New post office for lake region?

If the Warren County Board of Commissioners has its way, county residents in the Lake Gaston area will be getting their own post office.

At Monday’s meeting, the board unanimously approved a resolution, introduced by Commissioner Ulysses Ross, calling for a post office to be built in the Lake Gaston area.

The resolution cited the growing population base there and the inconvenience for residents in that area having to drive all the way to Warrenton to do business with the U.S. Postal system as reasons for the resolution.

There was little discussion on the vote, and the commissioners did not say where they would propose the post office be built, why the subject was addressed at this time, or what the next step might be in getting a facility established near the lake.

In an unrelated matter, the commissioners set a Jan. 7 public hearing on a rezoning request by Consolidated Sales and Service.

The firm, owned by Ivey Watson, has requested that a 6.85 acre tract of land located south of Eaton’s Ferry Bridge and south of N.C. Highway 903, across from Rachel Road on the west side of N.C. Highway 903, be rezoned from residential to neighborhood business.

The proposed rezoning is located where adjacent property is zoned or in use as commercial and the properties between the subject property and N.C. Highway 903 is zoned Lakeside Business. The zoning change would be consistent with surrounding land uses, according to Ken Krulik, planner/zoning administrator for the county.

Warren County’s Land Use Plan, which was adopted in March 2002, identifies the area as a mix of commercial and residential uses.  The applicant stated that future uses for the site would be consistent with the county’s zoning ordinance for neighborhood business, but did not say what type of business plans the company had planned.

Krulik recommended approval, and said the county planning board had also recommended approval.

The public hearing is scheduled for 9:45 a.m.

The board set another public hearing, this one at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 7, for the county’s consideration of adopting a historic preservation commission ordinance and related bylaws.

The ordinance draft states its purpose is to “…Establish a Warren County Historic Preservation Commission in support and furtherance of its findings and determination of Warren County North Carolina that the historical, cultural and aesthetic heritage of the County is among one of its most valued and important assets, and that the preservation of this heritage is essential to the promotion of the health, prosperity and general welfare of the people.”

The Historic Preservation Commission will consist of seven members, all of whom will be required to be residents of Warren County, and will be appointed by the board of commissioners.