Council wraps up first business of 2017 in record fashion

Chairing the first official Council meeting of his tenure as Mayor on Monday night January 9, Hollis Tharpe tied the known record for briefest Council Meeting on record at 17 minutes.  Councilman John Connolly reminded us of a 21-minute meeting within his two-year tenure; however, according to one Council “historian” the 17-minute record dates back to the early 2000s at a meeting chaired by then Vice-Mayor Daniel Pond III.

At work session a week earlier, Mayor Tharpe, at right, may have been explaining that he was going to keep things moving briskly at Council’s first meeting of 2017 – and he did. Photo/Roger Bianchini

CONGRATULATIONS, Mayor Tharpe on a job well done – and with almost an hour to spare until kickoff of the NCAA Division 1 National Championship game between Clemson and Alabama – AND by the way, CONGRATS to our Harrisonburg neighbors at James Madison University for their Division 2 (or whatever it’s called now) National Championship win over Youngstown State this past weekend – WAY TO GO DUKES!!!

And it wasn’t like there was no agenda to speak of or that nothing was accomplished Monday night.  In addition to approval of a four-item consent agenda, including okaying the request of Maddox Funeral Home to rename the adjacent alley between West First Street and West Main Street “Maddox Lane”:

• there were two public hearings (neither drawing speakers and both passed by 5-0 votes):

1. one authorizing Council members to participate in up to two meetings per year by remote, electronic means when “emergency” circumstances prevent their physical presence;
2. and authorization to advertise for the sale of the former Electric Department building at 520 East Sixth Street;

• two Council approvals:

1. one regarding the sale of the old FRPD headquarters building at 24 West Main Street, increasing the number of days for the buyer’s feasibility study from 75 to 120; and changing the listed name of the purchaser from Gerald W. Welcome, Jr. to “Linden Brew Krew LLC”;
2. authorizing the sale of a 675 square-foot portion of West 15^th Street to the Cool Harbor Motel owners to resolve a Right-of-Way encroachment issue dating back to the original owner and the building’s construction in 1949 (see details below);

• three committee appointments – Bill Sealock as Town rep to the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission; and Gene Tewalt and Jacob Meza to the Audit and Finance Committee;
• and the nomination and election of a vice mayor (congratulations Gene).

Mayor Tharpe, right, and former Mayor and now Vice Mayor Tewalt will lead Council into 2017. Photo/Roger Bianchini

In making his nomination of Tewalt to succeed Tharpe as vice mayor, Connolly pointed to Tewalt’s experience in Town government and what he called Tewalt’s “intimate understanding of the process” of municipal government and Robert’s Rules of Order under which meetings are conducted.

As the roll-call vote reached Tewalt, the former Mayor and long-standing Councilman was holding a commanding 4-0 lead.  Tewalt then drew some laughter as he abstained from voting for himself, but adding that if he had, had to break a tie “I would have voted for that guy too.”

Cool Harbor ROW request

The one agenda item leading to a split vote (4-1, Tewalt dissenting) and some discussion was the request of the Cool Harbor Motel’s new ownership (since February 2016) that the Town vacate, sell or extend a long-term lease on a Right of Way encroachment on the Motel’s 15^th Street side.  The owners appeared at the January 3 work session to explain they needed the long-term commitment of the ROW encroachment lease to enable a Small Business Administration loan to facilitate some improvements they wish to make to the property.

On January 3, Cool Harbor owners Mahesh “Mark” Patel and Ashika Deshpande told Council they have a chance to obtain a Motel 6 franchise but must make certain improvements to the facility.  In order to receive a 20-year SBA loan to make those improvements they must have the lease the Town has extended to the motel’s various owners since at least 1956 authorized for the 20-year term of the loan.  The current five-year lease renewed in 2015 allows the Town to terminate “at will”.

Tewalt admitted the ROW infringement was a long-standing issue dating back to Homer LeHew’s original construction around 1949.  His objection to a sale or vacating the property centered on the Town permanently giving up land it now possesses – “Land doesn’t grow,” Tewalt told his colleagues at the January 3 work session, predicting, “Someday that’s going to be one of the biggest commercial areas of the Town.”

The Cool Harbor Motel ROW infringement on 15th Street, long and close views. The building jutty at the parked cars was the problem area dating to at least 1956. The Town is selling the 675 s.f. ROW infringement to the motel owners to help resolve business issues. Photos/Roger Bianchini

However, a Council majority preferred to focus on the here and now and the Town’s culpability in allowing the encroachment in the first place.

“It seems like (the Town) made a 50-year error,” Sealock said at the work session, adding of Tewalt’s prediction the Town might someday need the now unused 15^th Street ROW, “I don’t see the future Gene sees.”

“I favor helping a business that’s already there,” Bébhinn Egger stated.

Connolly noted that the encroachment amounted to a seven or eight-foot intrusion onto an unpaved, unused section of 15^th Street and said, “To force the owner to tear down that portion of the building … I wouldn’t be in favor of compelling the owner to do that.”

The owners estimated just under a $31,000 expense to tear down the portion of the motel that has intruded on the Town ROW for an estimated 67 years; as well as the potential loss of the Motel 6 franchise they are seeking if their SBA loan fell through.

And Monday night’s vote followed those lines as Tewalt stood alone in favoring a long-term lease of the ROW to the owners to facilitate their loan, but allowing the Town to regain control of the ROW-infringed property in 20 years.

In choosing the motion to sell the 675 square-foot ROW encroachment to the Cool Harbor owners, Egger explained that legal staff had suggest that as the preferable of the two permanent transfer options.  She also observed that facilitating the motel improvements and franchising was likely to bring more lodging tax revenue to the Town.