The Henrico County Board of Supervisors gave the county manager the go-ahead tonight to buy 205 acres off Kain Road for $24.4 million.

The 4-1 vote came after more than an hour of discussion, including a tense exchange between Tuckahoe District Supervisor Patricia S. O'Bannon, who cast the dissenting vote, and County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett over how the proposed amount was reached between the him and landowner Robert M. Atack.

The purchase of the Short Pump site -- proposed for a high school, park, fire station and fueling and water-storage facilities -- had been suspended for more than a year and a half during an examination of county land deals. The proposed contract for the purchase is $2.3 million less than what the county previously considered offering for the land.

O'Bannon raised concerns in February 2007 that the county's offer at the time, $26.7 million, was more than double what Atack and other developers had paid for the site less than two years earlier. A subsequent county appraisal put the land's value at $18 million.

After the vote, O'Bannon said she felt the board should have used its power of eminent domain to acquire the property.

-- Melodie Martin