On Thursday, Sept. 3, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to make a decision that will be important to a lot of Summerfield citizens.
The board is set to decide whether or not to waive the county’s “First Right of Refusal” to take ownership of the property and meeting space that’s now the main meeting place for the Summerfield Town Council.
In 1955, Guilford County sold the property at 5404 Centerfield Road in Summerfield to the Summerfield Community Center, Inc., and, now that organization would like to deed the property to the town. As part of the deed requirements, however, Guilford County gets first dibs on that land and building.
If the commissioners decide the county doesn’t need the property, the land is expected to change hands from the Summerfield Community Center, Inc. to the Town of Summerfield later this year.
That transfer would be contingent upon a vote by the Summerfield Town Council.
The council holds the vast majority of its meetings at the community center that sits on the property, but some citizens in Summerfield would like to see the town build a new town hall. Others, however, would like for the town to take ownership of the community center and surrounding property and renovate the building into a nice meeting space with an updated sound system and seats that are better than the folding chairs used now.
The town could go down either path after accepting the property.
Summerfield Mayor BJ Barnes has argued that the Town of Summerfield needs a nice town hall like the towns of nearby Oak Ridge and Stokesdale have, while advocates of fixing up the community center say that would be a much more affordable option.
The 17-acre property consists of the building, a parking lot, park grounds and part of a lake.
