October 07, 1998

County had sought $5 million, but glad to get something

Congress included in a bill passed Tuesday a $275,000 grant to help pay for Warren County’s planned removal of dilapidated buildings at the Avtex Superfund site.

The county has sought a $5 million Community Development Bloc grant to cover the estimated cost of tearing down several buildings the U.S. environmental Protection Agency doesn’t plan to demolish.

County Supervisor Matthew L. Tederick said the news of the grant was "fantastic."

" My first step will be to contact the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority and the Redevelopment Commission and find out how they believe the money should be spent," he said.

The agency has torn down about 30 acres of buildings at the former rayon plant, but several other buildings will be left intact. The buildings left contain asbestos and lead, but the agency doesn’t deal with contamination with those materials.

A recent study about how to develop the site recommends tearing down the remaining buildings because they are in such poor condition.

The Congressional grant was included in the appropriations bill for the Veteran Administration, Housing and Urban Development and independent agencies.

Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, requested that the county grant be included.

Those bills had earlier passed the House and Senate and were in conference committed when county officials wrote to Wolf seeking his help.

Wolf the wrote to Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-calif., chairman of the house Appropriations Committee, asking that the grant be included in the conference committee’s final version of the bill.

"I am pleased that the Congress decided to fund this important project," Wolf said. "This block grant will be one more step in the process of finally cleaning up this property and returning it to productive use."

Although the $275,000 in the final bill was far less that the $5 million sought by the county, Wolf said it was about average for the grants included in the bill.

He said he was reluctant to predict whether additional grant funds will be approved in the future, but the conferee’s willingness to approve the county’s eleventh-hour request was a good sign.

"That’s an indication that they’re open to it," he said. "It’s an important, important signal that the federal government cares."

The county can seek other federal or state grants to help pay for the project, he said.