either talking about coal, gas or electricity.”
Addressing those who came for the public hearing, Cooper said, “I really apologize for it even being on this agenda here tonight … I didn’t want to deter anybody from coming here.
“I can’t talk about it so I defer to (company representatives) to speak on this, other than it’s an energy project. I will say I think it’s definitely not detrimental to the community.”
