EDA board tours ITFed site to view status of disputed drainage pipe

EDA board members view a ditch with no drainage pipe laid as of Oct. 4, 2019. The path of the disputed segment of a stormwater drainage system is to the right-center of the photo. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

Following a 20 minute open session and two closed sessions totaling three hours and ten minutes, the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Board of Directors walked next door to the ITFederal building construction site to view the status of a drainage ditch through portions of the property.

Town Engineer Robert Brown soon joined the EDA board members to revisit the situation. That situation appeared to be a continued impasse between ITFederal CEO Truc “Curt” Tran and the Town of Front Royal over responsibility for placing the stormwater drainage system across portions of the 30-acre ITFed parcel.

As Brown first explained to town council and staff at a September 17 work session, Tran is claiming the Town is responsible for paying to install the drainage system based on what town officials claim was a draft architectural drawing that was never submitted, as opposed to the final, submitted version.

At issue is a 505-foot stretch of 42-inch stormwater drainage piping with a cost estimate of about $150,000 to install. Last September Brown told council that the initial 505 foot stretch was estimated at $120,873 with an additional 700-foot channel extending beyond the 10,000 square-foot building under construction adding as much as an additional $50,000 to the project.

As noted in our September 19, 2017 story, town officials have drawn a line in “the mud” if you will on the issue with the embattled ITFederal CEO.

Stormwater accumulated in Sept. 2018 at the time town officials were briefed by staff on the cost dispute. Phase one of the W. Main Connector road had yet to be paved at the time.

Friday Brown confirmed that it would be unlikely the Town would issue an occupancy permit for the building without the drainage system being installed. The disputed portion of the drainage piping traversing the rear of the ITFed building is necessary to carry natural stormwater flow that has passed under the first phase of the West Main Connector Road in a drainage system the Town installed beyond the ITFederal construction project to a collection point.

Town Engineer Robert Brown points to a traditional point of origin for stormwater naturally flowing across the northern section of the Royal Phoenix property near Kendrick Lane.

One of the few conditions Tran has to meet to remain compliant with the payback and construction terms of the EDA’s $10 million loan to ITFederal is to have an occupancy permit in place by mid-2020.

Failing that requirement it would appear at that point Tran would be considered in default of the terms of his EDA loan agreement. It is a loan the EDA has included in its $21 million civil litigation as already recoverable as illegally acquired EDA assets.

Former EDA/County Attorney Dan Whitten has cited the ITFederal loan as acquired under false pretenses. The false pretenses appear to include the fact that a $140-million federal government contract asserted by Tran, Congressman Robert Goodlatte and former EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald as the basis of a $40 million ITFederal investment in the site sold to him behind closed doors for one dollar, never existed.

Following the first 2-1/2 hour closed session Friday morning the EDA board approved a motion to amend its civil litigation to add new defendants. That amended filing is expected to be made by the end of the day. When filed at the Warren County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, the amendments to the $20-million EDA civil litigations will be added in a related story.

In the meantime watch this exclusive Royal Examiner video of the EDA tour of the ITFederal property: