Provisions in a 1985 deed conveying the armory located on the property of Roanoke Rapids High School contain stipulations that the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District must consider should it be awarded a Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund grant, Halifax County Attorney Glynn Rollins told commissioners today.

Specifically, there are two.

One is a provision requiring that property no longer used by the board of education for educational purposes automatically revert to the county.

The other provision states that the present architectural character of the building shall not be substantially changed unless the grantee first obtains approval from the county, Rollins said.

“If the proposal’s going to be to demolish the armory, the school board’s going to have to have your consent and approval for that.”

He said he was sure most were probably not aware of the deed provisions written 40 years ago. “I certainly wasn’t aware of it, and now that I am aware of it, I wanted to bring it to your attention.”

The county’s paralegal, Michelle Moseley, went back to minute books from 1984 and 1985 and discovered that at the time the school board requested the property be conveyed to the system, commissioners stood firm. “It had always been the position of this board to include the two provisions in the deed,” Rollins said. “I will say the minutes indicate that the school board really didn’t want to have those things in the deed, but the board of commissioners left them there anyway.”

Rollins said the deed showed an intent by commissioners at that time: “One, that you recover this property if it ceases to be used for educational purposes and, two, that the architectural structure of the armory building not be substantially changed without your consent and approval. So there’s a history.”

Commissioners agreed by consensus to notify the school system “that this is an issue that will have to be resolved when the time comes.”

The future of the armory hinges on the school system being awarded a $52 million grant that would bring a new Career and Technical Education center and early college to the site, the school system has said.

News that the armory could be demolished pending approval of the grant came during the commissioners’ September 21 meeting in Roanoke Rapids.