After positive start, town council meeting takes turn toward municipal controversy on tourism promotion and ‘back-alley’ citizen finger pointing

Following a somber acknowledgement of the death that afternoon of former Front Royal Police Chief Richard Furr, Monday evening’s Front Royal Town Council meeting of February 27 in front of a packed Warren County Government Center meeting room began on a positive and uniformly popular front – first, acknowledgment of the Skyline High School wrestling team for its achievement of an unprecedented four consecutive Region 3-B championships, achieved with the placing of wrestlers in 11 of the 13 weight division finals. Those four district and regional championships were punctuated by two second place and two third place state tournament finishes. Also this year Skyline produced one of the girl’s state champions, Morgan Layman at 118 pounds, in the Virginia High School League’s first Girls State Wrestling Tournament in history (acknowledged at 9:30 mark of video).

Skyline High School’s wrestling team acknowledged for its string of successful seasons, including four successive district and regional titles and multiple second and third place team finishes at Virginia State Tourney. – GO HAWKS!!!!

The wave of enthusiasm, at least with town officials, continued with Town Manager Joe Waltz’s acknowledgement of the efforts of Mary Ellen Lynn in the Town Energy Department during a period of transition at its department director’s position. Beginning as what was anticipated as likely to be a short-term internship, Waltz noted Lynn displayed “leadership skills” as she evolved into the department’s Manager of Administration position.

Following the agenda’s only public hearing, which attracted no speakers or contention, council unanimously approved the Special Use Permit (SUP) application of Barbara Samuels for placement of one ground-floor residence at 437 South Royal Avenue. The building’s first floor has been zoned C-1 for commercial use, with a single residence on the second floor. The original application indicated the SUP request was initiated to help accommodate mobility issues of the applicant.

Public Comments then gave a hint of what was to come on two “Business Items” near the agenda’s conclusion at which there would be no public hearing opportunity for comments. One was council’s unilateral initiative to terminate the Joint Tourism Agreement with Warren County involving creation of the 501-C6 Destination Management Organization (DMO) known as “Discover Front Royal” and consequent tourism promotional efforts (see related story). The other yet unresolved “Business Item” was a highly contentious one which already had its public hearing at an earlier meeting. That item was the alley vacating request to allow the expansion of adjacent home properties belonging to Mr. and Mrs. William Holloway and Mr. and Mrs. Wade Holloway, families of former Mayor Chris Holloway’s father and brother, respectively. Nine of 16 Public Comment speakers addressed the Holloways request for an unpaved alley running behind several residential properties and the Church of the Brethren.

By 3-2 vote Town Council votes to seek additional information on Holloway alley ‘vacation’ request

The public speaker split was 5 against, 4 for the requested alley vacating. The four, “for” speakers included three of the four applicants, William and Wade Holloway, Wade’s wife Stephanie, and William’s son and Wade’s brother Chris.

Wade Holloway pleads his family’s case on request for Town alley vacating to allow the expansion of his and his father’s home properties after years of maintenance of the alley. Below, neighbor Wayne Woodward countered the Holloway case by noting that he and others have also helped maintain the alley over the years, and rely on access to it for a variety of reasons.

In fact, former mayor Chris noted that he had been home watching the remote live-stream of the meeting and felt compelled to come to the government center to counter some of his family’s neighbors’ assertions about relative work on grass cutting and maintenance of the unpaved alley over the years. With most of the applicant Holloways comments coming prior to the neighboring opponents’ rebuttals, Chris told council he came to defend the family’s position in the debate.

In responding to applicant Holloway assertions of essentially unilateral alley maintenance over years, several neighbors and church members called those assertions untrue, even categorizing them as lies, leading Mayor Lori Cockrell to caution against personal attacks during public comments. One church speaker wondered how to respond to what they saw as untruths without calling those untruths out for what they believed they were. One of those speakers, Lee Keeler, noted that he had been hired by the church seven years ago to mow the alley, a job he has been doing ever since.

Watching the meeting live at home, Chris Holloway felt compelled to come to the WCGC to respond to opponents of his family’s alley vacating initiative. Below, the former mayor had a skeptical audience behind him in a row of apparent Church of the Brethren members.

However, noting his father’s presence in his home abutting the alley since 1968, Chris Holloway countered those assertions, supporting his family’s side, saying from his experience he rarely saw others working to maintain the alley. The former mayor was also critical of several council members, asserting they had told him prior to the public hearing they had no problem with the alley vacating request and saw no need for him or the applicants to speak at the public hearing.

After all the back-alley back and forth, and referencing the three “viewer” committee appointed by council to inspect the alley and adjacent properties from an objective perspective, on a motion by Bruce Rappaport, seconded by Skip Rogers, council voted 5-0 with one abstention (Vice-Mayor Sealock) to deny the Holloway’s alley “vacation” request. The viewer’s recommendation cited in the agenda packet was: “If the applicants’ request is approved, the future access for neighbors could be questionable. We, the viewers, are in unanimous agreement that the application to vacate a portion of the alley should be denied.”

After hearing a lot of conflicting perspectives, Council voted 5-0 with one abstention, Vice-Mayor Sealock, to deny the Holloway’s request the Town vacate the alley to allow the expansion of their family’s adjacent properties.

See the back-alley verbal brawl during Public Comments, and pre-vote council discussion, as well as the vote to terminate the Joint Tourism Agreement, as noted above to be addressed in a related story, and other business addressed by the public and council, in the Town meeting video.