SELMA – Johnston County Commissioners and the Johnston County Board of Education have tentatively agreed to purchase a large tract of land for the future location of a new school, as well as opportunities for parks, open space, and greenways.
The approximately 130 acre site is located north of Highway 42 on Lynch Road near Thanksgiving Elementary School. Commissioners agreed to purchase the property for $3 million, pending an environmental study and survey of the site.
“Upon approval of a purchase contract for the property and prior to closing, the Johnston County Board of Education will perform the necessary due diligence on the site and confirm the suitability of the site for a future school project,” said Jennifer Slusser, Johnston County attorney. “This is a great collaboration between Johnston County Public Schools and Johnston County to leverage resources to meet the educational and recreational needs of our citizens.”
Commissioners will pay for the land out of their General Fund.
Who currently owns the land?
Didn’t they just build one or planning to build one near there? I mean in time that whole area will need its own elementary, middle and high school I am sure. Between Becky and Fred it will be a whole new city.
That only increases the value of what Becky and Fred has goin on so they jumped on adding another school out there Becky has her family all around Smithfield buying up land now and already have been approved for everything by the town and commissioners they bought the land around Amazon and all in that area
There honestly needs to be a new middle and high school over on that side of the county for years. Don’t believe me? Go check out the carpool and buses at archer lodge middle. I’m sure it’s busting at the seams. They built onto it and are still using the trailers. A shame.
Here we are again with the taxpayers on the hook for infrastructure that should be paid for by developers via impact fees. Developers getting rich while the average citizen will see a huge property tax increase with the reevaluation that’s coming.
The JCPS is what sucking the money out of your home property via taxes. This school board wants to suck every available dollar that could go to county employees out of the county bank account before any other local government department has any chance of getting a cost of living raise. You county employees the big spenders are making sure your homes are going to pay for the education of all of Central and South America boarder crossing children and that county employees only get at most 3% cost of living raise. This is how things work parents and tax payers, just shut the he!! up and take it!
@jocotaxpayer: The NC Leg repeatedly blocked new laws that would allow impact fees. Moore and Berger continue to make it ILLEGAL to charge developers fees. #PutTheBlameWhereItBelongs
Yes I do know and understand that the legislators screwed all the counties with laws to protect the home builders association and all the money they give campaigns. I intentionally said “SHOULD HAVE” because developers SHOULD BE paying for infrastructure. They are NOT and that’s the problem. Developers are the problem by buying legislators and their votes.
@jocotaxpayer: Nope. Developers are not the problem. They’re simply giving people what they want. If people didn’t want to buy, the developers wouldn’t build — that’s how capitalism works. The problem is 100% at the feet of the NC Leg. The counties that had previously been changing impact fees since 1987 (e.g., Orange) were Democratic leaning. The NC Leg (Republican controlled) wanted to punish the left and made impact fees illegal. #PutTheBlameWhereItBelongs #VoteOutTheIncumbents
Disagree completely, the developers have bought and paid for the legislature and are writing all bills to do with home building industry regulations and impact fees. The blame belongs at the feet of the PAC dollars flowing into campaigns by developers.
I’d rather hear about land being bought to build new prisons because with what they are teaching in school these days, we are going to need a lot more of them, sadly.
That’s $23k an acre….HIGH DOLLAR Y’ALL!
Agreed, it is a high amount ($23,076/acre) for rural land. Wonder who makes out with all that money? We will vote by referendum in November on our ballot to approve of $177 million to cover things like this $3 million dollar purchase.
Who are they buying it from?
Okay new school and resources for the citizens. What about the shcools who need upkeep and repairs. The way the Selma Middle, Smithfield Middle, and Smithfield-Selma High schools look is a darn shame. No upkeep of the grounds, mold in the highschool, students using faulty equipment in the gyms and lets not talk about the fields. My child went to Selma Middle a few years ago and when they would go to other schools to play sports they would ask why their school didn’t look like the other schools. It’s a shame.
Yes and instead of spending money on those schools, they buy artificial turf fields for Princeton and Clayton. All while there are HVAC issues on a daily basis at our older schools with teachers and students in classrooms that have no heating and AC for weeks. Just Sayin.
Over crowding is nothing re-districting can’t solve.
Is this real estate transaction based solely on the needs of the taxpayers of Johnston County?
$3,000,000 divided by 130 acres = $23,076.92 of taxpayer funds per acre.
A private real estate transaction in nearby Chatham County was made recently for around $5500 an acre for a 640 acre parcel.
Five times more land at 1/4 the price.
Why didn’t the Chatham County Board of Commissioners create a reason to use taxpayer funds for land that could be acquired at that price?
These are the actions of elected officials that really help us determine whether or not to support them at the next election.
I respect the right to elect by majority the people we want to be responsible for governing how tax money is spent.
Liberals and conservatives are not enemies.
Our enemy is greed.