By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Plans to used part of the former P.S. Jones High School site for a new police station in Washington were buried by the City Council on Monday.
Moments after William O’Pharrow, a spokesman for the city’s black community, presented 423 signatures on petitions opposing the proposal to build the new facility near the intersection of Bridge and West 11th streets, the council decided to look elsewhere for a location for the new police station.
O’Pharrow told the council that he collected the 423 signatures in less than eight hours, adding that he believed he could collect as many signatures, if not more, in the same amount of time.
“I think this pretty much seals the fate of this site,” Mayor Judy Meier Jennette said.
O’Pharrow, who lives near the former P.S. Jones site, said residents in that neighborhood oppose building the new station on part of the land that once housed the black high school because “it would take away the only open field in our area.” O’Pharrow, a P.S. Jones graduate, said the field is used for recreational usages such as sports and picnics.
O’Pharrow urged the city to “search for a more suitable” site for the new police station. He also said residents in the area were unaware of the city’s interest in building a new police station at the former P.S. Jones location until they read about it in the Washington Daily News last weekend.
City Manager James C. Smith asked O’Pharrow if city officials talked with him about two weeks ago about the city’s interest in the site. O’Pharrow did not respond directly to Smith’s inquiry.
Councilman Archie Jennings expressed concern about the city moving too quickly when it comes to finding a site on which to build a new police station.
Jennings said the issue is about building a new police station, “not investing in a particular neighborhood.” He was referring the city manager’s remarks about the city and other entities investing money in the black community between Market Street on the east and Carolina Avenue on the west and Fifth Street on the south and 15th Street on the north. The city has used grant money to make water and sewer improvements and rehabilitate some houses in part of that area. The city also made improvements to Beebe Memorial Park. The Washington Housing Authority has invested money to improve public-housing facilities in that area.
“Apparently, we’ve made some improvements,” Smith said, and building a new police station in that area would continue those improvements.
Residents in that area want a “better quality of life,” Smith said.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to make that happen,” he said.
That’s when Jennings made his point about “not investing in a particular neighborhood.”
Jennings said the process of choosing a site for the new police station is happening at “a faster speed than I’m comfortable with.” As for the residents who don’t want the new police station in their neighborhood, their feelings on the issue deserve “respect,” Jennings said.
The council’s agenda included consideration of asking the Beaufort County Board of Education to declare the P.S. Jones property as surplus property so the city could be in a position to buy the land. The decision to drop the P.S. Jones site as the home of the new police station made that item moot.
Councilman Gil Davis said he believes there was an effort to “shoehorn” the new police station into one site, the P.S. Jones site. He also expressed concern that site may contain graves, which could hinder any plans to build a facility there.
Davis said the city should wait on Architects Design Group to draw up the building plans for the new police station, then decide on a site for the new facility.
Mayor Pro Tempore Doug Mercer said ADG, asked by the city to consider the P.S. Jones site and a site at the northeast corner of East Fifth and Bonner streets and recommend one of those sites, should have been given the latitude to evaluate other possible sites. He also questioned the need for a 20,000-square-foot new police station.
“I think the 20,000-square-foot projection is premature,” he said.
Mercer floated the possibility of expanding the existing police station instead of building a new facility. Expanding the existing police station likely would be cheaper than building a new one, he said.
The council also discussed approaching Beaufort County about the possibility of building a joint city-county law-enforcement facility that would house a new county jail, new city police station and other related facilities. The council made it clear it would want such a facility to remain in or near downtown Washington. Such an option was considered several years ago, but it never came to fruition.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.