June 29, 1999

County will pay $50,000, forgive back taxes

Warren County officials have agreed to pay $50,000 and forgive about $1 million in back taxes for a portion of the former Avtex Fibers plant in Front Royal.

The sale is contingent on confirmation that the land isn’t contaminated and the approval of the federal bankruptcy court.

The county has been negotiating with Anthony h. Murray Jr., the trustee for Avtex Fibers Inc., for several months to buy portions of the property, both inside and outside the plant’s old fence line.

"We decided to put $50,000 in the package," Board of Supervisors Chairman James L. McManaway said. "The bankruptcy trustee needs cash."

The county is considering buying three pieces of the property: Ed Stump Park, two grassy parcels surrounding the main gate off Kendrick Lane and the parking lot across the street.

Town officials also will forgive about $153,000 in back taxes as part of the transaction.

Officials have said they are willing to forgive the back taxes--money the town and county would most likely never have received anyway—- if an equivalent amount were to be subtracted from the purchase price.

Forgiving the taxes should also speed redevelopment of the land by removing some of the liens on the federal Superfund site. The trustee has been trying to sell pieces of the property but cannon do so because of the tax liens.

Because it’s unclear how long it will take to complete the sale, officials said they have no plans for the property other that to reserve Ed Stump Park for recreation activities.

"It could be next week or it could be next year," North River District Supervisor Bradley K. "Brett" Haynes Jr. said. "It offers a great deal of opportunity in the future, but that’s just what it is, the future."

The supervisors hired Triad Engineering Inc. of Winchester to determine whether any of the three sections of the property they are looking at are contaminated. The study should be finished next month.

"We need to find out whether there are any problems with contamination or the substructure of the property," Haynes said.

If the deal goes through, it won’t be the first time a piece of the Avtex property has been sold. In October, Stephen B. Ryan bought five acres of the former Avtex plant, the first sale of land in a Superfund site in the nation.

The parcel Ryan bought and the areas the county is trying to buy are part of about 40 acres the community has been trying to untangle from the Avtex property since it was declared a Superfund site in 1986.

The Avtex property has sat unused since November 1989, when the rayon

manufacturer voluntarily closed its doors after being cited for more that 2,000 violations of environmental laws.