Exchange Becomes Heated for Town Council at Work Session Over Question of Whether to Donate Taxpayer Dollars to a Non-Profit

On Tuesday, September 3, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Front Royal Town Hall at 102 East Main Street, the Front Royal Town Council met for a work session in which they transacted a number of items, including a report from the planning and zoning department and a discussion at the end of the public portion of the meeting, before going into closed session, about the advisability of diverting funds from a sidewalk project on West Criser Road to furnish non-profit Reaching Out Now (RON) with fifty thousand dollars to aid them in their effort to revitalize the Santmyers youth center.

Town Council prepares to commence a work session on the evening of Tuesday, September 3. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

Councilman Bruce Rappaport was adamant that not only can the Town afford to redirect money from the sidewalk to the youth center but that given the nobility of RON’s mission, this would be a worthy expenditure of taxpayer dollars. Councilwoman Amber Morris countered his position with a variety of concerns and the exchange grew heated as Morris told Rappaport that as the mother of teenagers, she does not need to be told how real the challenges are which the youth center proposes to address. If we can keep just one child from going in a bad direction, he argued, then the effort is not wasted. He underlined many of the problems that young people face, including suicidal ideation, and pointed to how the youth center can play a pivotal role in putting them on a better path with a loving environment and training in useful, lifelong skills.

More than one person sitting at the table, including Morris, was a beneficiary of the youth center before it closed. Not a single person at that table expressed any doubt that what RON proposes to do is noble. However, as Morris pointed out, RON is one non-profit organization among many in Front Royal, not all of whom are slated to receive money from the Town. Add to that the fact that the Town, in what she called an “unprecedented” move, donated twenty-five thousand dollars to RON earlier in the year. The County, she argued, has a fiduciary responsibility to the youth center, which has been the case since the late nineties when the Voluntary Settlement Agreement between Town and County was transacted, conveying responsibility for the operation of multiple services from the Town to the County in exchange for the Town extending water and septic service to the expanding 340/522 corridor. There is the additional issue of double taxation, in which a donation would represent dollars taken from Town residents in addition to what they pay as County residents which the County then uses in part for the expense of the very same youth center.

Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke stands with Property Maintenance Official and Code Enforcement Officer Daniel Wells as he addresses the council on matters pertaining to his job.

The sidewalk on Criser is approximately three years out from construction. That is presumably enough time in which more money might become available, if fifty thousand were to be diverted from the sidewalk project, as Rappaport proposes. The sidewalk project, according to Town Manager Joe Waltz, is already operating at a deficit, despite the surplus revenue that was afforded to it in the amount of more than five hundred thousand. Thus, the council must weigh the pros and cons of assisting a worthy non-profit on the one hand with the safety of school children walking on the road between Skyline Vista Drive and Route 340 on the other. Although Councilman Glenn Wood expressed sympathy for Rappaport’s position, Councilmen Joshua Ingram and Vice Mayor Wayne Sealock aligned themselves with a more conservative approach when it comes to funding non-profits and Councilwoman Melissa DeDomenico-Payne seemed to take a middle-of-the-road approach with the suggestion of a yearly “lottery” in which non-profits could have an equal chance of receiving financial support from the Town.

The discussion finished, and the council went into a closed session at 9:05 p.m.

Click here to watch the Front Royal Town Council Meeting of September 3, 2024.