Town willing to form Creek project committee but will it allow time for it to function? FRPD construction loan and final 2020 live meeting authorized

What is so hard about applying for a permit extension to facilitate doing a crucial town landscaping, stormwater, and erosion control project right, as opposed to on schedule by the quickly approaching through the Christmas Holiday December 31st deadline? That seemed to be the primary question at issue in the wake of a Monday, December 7th Front Royal Town Council work session discussion with nine-organization “Save Happy Creek Coalition” principal David Means.

Council discusses what it has heard from Save Happy Creek Coalition spokesperson and landscaping professional David Means, at the podium. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video by Mark Williams

After two public hearing votes and a subsequent Resolution in support of authorization of finalizing an $8.483 million loan with United Bank to fund payment of the debt service on the new Front Royal Police Station, among three other Special Meeting agenda items taking a total of 15 minutes, the Front Royal Town Council adjourned to its five agenda item work session. Had there been public present in the limited confines of the Town Hall second-floor meeting room under Phase 3 COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic social distancing parameters, their interest would have been focused on the fourth of those items – the status of the Town’s plans for Happy Creek and its bank along a visually prominent 1300-foot stretch between the Prospect Street Bridge and South Street between Front Street and Commerce Avenue.

Replacing removed vegetation with rocks the length of the project is not a good idea, environmentalists and waterside landscaping professionals agree; below left of Mayor Tewalt, Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock worries that years of neglect of Happy Creek’s bank maintenance has forced council’s hand to do something soon – but doing the right thing is important, he agrees.

Means was one of two members of the public invited appearing in the Town Hall Special Meeting/Work Session space. The other, Ron Llewellyn, addressed council on his HEPTAD developmental group’s request for a one-year extension on submission of a development plan for its Swan Estates project, which was granted.

But back on the banks of the Happy Creek discussion, Vice-Mayor William Sealock asked his colleagues to grant Tree Steward and former Urban Forestry Advisory Council member and landscaping professional Means three minutes of work session time to address them and staff to elaborate on what the Save Happy Creek Coalition of nine concerned groups have an issue with on the Town’s permitted plan.

As has been reported, at issue is a plan the creek coalition’s professionals say flies in the face of 21st-century water bank management best practices emphasizing the importance of riparian buffer, or natural tree and other indigenous vegetation’s presence for bank stabilization and stormwater management flow.

The Town’s plan submitted by stormwater management and Inflow and Infiltration consultant CHA appears to turn that stretch of Happy Creek along this “Tree City USA’s” Shenandoah Greenway trail into apparent vegetation barren “riprap” rock quarry and stormwater rapid disbursement shute with negative flooding implications downstream, the creek coalition believes.

Above, another view of clearing work done in preparation of a total riprap or rock-strewn creek bank along both sides from Prospect St. to South St. Below, Lori Cockrell points to the type of larger, more expensive riprap rocks downstream near the pavilion close to Bob Mason Softball Field, which Means said would be more effective for stormwater control at certain sections of the creek between Prospect and South Streets.

Save Happy Creek Coalition organizational partners agreeing with this perception and its counterproductive impacts on Happy Creek, it’s riparian buffer, nearby neighborhoods and the community’s Shenandoah Trail and related tourism industry businesses include the Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, Beautification of Front Royal Committee, Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, Front Royal/Warren County Appalachian Trail Community, Front Royal/Warren County Tree Stewards, the Izaak Walton League, the Shenandoah Riverkeeper, Sustainability Matters and affiliated Garden Club of Warren County.

As previously reported by Royal Examiner, state officials have indicated that if all involved parties agree to file for a permit extension it would be granted, allowing the existing plan to be re-evaluated and its deadline extended past the end of December. Means explained that rather than any major changes to the permitting, what needs time and review is the thought process and effectiveness of the plan’s specifics.

