BEDFORD -- ZiTEL, an internet service provider company currently based in Moneta, received a special use permit Monday from the Bedford County Board of Supervisors to operate in the former Body Camp Elementary School.
The board voted in July 5-2 to sell the school, which closed in 2015, to ZiTEL for $100,000. The company has operated in Bedford County the past seven years, has outgrown its current space in Moneta and has invested in operating out of the former roughly 34,000-square-foot building on 10 acres in the Body Camp community between Virginia 122 and Virginia 43, according to Rodney Gray, chief executive officer.
Supervisors unanimously approved the permit Monday for general office, meeting hall and construction yard uses. Chair Edgar Tuck and Supervisor Mickey Johnson voted against the sale in the interest of receiving more information from a nonprofit group, Bedford Community Coalition (BCC), that wanted the building to be used as a community center.
According to Gray, the company has put forth an initial investment of $750,000 into the former school and will provide 40 to 50 new technical jobs in the next four to five years.
"It is centrally located and will offer ZiTEL the best opportunity to service and support all its clients in the region," Gray told the board at a July 22 meeting. "The building gives us a tremendous amount of space to grow and to develop new technologies to service the community."
The 10 acres are zoned agricultural/rural preserve (AP) and the ZiTEL's ownership eliminates the county's ongoing costs of upkeep and capital expenses, according to a staff report to the board.
"This project will take an old abandoned building on 10 acres, renovate it, and utilize it to bring jobs, growth, and opportunities to the citizens of Bedford County," the report said.
Gray said ZiTEL will restore the gym facilities for the community to use on occasion and will honor the legacy and history of the site as a staple of the Body Camp community.
ZiTEL has active fiber broadband services in the counties of Bedford, Campbell, Roanoke and the city of Lynchburg. "We have approximately over 500 miles of fiber in Bedford County," Gray said. "We are approaching 15,000 passings right now that we can provide internet service to."
Future projects for the county include 150 miles of fiber in Franklin County, another 725 miles in Carroll County and 210 miles in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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BCC in a statement has said it feels the board "rushed" the sale and its "hasty" decision showed disregard for the community's wishes and the historical significance of the former school and its presence as a historical landmark in the Body Camp area. Joy Powers, of BCC, has referred to the site as "irreplaceable."
Powers said during a public hearing Monday on the special use permit she has "begged and pleaded" alongside a large group of the Body Camp community to change the board's mind.
"But that's not going to happen here tonight," Powers said. "The Body Camp community does feel we are losing a piece of living history. And while we may be losing a physical landmark, I wanted to remind everyone that decisions like these can leave behind another kind of legacy -- a mental landmark, a shared memory etched into the conscious of a small town like Bedford. 'Remember when they sold Body Camp' will be something that's said years from now."
Powers said many residents shared to the board what "that brick and mortar" meant to them. She urged the board that "the gap in communication between citizen and representative never become this wide again" and feels it could have done a better job interacting with the community on this matter.
"We're better than this, Bedford is better than this," Powers told board members.
Powers said ZiTEL is an important part of the Bedford community and BCC's concerns were not about opposing the business itself.
Tuck said during the July 22 meeting based on assessed value ZiTEL could generate just more than $4,000 per year in tax revenue and he feels it is enough to maintain a public park in the Body Camp community. Supervisor John Sharp has said the Body Camp facility's continued disrepair is not good for the county and ZiTEL's business presence and job creation "is a great thing to have within the community."
Supervisor Charla Bansley has said taxpayers will no longer have to pay for the vacant building upkeep and the sale meets her slogan of "more jobs, less taxes."
In addition to the existing facilities, ZiTEL will operate a roughly 44,400-square-foot gravel storage and equipment yard on site. The business' operating hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the parking lot's traffic will be the same if not less than it was when the school operated, according to ZiTEL's application.
"This project will take an old building, renovate it, and utilize it to bring jobs, growth, and opportunities to the citizens of Bedford County," the company's zoning application states.
The board also voted unanimously Monday authorizing the county to apply for a grant on ZiTEL's behalf to address make-ready costs incurred by the company in its work to complete broadband expansion work. ZiTEL has experienced increased costs for buried fiber installation due to excess rock and seeks reimbursement through the state grant program, according to the county.
The company recently received $1.6 million in grant funding and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to recoup costs overruns in the original project area, a staff report to the board states. If the new grant is awarded, ZiTEL is expected to dedicate additional resources to complete the remaining project balance and increases likelihood of completing a contractual deadline with the county in March.
Justin Faulconer,
(434) 473-2607
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