Lunenburg County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to change the location of a voting precinct following a public hearing Thursday.

The voting location for the 501 Reedy Creek voting precinct for local and state elections will be the Bethlehem Reformed Zion Union Apostolic Church (RZUA) on Reedy Creek Road. The previous location had been the Lunenburg County Tax Building on 11512 Courthouse Road.

No one from the public spoke during the hearing.

County Administrator Tracy Gee said before the public hearing that the discussion to change the voting place began in September.

“Back in September 2017, the electoral board requested a change in a polling place from the Lunenburg County Treasurer’s Tax Office and the little building behind there to the Bethlehem RZUA church,” Gee said.

Gee said the pastor of Bethlehem RZUA, the Rev. Pamela Simmons, gave permission for the voting place to be located at the church.

County Attorney Frank Rennie said the decision to change the voting precinct could not take place before the 2017 November election.

“If you may recall, the request was made in September in the hopes that we could make this happen for the November election,” Rennie said. “Unfortunately the notice for requirements provided by the Virginia Code said that you have to have your hearing, like this, at least 60 days before election. So we didn’t have sufficient time to be able to do it … In enacting the change today we will be well within any election cycle that we might have here in Virginia or locally for 2018.”

He said the location would be an improvement due to the location being accessible to people with disabilities with a restroom on site.

Love’s Mill District Supervisor Edward Pennington, who made the motion to enact the polling precinct change, said the new voting location would be an asset to the community.

“We would like to thank the pastor of Bethlehem RZUA church and the members for allowing us to be able to do this,” Pennington said. “It was kind of congested in that area where they had that particular precinct, and it did need other facilities like a bathroom and other things. They didn’t have anything like that … We thank the board for bringing this before us and wanted to let you know that I know the people who work that precinct. They are mighty happy that they are about to have a place to have enough room to work.”