Roger Bianchini

At its Special Meeting of September 22, at 4 p.m., the Warren County Board of Supervisors first interviewed two candidates, David Harrison and Amber Martin, in Closed Session to fill a vacancy on the WC Planning Commission. In the wake of those interviews back in Open Session, Harrison was appointed to fill that Fork District seat. Harrison was approved by a 3-2 vote on a motion by Fork District Supervisor Hugh Henry, seconded by Tony Carter. John Stanmeyer and Richard Jamieson cast dissenting votes with Chairman Cheryl Cullers casting the tiebreaking vote Harrison's way.

The evolving Criminal charges, along with related Civil case motions, arising from an October 2025 gun-wielding incident involving Bradley Treece and his adjacent neighbors on the 200 block of River Manor Drive in Front Royal will be heard in Warren County Circuit Court on October 23rd on the 9 a.m. docket. Treece, 60, was in Circuit Court with his attorney David Downes on Friday, September 25. His involved neighbors, a Jewish couple Matthew and Sue Ellen Stroud, were not required to be in court for Friday's motions hearing and did not appear to be.

This reporter used background research on the now-available early voting process to vote early on September 28th at 465 West 15th Street, Suite 800, Warren County Elections Office, and at the early voting site in the County Health and Human Services building complex. Some have called this year's midterm election the most important in the nation's history. Certainly don't want to miss the opportunity to express an opinion on such a crucial moment in the history of America, or take advantage of the opportunity to do so without standing in an election day line for an excessive amount of time on Tuesday, November 3rd.

At its regular meeting and work session on Tuesday, October 6, the Warren County Board of Supervisors received substantial staff, agency, and public feedback on a variety of operational topics. Those included during the meeting:

This reporter recently met with Front Royal Performing Arts Center (FRPAC) Board of Directors President Shae Parker and Vice-President Kate Gorecki to get an overview, including photos seen below, of the renovation status of the planned, multi-faceted Performing Arts Center on the 100 block of East Main Street at its intersection with Church Street. With construction ongoing, no firm date has been set for FRPAC's opening other than sometime between the Spring and Fall of 2027.

While we're still awaiting an official estimate on the number of visitors drawn by the Festival of Leaves 2026, a day-long viewing at the Gazebo-anchored Stage number 1 of 4 stage areas would seem to indicate a number in line with previous regional crowd estimates. Those estimates have been around 15,000. And while that seemed a little optimistically drawn to this reporter, after watching the crowd wander through the East Main and Chester Street, Gazebo Park-anchored area throughout the day into the early evening of October 10, 2026 — 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — perhaps such estimates are on the money.

At a motion hearing Wednesday afternoon, October 14th, in Warren County General District Court, Defense Counsel David Hensely and Special Prosecutor Heather Hovermale (Winchester Commonwealth's Attorney) reached a plea agreement in the Misdemeanor DUI (Driving Under the Influence) cases facing Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter. Carter pleaded no contest to an amended charge of Reckless Driving that could involve alcohol and was ruled guilty by Judge Michael Helm.

Unresolved questions on financial revenue impacts versus contractural costs led to a delay in a decision on a Warren County/EagleView partnership on use of remote aerial camera photos for property assesments on a variety of fronts. By a 4-1 vote, with Richard Jamieson dissenting, the supervisors reset a vote to revisit a proposed 3-year contractual partnership with EagleView/Pictometry International Corporation for the November 17th meeting. The contractor EagleView's mailing address was listed as 25 Methodist Hill Drive, Rochester, NY 14623.

Early in its regularly scheduled October 20 Open Meeting, the Warren County Board of Supervisors received two presentations on past and future matters with financial impacts on the county.

On the morning docket of Warren County Circuit Court on Friday, October 23, there was a detailed legal counsel debate over the parameters of existing legal precedents at the State level impacting upcoming trials or hearings in the cases filed against defendant Bradley Treece regarding gunfire and alleged threats and anti-Semitic comments he is accused of making to his neighbors Matthew and Suellen Stroud. After that debate, Warren County Circuit Court Judge Daryl Funk ruled that the trials would proceed as criminal, not civil, matters. That means Treece's request to depose the Strouds ahead of trial was denied.