Warren County Report 50 - Warren County Report Newspaper

Transcription

Independent Local News for Front Royal & Warren County, Virginia
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www.warrencountyreport.com
Warren County Report
Vol 1 Issue 4
Late Nov, 2006
Macaca happens!
Page 2
Mitchell jumps
to county Page 5
Valley threatened
Frank Wolf reacts to election
New Town Manager Garbage disposal as crime Town’s electrical mess Tattoos and you Redskins (ugh!) Front Royal Map Page 3
Page 7
Page 7
Page 5, 29
Page 8, 15
Page 11
Page 25
Centerfold
Page Warren County Report
Late Nov. 2006
A personal note from the publisher
When Ronald Reagan was questioned
about leaving the Democratic Party for the
Republicans, he famously said, “I didn’t
leave the Democrats, they left me.”
Twisting that phrase around best describes the sentiment I heard from many
Republicans in the weeks preceeding the
November 7th election. More than a dozen
people said something like this:
“Dan, I have always voted Republican
but we just can’t go on like this. There is no
plan to win the Iraq war--or at least none
that seems to be working. American’s are
dying. For what? To stabilize a country
that will immediately turn chaotic when
we leave? What will we have gained?
The entire world has turned against us
and President Bush stubbornly refuses to
change his strategy. The only thing we can
do is vote for the Democrats.”
And they did.
All presidents, from Lincoln on, have
suffered mid-term losses during war time.
And this year wasn’t as bad as some others have been for Bush’s predecessors.
But both parties have gotten better at
gerrymandering in the past century and
so fewer seats were vulnerable.
Americans are generally moderate.
The Democrats discovered this and nominated a number of centrists that had appeal
to both parties.
Ann Coulter, a very intelligent and
witty foaming-at-the-mouth right winger referred to Tennessee Democratic Senate
candidate Harold Ford, Jr. as “my favorite
Democrat.”
Democratic Senator-elect Jim Webb’s
history as a former Marine and Reagan
Navy Secretary certainly appealed to
moderate and conservative Virginians
who were disgusted with the president’s
handling of the war in Iraq but didn’t want
to vote for a John Murtha left-winger who
would pull us out tomorrow.
We have a mess to clean up - but we
want it done quickly.
The Democrats finally figured out how
to nationalize an election and how to win
one by moving to the center.
Whether they govern that way remains
to be seen.
I suspect that you will see some degree
of cooperation on both sides. Bush is worried about his legacy and the Democrats
want to keep and expand their legislative
majorities and hopefully win the White
House in 2008.
Endless investigations would be a
failure-oriented strategy. And they know
it. The American people demand that their
government solve the Iraq crisis and do so
quickly.
Let’s hope that they succeed.
In the meantime, I have some observations on three figures. One is a politician
who was narrowly defeated. Another is
a politician who won big. And the third
is a new and interesting figure here in our
town.
George Allen
George Allen was a popular state senator, congressman, governor , and United
States senator. A few months ago, he was
widely expected to clobber Jim Webb and
was considered a top-tier candidate for the
presidency.
My first indication that this election
was going to be close was when I did a
news story this past summer.
Allen had criticized Webb’s stand on
the war in Iraq. Webb responded by calling
Allen a “coward who sat out the Vietnam
War on a dude ranch in Nevada.”
Wow. Webb wasn’t going to be a
pushover.
Then the macacaw hit the fan. Allen
was videotaped referring to a Webb volunteer of Indian descent as a macacaw, or
monkey, and welcoming him to Virginia
and Virginia values.
Publicly picking on the only little
brown guy in a crowd of rural coal miners
doesn’t represent Virginia values. And,
ironically, the young volunteer was a UVA
student who was born in Virginia, unlike
Allen. He had a right to be insulted.
Some folks thought Allen was a racist
based on that incident combined with the
confederate flag lapel pin he once wore
and his infamous noose that used to hang
in his office.
“It was a lasso,” an aide said with a
straight face.
I can’t judge Allen’s inner-thoughts
about people of a different color. But I
can say that his behavior that day seemed
mean-spirited..
But Allen’s last-minute attack on Jim
Webb’s books was probably the biggest
mistake he made.
Jim Webb has some pretty gross scenes
in some of his war novels. But that doesn’t
mean that he supports the behavior of his
characters. An author of a fictional work
about Germany in World War II would
probably describe Nazi atrocities. Would
that mean that the author is a Nazi sympathizer?
The most controversial passage was a
graphic scene about a father and his young
son in a war-torn country.
Webb explained that this was a scene
he actually witnessed.
Certainly that isn’t something we
would expect to see in a Hallmark Theater
TV movie. But Jim Webb writes about
war and tragedy. And wars are messy and
horrible. And he is a good writer whose
works have been praised by the likes of
U.S. Senator John McCain, Braveheart
author Randall Wallace, and author Tom
Wolfe.
Allen was asked if he had read any of
the works he was attacking. He responded
that he didn’t have to read them to know
they were unsuitable.
Did George Allen wear his helmet
when he played football?
Book burning isn’t a Virginia value
either.
Frank Wolf
Michael Graham
This month I also met J. Michael Graham, who has left the world of righting
sinking corporate ships to come home to
Front Royal as Town Manager.
Michael Graham is a tall man with big
ideas.
Historically, he thinks, city and town
leaders across the country have fallen
victim to a “municipality” mind set and
haven’t been quick to adopt a businesstype approach to local government.
Listening to him on and off the record,
one cannot help but be impressed with his
ideas, insight, and enthusiasm for what is
probably the lowest paying job he has held
in recent memory.
But it isn’t about money. It’s about a
new challenge.
What fun it must be to return to your
home town as the top administrator and be
asked by the elected leaders to be an agent
of change and to apply his skills learned
throughout his career as a corporate turnaround expert.
Front Royal is facing big decisions
about how to handle the prospect of major
growth and is confronted with the threat
to Main Street by the arrival of big box
retail.
Perhaps this tall man with big ideas
will navigate us in the right direction.
Unlike George Allen, 10th district
Congressman Frank Wolf won, and by a
pretty wide margin.
Frank Wolf isn’t flashy or sexy. He
isn’t on Meet the Press once a month.
And he doesn’t seem to want to seek any
higher office.
But he is pretty well tuned into the lo- Dan McDermott
cal concerns of his district and is a pretty Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
serious thinker on national issues.
He is also really popular for his record
of frequent and effective constituent service.
Recently, Congressman Wolf authored
122 W 14th Street
Box 20
the provision that created the bi-partisan
Front Royal, VA 22630
James Baker Iraq Commission, which will
(540) 636-1014
hopefully offer a concrete solution to the current war in Iraq.
Publisher and
In typical Wolf style, he wasn’t all over
Editor-in-Chief:
the Sunday TV shows seeking national
Daniel P. McDermott
notoriety. He would rather talk about
[email protected]
traffic congestion in Northern Virginia,
the Shenandoah River, and other issues
Managing Editor and Reporter:
Roger Bianchini
of direct concern to his constituents .
(540) 636-7386
Frank Wolf does a good job. He likes
[email protected]
doing it and he will probably be our congressman for as long as he wishes to do
Advertising Sales Manager:
so.
Paula Conrow
It is exciting, as he told the Winchester
(540) 635-4835
Star, to watch 60 Minutes on Sunday,
[email protected]
see a problem, and be in a position to do
something about it.
www.warrencountyreport.com
Late Nov. 2006
Page “The Shenandoah Valley is
going to be a barren place”
Area legislators ponder pollution solutions
By ROGER BIANCHINI
Responding to remarks by 26th District State Senator Mark D. Obenshain
about the challenges of merging private
farming, industry and environmental
concerns into a cohesive whole from
which to approach environmental regulation, 18th District Congressman Clifford
L. “Clay” Athey Jr. expressed concern
about the future of his district and its environment.
“We are going to have a pretty critical
situation around here when you couple
these existing factors with land use patterns that tend to produce more and more
wells and more and more septic systems.
We are going to get into a situation where
one of these days what I think is one of
the most beautiful places in the world to
live – the Shenandoah Valley – is going
to be a barren place.”
Athey’s comment came near the conclusion of the annual General Assembly
Pre-Legislative Report sponsored by the
Warren County Chamber of Commerce.
And while Athey added that he agreed
with Obenshain that farmers, environmentalists and industry and state officials
had established more dialogue in seeking
common ground recently, he added that
much more needs to be accomplished to
Senator Mark Obenshain and Del. Clay
Athey recently addressed environmental
concerns. Courtesy photo.
head off an environmental disaster. “The
reality is that there is about 75 percent of
the pollution that is beyond our ability to
do anything about unless these particular
groups get together and start working together to solve the problem.”
Athey’s grim vision of the potential
end result of a continuation of environmentally unsound farming and industrial
practices, coupled with increasing residential wastewater pollution making its
way into the Shenandoah River and other
Virginia waterways was made as both the
state and environmentalists grapple to
find answers to why fish in both forks of
the Shenandoah, the Potomac and other
rivers throughout the state have become
increasingly susceptible to disease, mutation and mass kills in recent years.
Questioned following his and Obenshain’s public presentations, Athey said
he favored the state’s becoming more
proactive on environmental issues but
acknowledged the difficulty in achieving
a legislative consensus on the matter.
“Well, if it were left up to me we
would take the lead,” Athey said of regulatory efforts to control pollution in Virginia waterways. “The difficulty is there
are an awful lot of special interest groups
here that are going to have to get together and compromise to get a [legislative]
majority to move this issue forward. The
reality is, with agencies like the Farm
Bureau for example, which represents
the farming industry, they are resistant
to changes in the use of fertilizer along
streams, which are polluting the streams.
Additionally, industry is very nervous
around people who are interested in
conservation because they see every additional regulation to be something that
takes away from their profits. And a final
factor is allowing growth in ways that
make absolutely no sense from a conservation standpoint. Creating more septic
systems is wrong, what it does is contribute to the problem, not the solution.
“Now the bottom line is that we are
beginning to see in the Shenandoah Valley and specifically in the Shenandoah
River a degradation of our water sources
and eventually what that leads to is a
community water system that eventually
none of us will be able to drink from.
Pollution, Pg. 4
Ernest, a driver for Mohawk Trucking, lamented over
sideswiping an illegally parked tractor trailer on I-66,
saying “I don’t know how I kept that thing from turning
over. I just kept a hold of that wheel. One thing, they’ll
know I wasn’t asleep [at the wheel].”
