Board authorizes additional Election Security Software purchase, bridge name change compromise, Wendling’s elevation to Planning Director – and more

Following presentations on the Fiscal Year-2020/2021 Audit process and report and a staff recommendation on renewing the recently switched to United Healthcare employee insurance program, the Warren County Board of Supervisors tackled a fairly light May 3^rd morning meeting action agenda before hitting the closed and work session trenches. Other than board and staff reports, that open meeting agenda was comprised of a 12-item Consent Agenda of routine business and adjournment to a three-pronged closed session.

However, two items were pulled from the Consent Agenda for discussion prior to any action. They were “Purchase of Certified Elections Software and Budget Transfers” totaling $32,638 to accomplish that purchase; and Resolutions of Support for the Sons of Liberty-requested renaming of the North and South Fork Bridges over the Shenandoah River just north of the Town of Front Royal after Revolutionary War Generals Daniel Morgan and Joseph Warren.

The bottom line on the bridge renamings was that the North Fork Bridge was named “General Daniel Morgan Veterans’ Memorial Bridge” and the “South Fork Bridge, Major General Dr. Joseph Warren Veterans Memorial Bridge”. The inclusion of “Veterans Memorial Bridge” in both names appeared to be an acknowledgment of former Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter’s recent meeting request that a previously named “Veterans Memorial Bridge” acknowledging the sacrifice of all county war veterans be maintained on at least one of the involved bridges. Walt Mabe’s motion, seconded by Vicky Cook, to approve the name changes as submitted passed by a 4-0 vote, current Happy Creek Supervisor Jay Butler absent.

Retired Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter appeared before the board on April 5 to urge the supervisors not to forget an existing bridge name in honor of all Warren County’s war veterans. His suggestion seems to have been incorporated into the newly re-named North and South Fork Bridges. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

The staff summary of the Election equipment purchase explained the necessity of the $32,638 in various interfund budget transfers being a result of State General Assembly legislation requiring additional Election equipment “Security Standards” be in place statewide by July 1, 2022. Staff noted that the ePollTAB Precinct Management System software has a somewhat lengthy lead time on implementation, suggesting approval of the purchase “as soon as possible”. And with an explanation of the various transfers being allowed within the county budget structure to answer Fork District Supervisor Vicky Cook’s funding questions, that approval came by the same 4-0 vote on Cook’s motion, seconded by Mabe. County Administrator Daley observed that the availability of the money for the purchase within the County’s budget structure was exactly the type of thing described to the board during new audit company Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates CPA Michael Lupton’s earlier presentation to them.

The remainder of the Consent Agenda was also approved by a 4-0 vote on a motion by Board Chair Cheryl Cullers, seconded by Delores Oates. Items approved were D.R. Horton’s request for the release of a Performance Bond in the amount of $2,070,442 “for the completion of the required physical improvements for Blue Ridge Shadows Subdivision Phase 3”; authorization to advertise for public hearings four Conditional Use Permit (CUP) requests for Short-Term Tourist Rentals; a CUP request for Rivermont Baptist Church’s operation of a Day/Child Care Center/Nursery on Agriculturally-zoned land and a related ordinance amendment; one Private-Use Camping CUP request; and two personnel matters.

The personnel matters included were a “Reclassification of Administrative Assistant Positions” in the County Attorney’s Office, Planning, and Economic Development Departments to that of Office Manager; and the elevation of County Zoning Officer Chase Lenz to Zoning Administrator with additional authority to enforce County Zoning Ordinances, effective May 3^rd.

County Administrator Ed Daley deferred the outset of his report to Deputy County Administrator Taryn Logan. Logan announced Lenz’s elevation to zoning administrator after serving as zoning officer since July 2021, as well as the appointment of Deputy Planning Director Matt Wendling to the planning director’s position, freeing predecessor and still-Acting Planning Director Joe Petty up to take his new in-house WC EDA director’s duties on full time.

