Town notifies EDA of Afton Inn issues – opts out of discussing responsibility

While there was no representative of the Front Royal Town government at Friday morning’s Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority Board of Directors meeting despite the presence of a “Town Manager Update-Matt Tederick” on the agenda, the subject of town government interaction with the EDA did not take long to enter the February 28 meeting discussion.

“I thought you might want to know about this as soon as possible,” EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons told his board soon after the 8 a.m. convening of the meeting by Board Chairman Ed Daley.

EDA Board Chairman Ed Daley, left center, had a succinct reply to Executive Director Doug Parsons, white shirt upper left, recounting of the Town legal staff’s Thursday email on Facebook reports on the status of a windblown Afton Inn – ‘Have legal staff remind them they are responsible to pay for maintenance’ was the gist of that reply. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video Mark Williams

“This” was a Thursday, February 27 email from Town Attorney Doug Napier to Afton Inn redeveloper 2 East Main Street LLC attorney Kelly Bundy, copied to Parsons, noting that Town Councilwoman Letasha Thompson had informed him “that she saw a few minutes ago on Facebook that the roof of the Afton Inn building next door to Town Hall and across Main Street from the Warren County Courthouse is flapping in the wind.”

Parsons continued to quote from the email, “The wind today is extremely gusty at times and strong, as you know pieces of wood soffit have already fallen onto the public sidewalk. The Town is worried that part of the roof, which appears to be metal, might be blown off onto the public streets.”

Parsons pointed out the town attorney continued to write “in parenthesis” that, “(The Afton Inn is at the intersection of the two busiest streets in Front Royal),” continuing that the situation had the potential of “highly dangerous results,” at which point the town attorney pivoted to the legal sphere.

“Because of the outstanding lease/contract to purchase status between 2 East Main and the EDA, the Town does not want to get in the middle of and opine a legal opinion as to who has the predominant obligation to repair and maintain the building; but the Town does want to draw this to your immediate attention.”

Daley responded that Parsons should work with EDA counsel Sharon Pandak, who was present for the meeting, “To respond to Mr. Napier and remind him of the Town’s responsibility.”

What roof? Well, it’s there – we’re just too low to see it, flapping in the wind or not flapping in the wind.

Legal obligations
That the Town has the legal responsibility to pay for maintenance and repair of the Afton Inn in the wake of its 2014 transfer of ownership to the EDA for marketing and redevelopment purposes has been a hot-button topic of discussion lately. That is due to the Town’s mid-December pivot from seeming agreement expressed in writing by Napier that it was the Town’s financial responsibility, as well as its province as a matter of public safety, to fund physically stabilizing winterization of the Afton Inn as a “priority”.

In fact, the town attorney included a copy of June 23, 2014, Afton Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Town and EDA as part of his November-December 2019 correspondence with the EDA on the winterization project. That MOA reads in part, “The Town agrees that during ownership of the Afton Inn property by the EDA, the Town shall not require the EDA to perform any repairs, maintenance or demolition of any part of the Afton Inn building unless the Town agrees to bear the costs of such repairs, maintenance and/or demolition.”

In a December 6, 2019 email to EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons and EDA Asset Committee Chairman Greg Harold, Napier wrote, “Under the terms of the MOA … the EDA is responsible for repairs to the Afton Inn, at the expense of the Town. Regardless of any contract, the Town has an overriding duty as a municipal government, to the public to prevent injury and loss of life or limb. The Afton Inn is literally falling to pieces as I write this. It is not a defense in the public’s eye whether or not the Town can assert ‘sovereign immunity’ if a person’s vehicle, or far worse, a person’s body, is injured by something falling or collapsing from the building – the public will demand to know why the Town did not take immediate steps to secure the building, and rightfully so.”

On Dec. 13, EDA Asset Committee Chairman Greg Harold displayed November-December communications from the town attorney indicating a financial and moral responsibility for the Town to fund maintenance and repair costs for the Afton Inn.

Best laid plans
However, in that December 6 message, Napier also notes that an inspection by one of the Town’s “most experienced and responsible workers” revealed complications, and likely added expense, that could impact the Town’s original plan to perform the winterization work in-house.

Napier asks the EDA for immediate contact with Interim Town Manager Tederick to arrange a mutual inspection by all three involved parties “to determine what can be done to secure the building to ensure its integrity and ensure the safety of the public …It is a violation of Town Code to obstruct or place an obstruction, which would include the permitting of an obstruction, upon a Town street or sidewalk.”

