Article date: November 24, 2001

Organization promised to build on Avtex site two years ago

By Mary Jordan

Tired of waiting for the U.S. Soccer Foundation to build athletic fields at the Avtex Superfund site, as promised more than two years ago, county officials will be meeting with the group next week to discuss how to move the project forward.

Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority Chairman Richard M. Novak said he hopes the meeting will be a positive one in which officials can discuss how the county can help the soccer foundation with the project.

"[We hope] to continue to find out when this project is gonna start," Novak said. "It’s been over two years and we’ve done everything we’ve been asked to do... and the community’s still waiting."

Many people in the community, especially those involved in the Front Royal-Warren County Youth Soccer League, have become frustrated with the project, which should have been completed by now, said County Administrator Doug Stanley.

"I know I get more comments on the soccer field than any other area of Avtex," Stanley said.

Novak added: "Soccer parents have been expecting a field for over a year now. It’s time to do what was promised."

Novak, Stanley and EDA Executive Director Stephen A. Heavener will be traveling to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to meet with the soccer foundation representative.

During the meeting, they hope to talk to the foundation about what the county can do to help the process, Stanely said.

"We need to see what we can do t get it moving," Stanley said.

U.S. Soccer Foundation Executive Director Herb Giobbi met with the EDA board in September, but was unable to fully satisfy questions of when the group plans to start working on the fields — leaving board members visibly frustrated.

Giobbi reassured the EDA that the soccer foundation is interested in the project. The group had been seeking a strategic partnership with the U.S. Army National Guard to perform construction of the fields at little or no cost to the community.

However, the war against terrorism might affect those plans, Giobbi has said.

"We’re not letting go, we think it’s a fascinating project," Giobbi said during the September meeting. "We still think this is a great project and would like to find ways to see it happen.

Since the soccer foundation offered to build the fields as a gift to Warren County, the county has little control over the process, Heavener has said.

"We don’t control the process, so we are really at their mercy," Heavener as said.

However, Heavener said he is sure that the soccer foundation is serious about the project.

" I think they’re committed to the project, but we don’t know how and when," he said at the September meeting. "Open and routine communication is very important to this project. We are all looking forward to construction and development."

Giobbi was unavailable to comment this week.