Council appoints Planning Commissioner Morrison to vacant seat

Near the end of a sparse meeting agenda of January 23, the Front Royal Town Council appointed Christopher Morrison to fill the seat vacated by Councilman Hollis Tharpe’s ascension to Mayor this year.  Morrison, a member of the Town Planning Commission, was selected from a field of nine applicants.  He was not present to hear his appointment announced.

John Connolly made the motion to appoint Morrison to fill the final two years of Tharpe’s Council term, which will expire December 31, 2018.  Connolly’s motion was seconded by William Sealock, elected to his first term in November.

Jacob Meza, right, listens as John Connolly explains his motion to appoint Christopher Morrison to replace Hollis Tharpe on Council. Photo/Roger Bianchini

However, Morrison’s appointment did not come without some dissension.  Vice-Mayor Tewalt continued to lobby for November’s fourth-place finisher, long-time Town businessman and former two-term planning commission member Mike McCool.  McCool has also served as a member of the Town Board of Zoning Appeals and remains active in downtown business organizations and issues.  While Tewalt cast the only dissenting vote, Bébhinn Egger, who said she would support the majority pick, admitted Morrison was not her first choice.  She later confirmed to McCool that he had been her first choice.

Tewalt continued to express the belief Council should select McCool as the fourth-place vote getter for three seats in the last election. McCool tallied 2,199 votes, 278 votes behind third-place finisher Meza out of 4,712 votes cast for five Council candidates in the Town election.

“I think these people that voted for Mr. McCool, it’s a slap in the face to them and I hope that shows up at the next election when it comes due and these people don’t get voted back in because of what they’ve done to Mr. McCool,” Tewalt said.  Tewalt added that while he believed Morrison was qualified, that McCool was “the most qualified” candidate.

Connolly responded that had Council chosen to hold a Special Election to fill the vacancy, it might be a different conversation.  However, he said he based his selection on who he thought would do the best job on Council over the next two years.

Additional detail on Morrison was not immediately available.  However, the selection appears to continue a youth movement over the past three years on Council.  Tewalt said he believed Morrison was in his 30’s and was appointed to the Planning Commission about two years ago.

That description fits last year’s appointee, Jacob Meza.  Connolly and Egger are both in their late 20’s.

EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald introduced Councilman William Sealock’s replacement on the EDA Board to Council Monday. Brendan Arbuckle is Senior Operations Director at Toray Plastics. Photo/Roger Bianchini

In other business:

• Council unanimously approved the second reading of a Code change to allow Council members to attend meetings by “Electronic Means” if forced away by an “emergency or personal matter”. State Code allows such remote participation by elected officials “up to two times per year”, or 25-percent of the body’s annual meetings;
• Unanimously endorsed “Great Kindness Challenge Week” beginning today;
• Took no action following a Closed Session to discuss the sale of the former Electric Department headquarters on Sixth Street.
• Mayor Tharpe acknowledged a recent pedestrian traffic fatality in Town, and urged people to drive with caution inside the Town limits. During the Closed Session, Acting FRPD Chief Bruce Hite told this reporter there had been a second pedestrian traffic fatality earlier on Monday.  That accident occurred on North Shenandoah Avenue as a female is believed to have attempted to cross between a motel and convenience store on the busy portion of North Shenandoah between 14^th and 18^th Streets leading to the north-side bridges.  See Norma Jean Shaw’s report on that accident elsewhere on this site.

(For full disclosure, Mike McCool is not only the long-time owner of National Media Services in Front Royal, but for the past four months has been Publisher of the Royal Examiner.)