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Andrews-Murphy consolidation question

BlueVols

Well-Known Member
Jun 27, 2003
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Has Cherokee Co. gotten deep enough into deciding what will be done with the existing high schools? I know that when Ashe Co. consolidated in the 90's, Ashe Central's stadium was used for youth league FB. NW Ashe was turned into a middle school. I think Beaver Creek just went away.

Conversely, when the new Watauga HS was built, the county sat on the old hilltop property coming into Boone for years hoping for a big payday that never came. Their rec department really wanted it because the existing athletic facilities could have expanded their programs. The county commission refused to turn it over to them. Vandals created so much trouble at the vacant property, including a small fire, that they finally had to demolish it. It finally sold to Appalachian St. U. for $15 mil. At one time the county thought they could sell it for $50 mil+. They ended up building a new $35 mil rec complex in 2018.

Hopefully Cherokee Co. has done some planning for future use.
 
My friend that works for Cherokee county still swears that it wont happen.
 
Once the consolidation of the elementary and middle schools occurs during Phase 3 of their plan (the high school consolidation is Phase 2) there's going to be several vacant school buildings in the county.

I asked the school board chairman some of the very questions you are asking a couple months ago and the answer I got was that the vacated buildings/properties in Peachtree, Martins Creek and either Ranger or Hiwassee Dam would probably be sold but that they would like to hold on to unused properties in Murphy and Andrews.

The plan is to repurpose the Murphy High/Middle campus into a K-8 after the high school consolidation takes place and the same goes for one of the Andrews campuses (not sure which one, I would assume the elementary or high school campus) and the same applies to either the current Hiwassee Dam campus or the Ranger Elem/Middle campus. The reason they want to hold on to Murphy Elementary campus and one of the unused Andrew's campuses is in case they are needed in the future due to an enrollment increase, etc.

It doesn't really sound like THEY plan on refiguring any of the properties for YMCA/rec centers or the like, but as long as Murphy Elementary, Andrews Middle, etc. campuses are vacant it would make a ton of sense to use them for that purpose in my opinion. Maybe someone buys the Peachtree Elem property and uses it for that purpose, if I had the $$$ I would, good location and not isolated the way that say the Martins Creek property will be.
 
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The plan is to repurpose the Murphy High/Middle campus into a K-8 after the high school consolidation takes place and the same goes for one of the Andrews campuses (not sure which one, I would assume the elementary or high school campus) and the same applies to either the current Hiwassee Dam campus or the Ranger Elem/Middle campus. The reason they want to hold on to Murphy Elementary campus and one of the unused Andrew's campuses is in case they are needed in the future due to an enrollment increase, etc.

It doesn't really sound like THEY plan on refiguring any of the properties for YMCA/rec centers or the like, but as long as Murphy Elementary, Andrews Middle, etc. campuses are vacant it would make a ton of sense to use them for that purpose in my opinion. Maybe someone buys the Peachtree Elem property and uses it for that purpose, if I had the $$$ I would, good location and not isolated the way that say the Martins Creek property will be.


At the moment, Cherokee County has no church leagues or rec leagues for older kids who don't play for their school, no adult rec leagues, and finding a pickup game in Cherokee County is like getting into a speakeasy. Not to mention that the youth leagues for volleyball and basketball rely heavily on gym space at schools that are going to be shut down. I can see Cherokee County not being inclined to spend the money to turn a property into a rec gym/community center or run the risk of being perceived by some as competing with private fitness centers. But none of those in the area have gym space, and it seems repurposing an existing building is a cheaper option than building one anew like Clay, Towns (twice), Jackson, Swain, etc have done. I think it's hard to deny there's a need going unmet, but if the county won't do it I would love to see at least the Boys and Girls Club or somebody like that take over one of the properties.

I'm not sure which Andrews campus they're going to turn K-8, either, although they just bought the land the middle school baseball field is on from IOI earlier this year so I imagine they intend to keep using that.
 
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