A new year, a new chairman – 2021 starts off much like 2020 ended for county supervisors

After electing a new chair, Cheryl Cullers, and vice chairman, Archie Fox, without opposition or counter nominations, the Warren County Board of Supervisors got down to the business of 2021 on Tuesday morning, January 5. And for starters, it didn’t look much different than the business of 2020 – except for the introduction of the County’s new fire chief (see related press release).

Online meeting view of nearly empty public-departmental staff gallery seats at Tuesday morning’s first WC Board of Supervisors meeting of 2021. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video by Mark Williams

The pandemic held sway in front of an empty of citizens Warren County Government Center Meeting room as action items included approval of use of the gymnasium in the 15^th Street Health and Human Services complex for the administration of COVID-19 Coronavirus vaccines by the local branch of the Virginia Department of Health. The board also got an update from Schools Superintendent Dr. Chris Ballenger on County Public Schools reopening amidst the Phase 3 surge in the Coronavirus pandemic.

The lone public speaker was allowed to roll on nearly three times as long as the allotted three minutes to list a system-wide set of grievances against most everyone and everything associated with county government; and a third of a 16 item Consent Agenda generally classified as “routine business” was removed for further review as non-routine.

Cheryl Cullers took over the gavel as chairman without opposition Tuesday.

North River Supervisor Delores Oates explained her request to remove five, long-term service contract renewals in the Consent Agenda due to unfamiliarity with those contracts, four for Architectural and/or Engineering Services and one for Financial Advisory Services. However, a sixth for a Hay Harvesting Contract escaped the additional scrutiny, as did the continued awarding of $50 coyote bounties, five this time, despite the early November recommendation by County Animal Control that the bounties be discontinued as counterproductive to their intent and generally too susceptible to fraudulent claims.

Schools and COVID-19

In his public school system report, Dr. Ballenger cited the previous day’s school reopening along the same hybrid on-site and online parameters due to the novel Coronavirus pandemic; as well as athletic competitions in front of crowds limited to 25 due to State mandates in reaction to the Phase 3 pandemic surge. Ballenger said the one ticket per athlete and cheerleader distribution essentially equated to one spectator per athlete/cheerleader. However, he did note both high schools were live-streaming games and gave a nod to Royal Examiner/National Media for its live-streaming of some Skyline High games, including jayvees – GO TEAM.

On the pandemic side, Ballenger said there were currently 9 student and 3 staff active COVID-19 cases, none of which he pointed out had been transmitted within the schools. Rather, contamination was attributed to out of school activities.

Noting an alarming county uptick in cases, from 859 at the end of November to 1468 currently, former Board and County Emergency Services Chairman Walt Mabe pressed Ballenger on what possible additional steps could be taken to protect the community’s school children. Responding to a question, Ballenger explained that some of the system’s 38 student COVID-19 cases since the September opening had been contracted by totally virtual students who had not been inside schools.

Former Board and Emergency Management Chairman Walt Mabe, in file photo, expressed concern that the county’s erupting number of COVID cases could present an ongoing danger to school children. School Superintendent Ballenger responded that the school system is working closely with the Health Dpt. on school session policy. And thus far those policies seem very effective.

He also said that all school system decisions on how the school will proceed through the pandemic were being made in conjunction with input from the Health Department – “No decisions are being made on our own,” Ballenger assured the supervisors.

“If you’re asking, I’m not afraid to close the schools down if that’s what it takes,” the school superintendent told Mabe. However, fortunately, especially for those students who benefit the most from the social interactions within the schoolhouse, it has not yet come to that. Acknowledging the importance of extreme concern for the community’s children, Supervisor Oates cautioned Mabe not to overreact to the overall “raw numbers” for the entire county in seeking guidelines for the school system.

Drones and Tourism

Okay, maybe that’s a misleading sub-header – but it was simply irresistible to your humble reporter in approaching the next two agenda action items. Following a brief summary of contract and performance logistics related to the arrival of Silent Falcon UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) in the county and at the county’s Front Royal Airport (FRR) by EDA Executive Director Doug Parsons, the supervisors unanimously approved a three-phased action to facilitate the drone manufacturer and operations company here.

A photo of some of their products from the Silent Falcon UAS website

Those actions were the approval of a Performance Agreement; authorization of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to incentivize the exchange of improvements to a county-owned hangar at FRR as a base of operations for Silent Falcon in exchange for the company’s tax revenue and job potential; and advertisement for a public hearing on Silent Falcon’s landing here targeted for January 19.

On the Tourism side, the County unanimously approved its end of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on changes to how the Joint Town-County Tourism Advisory Board operates and is named. The name change is from the Front Royal-Warren County Joint Tourism Advisory Board to the Front Royal Warren County Joint Tourism Committee. And if the name change got a little more play in the County summary of the MOU, the costs remained the same at “up to $600,000” at $300,000 per municipality in the first year, and $400,000 in the second optional year of a contract for private-sector consulting services on tourism marketing.

The once highly popular Town Visitors Center isn’t what it used to be – Hi, Gayle and Nellie – can that change with an ‘up to $600,000’ private sector investment in tourism marketing? Royal Examiner File Photos

Supervisor Mabe questioned Assistant County Attorney Caitlin Jordan on what the community was getting in return for that investment. Mabe worried that there might be additional expenses submitted to the community for specific marketing efforts, such as video production. However, Supervisor Oates assured her colleagues that the approved budget for Tourism marketing was the extent of the Town and County’s expenditures unless otherwise approved by them.

Jordan concurred, saying the outside tourism marketing budget would operate like a County Departmental budget being set for the fiscal year – the contractor would have to work within those financial constraints just like any county department.

However, there was no more substantive information on “performance metrics” designed to anticipate the cash return in tourism dollars per the Town-County investment in its outsourced Tourism marketing.

See these conversations, and others in this Royal Examiner video: