April 15: A heavy and potentially costly town work session agenda

Vice-Mayor William Sealock chairs his first meeting following Mayor Tharpe’s self-imposed administrative leave. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

On Monday evening the Front Royal Town Council gathered for the first time without Mayor Hollis Tharpe present in the wake of his self-imposed administrative leave pending resolution of a misdemeanor solicitation of sexual contact charge. See Related Story:

As press releases fly, plot thickens in Tharpe sex solicitation case

Vice-Mayor William Sealock did an admirable job in keeping a multi-faceted work session with a variety of crucial topics to be discussed moving toward council consensuses on courses of action.

Among those topics crucial to the Town’s economic, utility and infrastructure future were:

1 – a controversial Crooked Run West request for the extension of Town central water-sewer service to an altered North Corridor mixed residential-commercial development planned outside the town limits;  a 5-1 consensus, Meza dissenting, against extension of Town water-sewer service to the planned Crooked Run West project, particularly considering the developer wants in-town service rates for as many as 1,025 residential units and the Town is committed to providing water-sewer service to over one thousand planned homes inside the town limits. While acknowledging that the county board of supervisors has yet to weigh in, it was noted that the county planning commission has just recommended denial of the necessary rezoning to facilitate the Crooked Run West project which would require alterations to both county and town comprehensive plans.

2 – funding variables that could see the Town lose as much as $800,000 in VDOT grant ($650,000) and ITFederal-committed money ($150,000) to Phase One of the West Main Street Extended project (OUCH!); with dramatic reductions – one 10,000 square-foot building to be marketed as rental space resulting in perhaps as few as 10 jobs – from what was announced by then Sixth-District U.S. Congressman Robert Goodlatte in 2015 as Truc “Curt” Tran and ITFederal’s $40-million investment creating 600 or more, high-paying tech jobs by which a VDOT Economic Development Access Grant of $650,000 was qualified for; and Tran’s decision not to relocate ITFederal to the town site perhaps negating his $150,000 commitment to the project, the Town’s anticipated costs of about $300,000 for Phase One of the western connector road could climb to the full price of over a million dollars;

3 – continued discussion of how long a bond issue, 20 or 30 years, and consequent annual debt service – estimated at $691,548 at 20 years and $563,822 for 30 years – to take on to pay off construction of the new Front Royal Police Department headquarters now planned for occupancy by May; while a consensus favored the shorter 20-year bond term that would save significant money in the long term, the immediate reality of almost $130,000 of additional annual debt service to achieve those savings was decisive in achieving a staff and council consensus for the 30-year bond issue;

4 – final details and conditions of the Special Use Permit for United Parcel Service’s expanded overflow parking lot at its town distribution center; the UPS overflow parking lot permit will be forwarded for approval with the nine conditions recommended by the planning commission, including limits on the hours when the lot can be used for truck loading and unloading and parking of the larger trucks in proximity to nearby residences among other restrictions the applicant agreed to;

UPS want to expand parking – needs special use permit

5 – Councilman Jacob Meza’s suggestion the Town hire outside legal counsel to represent it regarding council’s FOIA request for EDA forensic audit materials and any consequent litigation that might become necessary; by a 5-1 consensus, Meza again the odd man out, the Town will not take on the additional expense of outside counsel regarding the EDA audit FOIA and the Town’s financial position regarding the EDA, including the finance director’s discovery of nearly a decade of debt service overpayments of more than $291,000 to the EDA. Asked if he needed legal assistance at this point in the process, Town Attorney Doug Napier replied, “No.”

6 – and direction for administrative staff on how hard a line to draw against Comcast’s plan to close its Front Royal Customer Service Center on North Royal Avenue on June 1^st while seeking a new franchise agreement for cable service and utility pole use in town. The existing agreement expired on May 13, 2018. Council concurred with Town Manager Joe Waltz that a hard line should be taken to prevent Comcast from closing what was described as a heavily-used customer service center. Waltz told council Comcast officials said the town closing is part of a business model change in which five or six such local customer service centers are planned for closing.

Meza again bucked the consensus, saying, “I don’t want to lose Comcast – they’re restructuring; it’s a change in their business model.” While Waltz agreed with the business model observation, he again pointed to the heavy local use of the center, noting many town citizens use cash to pay bills that way. The town manager said a new RFP could be issued to put the cable franchise up to bid; but suggested that Comcast might have “too much inventory here” to just pack up and leave.

While Waltz said Comcast has taken the stance that the closing is non-negotiable, he believes maintaining the Front Royal service center should be a key point in the franchise agreement  negotiation.“Tell them to take their lines and cable and move on,” Councilman Tewalt suggested if the non-negotiable stance was maintained.

Stay tuned to your favorite local cable access station for further updates; – and watch the Royal Examiner videos for each topic discussion from the April 15 town council work session.

Gene Tewalt, left, suggests colleague Jacob Meza, right, hold up on suggesting added infrastructure and personnel costs without an identified need or revenue stream to cover long-term expenses

Councilwoman Letasha Thompson and Meza spar over immediate and long-term cost priorities.