Roger Bianchini

During board and staff reports, County Attorney Jason Ham traced a Planning Commission meeting on DATA Centers he recently attended, at which over 100 citizens spoke. He also addressed related variables poised to impact the supervisors' upcoming meeting, whatever date it is eventually set for. Below are the county website minutes of Ham's report, as well as Vice-Chairman Tony Carter's comments on technical issues related to holding the upcoming DATA Center board meeting in a High School auditorium.

This reporter sat down in a quiet, air-conditioned section of the Santmyers Student Union and Youth Center with several organizers from the Reaching Out Now organization to get background on the evolving nature of this community's annual pre-Back-to-School event.

This reporter had the good fortune of being assigned to photograph goings on at the Community Fun Day gathering at the Raymond E. Santmyers Student Union and Activity Center the late morning and early afternoon hours (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) of Saturday, August 8th. The event, conceived as a pre-back-to-school gathering for both students and associated adults, appeared to be a rousing success and a good time for all involved.

As planned, a 30-acre parcel with one building erected on it at the former Avtex Superfund site in Front Royal was auctioned off on Wednesday, August 12, to help settle an outstanding debt owed to First Bank & Trust. That debt was incurred by the County- and Town-overseen Economic Development Authority (EDA, FR-WC EDA) due to a $10-million bank loan to the EDA to help facilitate the unrealized ITFederal mega-development on the former Avtex Superfund site off Kendrick Lane in the Town of Front Royal. The loan occurred during the circa 2014 to 2018 run up to the FR-WC EDA “financial scandal”.

The application by Rushmark Properties for a rezoning to permit construction of a DATA Center in Warren County was withdrawn the week prior to its scheduled Public Hearing at the August 18th regular meeting of the Warren County Board of Supervisors. That Public Hearing was anticipated to lead to a vote of approval or denial and to draw a large crowd of concerned citizens to the meeting. That anticipated crowd led to the August 18th supervisors meeting being moved to the Warren County High School auditorium.

On Wednesday, August 19, the Front Royal Planning Commission convened a meeting followed by a work session. Both were held at Town Hall beginning at 6 p.m. Top meeting agenda Items included approval of a one-item Consent Agenda for a hearing on a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for a short-term rental proposal on an as-yet-undetermined September date. That permitting application was made by Tyler Reaves for a property located at 35 North Marshall Street on property zoned Residential District (R-1).

Royal Examiner was alerted to a communication between recently elected Warren County Republican Committee (WCRC) Chairman Scott Lloyd and a number of committee members, or people seeking to become committee members, in the lead-up to the recent WCRC Chairman's re-vote election. As readers will recall, Lloyd defeated Silek by a 562-to-441 margin of 121 votes. Silek had won the initial vote earlier in the year by a 225-206 margin. However, with finger-pointing over election improprieties by both sides in play, the Virginia 6th District Republican Committee ordered a revote, which occurred on August 5th.

At its regular meeting on September 1st, the Warren County Board of Supervisors faced a number of items related to its available budget assets or available grant funding that could reduce the county government's share of various expenditures. Included in those financial discussions under “New Business” were items:

The “Main Event” of the September 2nd Warren County School Board (WCSB) meeting in the main meeting room of the Warren County Government Center (WCGC) was an engineering report on the status of the E. Wilson Morrison (EWM) physical plant. Schools Superintendent Troy Wright referenced the matter during his opening remarks following the Community Participation segment early in the 6 p.m. meeting.

Published 59 seconds ago on Author's note: this commentary was written on Sept. 11 and 12, 2001, as events transpired.