Are We Better Off Now? Examining the Impact of Partisan Influence on Local Elections in Front Royal – Part 2

It’s been quite interesting since my first op-ed asking the question: “Are we better off now, after two years with the current mayor and town council?”

I received many calls from citizens requesting information on the important issues referenced in the op-ed. Citizens felt that our leaders were not addressing the issues or stonewalling them. It appears that leadership kicks the can down the road for future councils to remedy. This group seems to me to be both dysfunctional and not very transparent.

I compiled a list of citizen concerns and will try to share these issues with you. Unfortunately, this will not be a good reflection on current leadership. It appears that no one in a current position of authority wants to deal with the reality of upcoming concerns.

The mayor and a majority of the council have not addressed the water issues facing our community, which seem to be happening earlier each year. This is a big problem complicated by the lack of funds necessary to upgrade the system,

Town leadership has not done much to create a vision to build revenue growth outside of the traditional methods of tax increases. It’s not a complex issue. The more businesses you attract, the more jobs you create, which drives increases in the industrial tax base.

Maintenance of town services costs money. The town has several revenue-generating options to pay for repairs and upgrades. They are taxes on real estate, personal property, industry, lodging and meals, and business licenses.

If we cannot pay for the repairs, the town will start to deteriorate. A reluctance to increase taxes, combined with a weak business base, has led to this issue, which the council’s leadership has not addressed in any measurable way.

A definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Looking back, we find there have been no creative visions for addressing the above issues.

The former Warren Front Royal EDA is toast. The new Front Royal EDA appears ineffective; there is no marketing or branding plan to attract new businesses and industries to the area, no creative water plan to serve our current needs, and no foreseeable possible increase in demand. How about installing additional solar capacity to lower our electric cost with reverse metering systems put in place? We have abundant open fields. Have we asked a solar panel manufacturer to study feasibility and costs?

How about an active grant writing program?

Water issues are only a result of a much bigger problem that can only be addressed by leadership with the vision and courage to do business “not as usual.” My grandmother used to tell my cousins not to play downstream of the cows. Only later did I realize why and figure out a simple solution to the problem: just run the cows out of the stream. That solves the issue and most of the other problems resulting from that main issue.

So, our upstream solution is to elect new leaders to the council and mayoral positions with a vision. We should not be stuck doing the same thing and expecting different results. Every two years, we have an opportunity to elect leaders with a vision.

Several involved individuals can lead our community in a better direction, Individuals like Tom Eshelman for mayor. He was born here and is a successful businessman. Glenn Woods, a native, is an entrepreneur with corporate experience and a current council member. And Walt Mabe, former county supervisor and chairman.

Three good men.

Michael Graham
Front Royal, VA

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