Deputy County Administrator Taryn Logan, right at podium, announces that Deputy Planning Director Matt Wendling, left, has been named to succeed Joe Petty as County Planning Director. Petty will now assume WC EDA executive leadership full-time from within the WCGC.

The County got an overall good report on the Fiscal Year-2020/2021 Audit. To see details presented in the Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates CPA’s summary, see the PowerPoint presentation here. Perhaps due to outstanding legal issues involved, including adversarial civil litigation between the Town of Front Royal and the FR-WC EDA, which the County has now taken in-house with the Town’s withdrawal from involvement, it was noted that financial statements related to the FR-WC EDA were omitted from the audit report. The auditor further noted that related materials were “discreetly presented” and no opinion on the related finances was given as a public part of the audit. “The amounts by which this omission would affect the assets, deferred outflow of resources, liabilities, deferred inflows of resources, net position, revenues, and expenses of this discretely presented component unit have not been determined,” one page in the summary PowerPoint stated.

Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates CPA Michael Lupton attempts to convey budget variables in his company’s FY-2021 audit report, including ‘discreetly presented’ and still fluid FR-WC EDA financial dynamics related to ongoing civil litigation.

The meeting went behind closed doors into Executive Session at 10:32 AM to discuss personnel matters, a pending real estate transaction, and legal issues surrounding the Shenandoah Farms Sanitary District. Those personnel matters included the Board of Building Code Appeals, the WC EDA Board of Directors, and the Front Royal Airport Commission. On the real estate front, the topic was “Acquisition of Real Property re: Property Located in the Fork Magisterial District Within the Limits of the Town of Front Royal.”

Speaking of the Farms Sanitary District, following a lengthy work session discussion with VDOT officials and Public Works Director Mike Berry later in the day, it appears the board has decided to proceed with the rapidly escalating cost Old Oak Lane Phase 4, and eventually 5, project in the Farms.

That decision conflicts with the Property Owners of Shenandoah Farms (POSF) recommendation those projects covering about a mile of roadway be abandoned in favor of more affordable road projects that would improve significantly more roadway in the sprawling Sanitary District. Estimates as high as $1.5 million for completion of the Old Oak Lane work versus under $200,000 for extensive tar and chip work around the rural subdivision have been forecast by POSF officials.

Out of the Closed Session 63-minutes later, the board appointed Ryan Oates to the Board of Building Code Appeals. The board also authorized the county administrator to advertise for applicants to serve on a Shenandoah Farms Sanitary District Advisory Board in the wake of the agreement to dissolve the 2011 County Management Agreement, effective July 1, at the request of the Property Owners of Shenandoah Farms (POSF), that had managed the Sanitary District from its 1995 inception to 2010/11. How that open recruitment of an advisory board will impact the POSF’s future role remains to be seen.

At 12:38 PM the board adjourned the meeting and convened into a four-topic work session. Two of those topics, well three if you count the VDOT Report originally scheduled for the open meeting that was deferred to the work session where two VDOT-related topics were on the agenda, revolved around Virginia Department of Transportation projects and funding streams, County priorities on road projects. That discussion included the above-referenced Old Oak Lane Phase 4 and 5 upgrades in the Shenandoah Farms Sanitary District.

VDOT’s Edwin Carter, left, and Matt Smith, seated on the phone, perhaps seeking help with an exit strategy from what became a lengthy presentation on financing and other variables of the state transportation department’s multiple road maintenance and municipal assistance programs that opened the May 3rd afternoon work session. Below, Deputy County Finance Director Alisa Scott delves into the nuances of Procurement Policy and Public-Private partnerships to fund a community’s needed public educational infrastructure improvements.

Following staff presentations on a proposed county ordinance amendment on Procurement Policies and a Code Chapter addition related to the often-helpful Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002, the work session adjourned at 3:51 PM. All 3-hours-and-13-minutes of the work session is available for viewing on the County work session video, as is the approximately hour-and-35-minute open session meeting’s video here, as well.