Town/County Liaison Committee Meeting – April 18, 2019

The Town/County Liaison Committee meeting on April 18th was headed up by Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock.

Royal Examiner’s camera was there. A summary of the meeting follows below the video.

On the agenda was the following:

1) IT Federal-Main Street Project – Joe Waltz

• Recent Progress: All minor grading was completed, and the entire project site was top soiled, seeded and strawed. There were 47 of 57 bid items completed, approximately 90% complete overall. The surface asphalt/striping and the bio-retention unit are the only items left to complete.
• Royal Phoenix North Pump Station: The gravel access road from the end of Transcend Drive down to the pump station was completed. The recent heavy rains washed gullies across the road, so drainage may need to be improved under the road. The pumps were set in their final place on top of the wet well and they were plumbed in. The electrical subcontractor who is in charge of wiring in the pump station seems to be behind in applying for permits from the county. There were 17 of 21 bid items completed, approximately 80% complete overall. Remaining items include running electric lines from Main Street to the pump station, installing electrical controls, and getting the pump station certified for operation.

2) Route 522 Corridor Water Upgrade Project – Joe Waltz

• CHA has completed their PER to address the water reliability and upgrade along the 522 Corridor as part of the water contract with Dominion Resources. They evaluated four options in which Dominion Resources only approved the one design which included parallel water lines through the corridor. Total cost of the preferred option of a new parallel water line presented to the Town about a year ago is currently $5.5 million. The project will be funded by Dominion ($3.5 million) and the Town having to commit $2 million to the project. Dominion’s interest in seeing a backup waterline constructed is based on cooling needs for its massive electrical generating facility.
• To determine the precise status of the Town’s existing water lines in the north corridor and how the proposed new 12-inch waterline could be connected into the system, the Town has completed a hydraulics study model. Staff discussed the results of the hydraulic study with Town Council and it was decided the next step in the process is a feasibility study.
• The feasibility study will identify the best route and connection to the existing water network. The study will investigate constructability through VDOT, DEQ, VDH, Railroad, river crossing, and all other easement acquisitions. The feasibility study to be completed in late April with discussion with Town Council on May 6th to determine the next steps.

3) Crooked Run Water Request – Doug Stanley

• The Town has officially received the request from Warren County and the developer for water and sewer services for the development of Crooked Run West. They are currently proposing a combination of commercial and residential units which is a change in the Town’s comprehensive plan. They are requesting a change in the voluntary settle agreement in the Corridor to include the residential units in Crooked Run West. The agreement states only commercial water/sewer service for Crooked Run West.

4) Phase II & III Happy Creek Road Project Update – Joe Waltz

• VDOT has released all the previous remaining funds from Happy Creek Phase I and has been transferred to Phase II. Currently there is $1,316,594 in VDOT funding available for this project. The EDA has committed another $2,500,000 toward the project for a total project funding of $3,816,594. The new cost estimate with both phases included is $16.9 M. A potential 2026 start date.
• Town staff has submitted funding requests for Happy Creek Phase II and III through the smart scale funding but scored low and received no funding. The project will be submitted in the next revenue sharing program through VDOT.

5) Property Maintenance Code/Blighted and Derelict Structures in the Town – Joe Waltz

• To enforce the recently adopted Maintenance Code, the Town is required to 1) appoint a qualified Maintenance Code Official, and 2) appoint a Board of Maintenance Code Appeals. Both the Maintenance Code Official and Board of Maintenance Code members must meet certain qualification requirements. Direction from Town Council was to explore cost-effective (low cost) approaches to accomplish these prerequisites. Town Council input was also received to start the program small and focus primarily on complaints and derelict buildings.
• Maintenance Code Official – The Town staff has researched outsourcing options for staffing the Maintenance Code Official position. Options are very limited for this type of consulting work. The only business firm found within the region that provides these services is the Berkley Group (Bridgewater, VA). Town Staff met with the Town of Strasburg and with the Berkley Group created a draft proposal where the Town of Front Royal would employ the professional through the Berkley Group for 60% of the week (.6 FTE) and the Town of Strasburg would employ the professional for the remaining 40% (.4FTE). Unfortunately, the Town of Strasburg pulled out of the proposal due to budget limitations. Following this action by Strasburg, the Berkley Group made it known that the Town of Front Royal would need to employ the professional for 1 FTE for it to be cost feasible for them to offer the service. This would be a cost equivalent of $80,400 per year.
• Board of Maintenance Code Appeals – The Town staff met with the Warren County Board of Supervisors in a work session and discussed if it would be feasible for the Town to utilize the County’s Board of Building Code Appeals (BOBCA). Using the County’s Board of Building Code Appeals for the Town’s Maintenance Code would be more efficient in terms of time to establish and cost. During the Work Session with the Board of Supervisors, they wanted to get input from the members of their Board of Building Code Appeals on this request.