WCR photos by Roger Bianchini
Pollution (from pg. 3)
“I am encouraged that over the last couple of years there has been some discussion among these different interest groups. But until these groups reach a consensus
you may have this delegate’s vote but its going to be difficult to get a majority in the
General Assembly to agree to move forward with controlling legislation,” Athey
concluded.
‘Little’ Washington stinks?
Responding to a question from Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter on the
roles of municipalities and the state on sweeping environmental issues like the
cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay and the state rivers and streams that comprise the
Bay’s headwaters, Obenshain pointed to a specific experience in his district to illustrate some of the obstacles to achieving a consensus on environmental issues.
“The Town of Washington in Rappahannock County has a septic field for that
town that was probably laid out when George Washington laid out [the plans for]
that town – it is in appalling shape. They had raw sewage running down drain systems behind some of those fantastic homes into some of those picturesque ponds in
that town.
“And I went to the state water control board this winter because the town wanted to build a sewage treatment plant, and they were going to spend an incredible
amount of money to build one of the nicest sewage treatment plants of any place in
Virginia. And they happen to have the luxury of being a pretty wealthy little town
with the resources to be able to do it. But there were people in that community
who were opposed to it and trying to stop them from doing it on the grounds that it
would discharge into the river. Well, let me tell you what – the water coming out of
that sewage treatment plant is so clean that a single cow standing in the river produces more pollution than that entire sewage treatment plant would – and we had
to fight to make sure that they were able to clean up that one little environmental
disaster.
“We’ve got great environmental challenges,” Obenshain continued, “but we’ve
got great determination on the part of farmers and on the part of the environmental
community to meet those challenges. I went to a Clean Water Forum a couple of
weeks ago and some of the trust that’s been built up between clean water advocates
and industry has been really exciting. They’ve realized that there are some common things they can work on together, and that agriculture and conservation are not
mutually exclusive.”
But who pays?
Obenshain noted that his 26th District is the number one Agricultural District
in Virginia. “Three of the top five Ag counties in Virginia are in my district – and
of course Warren County used to be one of the top five Ag counties in Virginia
– but agricultural is getting squeezed out,” Obenshain said of development trends
in some areas within his district.
Pointing to issues with poultry plant closings impacting smaller poultry farmers
in his district, Obenshain said that a measured give and take was necessary to reach
the kind of compromise that will allow progress at the state level.
“If you mandate that the farms in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia immediately implement best management practices – immediately fence off water ways
– and that’s a great goal and everybody’s in favor of it – but the average farmer
would have to spend $120,000 to comply with best management practices on his
farm. And if you talk to any of those farmers and they say, ‘Yea, I really want to,’
but if your annual gross profit is $50,000 – it doesn’t compute.
“And what’s going to happen if we’re not careful about figuring out how we’re
going to do this and how we’re going to do it an economically responsible manner
is we’re going to create economic burdens that farmers cannot bare. And what are
they going to do? We’re going to have hundreds of farmers going out of the market,” Obenshain said of the dilemma.
Virginians living, farming or working for industrial operations near Virginia’s
endangered waterways are left to wonder who, if anyone, will step to the plate with
the money, initiative and leadership to make a difference before Delegate Athey’s
dark vision of a barren future landscape comes to pass for the Shenandoah Valley
and other threatened landscapes throughout the Commonwealth.
Late Nov. 2006
Sales Staff Needed
Warren County Report is
looking for some talented advertising sales folks!
Full or part-time.
Please call Paula for information:
(540) 635-4835
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10
Late Nov. 2006
Page Town not looking for Front Royal’s revolving
mass citations on trash door keeps swinging
Changes will allow crews to deal
with the few serious offenders
By ROGER BIANCHINI
The town ordinance changes that will
criminalize some aspects of improper
trash disposal as defined by the town is
not designed to create a citation-wielding
trash Gestapo town officials say.
And while the changes anticipated to be
enacted in mid-November will allow every town citizen to be cited for Class 3
misdemeanors at the discretion of town
garbage men, it is rather a few habitual
and blatant offenders the new statutes are
designed to impact.
“We aren’t looking to overreact to problems, again we’re simply looking for the
ability to bring some people, who are habitual offenders into compliance,” town
Public Works Director Steve Burke explained of the proposal generated by his
department. “Right now all we can do is
simply say please stop and if you don’t,
we’ll ask you again. If council adopts the
fines associated with those infractions,
then we’ll be able to say please stop or
you will be fined.
“I do know that we’ve had frustration on
the part of both the citizenry and staff
that there was nothing more we could
do to bring people into compliance with
the rules that are currently in our code.
I don’t know that we’re creating a separate garbage police. Our crews act very
professionally and I don’t believe that
we would be tagging customers that truly
weren’t in compliance with the rules.
“Our customers are the citizens and we
are seeking to act in a professional manner to provide a service to our citizens as
best we can. And this is simply a mechanism that will allow our crews to pick up
refuse and recycling in a more efficient
manner. When there are stops we have
habitual problems with, it takes additional time just because of the amount of care
that needs to be taken where we know
there’s uncontainerized glass, where we
know there’s habitually a garbage can
where there are rats or large numbers of
flies due to loose refuse, or some other
impediment to our crews safely operating. And that’s additional time on the
route that takes away from us working to
our peak efficiency.”
As with trash collection, recycling aspects of the new ordinances are designed
to increase the efficiency of the process,
thus reducing costs to the town and its
citizens, Burke says. “The problem we’re
trying to correct is we have customers
who simply dump their loose recycling
materials into their garbage cans, all
commingled, which again affects the efficiency of our crews. We have four bins
in the truck we separate the materials
into and if it’s all commingled then we’re
having to spend five or 10 minutes going
through one stop to try and fish through
all those loose items.”
Burke says the goal for recycling is to
have separate bags for cans and plastic
bottles with papers layered or bagged
separately as well.
“We do recognize that there is a vagueness in the reference to the fines concerning recycling. We are going to refine that
to specify recycled materials in the recycled containers,” Burke explained.
Not recycling will not be a violation as
long as those items are bagged along
with the rest of the trash in the garbage
containers, he said. “If your not recycling that’s not a problem though we
would like to get a higher participation.
We’re not trying to dissuade you from
recycling.” Burke said, noting that recycling materials can be placed in any
container that is identifiable to crews as
separate from refuse. However, recycling
containers are available from the town at
a cost of $6, Burke added.
Of the coming holiday seasons’ impact
on refuse crews, Burke said, “If you
have a Christmas party and you’ve got
30 or 40 bottles and you had 30 or 40
cans that you used in preparation for the
party, that volume of material cuts down
on our efficiency if its just tossed in the
trash containers. We would ask that the
citizenry, after their party, maybe use a
separate container for their glass bottles
and a separate bag for the cans used in
the preparation for the party.”
Burke encouraged citizens to contact the
Public Works Department with any questions or issues related to the new policy
Trash offenders, Pg. 6
Blair Mitchell jumps ship to county
By ROGER BIANCHINI
You can’t tell your players – or their teams – without a program.
And while that’s been the case to some extent in recent months in county government, and for a couple of years at town hall, the situation became somewhat
more convoluted, and in a municipal sense – incestuous – the second week of
November.
On Nov. 9, one day after Front Royal Town Attorney Blair D. Mitchell turned
in his resignation to the mayor, Warren County announced Mitchell’s hiring as
county attorney, effective Jan. 8.
Mitchell’s unexpected move about four blocks across town is liable to raise
some eyebrows, as did his county predecessor, Doug Napier’s, Aug. 11 “effective
immediately” written resignation.
But while Napier left his employer of over a quarter century, some might say
like a skulking paramour in the night, Mitchell hand delivered his resignation to the
mayor and gave his employer of six years two months notice. Mitchell’s resignation is effective Jan. 7, the day prior to his start with the county.
It won’t be as if Mitchell is moving into uncharted legal waters. Since Napier’s
departure, at the county’s request Mitchell has sat in as the county’s legal representative at a variety of governmental meetings as his schedule allowed. Mitchell has
also represented the town’s interests in matters sometimes involving, or with the
potential to involve the county in either a partnership or adversarial role. Mitchell
sought to ease his current employer’s mind over any legal implications of his move
during a Nov. 9 interview.
“To assure anybody’s concerns, as an attorney I have spent 30 years training
and learning to categorize, separate different clients from each other and keep the
confidence of any client that I have. So, anything that has happened in the town in
privileged communications or in confidence is going stay within my head, it will
not be discussed or shared with the county,” Mitchell said.
Asked if staffing instability at town hall in recent years – including six town
managers (including three interim), two planning directors and a number of other
turnovers at departmental head positions – impacted his decision, Mitchell filibustered.
“I’ve been here for a little over six years and seen quite a few changes in the
town, obviously in the personnel. I’ve seen a lot of improvements in the town,
even here in my office as far as effectiveness in traffic enforcement, collections
of debt owed to the town, a lot of procedural things such as creating standardized
Mitchell, Pg. 6
Mitchell (from Pg. 5)
contracts, standardized deed forms and procedures for the workings of the town.
And I think the town as a whole has gotten more efficient.
“But I think it has come time for me to move on because – it’s a fresh opportunity and it’s also a chance for the town with its fairly new council and new manager, to hire a new, fresh attorney and begin the process of building a new future
for the town that they can all embrace and move forward with.”
Moving from the realm of the past to the future, Mitchell said his familiarity
with the county government and its personnel from his interaction with them as
town attorney should make his transition a smooth one.
“Over the six years I’ve been here in the town attorney’s office, I’ve gotten to
know the staff members, the board members, planning commission members, the
Constitutional Officers and various other personnel. And a lot of the same people
that are developers, customers, etc, of the town are [such] with the county as well.
So, I think it’ll be a fairly smooth transition going from the town to the county.”
Mitchell added that he looks forward to revisiting some county attorney roles
that differ from his town job. “I worked for 15 years in a county attorney’s office in
Stafford County before coming to the town. So, I’m very familiar with the county
processes and differences between county law and town law.” Mitchell added that
the move would allow him to revisit what he considers one of his legal strengths
– dealing with departments such as fire and rescue, parks and recreation and Constitutional Offices.
“I haven’t done that for the last six years, so I’m looking forward to getting
back into those sort of relationships that I have not had here in the town. I have
the utmost respect for county staff and I look forward to serving the people of the
county for years to come,” Mitchell concluded.
