The Warren Sentinel

Article date: June 23, 2005

Local residents ponder Avtex’s past, Royal Phoenix’s future

 By: Roger Bianchini

The May 14 Royal Phoenix/Avtex Open House was noteworthy for more than announcements of demolition dates and future potentials for the site.

It also served as a moment of reflection for residents of Front Royal and Warren County about a shared past and hope for the future.

“The mark of a community’s character is how it handles adversity,” Mayor James Eastham said.  “After having its largest employer and tax payer closed down and turned into a Superfund site, our town, our community could have thrown in the towel.  Instead, it rolled up its sleeves.”

“For nearly 50 years this plant played a significant role in this community and in the lives of the people who lived here,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Carter added.  “But in June 1986 , with the site being placed on the national priorities list of Superfund sites, the twilight was starting to fade.  And in 1989 the sun finally set on this site and night fell on our area.”

Carter traced the initial delays and disappointments through the early and mid 1990s at the site. But he noted efforts of individuals like Fred Foster “who made reclaiming this site a second career” and former FMC site manager Doug Bement for his cooperative efforts in getting the much delayed SoccerPlex project moving.

“The events of the past few months have breathed new life into the redevelopment project,” Carter said, “ and after much time, effort and money we are beginning to see the first rays of hope as a new dawn approaches for this site.”

Politicians weren’t the only locals to reflect on what the Royal Phoenix Open House symbolized for the community.

Retired Front Royal dentist Ray Collins recalled his days as a local high school student doing summer work at American Viscose.

“In my junior year of high school we had World War II break out and they needed anybody they could get to work – there was nobody around.  So, I came out and volunteered to work and worked there in the conning room carrying yarn,” Collins said.

“Then the second summer they had a man here doing some repair on machinery and they put me in there helping these guys with Rust Engineering.  So, I worked here two summers and then went into the [U. S. Army] Air Corps.

“I didn’t have any idea they were poisoning the area like they were,” Collins said of the eventual environmental legacy of the plant.  “I knew every once in a while the fish there in the river would die but I didn’t know it was as bad as it was.  I thought every once in awhile they’d squirt something in the water and the fish would die, then they’d monitor it and they’d get it fixed but,  hell, they poisoned the land here and the river and something had to be done.”

Following their presentation of special recognitions to both Town councilman Fred Foster and EDA board member Bill Barnett, two local students several generations behind Dr. Collins, Warren County Junior High ninth and 10^th graders Meaghan Augugliaro and Luke Dreschler, added their perspective.

“I think it’s a great thing they’re doing here.  There’s not much room in Front Royal or many places dedicated to children and I think what they are doing will help keep the younger kids out of trouble by giving them something to do.” Augugliaro said.  “ I haven’t been in Front Royal long but I know they love their children and this is a great thing to plan the site in ways to help kids.”

“Like they were saying [here today] the younger generation is going to be the one looking to utilize this for the future of Warren County so that it can be a good asset for the future,” Dreschler said of the impetus to involve the community’s youth in future redevelopment plans.

Another WCHS 10^th grader, Phillip Chadwell, said he was on a fact-finding mission and he liked what he found.

Chadwell said he interests run toward science and physics and FMC geologist and Site Manager John Torrence noted the various scientific degrees represented on site by his company and others involved in the site’s remediation.

“It seems like there is a lot of opportunity up here.  I don’t know a whole lot about it, which is why I came up here today,” Chadwell said following his conversation with Torrence.  “ So hopefully I’ll learn more as things proceed, but it seems as though there is a lot of work I could get involved in up here.”