Liaison Committee ponders less frequent meetings

As Doug Stanley listens, Tony Carter, right, explains who should pay for dinner at future liaison meetings, however often they are held. Photo/Roger Bianchini

Following a typically brief, this time approximately 30-minutes, Front Royal-Warren County Liaison Committee meeting at which updates on 10 agenda items were covered, an 11^th unscheduled topic was raised.

County rep and Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter wondered if the meetings now held every other month were currently necessary at that frequency.

“I think we’ve had a good rapport lately – we’ve had our ups and down,” Carter observed of town-county relations, concluding that past tensions seemed to have eased as contentious subjects have waned in recent years.

The “downs” referenced by Carter at the Thursday, November 16 liaison meeting largely revolved around the court-imposed loss of a significant portion of Town Route 522 Corridor Agreement revenues and a perception by some town officials that the County saw that loss as a Town, rather than a Town-County problem.

But Carter is right – those tensions have eased in recent years with the help of some revenue sharing and institutional (EDA, library) funding adjustments the county agreed to since the Town’s lost 2009-10 court case.  That case eliminated a 4-percent meals tax attached to Town water-sewer bills sent to corridor restaurants.

Former town councilman Carter told the town liaison reps present Thursday – Mayor Tharpe, Councilman Gary Gillispie and Town Manager Joe Waltz – that the county “wants to see the town thrive.”  Carter said that positive economic growth inside the town limits was a boon for the county, of which the town is a part.

So however it happened, with things seeming on an even keel between the municipalities currently, Carter suggested less frequent, but perhaps larger sit downs between the two governing bodies.  He noted that the current arrangement had evolved from quarterly meetings, but suggested that perhaps meetings every six months to a year involving the full council and county board might be more productive at this time – “the caveat being that the Town will provide dinner” the Happy Creek supervisor quipped with a glance toward at least two admittedly hungry people present.

Glancing left (I’ll never say at who), Mayor Hollis Tharpe said he thought going a year between liaison meetings would be too long, but that once a year full board joint meetings could be a good addition to whatever liaison schedule – quarterly or twice a year – was decided on.  Carter observed that if some issue came up of special interest to both municipalities, additional meetings could be scheduled.

So, it would appear that its future schedule will be part of the next liaison committee agenda.

Avtex holdup

One agenda item of particular interest discussed Thursday was the status of Town approval of two projects at the Royal Phoenix Business Park on the Avtex site.  Those projects, approval of a final design of the West Main Street extension through the property; and the financing and parameters of a water pumping station on site, are holding up the start of construction of the first commercial client on site, ITFederal.

Discussion at a recent town council meeting indicated some confusion at the level of financing ITFederal would be responsible for.  EDA Executive Director Jennifer McDonald explained to council that while ITFederal had agreed to pay for the initially proposed pumping station, that station would have served only the ITFederal site.  It was later decided it would be best to build one pump station to service the entire site, rather than have each client build a separate pumping station.  At issue was how much the Town would put up initially with ITFederal, and how future commercial clients would compensate the Town for its investment in the pumping station.

Tap fees comparable to those new customers are currently charged to tap into Town water-sewer appeared to be the preferred method to recoup the Town’s investment in the pumping station.