Need for Civil Engineer Re-Echoed at Town Council Work Session

On the evening of Monday, April 14, the Front Royal Town Council welcomed its new Town Manager, Joseph Petty, to its governmental body. Petty brings prior governmental experience to what is a demanding role. Having served effectively as interim town manager after the resignation of previous town manager Joseph Waltz, who left his role earlier this year, Finance Director B.J. Wilson was commended by the council for his performance, specifically in terms of maintaining open lines of communication. Wilson attributed his success to a dependable, tireless staff.

The Town Council commences its work session on the evening of Monday, April 14. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

Up for discussion again from the previous week’s work session, the budget for FY 25/26 came into focus as council members addressed their questions concerning the budget to Wilson. The discussion ranged from how the County and Town respectively handle their tourism departments to the hopelessness of receiving state funding on improvements to Happy Creek Road. Amid these points that were made, Vice Mayor Amber Veitenthal magnified a point that Councilman Glenn Wood made at the previous work session: the need for a civil engineer, although possibly with a different rationale. When it comes to allocating funds, that need, she said, should be prioritized above the tourism department. Speaking with pithiness and at length, she made what she called an uncomfortable point as follows: “What we contribute to tourism is fantastic. It should be appreciated even if it’s marginal. When we talk about funding, an engineer versus tourism, an engineer should always be ten times higher priority, because, when we talk about Big T and Little T in tourism and how it impacts our revenue, we make money off of it, sure, but if our town had an engineer which is invaluable in my opinion, we’re going to benefit a lot more than just by adding $50,000 a year to the tourism budget.”

Craig Klienhenz of American Municipal Power explains the impact of rate increases for the Town in its energy sector.

She added: “Talking about subsidization and government not being the answer and solution to all problems,” this being the uncomfortable point that people do not want to accept, “while we’re funding tourism, which is promoting an increasing revenue for small business owners in the downtown market and some in the corridor on the outskirts of town, it’s not the government’s job to increase the sales revenue of those independent business owners. We’re not increasing the business of farmers, of lawyers, of accountants, of any other industry that’s not tourism related; the government is not infusing money to increase their sales revenue.” Nobody on the council debated this point, because they agreed with Veitenthal or because they were not interested in a debate with Veitenthal, one might speculate, but there was clearly a diversity of reasons for putting a civil engineer on staff, Mayor Lori Cockrell having brought it up in the first place and Councilman Bruce Rappaport highlighting the pivotal role such an engineer could play in plat developments.

Finance Director B.J. Wilson answers questions from the council about the budget.

Having heard from a representative of American Municipal Power about rate increases in the energy sector, which will likely increase what Front Royal residents pay for their electricity as the Town adjusts to this change, an overall problem that can be traced to the surge of data centers; and having discussed acquisitions, a grant for the Front Royal Police Department, final designs for 4H and Jamestown pump stations, and committee nominations, the mayor concluded the open portion of the meeting with three proclamations, one for National Public Safety Telecommunicator’s Week (April 13-19), National Administrative Professionals Day (April 23), and Arbor Day (April 25).

Purchasing Manager Michelle Campbell presents a handful of potential acquisitions to the council.

Shortly after 9 p.m., the council went into a closed session to discuss personnel, a stormwater issue on West Commonwealth Drive, and the disposition of assets pertaining to an insolvent EDA.

Click here to watch the Front Royal Town Council Work Session of April 14, 2025.