Pickett Eyeing School Building Decision

The Pickett County Commission will host a second joint meeting with the School Board Monday to further discuss options to address the Pickett County High School building.

County Executive Stephen Bilbrey said at the joint meeting a consulting firm will go over all options. Bilbrey said he believes a decision could be made during the joint meeting.

“Hopefully we can come out of that night in a direction that everybody feels comfortable with of one of those three proposals,” Bilbrey said. “Then that way we will kind of know the direction we need to go as far as getting financing.”

Bilbrey said outside of renovating or building a new school the county is considering building a wing onto the K-8 building and moving the high school into the K-8 building. Bilbrey said it would be a cheaper option however, he believes the commission is still leaning towards renovating the current building.

“They have come through and done a structural assessment of the old high school and structurally it’s sound,” Bilbrey said. “So that’s good news so hopefully that will open the option to renovate up and we can move forward with that.”

Bilbrey said he admits it has taken a long time to get to this point in the process. Bilbrey said the decision will be a big one for the county commission to make.

“The reason we have taken our time on it is because we want to make sure when we do it we want to do what is right for the community,” Bilbrey said. “And make sure it is a long-term fix and not just something that we are gonna put a band-aid on and then you know four or five years we have to revisit it and do something different.”

The joint meeting will begin at 6pm in a meeting room to the right of the Pickett County Library.