Local Government

Council ponders Building Inspection Department fees, appoints new FREDA board and Urban Forestry replacements

Published

4 years ago

December 15, 2021

As referenced in our lead story on Matt Tederick’s “cabal” allegations against critics of the mayor and town manager’s roles in “fast-tracking” Holloway construction’s non-conforming subdivision proposal, there were agenda and action items to be considered at the December 13 Front Royal Town Council meeting and work session.

Included among those were the naming of the Front Royal Economic Development Authority (FREDA) Board of Directors and members of the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee (ESAC – see related Town press releases; a list of those appointments is below at end of this story). The latter was created to replace the mass-resigned Urban Forestry Advisory Commission (UFAC) in the wake of UFAC and the related FR-WC Tree Stewards not being consulted on the Happy Creek defoliation/rip rap rock project undertaken during Tederick’s interim town manager stint. Movement toward the former was created after council decided to withdraw from the half-century-old FR-WC EDA following the 2014-18 EDA financial scandal, and hire outside attorneys recommended by then-Interim Town Manager Tederick to litigate with the new EDA Board over what the Town might be owed as a result of the alleged misdirection or embezzlement of EDA assets by former EDA executive director Jennifer McDonald and believed co-conspirators. That decision was made over the objection of then mayor Eugene Tewalt, who urged the realigned EDA-offered “good faith” negotiations to determine who was owed what in the wake of the financial scandal.

Council welcomes members of FREDA, above, and EFAC below after unanimously approving their appointments. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

Also authorized after a great deal of work session discussion was movement toward implementation of a Town Building Inspection Department to oversee in-town inspections and authorizations for building projects and commercial and residential additions projects formerly handled by the County Building Inspection Department. At issue for a number of council members and the mayor were fees attached to various permitting functions to support the new department’s work. Planning Director Lauren Kopishke noted the residential and commercial permitting fees were taken directly from the County’s fee schedule, which she called “pretty typical for the area”.

And while a council majority and the mayor remained skeptical of implementing the fee schedule, at Town Manager Steven Hicks, who will initially serve as the department’s building official, and Kopishke’s urging they relented in order to support a planned January 3 start of the new town department. On Vice-Mayor Cockrell’s motion, a resolution to adopt the fee schedule was removed from the Consent Agenda and moved to Business Items to facilitate some discussion that at the building official/town manager’s discretion the approved fees could be adjusted upon further review, preferably down.

Town Manager Steven Hicks, at head of table to right, and Planning Director Lauren Kopishke, standing, urged council to have an initial permitting fee structure in place for the planned Jan. 3 kickoff of the new Town Building Inspection Department.

Council also approved a Deed vacating a utility easement requested by the Virginia Inland Port to facilitate planned construction utilizing a different utility access point.

During the work session, Town Finance Director B.J. Wilson alerted council that a major expense estimated at about one million dollars total would be presented to them in January. That expense, $485,000 for materials and $500,000 for work, will fund installation of new Influent Pumps at the Town Wastewater Treatment Plant to replace the 40-year-old ones there now.

Finance Director B.J. Wilson heads back to his seat after briefing council on a coming million-dollar Capital Improvement Project cost for replacement of 40-year-old pumps at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

While the work session held in the smaller WCGC Caucus Room was not videotaped, see the meeting discussions and votes, not to mention Matt Tederick’s initial “the cabal is coming to get you” performance in the LINKED VIDEO.

Below are the FREDA and ESAC appointments announced Monday:

Front Royal Economic Development Authority