Museum plan details hit snag at Appomattox board meeting

APPOMATTOX — The head of the Museum of the Confederacy wanted to talk privately with Appomattox County supervisors Monday night about aspects of a plan to build a satellite museum in Appomattox, but the board declined.

S. Waite Rawls III, president and CEO of the Richmond-based museum, had come to town to update supervisors and told them, “We’re still proceeding on our plan.”

The museum wants to open an $8 million satellite in Appomattox, part of an expansion to bring the largest collection of Civil War artifacts to sites throughout Virginia. Other locations include one near Fredericksburg and another at Fort Monroe near Hampton Roads.

The original proposal was for the town of Appomattox to buy 4 acres near the intersection of Virginia 24 and U.S. 460, then lease it to the museum at a nominal charge. Since then, there were discussions that perhaps the county would purchase neighboring land also for lease to the museum.

During an open session at the board’s meeting, Rawls asked if he could speak to supervisors in closed session.

Thomas Conrad, chairman of the supervisors, shook his head and said, “No.”

Conrad later told The News & Advance during an interview that at this point, “we’re just not interested in purchasing the property.” He declined further comment.

The board must follow state law to meet in closed session, and the law only allows closed-door meetings for specific reasons.

Rawls said during a separate interview there are various negotiations regarding property for the museum site, and those remain under way. He declined to elaborate.

Appomattox Mayor Paul Harvey told The News & Advance recently that “our portion of the deal is not closed yet. The time to have closed on it has passed, so it’s really in limbo.”

Although a deadline might have passed, Rawls told supervisors that there are no drop-dead dates beyond which discussion would be impossible.

Rawls had come to town to update the board on the project.

“This is going to be a fully modern museum,” he said, one that is interactive and one with a wide array of artifacts.

The museum is in the midst of trying to raise money for the expansion.

So far, Rawls said, roughly $500,000 has been spent on the Appomattox site for such things as the archeological aspect and architectural plans, although those have yet to be finalized.

One remaining piece that needs to be put in place is purchase of the property.

“We’ve got to get that done,” Rawls told supervisors. When several parties are involved in negotiations, he said it can take longer to get everybody on the same page.