“We appreciate Blair’s years of service to the town, we wish him well and
we know he’ll do a good job for the county,” Mayor James M. Eastham said of
Mitchell’s move.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Traczyk said the county reached its
decision to offer Mitchell the job after interviewing three qualified candidates.
“The board felt very comfortable with his abilities, qualifications and demeanor. He has an excellent background in local government and his easygoing manner
should fit in extremely well in working with the board and county staff. We are
looking forward to working with Mr. Mitchell on the issues facing the county,”
Traczyk said in a prepared statement issued by the county.
A deteriorating relationship with the town over water service issues related to
growth decisions on both sides of the town-county line, will be among the interesting challenges the county and its new attorney will face as 2007 rolls around.
Late Nov. 2006
Split council abandons townwide scheduled collections
By ROGER BIANCHINI
By a 4-2 vote on Oct. 23, the Front
Royal Town Council approved a compromise of an earlier suggested compromise
on its recently abandoned large item and
large quantity spring and fall refuse collections.
Earlier this year the town abandoned
the scheduled fall and spring cleanups to
pare $40,000 from the 2007 budget in order to balance the new fiscal year budget.
Perhaps ironically, at the same Oct. 23
meeting council approved the addition of
$12.55 million to its 2007 budget, raising
the current fiscal year budget to $49.47
million.
While $10.49 million of the additional funding is for the planned expansion of
the town’s water plant, $2.06 million was
approved for a variety of other items.
The approved large-item collection
ordinance change, opposed by Eugene
Tewalt and Tom Sayre, will grant citizens one free on-call collection of such
items, with any subsequent collections
charged at $25 per collection, $40 if freon or other coolants are involved.
Following a lengthy debate earlier
this month, council seemed poised to
w
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Trash offenders (from Pg. 5)
as it is adopted. “We will reinforce to our crews that we are not trying to create a
difficult situation for our customers. We’ll probably have to go through a transition
period where we are training. And again, if a citizen receives a warning tag that
they feel is unwarranted, our phone number is on the tag and they are more than
welcome to contact Public Works at 635-7819 and we will work with them to see
that the program is working for both the customer and the town.”
re-institute one town-wide spring or fall
large-item collection. However, Director
of Public Works Steve Burke explained
that the town’s refuse collection supervisor felt the free on-call service would
place less time-management stress on his
staff.
Tewalt, a former town director of
public works, disagreed, saying he
thought the town was opening itself up
to the necessity of more manpower hours
being devoted to large item collection
from the potential of constantly fielding
calls for scattered, isolated pickups.
After hearing from two citizens who
termed proposed weekly trash collection ordinance changes “immature” and
“ridiculous,” the FR council tabled the
issue to a future work session. The proposed changes would criminalize violations of town trash collection guidelines
with fines up to $500. Citizens face fines
from $10 to $25 per day for ongoing violations such as loose items in containers,
putting cans out after 6:30 a.m. on collection days, having a trash can considered unsanitary, foul smelling and dirty,
putting out too much trash, disrespectful
treatment of garbage men and placement
of containers on the sidewalk, rather than
in the street (see related story, column).
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Late Nov. 2006
Page Corporate fix-it guy Wolf laments rise of
returns to Front Royal negative campaigning
Meet new town manager J. Michael Graham
Has track record of working
with new house leadership
10th District Republican Congressman
Frank Wolf was interviewed by Dan McDermott live on The News at Noon (95.3
FM & 1450 AM) on Wednesday, November 8. Note that at the time of the interview, the Virginia Senate race was still
up in the air and President Bush had not
yet announced the firing of Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
stays strong. The party that really helps
develop a consensus on how do we deal
with the issue of Iraq. The party that really wants to make sure that we’re able
to deal with this whole issue of terrorism,
Transcript by Roya Milotte
Dan McDermott: Congressman Wolf,
congratulations.
Congressman Wolf: Thank you very
much, I appreciate that.
J. Michael Graham was interviewed by
Dan McDermott live on The Valley Today (95.3 FM & 1450 AM at 12:30 pm.)
Transcript by Roya Milotte
Dan McDermott: I want to welcome
Michael Graham who is the new Town
Manager for Front Royal. Welcome, sir,
how are you doing?
Michael Graham: Doing good, thank
you. Thank you for inviting me.
Dan McDermott: My pleasure. You had
a reputation before you came as a corporate fix it guy. Tell me about Michael
Graham’s experience and what kind of
things you’ve done before?
Michael Graham: Well, actually I was
born in Front Royal, I don’t know whether a lot of people know that or not. I was
born and raised here and went to Warren
County High School, graduated, then
went to James Madison University and
then I think the day after I graduated I
left and now I’m back after 30 years.
Dan McDermott: We knew you’d come
crawling back...
Michael Graham: I’m kind of like a
salmon, I guess. It takes me 30 years to
come back home where you’re born, but
I’m real excited about the opportunity. I
think a lot of my skill set will tie right
into what the town’s trying to do. The
Town Council and the Mayor had kind
of challenged me a little bit, said they
were looking for a change agent. Not
that there was a lot wrong with Front
Royal, but they felt that in order to grow
to the future they needed some changes. Due to my experience and my job set that
when this opportunity came up I was approached and I found it very intriguing,
because I think a lot of municipalities
across the country are transitioning or
are changing the way that they do business to lean more toward business orientation then just a municipality. Dan McDermott: Okay. You said that
Council indicated they were looking for
an agent of change and Front Royal has
changed and is, I guess, at the cusp of a
huge change as the former status of Front
Royal being the frontier of growth from
the D. C. area, now it’s in it. Centex has
a proposal that was actually scaled down
to 1862 homes, I think. There’s still some
question as to whether that number’s going to be accurate as the housing market
has slowed.
Michael Graham: Sure.
Dan McDermott: Describe the situation
in Front Royal and what you see in 10
Graham, Pg. 22
Dan McDermott: I guess this is a bittersweet victory for you, because you lost a
lot of friends and colleagues on the Hill,
but you’re going back?
Congressman Wolf: Well, I did. There
are a number of people that are good
friends that will not be going back and
it is difficult, but I appreciate the support
of the people from the Shenandoah Valley and from the 10th District to give me
an opportunity to serve and hopefully we
can have more bipartisanship and bring
the country together on a lot of the tough
issues that this country’s facing.
U.S. Senator George Allen was defeated by
Democrat Jim Webb. Frank Wolf crushed
his opponent, Democrat Judy Feder, but
by a smaller margin than usual. WCR photo by Roger Bianchini
because as you know Al-Qaeda is still out
there. They have 4 - 6,000 websites that
are pretty much saying what they’re going to do if they get an opportunity. But
I think it’s important for the party to sort
of take this as a message if you will, and
it was a pretty bad climate based on the
whole Iraq war. If you know, I was the
author of the provision to set up the Iraq
Dan McDermott: This was predicted for study group which is made up of five Resome time, that there would be a victory publicans and five Democrats. Secretary
in the House and the Senate was close of State Jim Baker is the Republican coto call; still that’s not a done deal. The chairman and former Congressman Lee
Republicans lost everything in ’76 but Hamilton, head of the 9-11 commission,
they bounced back 4 years later with the is the Democratic co-chairman. But to
election of Ronald Reagan. In ’94 the look at what they’re recommendation’s
Democrats took a beating and really now going to be and try to develop a consen12 years later they’re bouncing back. sus in the country whereby the country
Do you think this will be a bump for the can be together.
Republicans or do you see that this is a
trend that’s going to be a little bit longer Dan McDermott: What do you thinks
going to happen in Iraq? I guess, the rethan that?
port that committee came up with was to
Congressman Wolf: Well, I hope it’s split it in three parts -just a bump. I think what the Republican Party should do is to come back Congressman Wolf: No, no, they have
and be the party of honesty. The party not made the recommendation. They purof integrity. The party of very aggres- posefully made a decision not to have a
sive and tough ethics. The party that reWolf, Pg. 18
ally is going to make sure the economy
Late Nov. 2006
Front Royal and electricity – no future for you?
Deregulation leads to industry-wide profit taking free for all
By ROGER BIANCHINI
It’s no secret – if you live in the Town
of Front Royal your electric bill is skyrocketing. For at least two years councilmen have been debating how best to
phase in what was initially forecast to
be a three-year, 70-percent rate increase
to electric customers. But whether it’s
phased in smaller increments during
election years is really of no consequence
– except to those running for office. The
end result is that the town needs to cover
its increased cost of providing power to
its citizens and eventually those consumers will have to foot the bill.
Since federal power deregulation in
the late 1990s, the town appears to have
been slow to appreciate pricing implications – though they were felt in other
states that deregulated sooner around the
nation. Consequently, Front Royal has
found itself in a reactive position, most
recently guessing wrong on the timing of
signing a new contract it now wants out
of and paying for consultants’ opinions
many town officials no longer seem to
trust (see related story).
While the Front Royal Town Council
may come under fire for past decisions
leading to a 20 to 30 percent higher purchase price on power for the town, the
bottom line is that Front Royal finds itself
by hook, crook or bad gamble in a tiny
minority of state municipalities being hit
with the worst consequences of power industry deregulation. Those 14 municipal
electricity providers have fallen through
the cracks of state efforts to halt rampant
price increases associated with multiple
charges for the purchase and delivery of
power in the wake of power industry deregulation.
So, while councilmen may be facing hard election year questions about
what information or misinformation was
used to reach past power provision decisions, that position is also part of a much
greater utility pricing iceberg – industry
deregulation.
Theory vs. Practice
Some localities like Front Royal have
been hit exceptionally hard during high
energy usage periods due to the way
transmission/congestion fees are imposed by transmission providers, in this
case the regional consortium PJM (Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland). Municipalities in the geographical area of major
transmission grid connections are being
hit with the bulk of transmission congestion fees, rather than the higher density
urban areas where much of the power going through those lines is being sent.
“We’ve got both a protest and a complaint, two different kinds of actions,
filed at the federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) challenging some
of the transmission rates that have been
The former Grayce Decker and her new husband Evan Benson relax after their
Oct. 28th wedding. The Bensons live in Front Royal and the reception was
held at the Front Royal Moose Lodge. WCR photo by Dan McDermott
imposed on us by the transmission owners,” Front Royal Town Attorney Blair
Mitchell explained. “In addition to Front
Royal – Chambersburg, Pa., Williamsport, Fairmont and Hagerstown, Md. and
Allegheny Power itself, have filed protests to FERC over the congestion line
charges we have all been hit with and we
are all seeking relief from these additional charges that have been imposed on us.
