July 02, 1999

The Northern Shenandoah Valley is due to receive almost $700,000 in federal grants to be divided between economic development and Civil War preservation programs,

Tenth District Rep. Frank R. Wolf said Thursday that the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority is about to get a $275,000 federal grant for asbestos removal at the Avtex Fibers Superfund site, while a House has panel approved $100,000 for the Shenandoah Valley battlefields commission. Congress approved the Avtex grant last year.

Authority Director Stephen A. Heavener said the authority has been "jumping through all the federal hoops" since then.

Most of the money will be used to determine how much asbestos is in the remaining buildings at the site and how to remove it. About 30 acres of buildings have been torn down by the Environmental Protection Agency, but the agency doesn't remove asbestos.

"We have to get an engineer in there to look at every square inch," Heavener said. "You can use up $200,000 in a heartbeat."

Some of the money, between $25,000 and $50,000, will be used to remove asbestos from the front building, which is expected to be the first building developed under an authority plan for the site.

The authority is seeking grants to aid in the Avtex development plan, which recommends demolishing most of the remaining buildings, Heavener said. This time the authority is seeking much larger amounts of money through Congress, he said.

Wolf said the money will help clean up the site, which was put on the Superfund list in 1986.

"This grant will be a step in the right direction to finally clean up this property and return it to productive use," he said.

Also Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a $6.88 million spending bill for Heritage Partnership, including funding for the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District Commission.

The commission is in the second year of a three-year effort to create a plan for preserving Civil War Battlefields in the Shenandoah Valley.

Wolf, an Appropriations Committee member, said the House bill includes $1.27 million more for heritage programs nationwide than in the current budget.

The commission, which was created under legislation sponsored by Wolf and Sen. John W. Warner will receive $400,000 for operations and staffing, which is what it received in fiscal 1999, Wolf said.

The commission's work is important for the region's economic health and for saving area battlefields, he said.

Tourism is a major economic engine" for the northern valley, creating jobs and preserving the area's rural beauty, "and it maintains those battlefields for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren,' Wolf said.

Many battlefields are threatened by development and "once you lose , you can never gain it back," he said.