Trial run over – Front Royal brings community development in-house

After two years, council has decided it’s time to bring community development in house. Photo/Roger Bianchini

Apparently happy with the results – including acquisition of $700,000 in State grant funding for downtown revitalization to kick off the new year – on Monday, June 11, the Front Royal Town Council voted 4-0, 2 absent, to approve a Fiscal Year 2019 budget amendment funding creation of a Community Development Department.

Council initially approved the position of Community Development Director on an annual contractual basis two years ago and hired Felicia Hart to fill the position.  As first explained to council during work session discussion a week earlier, the new department will require no additional funding in the coming fiscal year.

That is because as the town finance staff agenda summary explains, “The Town currently has $87,396.96 that has been carried forward for Community Development.”  The requested budget adjustment funding community development as a town department next year is for $41,500.  That amount does not include the community development director’s position initially contracted at an annual salary of $40,000.

“The new departmental budget would be used to retain a graphic artist, create a newsletter to send to businesses, create additional brochures that would be geared toward businesses and other expenses associated with Community Development,” the finance department summarized of the new departmental budget.

Time for a facelift – things are looking up along Front Royal’s East Main Street, now with the added help of $700,000 in federal/state administered community development block grant funding. File Photos/Roger Bianchini

And as Hart prepares to transition to an in-house town department, she remains busy developing plans for use of the recently-acquired State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding of $700,000 announced by the governor’s office on January 5.  Last year the Town applied for a $1-million CDBG but fell one spot short of the 15 communities tapped for disbursement of $9-million announced on September 19.

But fortune smiled on Front Royal when on January 5 the office of Governor Terry McAuliffe announced the awarding of another $2,149,346 in CDBG funding to four more municipalities.  Front Royal was at the top of that list, along with the Town of Narrows ($699,346) and the Counties of Scott ($250,000) and Amherst ($500,000).

In a January 5 press release Governor McAuliffe addressed the 1982 federal genesis of the community development block grant funding and its positive impact on Virginia communities:

“This program has long been providing funding for projects that improve the quality of life for thousands of Virginians every year.  Through Community Development Block Grants, we are able to address needs across the Commonwealth including critical infrastructure, such as water and sewer service, as well as improve economic development opportunities, ensuring job creation in rural areas. I congratulate the four grantees and look forward to the success of these projects in Virginia.”

The positive movement on downtown Front Royal re-development from the private sector will now get a boost from the federal government, by way of state government administration.

The community development block grants require local matches totaling at or near a 50/50 split.  The projects cited in Front Royal’s original $1-million CDBG application included five of six focused on the Downtown Historic Business District:

• Façade improvements, $365,000 State/$350,000 Town;

The other five downtown projects cited physical improvements to publicly owned Town property, including:

• Physical improvements, public restrooms and drinking fountains, to the Town Gazebo area, $125,000 State/$26,180 Town;
• Multi-purpose Open Air Gathering Space, Gazebo area, $137,500 State/$114,500 Town;
• Sidewalk and streetlight upgrades on East Main Street, $25,000 State/$13,500 Town;
• Improvement to Jackson Street parking and side street and alley enhancements, $40,000 State/$16,500 Town.
• A sixth project, the Royal Shenandoah Greenway tied to the Criser Road Trail Link, was proposed at no cost to the State, with all $400,000 funded by the Town.

Hart told Royal Examiner on January 8 that the Towns’ Project Management Team for the grant will have to reappraise its priorities to determine how the $300,000 reduction in State funding will impact the original revitalization plan.

Yea, probably a pretty good call by council – bringing the Community Development position in house, with some additional staff and resources as completion of the physical revitalization projects the CDBG funding will enable faces a two-year deadline.

Plans for revitalization of the Village Commons area surrounding the Town Gazebo – a potential project cut due to reduced grant funding is the pavilion at top center of graphic. Town Planning Director Jeremy Camp called the pavilion a ‘large-ticket’ item cost-wise that might be a prime candidate to be deferred five or so years into the future. Courtesy Graphic/Town of Front Royal