Our position is that the electricity coming
through the lines, even that which comes
through the Bedington-Black Oak Line
is not just serving our communities, it is
serving the entire East Coast. Therefore,
the entire East Coast, everybody who is
a customer that draws electricity from
that line should pay some portion of the
transmission congestion costs.”
That seems logical, but then so is the
premise that industry deregulation will
drive prices to consumers down through
increased marketplace competition.
However, Mitchell explains that a due
to a variety of state, regional and federal
factors, theory and reality have yet to
merge.
“It’s somewhat similar to telephone
deregulation from the 1970s and 1980s,
in that the federal government passed a
statute and then many states have also
adopted statutes that require the breaking
up of utilities. In the past a single utility could own a generating plant and the
big transmission lines to get to the localities, and then the small distribution lines
within a locality itself. They would own
everything from the beginning of the
process to your meters at your structure.
“Deregulation is now requiring that
generating plants be one entity, the [regional] transmission line owner be a different entity and the [local] distribution
line owner be a third entity. In doing that
it is putting all of them eventually into
free market competition with each other,
which theoretically can result in lower
prices for the customers – but that’s not
what’s happening.
“In practice it isn’t happening because different states are deregulating
at different rates. With the [old] regional
utility monopolies most, if not all states
have a utility commission – in Virginia
it’s the state corporation commission –
that regulates rates, that tells the utilities
in Virginia this is what you may charge,
you may not a charge a penny more than
this. So, regulation has kept the rates fair,
has kept them where they are competitive
and they are such that utilities such as
Dominion Power make profits, but they
don’t make exorbitant profits,” Mitchell
said of the old regulated system.
Initially, deregulation led to the stripping of federal and then state governmental oversight of pricing based on the
theory that increased competition within
the marketplace would self-regulate prices. Like the anticipated spring 2006 pricing decrease Front Royal had waited on
– it didn’t happen. In fact, the opposite
has occurred.
Legislative perspective
Questioned about the situation in
Virginia, State Senator Mark Obenshain
(R-26th) said rather than break up utility
monopolies, deregulation seems to have
created more of them in a vacuum of
governmental control. “We went in this
direction in the hopes that a competitive
marketplace was gong to be theoretically
better than a regulated monopoly. But
what we have gotten is not a competitive
marketplace. It looks like we’re headed
towards an unregulated monopoly and
that has tended to be very problematic
for consumers.”
Obenshain said he believes both the
judicial and legislative branches of state
government should have a role in seeing
that deregulation works for consumers as
it is designed to, rather than in practice
become a tool of additional industrial
monopolies free of any governmental
oversight.
“This is what happens when you have
an unregulated monopoly and I think everything is going to need to be on the
table. I think the legislature has a great
deal of responsibility and the ability to
make some significant changes in direction,” Obenshain said.
Obenshain agreed that smaller jurisdictions being hit with exorbitant transmission fees need some protections.
“Absolutely, and I think that’s part
of the deregulation debate in Virginia.
We have some looming deadlines with
deregulation and these types of charges
aren’t at the heart of [the discussion] but
they are part of it,” Obenshain said. “Deregulation in Virginia has not worked as
it was predicted to. We really have not
seen the competition develop that had
been predicted . . . and the new entities
Electricity, Pg. 9
Late Nov. 2006
Page Electricity (from Pg. 8)
are increasing prices at each level [of
service] and that is of significant concern.”
Mysterious future
Town Attorney Mitchell added that
the reality of deregulation has led to
confusion and consternation across
state and regional lines.
“Deregulation was designed to
make pricing more uniform throughout the entire country. Now, for customers in New England, New York,
the industrial Northeast, it’s a good
thing because in theory it will bring
their prices, among the highest in the
country, down. However, for customers in the Southeast – Virginia, the
Carolinas, into Florida, it’s going to be
a bad thing because we traditionally
have significantly lower rates than the
Northeast.
“As deregulation fully kicks in
rates in the Southeast are going to rise,
rates in the Northeast and Midwest,
theoretically, will fall. But who knows
– that may not even be the case,”
Mitchell adds. “Vice Mayor Darr and
I were at a Virginia Municipal League
conference and in one session they
talked about deregulation and what the
future holds and somebody from the
State Corporation Commission said
‘Frankly, we don’t know.’ ”
Is a plan to artificially stabilize
rates between regions justified and
why is there not better regional coordination between states in dealing
with the changes?
“I don’t know the logic behind it
and I certainly don’t know why Congress adopted it in the first place, I
only know that’s what’s happening,”
Mitchell replied of laws that began
changing in the late 1990s, first at the
federal, then at state levels.
“[The consequences have] been felt
ever since the federal law went into affect – there have been price increases
every time Front Royal, for instance,
has gone out to get a new contract.
You saw what happened in California
several years ago, so it hit them then
harder than it did us. But the period
of adjustment started when the federal
government passed the law and it will
continue – well, you tell me – when is
the period of adjustment going to end
with telephones?” Mitchell pondered
of the ongoing, decades-long implications of deregulation in that industry.
Sales Staff Needed
Warren County Report is looking for some talented advertising sales folks! Full or part-time.
Please call Paula for information:
(540) 635-4835
Bret W. Hrbek
Richard L. Mason
Investment Representative
Holly Hill Professional Center
986 John Marshall Hwy Suite C
(540) 635-6830
(540) 635-8229
Investment Representative
115 North Royal Avenue
Page 10
Late Nov. 2006
Crystal Ann Schuster and Ronald Austin Williamson, both of Front Royal,
were united in marriage on September 23, 2006, at Historic Fort Collier in Winchester , Virginia . The wedding was set in a Civil War-era style. The bride wore
a Southern Belle ball gown and the groom wore a Gentleman’s dress suit.
The bride is the daughter of Carl Farrell, Jr. or California , Maryland , and Alice Farrell of Great Mills, Maryland . The groom is the son of Donald and Elaine
Williamson of Front Royal, Virginia.
The bridesmaids were Jessica Megeath, daughter of the groom, and Rebecca Schuster, daughter of the bride. The bride was given away by her son, Jacob
Schuster. Best man for the groom was his son, Brandon Williamson.
Crystal is currently working on obtaining an Accounting degree from
Shenandoah University and Ronald is currently Chief of Police for the Town of
Front Royal.
The couple has plans for a postponed honeymoon sometime in the near
future.
They will reside in their home here in Front Royal.
Blue Ridge Educational Center
321 South Royal Ave.
Providing Assistance for:
* Home-schooled Students
* Public/Private School Students in Need of Tutoring
* Adults Seeking a Diploma or G. E. D.
Open all year
Grades 7-12
(540) 631-9503 * www.blueridgeeducation.org
SHOP RATES DIRECT BILLING INSURANCE REPLACEMENTS
Full Line of Rental
Cars and Trucks
OPEN 7 DAYS
A WEEK!
540-636-2090
348A COMMERCE AVE
FRONT ROYAL, VA
FAST FREE PICKUP, JUST A PHONE CALL AWAY!
CASH OR CREDIT CARD
VAN RENTALS MOVING TRUCKS
SERVING WARREN, SHENANDOAH,
PAGE AND FREDERICK COUNTIES
WINCHESTER LOCATION: 540-667-8304
15 PASSENGER VANS
· SHUTTLE BUSES
· CARGO VANS
· MINIVANS
New Winchester location: 110-7 Featherbed Ln
MOVING TRUCKS SUPPLIES BOXES LOCAL/ONE-WAY
Late Nov. 2006
Page 11
Tattoo You!
Body art has evolved into more
than just a rebel skin flick
Isabella the chiwauwa was a big hit at the
Warren Heritage Society’s 2006 Festival of
Leaves. She even went on a 7 hour bike
ride the weekend before!
Photo by Elke Kees
Cool and Selective Tattoo Parlor proprietor Luis Torres works on wife Donna’s leg art.
WCR photo by Roger Bianchini.
By ROGER BIANCHINI
The wearing of tattoos in American culture has come a long way from the days
of its identification with rogue, outside
elements of society. No longer the lone
province of bikers thumbing their skin
at the world, sailors and merchant mariners marking their travels and girlfriends
around the globe, or criminal gangs
members clandestinely identifying themselves to their peers, tattooing has become a statement about personal identity
and acceptance into social groups near
to, as well as far from the social mainstream.
At the Cool and Selective Tattoo and
Art Studio at 650 W. 11th Street in Front
Royal, 35-year-old shop owner Luis
Torres and fellow tattoo artist Michael
Walker, 20, ply a trade they were both
drawn to at an early age. Torres explains
that as he developed an interest in drawing and art as a young student in his native New York City, an early encounter
with tattooing created a fascination with
the human body as the artist’s canvass
that was never far from his mind.
“The first time I saw tattooing I was
eight, it was the actual old form where
they picked the skin, and I found that
very interesting,” Torres says. “So, from
there on out I kept studying and going
around and doing research on tattoo artists, machines and colors and all sorts of
things just to get ready for when I was 21
and I could make a career out of it.
At 21 Torres did his first tattoo and the
result sealed the deal. “That first tattoo
I did for someone was a half sleeve, it
goes from the elbow to the shoulder, and
after that when I saw I could do it, I knew
that was my passion, the form I wanted
to conquer and enjoy as an artist.”
Though removed by centuries, perhaps
modern body artists like Torres and
Walker have intuitively grasped what
another artist of some renown put into
words several hundred years ago – “And
who is so barbarous as not to understand
that the foot of a man is nobler than his
shoe, and his skin nobler than that of the
sheep with which he is clothed?” said
Michelangelo.
Tattoo, Pg. 24
Billy Clemens and the Pickers jam under
the Main Street gazebo during the 2006
Festival of Leaves.
