LU prefers leaving poll at Heritage over alternate site

Faced with two choices, Liberty University says it’d prefer to stick with its current polling place rather than move to an alternate location proposed by City Council.

Citing concerns about student safety, LU representatives said they feel Heritage Elementary School is a better voting place than Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene, its potential replacement.

“You have a safety issue at Church of the Nazarene,” LU’s general counsel, Bill McRorie, said. “You can’t play with that. You don’t compromise safety.”

LU has raised a detailed list of concerns about First Church of the Nazarene on Wards Ferry Road since it was first recommended by Vice Mayor Bert Dodson as a possible polling place last week.

The primary concern has been the inability of the school’s GLTC buses to get in and out of the church parking lot safely on Election Day. The buses would instead stop in the street to let students on and off. The stretch of road in front of the church is a designated bus stop, but both LU officials and the city traffic engineer have expressed concern about the risk associated with so many buses stopping on the curvy two-lane road.

The electoral board is charged with making the final site recommendation and will make a report to City Council on Tuesday, when a public hearing will be held on the matter.

LU supports moving the Heritage Elementary polling place, but had hoped the new location would be closer to its campus. The school had offered to make either Thomas Road Baptist Church or the old Circuit City storefront in the Candlers Station shopping center available for use.

Council heard two motions that could have put both those sites in contention for the Ward III polling place during a special meeting last Tuesday, but each time the proposal was defeated on a split vote.

Councilman Ceasor Johnson, who is opposed to moving the polling place at all prior to the results of the 2010 U.S. Census, voted against both measures.

Johnson expressed frustration that Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene, which was offered as a compromise because it is located near the center of the precinct, was now encountering protests from LU.

“I find it disturbing that there can be no compromise when dealing with some people,” Johnson said, adding that he felt government should be for the people and by the people.

“That’s all people,” he said. “Not just Falwell’s people.”

Foster indicated she was open to hearing any safety concerns, but was concerned about how the rushed nature of any further changes made to the proposal would be viewed by the Department of Justice, which has to sign off on all the city’s election-related plans.

“This hurrying up and adding to things is probably a red flag at the Department of Justice that we don’t know what we’re doing here in Lynchburg,” she said, adding it was already doubtful that a new polling place could get approved in time for the elections in May.

“We might as well take the time to make a good decision,” Foster said. “Not be flying off, but instead give thoughtful consideration to what we’re doing.”

Lee Beaumont, LU’s director of auxiliary services, expressed disappointment over council’s decision and said he felt the school, which submitted several reports to council on the matter over the past week, had clearly demonstrated there was a safety hazard at the church.

“It looks like they chose to ignore that,” Beaumont said. “I think there was a lot of political maneuvering going on here. You have to ask yourself: What would be the harm in looking at some more choices? Right now, there are no choices.”

McRorie said, in light of council’s decision to focus on Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene, LU will now support keeping the polling place where it is.

“We don’t have any choice,” he said. “We’re not going to expose the kids to that risk of injury.”