A federal bankruptcy court judge Tuesday set a new deadline— Oct. 1— for completion of the contract transferring ownership of the Avtex Fibers Superfund site in Front Royal to the local Economic Development Authority.

The judge also set Nov. 23 as the date on which he is expected to approve the plan calling for ownership of the 440-acre site to be transferred.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night delayed action on the contract for the land until it meets Monday night with the Town Council. The council is scheduled to vote then as well.

Local officials who attended the bankruptcy court hearing in Reading, Pa., on Tuesday said issues between the parties involved in the land transfer were resolved in negotiations prior to the hearing and the transaction will be completed by the end of this year.

"Today was a complete success," Stephen A. Heavener, executive director of the Economic Development Authority, said. "By Dec.1, everything should be signed, sealed and delivered."

Several legal documents, including the real estate contract shifting ownership of the land to the authority, were to have been completed prior to Tuesday, under an order issued earlier by the bankruptcy judge. But last Friday, local officials said those documents wouldn’t be ready on time.

Among the last-minute snags were whether the county would have to pay for a portion of the 10-acre parking lot on Kendrick Lane across from the former rayon plant. County officials plan to use part of that land for a school maintenance facility.

Heavener said that was a "nonissue." The county will have to pay for the land if it uses it for the school facility, but not until eight years from now, he said.

Board of Supervisors Chairman James L. McManaway said Monday that he was concerned about that issue because the county has little cash to pay for the land.

On Tuesday, he said he was "not pleased" that the final version of the real estate contract will include that payment provision, but will vote for it anyway.

The contract calls for the land ownership to be in the hands of the authority. In exchange, the county and town are forgiving about $1.2 million in back taxes owned on the property.

"We’re giving them over $1 million in tax relief and the having to buy back land from them," McManaway said. "And we didn’t dirty it up to begin with."

But the tax money is mostly revenue the town and county would never see and "this has to be done for the good of the community," he said. "We can’t just have that land sit there. It has to be reclaimed."

The authority has created a plan for redevelopment of the site, as portions are deemed clean, including commercial office, light industrial, hotel-conference center and recreational uses.

About 46 acres, including the parking lot, the front office building that faces Kendrick Lane and about 35 acres at Ed Stump Park are expected to be available for immediate redevelopment.

The contract also includes a repayment formula in which the FMC Corp., Environmental Protection Agency, the site’s bankruptcy trustee and the authority will each share in money received from sale of portions of the site. That formula will exclude money the authority has spent in building infrastructure to prepare the land for redevelopment.

County Attorney Douglas W. Napier said the federal judge wasn’t upset that documents weren’t completed in time for Tuesday’s hearing.

"We asked for a little more time to get everything set up" and the fudge agreed, he said.

Heavener said the judge was told that "all parties have gotten together and agreed. Ninety-nine percent of the deal has been structured."

The Avtex Fibers plant, which opened in 1940, was added to the federal Superfund list in 1989 and voluntarily closed in October 1989 after more that 2,000 violations of environmental laws.

The company shortly thereafter sought bankruptcy protection.

FMC Corp., is a former owner of the site and, under the Superfund law, is responsible for part of the costs of the cleanup. Earlier this summer, it was announced that FMC will Spend up to $63 million for the remaining cleanup of the site. The company will be reimbursed about a third of that amount by federal agencies under the provisions of an earlier court order.