WCR photo by Paula Conrow
The great clam caper of 2006! The Warren County Sheriff’s Office reports that on October 12, 2006 at approximately 12:07 a.m. Investigator Jason Poe observed a 2007
BMW in the east bound lane on I-66 speeding and running off the road. The driver of
the vehicle was Lin Bao, a 20 year old male from New York , NY . Passengers included
Lin Zhong, a 48 year old male, from New York , NY and Zhang Bao Zhu, a 48 year old
female, from Hickory, NC. Before Investigator Poe searched the vehicle, Lin Bao stated
he might have something illegal in the car. Upon searching the vehicle, Investigator
Poe discovered approximately 500 pound of clams. Sheriff McEathron advises that
the Virginia Marine Resources Commission Criminal Investigations Division located
in Newport News , VA and the Food and Drug Administration located in Norfolk , VA
assisted. The clams were confiscated and are currently being held as evidence. The
investigation continues and federal charges are pending. Sheriff courtesy photo.
The Linden Volunteer Fire Department got a 2007 F-450 ambulance with an Excellance
box. It was purchased with help from a federal grant. The Linden Volunteer Fire Department could always use money to help place this unit in service. Photo by Joe Woodall
Page 12
Late Nov. 2006
Front Royal Tourism Report
Folks from 44 states and 29 countries checked in last month!
Oct 2006
Oct 2005
From the U.S.A.  1,712 1,051
351 413
From other countries 
What prompted your visit?
AAA Travel Guides
2
Appalachian Trail
24
Bed & Breakfast 4
Bicycle Tour
2
Bill Bryson
1
Business Trip 7
Camping Directories
4
Dinosaur Land 6
Driving through 233
Festival of Leaves
17
Friends 45
Front Royal Visitors Guide
2
Geology
2
Genealogy
16
History/Civil War
71
Hog Tales Magazine
4
Jimbo’s Restaurant
4
Local Resident 12
Long Branch Balloon Festival
2
Luray Caverns 2
Previous Visit 23
Quilt Shop
2
Randolph Macon Acad. 2
RCI Condo Exchange
6
Regional Resident
68
Relatives
113
Relocating
17
Skyline Caverns 12
Skyline Drive/SNP
994
Uncertain or no reply
135
U. S. Marines Marathon 4
Vacation
185
Visiting 133
Wineries
16
Visitors entering Shenandoah
National Park in Front Royal
Sep 2006 36,348 Sep 2005

34,613
Visitors entering Shenandoah
River State Park in Bentonville
Sep 2006 10,908 Sep 2005

11,384
Australia
Austria Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile
China Denmark
England Ireland Scotland Wales Estonia Equador France Germany
Georgia Hong Kong
Iceland India
Israel
Italy
Japan Korea Malaysia
Mexico Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway Philippines
Romania Russia Singapore
Slovenia Spain Switzerland
Thailand 30
3
2
2
2
59
2
2
2
92
6
2
3
4
4
14
11
2
3
1
6
8
6
5
5
5
2
26
2
8
4
3
6
4
2
2
8
3
This data was compiled by Front Royal Tourism
Coordinator Don LaFever from the guest registry.
You can find Don and a wealth of information at the
Visitor’s Center on Main Street. (540) 635-5788
AL
AK
AZ
AR
CA
CO
CT
DE
DC
FL
GA
HI
ID
IL
IN
IA
KS
KY
LA
ME
MD
MA
MI
MN
MS
MO
MT
NE
NV
NH
NJ
NM
NY
NC
ND
OK
OH
OR
PA
PR
RI
SC
SD
TN
TX
UT
VT
VA
WA
WV
WI
WY
5
4
8
17
86
10
24
28
36
112
33
3
2
31
20
2
17
11
20
183
32
32
12
19
15
10
6
13
49
2
80
78
2
25
56
13
146
2
7
24
6
11
44
3
4
317
29
7
16
-
Late Nov. 2006
Page 13
Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club
The Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club is now open for play Thursday through Sunday! It is a world-class championship 18-hole course
occupying 173 acres and playing over 7,300 yards from the championship tees. Designed by the prestigious architects at Ault Clark
and Associates, Blue Ridge Shadows is located in the hills just north of Front Royal, just north of I-66 and seven miles east of I-81. A
rolling tract with magnificent views of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the heart of historical Civil War country, the property is an upscale
semiprivate course that offers a limited number of memberships as well as daily fee play for the general public. For more information
on membership, outings, our hotel, or just to see updated course information, visit www.blueridgeshadows.com
Directions: Located just north of I-66 Exit 6 on US 340/522
Now open Thurs-Sun • 7632 Winchester Road • Front Royal, Virginia 22630 • www.blueridgeshadows.com
Page 14
Late Nov. 2006
The News at Noon
&
The Valley Today
The award winning “News at Noon”
30 minutes of LOCAL news
Weekdays at 12:05 pm
· tourism
· public safety
· health
· local leaders
· issues
· business
· round tables
· education
· politics
· philanthropy
The award winning “The Valley Today”
30 minutes of LOCAL interviews
Weekdays at 12:30 pm
Late Nov. 2006
Page 15
Town grapples with diminishing power options
Consultant’s optimistic industry scenarios questioned
By ROGER BIANCHINI
In the wake of a November work session with power provision consultant ICF
International, two fundamental questions
remain for the town’s power customers
– why has this happened? and how high
will rates go?
However, one even more fundamental question remains for the Town of
Front Royal – what do we do about our
predicament?
For residential customers the purchase price for a kilowatt hour of electricity climbed from about 6.5 cents to
10.5 cents or more three months ago
when council’s 40 percent rate increase
kicked in to help cover the new cost of its
new power purchase contract that began
in July (see related story).
But the harsh reality is that even with
the rate hike to its customers, the town
has lost approximately $1 million in the
first three months of its new contract and
according to consultants will deplete
the remaining $4.5 million of its Electric Fund surplus balance by the end of
this fiscal year, sending that balance into
the red by approximately $9,000 in the
first year of its two-year power purchase
contract with American Electric Power
(AEP) Ohio.
At the November work session, power consultant ICF International estimated
the town’s Electric Fund deficit would
sink to $500,000 in the second year of
the town’s current purchase contract with
AEP-Ohio and transmission contract
with PJM (Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland), before “optimistic” industry trends
begin to reverse, sending costs down and
restoring the town’s ability to rebuild
its Electric and General Fund surpluses,
while lowering rates to customers back
to the six to nine-cent range per kilowatt
hour between 2008 and 2010.
Rose-colored glasses?
However, following ICF’s presentation to council, town Electric Department Director Joe Waltz told town officials that in predicting a stable return to
a bundled purchase/transmission cost in
the $50 range, only $7 above the town’s
last Dominion Power contract price of
$43.55 per megawatt hour, the consul-
tant may have painted a rosier picture
than reality and the future could hold for
the industry.
“I wouldn’t put any money on it,”
Waltz said of lower prices. “There are
too many variables, another war, who
knows what could happen to keep prices
up?”
With its back currently against the
wall financially and facing an uncertain
future in which it now finds itself the odd
municipality out between spiraling postderegulation prices and state efforts to
protect its consumers, the town is looking hard at its options. Those discussed
in November include the selling of the
eight of the participants left to pursue favorable long-term contract options now
available. One group of four localities
was pursuing a 20-year contract with the
Appalachian subsidiary of AEP-Ohio,
and another group of four municipalities
was pursuing a six-year contract with
AMP-Ohio, Waltz said.
“Front Royal will be the only [Virginia] municipality that will be out for
another [power] contract in 2008,” Waltz
told council of the town’s vanishing leverage on the issue. Waltz pointed out
that even considering all 14 Virginia
municipalities with their own electric departments, the town was in a very small
WCR photo by Dan McDermott
town electric department to a private
provider; attempting to get out of the current two–year contract with AEP-Ohio
that has seen its monthly costs more than
double from about $691,000 in June (the
last month of its old contract), to $1.7
million and $1.6 million in the first two
months of the new contract; increase its
own generating capacities; or try to lock
in current lower “bundled” prices, estimated at $50 per megawatt hour, in a
long-term contract that would not begin
until 2008.
Shrinking leverage
At its November work session, Waltz
also told council that an attempt to build
a consortium that involved 11 of the 14
state municipalities that own their own
electric departments had “splintered” as
minority representing 750,000 people,
or about 10 percent of the state’s population, whose power is supplied by local
government.
With at least 11 of the other 13 local public power providers opting out of
attempts to form a protective municipal
lobby, Front Royal finds itself virtually
alone in Virginia and increasingly vulnerable to the new power industry standards and trends.
Councilman Stan Brooks was critical of the state for jumping back into
the fray after deregulation became state
law. “They deregulated the industry, but
what happened is the state jumped back
in and started regulating again. Maybe
if they hadn’t we’d have a [pricing] balance by now,” Brooks said of the potential privately-supplied consumers prices
would have continued to rise without
state interference. Brooks also was critical of the General Assembly for allowing Virginia’s 14 municipal providers to
fall into a void of regulatory protection.
However, Brooks acknowledged the slim
likelihood of state legislative action to
see that the electric rates of 90 percent
of Virginia’s population would be legislated upward into line with Front Royal
and other municipal providers costs.
“What are we going to do, ask [the
state] to raise everybody else’s rates?”
Brooks pondered of the town’s options.
“Clay (Del. Athey) represents a district
where a majority are protected by state
moves to keep rates down, he can’t very
well vote to raise their rates to help us
out.”
But Brooks tried to remain positive
about the possibility of declining rates
due to potential impacts from litigation
challenging
transmission/congestion
fees (see related story) and construction
of additional transmission lines to ease
transmission congestion.
“We could end up with the best rates
of anyone – that’s the way I look at it,”
Brooks said following discussion of consultant projections and possible industry
trends over the next four years.
However, Mayor James M. Eastham
sounded a note of caution, stating that
the “old model” of municipal power generation “is dead.”
“You can’t ride one horse till it dies,
you’ve got to look at all your options,”
the mayor told council and town staff
following discussion of consultant projections.
Councilman Brett Hrbek said he
philosophically opposed the town’s continued role as an electrical supplier and
asked if a voter referendum on the sale of
the electric department could be scheduled for May despite the lack of town
election next year.
Near the conclusion of the public
portion of its November work session
on power options and trends, council instructed staff to research the issue so the
town government will be in a position by
late February or early March to reach a
decision on the sale, reorganization or
further contract negotiations regarding
the town’s future supply of electricity to
its customers.
Page 16
Late Nov. 2006
DOMINION HEALTH & FITNESS
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Warren County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Seal was working stationary radar on 522
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Late Nov. 2006
Page 17
Where is Front Royal’s
hurricane disaster relief?
Katrina to level Front Royal’s
$5.5 mil Electric Fund balance
By ROGER BIANCHINI
The economic devastation wrought by
Hurricane Katrina reached across America’s central Gulf Coast destroying much
of New Orleans along with entire rural
towns from Louisiana to Alabama. The
social consequences of that 2005 Storm
of the Century are likely to continue for
years, along with the debate over the lack
of political direction at the local, state
and federal levels and consequent failure
and delays of disaster responses.
But one locale not yet registered on Katrina’s hit list is Front Royal, Virginia.
Perhaps it is time for that omission to end
and for the Town of Front Royal to apply
for state and federal disaster relief due to
Katrina impacts and related regulatory
agency drownings.
But you say other than some heavy rains
and minor flooding you don’t remember
Katrina’s impacts reaching Front Royal?
– Look at your town electric bill.
Yes Front Royal, Katrina has devastated
your local economy, or is at least is in the
process of doing so. For it is largely that
evil witch’s wind and her aftermath that
led the Front Royal Town Council to decide to wait approximately five months
from one traditionally lower electric industry pricing period to the next to sign a
new power purchase contract.
As a result, the town is expected to see
a $5.5 million Electric Fund surplus go
$500,000 in the red over the two-year
life of that contract, despite plans to raise
customers’ electric rates about 60 percent
between 2005 and 2007.
Katrina moves north
In September of 2005, facing a June 30,
2006, end to its contract with Dominion
Power that had purchased electricity at
the bundled (purchase and transmission)
price of $43.55 per megawatt hour (one
megawatt hour = 1,000 of the kilowatt
hours your home meter is reading), the
Town of Front Royal was pondering new
contract options.
With nine months to play with and a traditionally low fall pricing period at hand,
the town appeared to be in position to
strike a deal that while beneficial, would
look nothing like the previous contract
price in the wake of Virginia’s deregulation of the power industry. The known
implications of deregulation nationwide
were escalating prices in a first federally,
then state decontrolled industry. Add an
oil-industry-friendly Executive Branch
and Congress, a war and escalating destabilization of the oil-rich Middle East
and oo-ahh, prices were climbing. Nice
time to lock in a deal . . . then cometh
Kartrina.
Town Attorney Blair Mitchell was at the
center of much of the town’s negotiations on pursuit of a new power contract.
He explains that the town’s decision on
when to move on a new contract was to
be based on traditional energy cost cycles
surrounding lower fall and spring prices,
compared to higher summer and winter
rates due to increased power usage.
However, in the wake of Katrina’s coming to shore on Sept. 29, 2005, town
energy consultants and town officials
believed fall 2005 prices were being artificially driven up by the disruption of
oil pipeline service and other Katrina-related factors. So, logic dictated that fall
2005 prices were not as low as normal
– as would later be evidenced by record
profits American oil companies would
report for the months following the great
storm – and a better deal could likely be
struck during the next low pricing period,
a spring 2006 anticipated to be devoid
of natural (if not necessarily political or
economic) disasters.
But after failing to lock in a bundled
price of $73 to $75 per megawatt hour
in October/November 2005, the contract options the town found itself with
the following spring weren’t as rosy as
had been hoped for. The purchase price
capped at $76.86 per megawatt hour
didn’t look too bad, except for one factor – uncontrolled transmission fees. The
town’s spring contract options exposed
it to market fluctuations in transmission
fees. The result has been devastating, to
say the least. In the first two months of
the new contract, transmission fees levied by regional consortium PJM added
first $33 and then $23 to the megawatt
hourly price, raising the town’s purchase
price to $99 and $91 per megawatt hour
in July and August, respectively.
Those numbers jolted the town’s monthly power generating costs from just under $691,000 in June, the final month of
the Dominion Power contract, to about
$1.7 million in July and $1.6 million in
August, or an average increase of about
120 percent. Perhaps a more accurate
comparison is to the July and August
2005 costs to the town of $736,855 and
$728,425, respectively, still well over
100 percent increases each month.
In the first three months of its new contract the town has lost about $1 million
and consultants recently told the town to
expect the remaining Electric Fund balance of $4.5 million to be gone by the
end of this fiscal year, with an additional
$500,000 to be lost in 2007-08.
And while energy consultants painted a
rosier picture for the price of purchasing
power beginning in 2008, one wonders
if they were gazing into the same crystal
ball that was used in the fall of 2005.
So, it appears that the town has taken
a $6 million financial hit due largely to
Katrina – not to mention the mass emotional trauma suffered by town electric
customers waking up to find late summer electric bills devoid of continuous
AC use, equaling earlier bills calculated
to the continuous hum of electronicallygenerated cool air.
Yes, it would seem time for the federal
and state governments to compensate
Front Royal for this economic and human disaster created by both Katrina
and the ill-conceived drowning of governmental regulatory authority over what
has become a newly created multi-tiered
monopolized industry, where only one
regulated monopoly existed before (see
related stories).
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Page 18
Wolf (from pg. 7)
recommendation; that was Senator Bayh
came up with that recommendation. No,
the Baker Commission will not be reporting until probably after or around the time
the country and what do we do. As you
know there are five Democrats and five
Republicans, they’re hopeful to come
up with a 10-0, a position whereby the
country can come together. Because we
-- the country knowing full well that
no matter what anyone says Al-Qaeda
is still out there committed to bringing
grave destruction to a large proportion
of certain places. So, we’ve got to deal
Congressman Wolf held a press conference on March 15 announcing the creation on an Iraq Study Group which evolved from his
idea of “Fresh Eyes On Target”. Pictured with Congressman Wolf at the press conference, from left to right: Senator Christopher
Bond (MO), Senator John Warner (VA), Congressman Tom Davis (VA 11th), Congressman Christopher Shays (CT-4th), former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and former Congressman Lee Hamilton (IN-9th), co-chair of the 9/11 Commission. Courtesy photo
of Thanksgiving or shortly thereafter. They have broken their sub-groups down
into four sub-groups. One on security,
one on governance, one on the economy
and one on energy; and they’re still pulling apart. They’ve been to Iraq, they’ve
done a number of things, but they’re report has not been actually made and will
not be made to the American people and
to the Congress and the administration
for really several more weeks.
Dan McDermott: Do you think Donald
Rumsfeld will be Defense Secretary in
two weeks?
Congressman Wolf: I don’t know, that’s
really going to have to be President
Bush’s decision. The Iraq study group,
I don’t believe, will get involved into
personnel. They’re going to be talking
about how do we develop a consensus in
are at war and 30 people from our district
died in the attack on the Pentagon, we
lost a large number of people on the attack on 9-11. The FBI comes before my
subcommittee, and I can tell you there
are a number of Al-Qaeda cells operating. Al-Qaeda has it’s playbook on the
webpage. Basically, we have their playbook. We know what they’re going to
do or what they want to do. So I think
we need to bring the county together. When we are together we’re strong, just
like we were able to defeat communism. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you know Harry Truman a Democrat, President Kennedy, but President
Eisenhower Republican and President
Regan; we came together and the country was together and united. United we
will prevail against terrorism, divided we
become a much weaker country.
It’s time to develop a consensus then
with that, but we’ve got to deal with it together as a country. It’s the United States
and I think there’s too much of this red
state, blue state. I mean, there should
be red, white and blue. My dad, who’s
since past away, served in the military in
World War II, if I told him this is a red
state, this is a blue state he wouldn’t even
know what that means. We’re American
and until you come together and begin to
think that way -- and so that’s what we’re
hopeful that the Iraq study group will actually do.
Dan McDermott: As you look at that
ads, there was I guess President Bush
and Nancy Pelosi were sort of stars of
the opposite parties ads, and I know
you’ve worked with Nancy Pelosi in a
lot of Republican commercials she had
all but horns on her head, as a scary San
Francisco liberal and then she disap-
Late Nov. 2006
peared for the last couple weeks. And
then she’s talking in moderation now. You’ve worked with this person, what do
you think?
Congressman Wolf: Well, I know Nancy
Pelosi, I know Nancy very, very well. Actually I have a large number of quotes
that Nancy Pelosi said very positive
things about me. We’re actually good
friends, we’ve worked together over the
whole years on human rights in China
and different things. I think the whole
campaign though got so negative. I mean
my opponent ran very, very negative ads
and putting pictures of President Bush up
and misstating and misquoting. I think
the American people got to the point -- I
got to the point that watching these ads
just made you sick. I mean, I have always run my campaign based on what I
have done and how I have done it. By
working, whether it be for cleaning up
Avtex or whatever the case may be in my
congressional district. Also bringing Republicans and Democrats together just to
solve problems. This whole attack, condemn, divide, come back attack again; I
mean all the ads against me were all negative. Well my goodness, can’t people
talk about what they’re for? Can’t they
explain what their goals, then you can
disagree, but you know the golden rule
says do unto others as you would have
them do unto you. It doesn’t say to attack
somebody if you can take advantage of
them. So I think the whole tone of this
campaign in my district, I mean, my opponent had nothing good to say about me
at all. Nothing. Dan McDermott: I think, to some degree
you’re a victim of your success because
you’ve done so well and you tend to have
pretty wide margins of victory. I’ve been
watching you since Millikan in ’88 or
’90 and, you know, the biggest thing I’ve
heard, even from folks who don’t have
any idea how you vote is constituent service, you know Congressman Wolf does
a good job of that and you’ve obviously
been popular in the district.
Congressman Wolf: Well we’ve worked
hard. I’ve a good staff and you know
my best friend in congress is a Democratic member of congress. I mean last
night at the victory party a Democratic
member, a former member came out to
be with me to celebrate. So I mean, you
can have differences on issues, but you
don’t have to attack and kind of divide. Secondly, I have a record of honesty and
integrity. I send out my entire voting
Late Nov. 2006
record from ever vote that I cast or it’s
on the web and you mentioned John Millikin, I mean, John Millikin wrote me a
congratulatory note the other day. I got
an award for helping out with regards to
Dulles Airport. All the people that I run
against or they run against me, we used
to go on and become friends, it was not
Front Royal
Police Department Report
Chief Ronald A. Williamson
COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY
Patrol
Criminal Investigation Division
Dispatch
Traffic Stops
Types of Complaints
Reports
Calls for Service
Oct 05
975
1
39
722
Oct 05
331
684
Oct 06
1037
0
26
EMERGENCY VEHICLE KEY ASSIST
2
5
EMERGENCY COMPLAINTS
35
61
NON-EMERGENCY COMPLAINTS
980
1002
TELEPHONE CALLS INTO DISPATCH
4357
4300
CALLS RECEIVED VIA 911
146
121
PROPERTY CHECKS
4
4
ALARMS
50
20
COMMUNITY POLICING PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED
47
65
-- this year it was just -- I don’t know. I mean, you could see it if you watched
the ads. I mean nationwide I think it just
became so vicious and you know under
the law you can say whatever you want
to say abut someone even if it isn’t true. Because under the FCC laws once you
get in the arena, if you will, there’s no
way to stop it. So you can say anything
about anybody and it doesn’t have to be
true.
ZONING COMPLAINTS
12
9
Dan McDermott: One of the --
VOLUNTEERS IN POLICE SERVICES (VIPS) HOURS
Volunteers
Coordinator
146.5
89.75
56.75
266
184.75
81.25
TRAFFIC ARREST SUMMARY Adults
Juveniles
DWI
Speeding
Parking Tickets/Notice of Violations
Oct 05
143
14
8
79
113
Oct 06
224
19
18
152
87
CRIMINAL ARRESTS/ADULTS: Felony
Misdemeanor
Zoning
Oct 05
14
77
1
Oct 06
10
62
0
Congressman Wolf: Of course the money that came in
this district from
outside, most of
my money was
raised from people
that live in Warren
County, Frederick
and
Winchester
and Fairfax and
Loudoun. My
opponent’s money,
most of it, I think
80 some percent
came in from outside, not only the
district, not only
the state, but from
Page 19
California, Massachusetts and places
like that. But over all I think the American people want to say to both parties,
come on, knock it off. Cut it out. Tell us
what you’re for, but let’s bring the country together. And I think that’s probably
going to be the big issue. So hopefully
the Republicans will use this as an op-
Oct 06
303
760
*Note these totals are for the month of October 2005/2006 and are in no way
indicative of annual increases or decreases.
Congressman Wolf, Marine Lance Cpl. Travis McNutt of Tennessee and young Iraqi boy
in Al Kut. Courtesy photo.
portunity to participate to make sure that
we govern appropriately, have a record
of honesty and integrity, are very, very
open, pass very tough, very good ethics
bill and try to bring the country together
so we can deal with this whole issue of
terrorism.
Dan McDermott: Congressman Frank
Wolf, one of the nice guys in politics. We
appreciate it on the heels of a big victory
for him in yesterday’s elections. Thank
you very much for being with us.
Congressman Wolf: Thank you.
Page 20
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Late Nov. 2006
Page 21
Page 22
Graham (from pg. 7)
years and what are some of the issues
when you say an agent of change that
you’re describing?
Michael Graham: Well, it’s a couple
things. One thing is just wonderful about
Front Royal, which I grew up in, like I
said I haven’t been back for a long time;
is the fact that the natural beauty and you
know the beauty of the mountains and the
two rivers, it puts it in a very unique situation because those are borders that kind
of restrict us in our ability to grow. The
other challenge that we have is we only
have really two avenues to come into the
town which is somewhat restricted in
many ways. So it’s very critical that we
be very cautious and really think out and
plan out and be well planned out on how
we want to handle growth, because we
know it’s coming. We know that right
now that, you know, as the baby boomers
move into retirement that Front Royal is
positioned uniquely in the state to attract a
lot of these baby boomers that want to get
out to the quieter, peaceful, lower pace of
life and that’s a flood of us. I mean, I’m
one of the back end of the baby boomers,
I know, because that’s one of the reasons
why I’m here is because of the natural
beauty and pace that Front Royal offers. So we’ll have to be very prudent, we’ll
have to be very careful and we want to
manage growth. We want to protect the
quality of life, we want to keep it safe. One of the guys asked me at the tourism, he says, “How would you describe
Front Royal”? I said, “Really it’s kind of
like blending the best of the future with
the best of the past.” So, that was really
picked up kind of a tag line that I think
about now as taking what’s in store for us
future and blending it with the best of the
past and protecting that.
So on top of that I think a municipality
is very much like a business and should
be able to kind of be run under the same
guidelines.
Dan McDermott: Now, your position
supervises the heads of all the other departments. I think it was described as
the Town Council has -- the only people
that actually report to the Council are the
Town Manager and the Clerk of Council
and then everyone else is under the Town
Manager.
Michael Graham: Well, you have the attorney.
Dan McDermott: The Town Attorney,
of course.
Michael Graham: Yeah, yeah.
Dan McDermott: Okay. So this is probably a pretty interesting job because so
many different facets of the town, you
know, like public works, you got the police department and all these different
things that you’re kind of reporting to
Council on?
Michael Graham: Well, it’s no different; my previous life had been to either
turning around companies, changing
cultures, taking companies that were in
trouble, you know rebuilding the culture,
returning the profitability. I’ve done that,
you know, about three or four times in
my career and I managed anywhere from
$5 million companies to $1 billion companies with multiple locations, 15 or 20
different locations. So I find that any
place I go it’s pretty much the same, you
know, people make the business. I can
have bad quality of equipment but great
people and I tell you what I will take that
all day over new equipment and poor attitudes. So that’s kind of where we are. Dan McDermott: Now, this is your first
What makes it really exciting is the fact
government job, right?
that I have run multiple different businesses within a business and I got to tell
Michael Graham: Yeah, I don’t think
you, I am absolutely intrigued. We all
of it as a government job. What I think
take, I know I take for granted all the
of it is a challenge that I think governtime that you know if you look at cusment jobs from the municipal level is
tomer service and the quality of service;
very similar to business. The unique
every morning I get up and my alarm
thing about Front Royal is they have
goes off I never think that there’s no
what’s called enterprises and these are
electricity’s not going to drive that. And
enterprise business which stand on their
I must say when I looked at the records
own. You know, one is electric the other
here it was almost 365 day record that
is your water and sewer and your refuge. electricity was provided to the citizens of
So these are independent businesses run
this town consistently. That’s 100 perby the city which generates, you know,
cent delivery. a product and that product has to be of
high quality and it has to be something
Dan McDermott: Not in the county, let
that our citizens get their monies worth. me tell you.
Michael Graham: Well county -Dan McDermott: I know, because I see
PF on the microwave more often than I
like.
Michael Graham: I can’t make any comments on the county, I don’t know too
much about them yet. But primarily if
you look at electric and then when I usually get up I walk to the kitchen, I turn on
this little faucet and I get me a glass of
water. I think there’s been pretty much
non-disruptive service to the 99 to 100
percent level. Then of course you go to
the other room after you get your drink
of water and you flush and normally you
have very good service on that. So these
are three basic things that happen around
us that we take for granted. Once I got
into it I find it extremely intriguing the
quality standards of the water that the
state makes sure that we have, the quality of the water going out the other end
is very, very technical and very, very restricted and we have to have the best of
equipment there. And even the electricity, I mean when the snow comes in and
knocks a line, you know our crews get
out there very quickly and I think that
service is great. So these are all enterprises that I never thought about until I
got involved with it. But there’s some
exciting things that we could talk about a
little later down the line of what we can
do to improve those services.
Dan McDermott: Okay. I want to ask
you, we’re going to talk about change
and all that stuff. Are the town and the
county going to come to some compromise on water? I’ll describe it like this
and you correct me if I’m wrong; the
town’s view is, if you’re going to build
a development in the county then we’re
going to have to supply water to it and
if we’re going to do that then the next
they’re going to want trash, they’re going to want all these other services and
we want to have that development incorporated into the town if we’re going
to provide services for it. We want to
be apart of the process from the beginning. The county is saying that’s crazy,
you’re trying to affect growth or control
growth or prevent growth in the county
which is outside the town limits. They’re
looking at trying to get water somewhere
else and this seems kind of like we need
a compromise, because it seems crazy
for these two entities to be fighting. If
there’s water in Front Royal it would be
Late Nov. 2006
insane for them to go elsewhere to get it
and spend all this extra money. What are
your thoughts on this?
Michael Graham: Well, I mean, I think
I’m going to probably not talk about it
in too much detail because our Mayor,
which is come out with the water policy
is going to have a town meeting I think
probably Thursday of this week to talk
about that issue. We think we have a
pretty well thought out policy and he’s
going to go into a lot more detail about
exactly what you just asked. We want
to work with the county of course. From
my stand point, because I’m more of an
operator, tactical implementor, is that we
have to talk about whatever they do I
have to have enough time to build a good
foundation to be able to handle it. The
last thing we want to do is get too much
growth in here and we don’t have the infrastructure to be able to support it. So
I’m more concerned about the actual tactical and the implementation and building the foundation to handle that growth. I’ll let the Mayor and the Council debate
with the Board of Supervisors on what
the policy is. I will say this; it is very
expensive to get into the water business
and sewer business. Very, very expensive trying to build plants and being able
to support that kind of growth, so just got
to have a lot of money to do it.
Dan McDermott: Well it’s interesting
because both view points are valid and
legitimate. I mean, they both have a
point so it’s going to be interesting to see
how that happens. You said you have
some ideas -Michael Graham: Oh, yeah.
Dan McDermott: -- for changes to cope
for the future. Let’s get into that a little
bit.
Michael Graham: Well, probably a
couple of days ago, maybe last weekend
before last, the USA Today had a very
interesting article about where we’re going to live. What they’re expecting is the
population of the United States increased
by 100 million people, and they said what
we going to do with them. There was
three main things that was very interesting I found about it. Had the concern
with the change and the attitude of what
people want and what they see quality
of life is all about. And they basically
said that cheap energy, and cheap land is
getting scarce. You know, where the old
Graham, Pg. 23
Late Nov. 2006
Graham (from pg. 22)
days you go out and buy 10 or 15 acres
or whatever and you have cheap power,
those days are gone, especially as we try
to absorb these 100 million people that
are either coming or being born or whatever it is. More importantly is that the
life span of us boomers are going to be
a lot further than is ever has been in the
history of the United States. So we’re
living longer, we’re healthier, and we’re
demanding so we’re not leaving; we’re
kind of hanging around for a while. So with this we have an attitude or an idea what we like life to be
like and actually it’s almost describing
walk to work and I think a lot of people
are looking for that type of environment.