6) WWTP Septage Receiving Station Issues Update – Joe Waltz

• On April 30, 2018 the Town held a public information meeting with septage haulers to discuss issues with the new receiving station. Town and County staff heard from First Choice Septic about their issues with the facility. The following is a summary of the issues and solutions:
  • 1) Issue with truck pads and the drainage pipe – Hauler claims the pipe is too high causing drainage back to the truck and on haulers. The Town installed values on both units to eliminate the back flow of sewage on the operators.
  • 2) Pads are slippery – hand rails needed. The Town maintenance shop fabricated and installed hand rails.
  • 3) No bathrooms. The Town has no provisions or plans at this point on installing a restroom facility.
  • 4) No trash receptacles. The Town installed a small dumpster at site to handle any waste or trash.

7) Development Review Committee – Doug Stanley

• The Development Review Committee met on March 27, 2019.
• The Committee discussed projects in the County including:
  • Christendom College Chapel – preconstruction is beginning.
  • Existing lots for home construction on Catlett Mountain Road.
  • Proposed Crooked Run West development – PC public hearing on April 10th.
• The Committee also discussed Town projects including:
  • A potential daycare on South Commerce Avenue.
  • Ice Vendor business on South Royal Avenue.
  • Interior Alterations to A.S. Rhodes Elementary School.
  • Possible Sheetz gas station on Shenandoah Avenue.
• The Committee will meet again on April 24th, 2019

8) Building Inspections Software – Doug Stanley

• The EnerGov software system went live on November 14th, 2017. After the Warren/Front Royal Project Team compiled all of the required information to have the Customer Self Service (CSS) configured in a way to be presented in a “friendly” manner, it was found that keeping the necessary fields in place would in fact not provide the public a friendly experience. While the staff was given the CSS Test side to experience how the customer would see the system, staff found that leaving all of County’s required Back-Office information made this experience less than desirable. Staff specifically found that the required information was not something that made the system usable or pleasant for the user. The solution for this is available, but until the CSS Test environment was available, this fact was not known or contemplated.
• The solution for this involves creating a mirror of the County’s database for the CSS presence, but it is not as simple as a cut and paste scenario. Each page of the Back-Office needs to be manually recreated for the CSS presence. While County staff can and would be able to accomplish this task, it could take two to three times as long as having Tyler staff perform that function. Additionally, if they task the County’s in-house staff with this, the County would still incur additional costs from technical support. It could be as long as six to eight months for County staff to complete the work with their existing workload still needing to be addressed.
• The other option is to have Tyler perform this task, which would still take input from County staff, but it would be far less than the first option. Currently staff is waiting to have a dialogue with Tyler representatives to determine what their time frame would be and an approximate cost on implementing this service. Staff is currently attempting to schedule a call with the appropriate Tyler staff to get this information so that they can determine the best path forward. While staff knows that Tyler will have to schedule this into their existing workload, staff would not anticipate it being as long as it would for County staff to complete the task.

9) Warren County’s In-Town Projects – Doug Stanley

• Council had requested an update of the County’s in-town construction projects. The following is an update of current projects:
  • Ressie Jeffries Elementary School – Roof/Addition/Parking Lot Project/ Playground Project – Completed. In November, County staff installed two pieces of equipment associated with Phase III of the playground.
  • Health and Human Services Complex – The Board of Supervisors, at its meeting on April 3, 2018, awarded a contract to Juniper Construction for improvements to portions of the building to accommodate the Registrar’s Office and the Brighter Futures alternative school program. The contractor began work the week of June 4th. The school portion of the project was completed in November and the Registrar Office moved in on April 1, 2019. County staff is currently working with the contractor on the punch list.
  • Lions and Burrell Brooks Parks – Music Park Project – The County received a commitment from Lorraine Hultquist to donate funding to purchase music park components at both parks. The Lions Park equipment was installed in December. We hope to order and install the equipment at Burrell Brooks Park in spring 2019.
  • Marshall Property – In October the County announced the donation of 10.6436 acres of property from Tannis Warren and Patricia Bonner in the Happy Creek area of Warren County. This property is the site of the former Happy Creek Manor which was the home of James Markham Marshall, brother of the fourth United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. The County intends to eventually use the property for passive recreational uses (trails) and to work with the Warren Heritage Society to interpret the rich history of the site and the Marshall family, which made such a lasting impact on the country and the County. County staff have been working the past couple weeks to clean up the site including bush hogging and scrub tree clearance.

10) Joint Towing Board – Joe Waltz / Doug Stanley

• The Tow Board held a special meeting on Wednesday, February 6, 2019 and established the Tow List, effective through June 30, 2020, with the following businesses which submitted all necessary information, were up-to-date on taxes, and passed all inspections:
  • Keen’s Towing & Hauling, LLC
  • Midway Service Center, LLC
  • Nate & Son Wrecker Service
  • Shenandoah Towing, LLC
  • Tharpe’s Garage & Towing, Inc.
• The Tow Board held a regular meeting on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 where attention was brought to various complaints regarding alleged exorbitant costs for tow services. The Board has yet to receive any complaints directly, so it was encouraged for the tow representatives to urge citizens to file the complaint form, which is available online.
• The Tow Board is waiting to hear word from the County Attorney regarding two proposed amendments to the Warren County Code related to the towing ordinance.