A public park may be in Beaufort County’s future as county staff makes a case to obtain land currently owned by the federal government.

In an April meeting, County Manager Randell Woodruff got authorization to look into applying for ownership of the 2,800-acre parcel of land in the northwest corner of the county. The land previously housed a Voice of America radio transmitter facility that was decommissioned in 2006. Now the National Park Service and General Services Administration are looking to hand it off to another nonprofit or government entity at no cost, according to Woodruff.

“We’re very fortunate to have this opportunity,” Woodruff said. “They want us to be on top of this in less than a month. We’ve got to really move fast to get our side of it done. … Normally we would just wait (for the next meeting). But I need to get rolling on this tight timeline.”

Friday, a special meeting of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners has been called to further the cause: Woodruff will seek authorization from the board to do further investigation, a final analysis to present to the federal agencies.

While the land will cost the county nothing up front, turning it into parkland will, Woodruff said.

“There will be some costs to county — things that will have to be done, for instance, the radio towers, take them down. The goal would be to take those towers down and sell them for salvage money that could be used to offset costs,” Woodruff said.

With the land comes an agreement with the federal government that it will be used for recreational purposes, and already, there’s brainstorming as to how that could happen. Woodruff said the park will likely include trails for walking, hiking and cycling, as well as educational components revolving around nature and indigenous species.

“It’s a long-term project, a 20-year project, that could end up bringing people to the county. It’s almost an economic development project in itself, as well, but it’s a long-term deal,” Woodruff said.

Several other entities have applied for the property — when the issue first arose in the April meeting, an organization serving the needs of the homeless had already applied.

In 1999, a similar 594-acre VOA property in Pitt County was handed over to East Carolina University for expansion of its campus.

The special called board meeting will be held in the Beaufort County Administrative Office building, 121 W. Third St., Washington, at 10 a.m.