Napier then added, “The Town would be derelict in the extreme in its responsibilities to the public if the Town knowingly allowed a violation or violations of its own Code, in addition to allowing a public safety hazard.”

Then, in perhaps a hint of things to come, Napier concluded that December 6 correspondence by stating, “If the Town, the EDA, and 2 East Main are unable to reach a very prompt mutual resolution of this pressing problem, the Town will have no choice but to take such legal measures, without limitation, as are necessary to protect the rights of the public safety.”

As the wind blows, the Afton totters – it said so on Facebook.

On December 13, 2019, as part of his report on Town business at the EDA Board meeting, Tederick informed the EDA that any previous correspondence indicating the Town’s willingness to fund the winterization costs was a “mistake”.

And as noted above, the Town-EDA MOA on Afton maintenance notes the EDA is not required to perform any repairs, maintenance or demolition “UNLESS the Town agrees to bear the costs of such repairs, maintenance and/or demolition.” One is left to ponder the reason funding stabilizing maintenance of the Afton Inn went from a Town public safety “priority” to NOT a priority within a month as winter approached.

As the Afton turns
Following the February 28 EDA morning meeting, we asked Harold what the EDA’s response was to that December 6 request for the mutual inspection by the three involved parties. He said he contacted Tederick to inform him he would be out of town on business that week, and suggested a meeting the following week with two representatives from each party, the Town, the EDA and 2 East Main, but without attorneys.

There was no response from the interim town manager, Harold said.

As Ed Daley, seated right, and his EDA Board listen, Matt Tederick explained on Dec. 13 that earlier communications indicating the Town would cover winterization costs for the Afton Inn were a ‘mistake’.

In response to a FOIA request, the Royal Examiner received documents indicating a January 8 letter from EDA Board Chairman Ed Daley to Tederick providing an estimate of $13,200 to $15,700 from 2 East Main Street for winterization costs it would contract for. Daley asked the interim town manager to seek town council approval of covering those winterization costs.

In a January 16 response, Tederick informed the EDA Board Chairman that council took the matter up at its January 13 meeting and instructed the town attorney to reach out to the EDA attorney “to determine the best path forward”.

“Like you, we all hope to find an expedient resolution to the former Afton Inn and the safety hazard it has become,” Tederick wrote Daley.

According to Harold, the gist of that subsequent conversation between the Town and EDA attorneys was that the Town would accept ownership of the Afton property back at no cost.

But with no guarantees on a final outcome of such a transfer and the EDA still in negotiations with 2 East Main Street to resurrect a highly desired renovation project, the EDA declined that offer.

And now the Front Royal Town Council is a second vote of approval away from implementing a Dilapidated Property Abatement Code that would force property owners to develop a structural repair plan or accept the Town’s abatement plan to be implemented, at the owner’s cost. Failure to comply would result in the Town’s legal right to seize the property as they would if a back-tax lien had been issued.

A marriage made in lawyer heaven – why didn’t some Afton Inn stabilization work occur this winter? Let’s go across the street to the courthouse and talk about it. Royal Examiner Feb. 2019 File Photo

Wonder how the lawyers will be able to bat that one around the civil courtroom – and at what cost to town taxpayers, who again will face the double jeopardy of funding both sides of that legal battle, were it to occur.

Other business
Following an almost two-hour closed session, the EDA readjourned to open session and unanimously approved three motions. Those motions were:

1 – approval of an agreement for the reacquisition of the 3.5-acre workforce housing parcel from the Aikens Group for $26,722.54. EDA board members explained the difference in the reacquisition price from the $10 the property was transferred to the Cornerstone LLC branch of Aikens as covering preliminary engineering and other costs incurred by the Aikens Group since the late November 2019 transfer of the property. The EDA purchased the parcel for $445,000 following its initial gifting to the EDA for $10 by relatives of former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald. The purchase decision was made after an undisclosed tax credit deadline for the gift was missed.

2 – acceptance of a tentative agreement for the sale of the apartment building at 514 East Main Street on the Stokes Mart property for a price of $130,000.

3 – and approval of filing an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to the Front Royal Town government for all communications with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources related to the Community Development Block Grant or the Afton Inn.

See the meeting’s opening Afton Inn condition discussion, and various EDA committee reports on the marketing of properties, pending property closings, the status of the Town’s $8.4 million debt to the EDA for construction of the new town police headquarters, and other EDA business in this exclusive Royal Examiner video: