Town-County Liaison Committee Traverses Wide-Ranging Agenda

Thursday evening, July 20, at 6 p.m. at the Front Royal Town Hall 2nd floor conference room, the Front Royal-Warren County Liaison Committee held its quarterly meeting to discuss issues of mutual interest to the town and county governments. Representing the Town were Mayor Lori Cockrell and Vice-Mayor Wayne Sealock, along with Town Manager Joe Waltz. On the County side were board Chair Vicky Cook and Walt Mabe, as well as County Administrator Ed Daley. A number of other staffers, council, and supervisor members were on hand as observers who could offer comments when acknowledged by the committee chair, in this case, the mayor, with the Town hosting the meeting.

Highlighting the meeting was a discussion on:

– tourism promotional efforts, individually or jointly;

– logistics of a cooperative reopening the county-owned former Santmyers Youth Center to a new generation of the community’s youth;

– the installation of radar-calibrated cameras by the Front Royal Police Department, initially in four school zones in a move toward increased enforcement of public school zone speed limits, particularly during reduced, flashing light school opening and closing times. While the goal is to provide the most cost-efficient increased safety plan for the community’s school-age children, Supervisor Oates weighed in with opposition to the plan, which would prosecute violations as a civil matter with a typical $100 fine, $75 returned to the locality, due to what she termed “Constitutional issues” (1:51:05 video mark);

– updates on municipal Comprehensive Plan reviews and rewrites;

– an update on the status of WC EDA development of the Avtex Conservancy Park project inside the town limits;

– potential joint action on resetting deadline dates as a result of five years of delays in the mailing out of Real Estate and Personal Property Tax Bills;

– and an update on the status of the Saddlecrest residential rezoning application on the property of former councilman and supervisor Tom Sayre and his wife in Shenandoah Shores near the Shenandoah Shores Road/Happy Creek Road intersection, among other topics.

Leading off the discussion was a review of possible changes in the parameters of future liaison committee meetings. It appeared after some discussion that the consensus was

leaving things as they currently stand with the respective board chairs and a rotating second committee member, with other elected officials contributing to the discussion from the audience, as acknowledged by the chair.

See these discussions in the linked Town video. Below is the order in which the topics were addressed and which municipality brought the subjects to the liaison agenda, with approximate video starting marks of those discussions:

1) Revisions to the Liaison Committee Meeting Policy – Town (:22 video mark)

2) Delay of the Mailing of Real Estate and Personal Property Tax Bills the Last Five Years – Town (14:40)

3) Update on Tourism – Town (20:10)

4) Update on Saddlecrest Project – County (36:10)

5) Update on Comprehensive Plans – Town (52:40)

6) Citizen Appointment to the Front Royal/Warren County Joint Towing Advisory Board – Town (54:53)

7) Discussion of Revitalization of Raymond E. Santmyers Youth Center – Town (1:00:25)

8) School Zone Speeding and Enforcement – Town (1:32:00)

9) Update on Progress of the Avtex Conservancy – Town (2:00:55)

10) Update from Transportation Ad hoc Committee – Town (taken earlier out of turn)

11) Update on the McKay Springs Project – County (2:09:00)

The next liaison committee meeting will be Thursday, October 26, at 6 p.m., hosted by the County in the Warren County Government Center main meeting room.

Click here to watch the Front Royal-Warren County Liaison Committee.