Avtex group moves forward

Committee to redevelop site may be formed

 By: Mary Jordan

 The Avtex Multi-Stakeholders Group, in an effort to move forward with plans to redevelop the Front Royal Superfund site, may form a committee to oversee the process.

The group, attempting to focus on local leadership and community participation, wants to make sure plans are moving forward.  The advisory committee, which would also determine the community’s priorities on the project, may be just a way to do that.

However, some group members discussed their discontent Thursday in not getting this accomplished in prior meetings.

“We need to stop having generic meetings,” said EDA Executive Director Stephen Heavener.

Stakeholder Trace Noel agreed.

“We keep repeating,” he said.

County Administrator Douglas Stanley said he things the group has lost stakeholders in the past because it was dealing with the same issues and not moving ahead.

The group— made up of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, and Warren County Parks and Recreation, as well as local government officials and town and county residents — decided that forming an advisory committee could help progress the project.

Stakeholder Stan Brooks suggested that Stanley and Front Royal Town Manager Richard A. Anzolut Jr. appoint a committee.

“I really trust these administrators to design and construct (a committee) ,” Brooks said.

EDA Chairman Richard Novak concurred that a committee could help figure out these issues.

“Everybody is at the table with their own interests,” Noel said.  “There’s nobody acting as a leadership role for this group.”

Heavener, however reminded the group that any committee that is formed needs to look beyond aspects of the project that are already taken care of, such as the cleanup, administration building and demolition work.

The soccer fields, conservancy park and road construction should be the focus at this point, he added.

“There is not master plan on the site,” Heavener said.

The group agreed Stanley and Anzolut should put together a committee after which point it would report back to the stakeholders.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Site Manager Doug Bement gave an overview of the schedule and target milestones of the project, which is slated to be completed in 2006.