Ramsey boundary adjustment, Schools budget request forwarded for action

At a virtually conducted work session Tuesday, May 12, attended as usual by a three-member quorum in the caucus room of the Government Center, the Warren County Board of Supervisors moved two items toward consideration at the coming meeting of May 19.

Those were local developer Chris Ramsey’s request that 20.2 acres of his property targeted for residential development off Guard Hill Road be boundary adjusted into the Front Royal Town limits; and a County School Board request that all of a $1.6 million FY 2019 surplus be returned to facilitate completion of a number of school projects, principally the A.S. Rhodes renovations.

Two board members, Chairman Walter Mabe and Building Committee member Archie Fox indicated they would (Mabe), or would be likely to recuse themselves from voting on the request due to long-time friendships and/or associations with Ramsey. The remaining three members, Vice-Chair Cheryl Cullers, Delores Oates and Tony Carter indicated they were ready to move forward on the request.

A quorum of county supervisors in the WCGC caucus room under the watchful lenses of multiple cameras – remotely tapped in members remain behind the scene visually. Royal Examiner Photo/Roger Bianchini

A move into the town limits would reduce the double charge for Town central water-sewer utilities outside the town limits, to the normal in-town charge, reducing utility costs to potential residents.

North River District’s Oates particularly expressed some skepticism about the request. She pointed to the Voluntary Settlement Agreement between the Town and County restricting annexation, and she asserted to at least some degree also boundary adjustments from the county to the town, as part of the county government’s plan to foster north corridor development to help adequately fund the public school system.

That plan began with the 1998-99 Route 522/340 North Corridor Agreement that allowed Town Central Water-Sewer utilities to be extended into the county without annexation. Of the 25-year prohibition on Town annexation tied to the Voluntary Settlement Agreement that Oates cited as having four years left, Supervisor Tony Carter said he believed those 25 years dated to the 2013 addition of the Voluntary Settlement Agreement to the Corridor Agreement mix.

Supervisor Oates reminded the board that original north corridor commercial development was envisioned to help provide tax revenue to support county public schools. Should future residential development along town-county boundary be held to the same standard?

The board also got an update on problems with the Rivermont Fire Station construction, and efforts to correct those problems. Those corrective efforts were endorsed and the project will move forward under the oversight of County-contracted Clerk of the Works Jeff Hayes, who got a stellar endorsement from South River Supervisor Cullers for keeping an eye out for the County’s interests in the project development.

As for the public school’s surplus carryover request, County Administrator Doug Stanley told the board that in the current uncertain COVID-19 pandemic financial landscape, the staff recommendation was to return half of that $1.6 million total at this time. Discussion with Acting Schools Superintendent Melody Sheppard indicated a school board desire to be able to at least fund completion of the A.S. Rhodes Elementary School renovations to get the job done while contractors were still on site, which in the long run would be a money saver, she told the supervisors.

And speaking of COVID-19 consequences, the board got an update from Deputy County Emergency Services Director Rick Farrall on the planned reopening of county buildings and departments as part of the governor’s reopening plans tied to Executive Order 61 – see related story.

And see all of these discussions in the video recording of the supervisors’ May 12 virtual work session: (Video by Dewaye Coats, courtesy of Warren County)