The Warren Sentinel

Article date: February 17, 2005

 Town and Avtex road issues may converge

 Town’s connector road proposed through Avtex site

 By: Roger Bianchini

 Timetables and the route of a long-discussed north-south connector road through Front Royal were among topics discussed by the Avtex Redevelopment Advisory Committee (ARAC) on Feb. 9.

Concerns were raised about what standards the Environmental Protection Agency would place on clearing land for use in the proposed 160-acre business park.  Those concerns surfaced during discussion of a proposed road through the center of the business park that could replace the long proposed route of a north-south connecter road, originally planned to run along the border between the Avtex site and Randolph Macon Academy.

Front Royal Councilman Fred Foster, along with several other ARAC members, expressed concern that considering an Avtex through road as also serving the function of a connector road could further delay the project.

However, EPA Project Manager Bonnie Gross said her agency would work with local government to facilitate any specific plans in a timely manner.

“Once the town and county agree on how they want to proceed, we can work with you to make it happen.” Gross told the committee.  But she also said the EPA faces timeframe restrictions itself “ because we can’t go in and finish sub-grade removal and sub-surface sampling and sewer removal in that area until the buildings come down and the debris is processed.”

Doug Bement, the cleanup site manager for FMC, said all site schedules are affected by the timetable of demolition work being carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“We have to follow what the Corps does,” Bement said.

Foster said the demolition of the last major structure in the business park area, the huge power plant, has already been pushed back from spring to fall of 2005 by the Corps, and he worried over further delays.

Bement told the committee he still anticipates 95 percent of the site work at the business park will be completed within three years as projected.

However, Foster, who said he has been involved with the Avtex redevelopment project for 17 years, expressed skepticism over schedules controlled by federal agencies.

“I think we better be very realistic about this.  If they’re saying two to three years, you’d best plan on four to five... and it’s no fault of anybody’s, it’s just the way the system works.” Foster said.

Foster also said he fears the cost to the town for the connector road project will increase dramatically if delayed significantly, as has already happened to the Happy Creek Road project.

But Gross said as far as EPA in concerned, once the Corps of Engineers brings the power plant down and FMC completes the resultant cleanup, land will be released for use.

“‘Construction complete’ involves a lot of reports written at the end, review, public notice and a lot of other things.” Gross said..  “The ability to build a road says we’ve looked at this area, it’s been cleaned up, it’s safe for somebody to come in and build that road even while we haven’t said its construction complete.”

Gross added that “If we are at a place where we’ve done all the remediation work that needs to be done, we’ve seen the data and everybody’s comfortable and I’m comfortable that we can write a letter saying that EPA has no further interest in this area, go ahead and build a road– you can do that.”

Gross said EPA signed off in a similar manner two years ago on the land containing the Administration Building, which now houses the Economic Development Authority office and business rental spaces.

“We need to make sure [that] how that road is done makes sense to the development of that site,” EDA Executive Director Paul Carroll said.  Carroll asked permission to develop a proposal over two months for a road through the site and to present it to the town for feedback.

Mayor James Eastham said he views the discussion from two perspectives – first as a ARAC member considering the road proposal as an economic development tool, and second as Front Royal’s mayor seeking a workable timeframe to deal with town growth and traffic issues.