Dot Green, Randy Ferguson and Keith Banty of AMVETS Post 320 exchange the deed.

It was a brief ceremony. For Boy Scout Troop 146, it was one that will last a lifetime.

Today the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District deeded three quarters of an acre of land to AMVETS Post 320, bringing more than a year of controversy to an end and allowing the scouts to keep an icon, its 1937 era hut built behind Roanoke Rapids High School.

“It’s a big day for us,” Assistant Scoutmaster Ronnie Spence said before the ceremony. “It gives us that hut that was built by boy scouts.”

The transfer allows the scouts to build a new storage room on the grounds and allows them to begin meeting at the hut.

Controversy over contamination of the site where the hut is built and around the parking lot of Roanoke Rapids High School last summer forced the school system to serve the scouts an eviction notice.

“This has been a long time coming,” Spence said. “We appreciate the support of the county commissioners to deny their first rights of refusal.”

Vernon Bryant, chair of the school board, told the audience of scouts, AMVETS and scouting supporters, “Today is a great day in the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District. It’s a great day in our community.”

Bryant said the day was overdue. “The Boy Scout hut has been an icon for many years. We’re proud to have the deed transfer and ceremony today.”

Dot Green read the resolution which explained the transfer was for $10 and what school Superintendent Dennis Sawyer last week said was a portion of the surveying cost for the land.

Keith Banty, of the AMVETS post, said the post sponsored the troop before the hut controversy. “When this first started the school system wanted to take it away we knew it wasn’t right. This property is theirs. This is a big day for the scouts and a big day for us.”

A scoutmaster salutes as the RRHS band plays the national anthem.