Board approves CARES distribution plan; Chamber funding among others

At its first live and in-person meeting in some time, Tuesday evening of June 16, the Warren County Board of Supervisors, minus absent Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter, approved a variety of items that have been before it at recent meetings or work sessions. Many revolved around why there haven’t been publicly attended meetings recently – the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency management responses at the local, state, and federal levels.

Together again – mostly, only Tony Carter was absent from County Board’s first live, non-virtual pandemic precautionary meeting in several months. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams.

Those items included:
1 – By a 4-0 vote, agreement on an allotment system between the County and Town of Front Royal on the $3.5 million in CARES Act federal relief money for local business – CARES is the acronym for “Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Securities”. The division will be based solely on population distribution, rather than population and overlapping services the County provides town citizens like schools and parks and recreation, that the County could have calculated that distribution on.

So, the agreed-upon split is 62.5% ($2,127,596) to the County and 37.5% ($1,276,558) to the Town. Also in the wake of the private second, June 5 meeting between County and Town officials, the town’s estimated population of 14,000 to 15,000 will not be included as part of the county’s population even though town citizens are also county citizens. So rather than a 40,000 – 15,000 division that would have been 83%-27% County-Town, the distribution is based on a 25,000 County, 15,000 Town population divide.

County Deputy Emergency Manager Rick Farrall explains details of the distribution and auditing of the County’s $3.5 million in federal pandemic-related CARES Act funding.

The supervisors also agreed to take $100,000 off the top of the CARES funding it received. Of that total $60,000 is to provide the $5,000 per month funding from each County and Town to the Chamber of Commerce from July through December to help it through its own COVID-19 related revenue shortfalls. The other $40,000 is an estimated cost for a post-distribution audit to assure the money is used as outlined legally in the CARES Act. The town government will be required to document its distribution to assure it follows the federal guidelines, as the County is ultimately responsible as the recipient of the funding, to assure it is properly used.

2 – By a 3-1 vote, Cheryl Cullers dissenting, the board then approved its $30,000 share of the Chamber funding. Cullers expressed concern that the Chamber did not have to go through the same application process as all other recipients will to receive CARES money.

3 – By another 4-0 vote, agreement to move forward jointly with the Town toward initial full outsourcing of the joint County-Town Tourism marketing function. The plan, as reiterated by County Planning Director Taryn Logan, is to eventually move toward an outsourced marketer overseen by the existing County-Town Joint Tourism Advisory Committee. Logan noted a phased move in that direction achieving Interim Town Manager’s initial recommendation of outsourcing the Town’s Tourism function, was due to the longer timeframe the local oversight committee-driven plan would take to implement.

Logan observed it has yet to be determined how the plan will impact the existing Visitors Center and staff. It has been noted that a marketer could utilize existing local staffing or bring in its own unless directed toward a specific path in that regard by the contracting municipalities.

4 – Again by a 4-0 vote, the board authorized a $39,717 (and 50-cent) maximum share funding for a new video recording system for County and Town meetings at the Warren County Government Center. The contract will include Warren County School Board meetings. The proposal to hire SwagIT Systems of Texas was brought to the County by the Town. Town IT Director Todd Jones was present to answer questions.

During the discussion of one of six pulled Consent Agenda items, Emergency Services Chief Richard Mabie, flanked by Assistant County Attorney Caitlin Jordan, explains his department’s experience with its insurance carrier – very positive, in fact, ‘tickled’ by it and its processes, as renewal time approaches.

5 – By another 4-0 vote took a middle ground on a request from WCGC property tenant Sherwin-Williams for a rent reduction through the end of the year due to revenue losses from the COVID-19 restrictions on business operations.

The company, which was called an excellent long-term tenant in a building the County does not have mortgage payments on, had asked for a 30% reduction – $1,874 per month for a total of $11,242 from July through December 2020. Presented with 25% and 20% reduction options, the board went the 25% route, or $1,561 per month, a total six-month reduction of $9,369.

6 – After much discussion probably more suited to the actual public hearing and vote, finally voted 4-0 to authorize a public hearing on proposed improvements to the Morgan Ford Boat Landing – don’t even get me started on the unforgiving river and its tendencies to overflow its banks.

7 – By a 2-2 deadlock, Mabe and Fox yes, Cullers and Oates no, failed to approve forgiving a suggested 3% annual increase in hangar leases at the County’s Front Royal Airport (FRR) due to hardship associated to the Coronavirus pandemic emergency management restrictions. A 3% increase averaged a two-dollar to seven dollars monthly hike to tenants. Cullers wondered if those who own airplanes could not afford such an increase, calling aviation a “hobby” that if you can’t afford, you should perhaps consider giving up.

Jason Ham, masked man left, would soon lower his to explain to a 2-2 split board that its negative vote not to ‘forgo’ a proposed airport hangar fee increase, failed to implement the increase the two dissenting members desired. Oh well, maybe next time.

County Attorney Jason Ham explained after the vote that the board’s rejection of Archie Fox’s motion to “forgo” the increase, resulted in no increase being implemented anyway. A positive motion to approve the increase being passed by a majority would have been required to implement. And having voted on and failing to approve Fox’s original motion, rather than amending it to implementation of an increase, had the same effect as approving the motion to forgo.

8 – After a certain amount of board and public gnashing of teeth, authorization of another public hearing on a proposed boundary adjustment in Shenandoah Farms at the Warren-Clarke County line was approved by a 4-0 vote. County Administrator Doug Stanley explained the adjustment will correct the location of a number of properties and residences who had been taxed, serviced, and voted in one county while actually living in the other.

The problem arose from an original straight-line boundary created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1836, rendered obsolete by subsequent development and some shoddy surveying over the centuries since.

See all these discussions, votes, and public hearings and public comments in the Royal Examiner video. And speaking of public comments, Gary Kushner berated the board for even considering a public hearing on a pending proposal discussed at a June 9 work session to manage the Front Royal Municipal Golf Course. The new proposal from existing membership would reduce the County’s annual costs by $75,000 from an earlier $100,000 yearly proposal.

As noted during the discussion of the earlier proposal, the Front Royal Golf Club property was gifted to the community over 80 years ago in memory of a dead community son. See that June 9 work session discussion of municipal golf course management, and other issues in the related story below.

Warren County Board of Supervisors Work Session – June 9, 2020