FREDA Poised to Move Forward Doing Business as Front Royal’s Business Development Board

The Front Royal Economic Development Authority (FREDA) Board of Directors held its monthly meeting at noon, Monday afternoon, February 5, in the Town Hall second-floor meeting room. The primary order of business, as it has been in recent months, was a path forward once all the legal formalities, municipal budgeting support, and access to the marketing of available Town properties for economic development are in place.

After some discussion of wording variables with staff present, including Town Manager Joe Waltz and Community Development and Tourism Director Lizi Lewis, final drafts of Vision and Mission Statements were voted on and approved by matching 5-0 voice votes. Voting in the affirmative were Chairman Rick Novak, Vice-Chairman Nick Bass, Robert Elliott, Aiden Miller, and David Gedney. Absent with conflicting schedules for the noon meeting were Frank Stankiewicz and Tom Eshelman. Those final approved drafts read:

“Vision Statement: To sustain and grow a healthy economy that provides opportunity and protects the characteristics that make Front Royal a unique community” and:

“Mission Statement: To provide leadership necessary for Front Royal to optimized economic opportunity and community improvement.”

Down two members, the FREDA/BDB board and town staff representatives get down to business as initial projects are projected to begin within “coming weeks”. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

A draft press release included in the agenda packet also acknowledged that moving forward under a “dba” (doing business as) FREDA would be pursuing the above vision and mission statements as the Town of Front Royal’s “Business Development Board” (BDB).

That the above-tweaked economic development vision and mission may finally be on a not-so-distant horizon was hinted at in the release on FREDA’s past and its Business Development Board’s future: “The Front Royal Economic Development Authority is starting a new chapter. Established in 2022, the FREDA was born out of an appetite for generating new economic opportunities in the Town of Front Royal, benefiting all citizens and business owners. After a brief period of dormancy, the Business Development Board is excited to move forward in growing the tax base and finding new ways to support our ever-changing workforce needs,” the release began, continuing after citing the above vision and mission statements:

“While the group is in their initial phase, they hope to announce their first-step projects in the coming weeks. Currently, the group’s focus is on 5 key areas: workforce development, infrastructure, new business development, existing business support, and asset development.”

FREDA, now ‘doing business as’ Front Royal’s ‘Business Development Board’, studies town zoning and future land-use maps provided from the Town’s Planning Department.

OKAY, “coming weeks” indeed. Let’s wish FREDA/BDB good luck in its operational future, and continued constructive networking and communications with the now unilaterally County-overseen FR-WC EDA. It might be recalled that the town government withdrew operational relations with that half-century-plus-old, jointly created EDA as the still unresolved FR-WC EDA “financial scandal” liabilities and legal status discussions began evolving through 2019 to 2021. However, both now unilaterally overseen EDAs and their municipal staffs have been proactive in maintaining a healthy line of communications with each other, acknowledging potential impacts of its activities on the other EDA and its controlling municipality.

With “first-step projects” now projected on a near horizon, FREDA/BDB scheduled a work session for next Monday, February 12, starting at 12:30 p.m. The next regular monthly meeting is slated for March 4, at noon.

The passing of former Front Royal Mayor John Marlow was acknowledged as the town economic development meeting ended shortly after 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5.

After the meeting adjourned conversation turned toward the previous day’s passing of one of the former mayors pictured on the meeting room wall, John Marlow. Marlow, the owner of Marlow Motors in town, served as mayor of Front Royal from 1982 to 1990, as indicated in his mayor’s gallery photo. Click here for a tribute to the late mayor.

See the full video of the February 5th FREDA/BDB meeting on the Town website.