“I’m not expecting to change that plan,” Means said in response to new Town Manager Steven Hick’s observations on what he was hearing on his first day on the job, adding, “I want to make sure that we have the thought process in mind because you will do that three miles more, and that’s a lot of distance. Some of its county property but boy, just by doing this one little section, it’s critical because of the effect downtown. We’re going to lose control – that’s what I’m worried about.”

“I think we can do it,” Hicks had commented of completing the project in a timely manner, noting he needed to be “brought up to speed” on all the involved variables as to permitting, specifics and sequencing of the necessary planning and work.

New Town Manager Steven Hicks, left, is introduced to Front Royal Town Council dynamics on the first day of the job work session. Councilwoman Cockrell explains riprap rock photos she took of past creek-side work further downstream after David Means, standing, pointed to such larger rocks as better-suited for portions of the Prospect-South Street section of planned work.

What Hicks was hearing was a council, several members of whom seemed very receptive to the critical input of landscaping and environmental professionals who have cited a permitted plan that appears to allow the replacement of most, if not all vegetation along what could become an ironically named segment of the Shenandoah Greenway Trail; and others more preoccupied with potential cost variables – more money for bigger rocks, less money for fewer rocks – or seeing the apparently misguided project completed on schedule.

Discussion led to the idea of forming a town official-citizen-coalition committee to further explore the creek situation. However, whether that committee’s creation would come with or without a permit extension application wasn’t clear. Though the formation of a committee without adding the time necessary – beyond a December 31 project deadline – for it to form and have any impact on the project would seem a futile endeavor.

As for the special meeting actions, as stated above, three – two public hearings and approval of a supporting resolution – revolved around finalizing assumption of the United Bank loan to pay off the FRPD construction project debt service in the amount of $8.483 million ($8,483,001.15 to be exact). The several-week delay in finalizing the terms of the loan added a question on where November’s interest payment over the negotiation period including November and December, would be placed.

Council finally approved the assumption of its police department headquarters debt service to the tune of $8.4 million of the thus far generated $8.8 million costs.

Responding to a question – should we continue calling him Interim Town Manager or Town Manager Transition Team leader? – Matt Tederick said that the Town had not been assessed with November’s interest as monthly payments transitioned from interest-only about $21,000 to principal and interest payment of just over $50,000 per month as the EDA and Warren County stopped covering the debt service previously held by the EDA.

But hey, what’s another thirty-thousand dollars thrown into the mix of the $400,000 in the interest the EDA has already paid on the project it believes the Town is also responsible for reimbursing it for?

The work session concluded with a discussion of how council should proceed with meetings in the wake of Phase 3 COVID-19 pandemic impacts. Valley Health employee and Councilman Jacob Meza described “higher case counts – much worse than it was in March” in pushing toward more virtual meetings.

Councilman Meza, also a Valley Health employee, worried over spiking COVID-19 numbers in the Lord Fairfax Health District in the northern Shenandoah Valley, which he pointed out are now worse than the March-April numbers during the first pandemic spike.

Mayor Tewalt suggested having the second December and final council meeting of the year, in the larger Warren County Government Center meeting room as had been occurring prior to Monday, and as the county board continues to meet with social distancing guidelines in place for staff and the public. Then as the year turns and more information on the pandemic and vaccine distribution becomes available, decide on a future course for 2021 after the newly elected council and mayor are seated in January.

“I don’t want those public hearings canceled,” Mayor Tewalt said.

Councilman Holloway, who will replace Tewalt as mayor in January, said moving toward virtual meetings immediately wouldn’t cancel the public hearings. Of course, it would limit direct public input to council. Councilwoman Lori Cockrell wondered whether utilizing the larger WCGC room with social distancing restrictions in place would provide a safe middle ground.

A final consensus seemed to be to follow Tewalt and Cockrell’s notion of a final live meeting of 2020 at the WCGC, with the public or staff overflow, kept out of the main meeting room until it was their turn to speak to a specific agenda item.

See all these meeting and work session discussions, and meet new Front Royal Town Manager Steven Hicks, in this Royal Examiner video: