Clarification on July FRPD debt service payment – due and paid July 1

Despite recent County work session discussion indicating the July debt service payment on the Front Royal Police Station was coming due mid-month on July 15, Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Doug Parson clarified to Royal Examiner on July 16 that, that payment was due July 1.

Parsons said the EDA made the payment and the FRPD loan debt service with United Bank remains current into the new Fiscal Year. He said the debt service payment on the 426 Baugh Drive warehouse property comes due on July 15 and was not sure how confusion on the two debt service payment dates came about.

Thanks to the EDA, the FRPD debt service remains current into FY-2021. Royal Examiner File Photo/Roger Bianchini

So, the Town and County’s discussion of a shared payment responsibility on the July FRPD debt service moving forward was not facing the one-day payment turnaround referenced in our story “Pared back FRPD payment ‘Reservation of Rights Agreement’ revealed by County”.

However, the question remains as to whether both municipal elected bodies and the EDA will sign off on the renegotiated “Reservation of Rights Agreement” discussed at the Warren County Board of Supervisors work session of Tuesday, July 14.

As noted in our July 15^th story, if signed off on by the involved municipalities and EDA, the Town will for at least one month, pay $10,528.95, or approximately half of the July interest-only $21,102 FRPD debt service payment, though without admitting any obligation to do so. As noted in our original board work session story, as of November 1 those United Bank loan payments will become interest and principal payments estimated to take the monthly payments into the $50,000 range.

Thus far the EDA has been covering those monthly FRPD debt service payments, at least initially with the expectation that upon completion of construction, which was in October 2018, the Town would move to take over financing of its police station capital improvement project. But also as previously reported, that was before the town council decided to sue the EDA and refuse to pay for the police station despite its not being directly involved in any of the debt service financial irregularities Town officials discovered in the spring of 2018.

Since they apparently have the building, wonder if the EDA ever thought about having its own police department – good self-monitoring, and for bill collections …

On June 1 the EDA presented the Town with an invoice for slightly over $441,300 paid thus far by the EDA on an $8.8-million FRPD project debt service.

The informal discussion between members of the two municipalities’ elected bodies has been pointed to by all involved as a “good faith” effort to move the legal impasse on the Town’s obligation or lack thereof to pay for construction of its $9-million police station in a positive direction.

Public discussion by both the Town and County on the Reservation of Rights Agreement has given no indication as to whether it is viewed as a one-time show of “good faith” by the town council or will be revisited monthly as negotiations between representatives of the two elected bodies proceed.

So, while our July 15^th check-writing cliff hangar ended up as somewhat of an anti-climax, we still recommend readers stay tuned as our very own municipal soap opera “As the FRPD Debt Service Turns” continues.

After all, it is being written in “good faith” by our town and county elected officials – apparently with assistance from their, or involved, legal staffs.