The Northern Virginia Daily

Article Date: October 23, 2004

 Panel eyeing Roanoke firm to develop Avtex site

 By William C. Flook

 A Roanoke-based architectural firm will most likely be selected to develop the 240-acre conservancy park at the Avtex Superfund site.

The Avtex Redevelopment Advisory Committee announced plans this week to forward a recommendation for Hayes, Seay, Mattern and Mattern to plan and create a park on the site of the once highly toxic rayon plant.

The decision to select HSMM over two other competing firms was based on size, expertise, and its dedicated fund-raiser who could potentially secure state and federal money for the project, according to committee member Scott Dueweke.

He said the committee will send this recommendation to the Warren County Board of Supervisors at its Nov. 8 session.

“We decided we felt best having somebody capable of dealing with whatever was thrown at them period,” he said.

The Avtex redevelopment Committee was founded in 2002 to stimulate community involvement in the project and make recommendations to governing bodies.

“We’re an advisory committee, we have no teeth,” Dueweke said.

Further cleanup and demolition is still needed, however, to fully remove the pollution from the 440-acre site, which is also slated to include a business park and soccer complex.

“We still got work to do,” said John LaBarca, board chairman for the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority.  “We’re moving from studying and dealing with recovery of the Avtex site to planning and development.”

The conservancy park, he said, will be primarily used for nature walks, and will be mostly devoid of buildings.  Though HSMM has not been officially contracted to do the work, LaBarca said it will most likely be selected – baring unforseen circumstances.

“They’re experts at it,” he said.  “And the folks that we have in our committee were impressed with their capabilities.”

It could be years, however, before remediation work is finished on the Avtex site.  As FMC, the only non-defunct company to own the plant, completes work on the area, it must be inspected and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

FMC site manager Doug Bement said last week the company is about halfway through its cleanup work.

The U.S. House and Senate recently authorized funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to complete demolition of the power plant, the only major building still standing after most of the structures were torn down by the EPA since 1997.