Thursday night will see, if my guess is anywhere near the mark, a large turnout at the Planning Commission meeting, as the question of whether or not the Benedictine Society of Virginia will receive a recommendation of approval to move its tradition-rich Catholic military school from its North Sheppard Street location in Richmond out to the Benedictine Abbey on River Road will be considered.

Although the school’s athletic programs (minus its famed basketball team) have resided in the county for some years now, the decision by the Society to move the school as well has generated strong opposition from some school alumni and concern by the county administration and local residents.

Many alumni appear motivated by that most understandable of desires, the wish to preserve the school’s traditions and the atmosphere that meant so much to them when they trod the halls of the old building. Well, not so old, since it burned in 1986 and was rebuilt, but we understand.

There’s a great deal to be said for preservation of tradition and here in the United States we seem to have a penchant for tearing down old buildings and erecting something new every so often for no particular reason (although the current Benedictine School building will not suffer that fate, since it has been sold to the Richmond Diocese.) The new John Marshall High School, for instance, will never stir the same memories in pre-1960 grads as did the old building in downtown Richmond.

But sometimes you have to move to maintain tradition and according to Brother McCarthy, Benedictine as a school is likely to wither and die if confined to its current premises in the city. McCarthy cites studies that show that Catholic schools that have remained in their old inner city locations have eventually had to close, whereas those that have moved out to where their constituents live have not.

That being said, by all means questions of traffic safety, access for emergency vehicles and utility problems need to be addressed. But if these issues can be successfully resolved and the school is moved to Goochland, it’s my guess that a hundred years from now, alumni will be looking back just as fondly as today’s alumni do to their old school, to the days when they walked the halls of the Goochland County Benedictine School.

Letters – We like them

But we like them most when they come clearly marked as a letter to the editor and with an address and a daytime phone number, as our letters policy (printed to the right of this column) clearly indicates.

We also like them when they are concise and to the point, particularly as the political season advances. We want to get as many opinions as possible into our available space, so help us out.

But most of all, keep them coming.