The Tyrrell County Board of Commissioners on December 5 took no action on a request to find a permanent home for the Church Road Emergency Food Closet.

The commissioners’ agenda package contained a November 20 letter from Columbia town manager Rhett White to county manager David Clegg, but it did not generate any conversation about the need food closet director Henry Hill voiced to town and county leaders last September to find the nonprofit charity a new location.

White wrote that the town aldermen on November 6 discussed two buildings as possible distribution centers: the county-owned former Flair Manufacturing Co. structure beside Tyrrell Hall and the apparently defunct Tyrrell County Community Development Corp. offices at 602 Main Street.

The county “has other uses for the Flair Building,” Commissioner Tommy Everett said November 7.  Hill and the commissioners agreed in the same conversation that the CDC building is unsuitable.

However, the commissioners mentioned two sites for construction of a building to house the food closet: the county-owned former school bus garage property on North Road Street and a privately-owned lot at Scuppernong Drive and Kohloss Street.

White’s letter also distanced the town from possible future operation of the food closet. “It is the opinion of the Board of Aldermen that if the Food Closet were to cease operation as a non-profit organization, it would most appropriately be operated by Tyrrell County,” White wrote. “The county has the structure for such a service in the Social Services and Health Departments. The Food Closet also serves the residents of the entire county.”

County Manager-Attorney David Clegg advised the commissioners against taking over food closet operations; rather, the recipient of foodstuffs donated by Food Bank of the Albemarle and others needs to be an entity recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. A governmental agency should not be the food recipient, he pointed out, although the county could be the food closet’s landlord.

The food closet’s current location in the former Hollowell Oil Co. property on Travis Road must be vacated in order to settle the estate of the late owner, Hill said.

Church Road Emergency Food Closet has provided free foodstuffs since the late Bessie Mizell established it in 1985 at her home on Chapel Hill Road. About 100 low-income families are served weekly at the present time, Hill said Hill, 84, a retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer, has volunteered his services as director since 2005.

Hill said the food closet, which has 13 refrigeration units, needs about 2,200 square feet of space for its operations.

The 2017-18 county budget contains a $3,000 contribution to the local food closet and $2,500 to Food Bank of the Albemarle.

The commissioners meet next on January 16.