Future look of Front Royal’s Historic Downtown prime work session topic

In the wake of work session discussion Monday evening, July 6, the Front Royal Town Council reached a five-member consensus, Meza absent, to commit necessary funds from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program to proceed with construction of a Pavilion building in the Village Commons area anchored by the Town Gazebo and Visitors Center.

At issue is exactly where the money to fill what the staff summary update on the status of the CDBG Downtown revitalization project cited as a $150,000 funding gap will come from. It was noted that the existing CDBG budget has $130,000 committed to the pavilion/indoor restroom project.

The Council discusses the CDBG budget at the July 6th work session. Councilman Jake Meza was absent. Photos and video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

The balance is likely to come from a combination of a minimally discussed “Streetscape” portion of the CDBG project, with additional funding coming out of unused portions of the Façade Grant program. Exactly how much surplus will be left out of the Façade Grant’s $325,000 remains a somewhat unknown variable.

While it was noted that only $13,395 has thus far been spent of that $325,000 façade grant total, staff and project consultants indicated that number is likely to start rising quickly as the 14 active downtown business participants begin submitting bid proposals for their façade improvements. One remotely connected consultant noted that some of those participating businesses have dual façades up for improvement. That variable is likely to bring the number of façade improvement applications close to the 21 or 22 businesses originally participating when funds were being allocated on the federal, state-enabled local economic revitalization grant funding.

Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick told the council that he thought the move to materials only bidding process from the original materials and labor, had saved that aspect of the project. Original bids including labor had come in unexpectedly high, threatening to tank that portion of the project.

Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock reminded his colleagues that a downtown pavilion catering to both tourists and local downtown visitors had been on the Town’s radar for 20 years – “I think we should make that our focus,” Sealock told his colleagues.

Mayor Gene Tewalt agreed, adding that the necessary funds should be located from somewhere within the project or Town assets “to show we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Also discussed was a downtown “Mural” aspect of the CDBG revitalization tied to the “Façade” Program. Individual murals were estimated at individual costs of $25,000 to $40,000. Artistic themes, general standards, and qualifications of applicants were discussed.

Christopher Brock, Town Zoning Officer explains the process for applying for a mural/sign permit.

Vice-Mayor Sealock recalled the downtown mural work of the late artist Patricia Windrow as a very positive, if now largely abandoned and painted over, part of downtown’s visual history.

While the future look of downtown and the Historic Downtown Center was a prime topic of Monday’s work session, there was no mention of the future of the Visitors Center operations and staff under the announced Tourism Marketing management of the recently contracted Norfolk LLC “Strategic Solutions by Tricia”. Currently, the Visitors Center continues to be open into FY-2021 with existing staff and management, though for how long no one involved directly seems to know. An online search of “Strategic Solutions by Tricia” indicated a past focus of the newly hired consultant in non-profits fundraising activities – but that is a topic for another day.

Watch the discussion of progress toward the revitalization of Front Royal’s Historic Downtown Business District, as well as other topics including debt service variables on the cost of the I&I (Infiltration & Inflow) Abatement infrastructure improvement to the Town’s stormwater and sewer system mandated by the state; upgrades and replacement of Front Royal Police Department equipment such as body-worn and in-car cameras, the 911 radio system and radio consoles; the coming Town-County Liaison Committee agenda; FRIBA’s (Front Royal Independent Business Alliance) request for the placement of the “LOVE” letters downtown; and an expiring planning commission term in this exclusive Royal Examiner video: