Joint Tourism efforts, vape shop control and better efforts toward mutually agreed upon ends highlight Liaison Committee discussion

It was a far-ranging and sometimes meandering Front Royal-Warren County Liaison Committee meeting that convened at 6 p.m., Thursday evening, April 20, at the Warren County Government Center. Representing the host county government was county board Chairman Vicky Cook and Delores Oates, and on the Town side were Mayor Lori Athey Cockrell and Josh Ingram. Other elected officials present included county supervisors Cheryl Cullers and Walt Mabe and town council members Skip Rogers, Amber Morris, Melissa DeDeminico-Payne, and a tad late with car trouble, Bruce Rappaport. Myriad staff members from both governments, along with County EDA Board Chairman Scott Jenkins, as well as the trio of Clare Schmitt, Kerry Barnhart, and Ellen Aders from the joint tourism-established “Destination Management Organization” (DMO) Discover Front Royal, were also present.

While there may only be four per meeting officially at the Town-County Liaison Committee table now, could that change to full board-council member representation soon? And how would such a change pan out long-term? That remains a question under consideration.

Removed near the outset of the meeting (1:03 mark of the video) by Mayor Cockrell were two FR-WC EDA financial scandal items: “5 – FR-WC EDA Negotiations/Next Steps” and “6 – Discussion of ITFederal Loans”. With those topics skirting dueling civil litigations initiated by the Town regarding relative liabilities and losses from the EDA financial scandal circa 2014-18, and no attorneys handling those cases from either side present, the mayor indicated council was not prepared to discuss either publicly. She noted those topics appeared to have been added to the agenda by the County relatively late in the agenda-creation process, not giving town officials a pre-meeting chance to reject their inclusion. Later in the meeting, Chairman Cook indicated that a meeting would be set up in the coming week at which she, Mayor Cockrell, Town Manager Joe Waltz, and County Administrator Ed Daley would sit down to talk about the ITFederal loan realized through the then jointly overseen FR-WC EDA.

Readers may recall that, that $10-million loan to enable ITFederal to develop its business interest on a 30-acre portion of the Avtex Business Park site for development was enabled by a twice-extended, three-month $10-million “bridge loan” the town council authorized at the request of then FR-WC EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald. McDonald explained that in order to proceed with the loan through the EDA to ITFederal, the involved bank sought assurances that the community “was behind” the project the loan would enable which remains the largest single aspect of the EDA financial scandal civil actions.

The EDA and County contend the loan eventually done through the EDA with the bank on behalf of ITFederal was achieved under false pretenses the company presented as to its ability to achieve its development plan. Then Sixth District U.S. Congressman Robert Goodlatte lauded ITFederal as a potential economic development partner for this community and its EDA at the time, circa 2016/17. Readers may also recall that while publicly discussed as a $2.1-million purchase price by ITFederal for its parcel at Avtex, in closed session the EDA board agreed to gift the parcel to ITFederal for one dollar, ostensibly to help “jump start” re-development at the 148-acre planned Royal Phoenix Business Park site.

An empty half-building (of what was originally proposed): The ITFederal Avtex redevelopment one dollar ‘jump-start’ $10-million dollars-plus and 7 years later. The ITFederal loan was removed from the discussion at liaison. However, from comments by the liaison chairman, it appears that Ms. Cook and the mayor, along with the town manager and county administrator, will have that discussion in the coming week. Coupled with follow-up on the other EDA litigation topic removed from the agenda – “FR-WC EDA Negotiations/Next Steps” – might we be moving toward an out-of-court Town-County civil court settlement – how many contracted attorney legal fees later??

The first two agenda topics of mutual municipal interest to be discussed at the liaison committee meeting included the future structure and possibly expanded liaison committee membership, potentially the full town council and board of supervisors (discussion starting at 5:50 video mark); and how the two governments might overcome past unilateral action destructive to the joint tourism process in order to re-establish a workable joint tourism promotional effort (16:42 video mark).

One might wonder how confident the Discover Front Royal trio present remained at the prospect of a successful joint tourism remake as liaison discussion went back and forth on relative municipal responsibilities and strategies, including future Visitors Center operational and financing dynamics.

To right-center, recently appointed Destination Management Organization Discover Front Royal Chairman Clare Schmitt responds to a question from the liaison committee as colleagues Ellen Aders and Kerry Barnhart, to her right, with various town and county officials, listen.

Asked about her perception of the discussion as it progressed from the above-cited 16:42 mark of Royal Examiner’s exclusive video, new Discover Front Royal Chairman Clare Schmitt replied: “I agree with what’s been said, that it needs to be simultaneous … I agree, this is like a triangle and we all three need to come together … And we need to come in as partners with interlocking arms.”
Other Town-County liaison topics discussed, with video time signatures of those discussions, were:

• Town/County Transportation Subcommittee Update – begins at 39:00 video mark;
• Disposition of McKay Springs, briefly at 1:01:15 video mark – Town Manager Joe Waltz, back on board for less than a year, noted he and staff were reviewing the situation of the Town-owned potential water source and did not want a boundary adjustment at this time. He requested that further discussion of relative property holdings in the area be held up until he and his staff’s review was completed in three to six months;
• Town Comprehensive Plan Update – 1:03:50 video mark includes a discussion of how the Town and County’s Comp Plans might be integrated into a mutual future vision for the community.
• Redundant Water Line Update – 1:19:30 video mark.
• Vape Shop Discussion – 1:26:32 of video – It may have been 4-20, known as “National Weed Day,” but I don’t really think anyone involved was stoned. That’s just the way they talk when they’re all in a room together. I guess you could call it a contact high — contact with another municipality, each other, maybe both.
• And an added item: HEPTAD proffers on the Swan Farm 335-unit residential development proposal – 1:55:20 video mark. Potential impacts on county public schools were raised on the County side, particularly by Supervisor Oates. With the public school system’s elementary schools already at capacity, she said, Oates worried an influx of a projected 63 new elementary school students from the development inside the town limits could lead to the need for a new elementary school to be built at County expense in the not-too-distant future.

Prior to the meeting’s conclusion, the next liaison committee meeting was set for July 20, at 6 p.m., with the Town hosting at Town Hall. The meeting was adjourned at 8:19 p.m.

Watch the Town/County Liaison meeting in this exclusive Royal Examiner video by Mark Williams.