Now, that kind of gives you an
insight on what’s going on and what people going to be expecting. As far as what
we’re going to be doing in the town there
are exciting things like our water treatment plant. There’s new technology out
there right now where it’s cheaper, faster
and better now to build natural marshes
around your waste water treatment plants
now and let the natural environment
clear out a lot of the impurities that go
back into the rivers. Chicago has one of
the most modern ones out there. Right in
the middle of Chicago they’ve done that
J. Michael Graham was interviewed on The Valley Today, aired live weekdays at 12:30
pm on WZRV 95.3 FM and WFTR 1450 AM. WCR photo by Dan McDermott
Front Royal in a very scenic place where
there’s a lot of walking trails and bike
trails where you can walk down. You
don’t have to get in traffic all day long
and maybe you never even have to get
in the car. You can walk down to the
grocery store or just walk downtown and
shop or do whatever it is. So what we
find is those are the things that we know
is coming and since we live so close to
Washington I think we have to get ready
for it, because we do not want to get in
a place where we turn into, you know,
wall to wall traffic. That’s why I left
Atlanta. We lived in a little town right
outside Atlanta called Roswell. I lived
on the two lane highway and 15 years
now passed, now it’s a six lane highway
with all sorts of developments down the
side and it takes me 45 minutes just to go
across town. We don’t like that anymore. I like being able to hear the church bells
throughout the town. I like being able to
and really they found to be much more
efficient then building multi-million dollar plants.
Dan McDermott: I think that’s what
happened with this guy in Harrisonburg,
the chicken waste processing plant. He
wanted to put it in marshes or spread it
out over the land and they wouldn’t let
him so he was pumping all this stuff in
the river, which he didn’t want to do.
Michael Graham: Right.
Dan McDermott: But that’s what the
government told him to do but it was a
violation of government quotas so like
there’s this big thing. It just seems like
a lot of red tape the was preventing him
from doing something pretty commonsensical. You’ve got to do something
with it.
Michael Graham: Sure. Well like I said
down in New Orleans was now doing it
because everything was destroyed down
there, Chicago, you got some places in
Florida already started doing this. The
Everglades is really one big scrubber
anyway and that’s disappearing. They
realized that when waste water comes
off the land there the Everglades really
purified it before it go to the ocean, so
they kind of took that idea and said what
happens if we start building them around
our waste treatment centers? There’s a
lot of exciting things, we’re building our
addition on our water treatment plant,
Page 23
the citizens of Front Royal some low cost
energy sources.
Dan McDermott: I guess there’s a new
trash policy or that’s in the works where
you’re going to have to bag everything
up and they’re going to fine you after
three warnings. We had a thing where it
didn’t make sense to take like a 12 pack
of Pepsi holder that biodegrades in a few
months and put it into a bag that takes
years to biodegrade. What’s the rationale for that, it seems like you’re just
adding more stuff into the landfill by taking large items and forcing you to put it
in a bag inside a trash can.
Michael Graham: Well, you know, that’s
probably one of the most interesting debates that I’ve seen happen since I’ve
been in Front Royal about this. I have
two filters; everything goes through
these two filters for me to move forward. Number one, does it improve the service
to the citizens of the community? Number two, is it cost effective and have a
RLI rate of return on it? So those are the
two filters before I move forward on anything. I think the original trash program
made a lot of sense from the improved
service to the community because instead of just having two times of year,
you know, we really allowed the citizens
to do it anytime they want. So now you
don’t have wait until the end of the year
or whenever it is, you can actually call
anytime. What that did to our ability
to pick it up, it really helped us from a
RLI return because you know now we
can have our regular crews do it on an
you know. The government regulations ongoing basis, kind of spreads it out. I
on that are even getting stricter now be- know I came in before I even considered
cause another new thing that’s coming this job, I came in and visited my dad
out is the amount of drugs that we take this year, trash day in March and what
in the United States, believe it or not, was happening is it was all over the place
you’re filtering back into the water. So because you just couldn’t keep up with
now we’re looking at ways to be able to the pace of the amount that was out there
have new filters on there that will kind of and it really detracted from the commuscreen out some of that new type pollut- nity if you were just like riding through
ant which we’re just learning more about. and see what was going on. Also it taxed
Some other things, you’re electrical en- our crews being able to do it because we
ergy. I mean, we all know that electric- had to pull off our street crews and you
ity and power has gone up tremendously know around March what happens you
over the last years and it might level out have potholes. So we just felt that that
but I very seldom see energy decrease gave a better service to the citizens of the
that much. What we’re looking at, there’s community being able to have this abila new thing that the State of Virginia’s ity to do it anytime. pushing right now called green energy in
which we will look at burning refuge and Dan McDermott: Okay. And I rememsludge to generate power to tie right into ber the funny quote from that was I think
our power grid. So the Council’s been Eilene Grady said, “Okay, so let me get
wise enough to look into those type of this right, you can fill your entire lawn up
things also and we’re looking for future and it’s 25 bucks?” Thank you so much,
now of how we can be able to provide Michael Graham.
Page 24
Tattoo (from pg. 11)
And while that Renaissance artist is more
noted for his work on other less than traditional canvasses, such as the roof of
Rome’s Sistine Chapel, a shared artistic
intuition has led others like Torres and
Walker to the human body as the canvass of preference for their own artistic
impulse. Or as Victorian-era writer Oscar
to – otherwise I’m here,” he says of his
Front Royal home base. “But traveling
is one of the things we do, we go to tattoo conventions and I like to invite pretty
much anybody and everybody, just so
they can see what a tattoo convention is
like – people buy magazines that show
it but they have never physically seen a
tattoo convention. I’d like to have one in
this town and I’d also like to have an art
which notes that for some receiving tattoos in America now, as it has been over
centuries in other cultures around the
world, “tattooing can be a process that
takes years, and the tattoos, which cover
most of their body, become a kind of living ‘work in progress’ or record of their
life.”
Timeless art
“I think it’s accepted more as a freedom
of expression,” Torres says of contemporary tattooing in America. “It’s not like
10 years ago or even five years ago when
you had to hide every tattoo you got from
either mom, dad or the work place. Now
the world has accepted and realized that
tattooing is a form of art, and just like
anything else it takes time for it to grow.
But once it grew the population realized
that tattooing is more than for just bikers
and outlaws, it’s for everyone nowadays.
If you don’t have one, you’re not part of
a clique, so to speak.”
Cliques marked by body art date to the
oldest known civilization on the planet,
ancient Egypt. In cultures around the
world, tattooing has been a mark of no-
There’s more than initially meets the eye on William Rowlee’s back art done by Luis
Torres - a dragon from one perspective, a mysterious face when viewed upside down.
WCR photo by Roger Bianchini
Wilde put it, “One must be a work of art,
or wear a work of art.”
In high school, Torres did art for the
yearbook, including cartoon characters,
as well as designing art for T-shirts and
other apparel, while at the same time expanding his knowledge of tattooing.
“I took the route of teaching myself and
started from making my own machine
to where I am today,” he said, pointing
to the equipment he and Walker have
at their disposal. The improvement in
the technology of tattooing has led to a
cleaner, more lasting and less traumatic
product, Torres says.
“These machines are designed to drop
in at a certain level and as long as you
stay within that level there’s no reason to
scar or create damage to the skin. So, the
tattoo will always remain vibrant for the
rest of your life – and that is the main
goal.”
Since pursuing his artistic passion
through eight states over 13 years, Torres feels he has developed a stable home
base in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
“I’ve been here for six years and there’s
no getting me out – unless they tell me
show in this town, so everyone could experience what I’ve experienced through
my tattoo years.”
If Torres developed a reputation as a
self-starter and passionate advocate of
body art as a young man, the 20-year-old
Walker is following suit.
“I started learning about it when I was
15, but I started tattooing when I was
17,” Walker, who has worked in Torres’
studio for about 10 months, says. Like
Torres, Walker’s interest in tattooing and
art developed side by side.
“I took art classes through school, then
I got my first tattoo and fell in love with
it – it’s awesome art, it’s forever art,”
Walker says of the form he, like his boss,
embraced early in life. And while a tattoo
may be forever – without a rather more
painful removal process – Walker also
points to the ability a human canvass has
to constantly expand on the themes a person has chosen to express through body
art. “It can go on forever, you can change
them forever,” Walker says.
His observation is echoed in a University
of Pennsylvania website on tattooing,
Late Nov. 2006
bility, or special membership of some
kind. The word tattoo itself is of Polynesian origin, related to the Tahitian word
tatau and the Marquesan word ta-tu.
“In all ages, far back into prehistory,
we find human beings have painted and
adorned themselves,” visionary author
H.G. Wells pointed out.
“Tattooing’s been around as long as
people have been around,” Walker says,
echoing Well’s observation of over a
century ago. “It’s always been a part of
certain cultures but now the color’s gotten better, the artists have gotten better
and that’s one reason I think more people
get them – before they weren’t as sharp
looking. It used to be that women didn’t
get tattoos and now it’s more women
than men, at least it seems that way to
me,” Walker observes of the fairer sex’s
growing attraction to the tattoo as selfexpression.
“Our job is to bring out the vision that
people are looking for,” Torres says,
“and we try to create that image and that
vision so they can always look in the
mirror and remain impressed with what
they have. They may not be able to draw
Tattoo, Pg. 26
Late Nov. 2006
Football
By PHILIP SWANSON
It has been another dismal month for
Redskins fans. October was not especially kind to the Redskin faithful, but
November started out to be what might
as well have been the Super Bowl in
Washington. While the increasingly fragile playoff hopes faded into a comatose
pipe dream, the first Sunday in November brought the biggest remaining game
of the Skins all but lost season. After the
drubbing the Skins took in Big D in September, Dallas came to town hoping to
ruin the beautiful weather by beating up
on Washington one more time – not in
our house! The Redskins, this time with
help from their defense and that oh-sospecial teams play at the gun, beat Dallas
to even the score between the two, salvaging some aspect of the season. That said, one thing that has me, as well
as legions of other Redskin football fanatics, concerned is that Mark Brunell
has played just well enough – at least in
the coaching staff’s mind – to keep his
starting job another week, thus delaying
the development and appraisal of what
most take to be the Skins quarterbacking
future – Jason Campbell. That was the
case again when Brunell led the offense
into Philly on Sunday. But it didn’t take
long for the well rested and rejuvenated
Eagles to start beating up the Redskins
early. The Eagles jumped out to an early
10-0 lead on the back of an 84-yd TD
pass from Donovan McNabb to Donte
Stallworth. The Skins had an early
opportunity to score but kicker Nick
Novak’s leg just doesn’t have enough
for those longer-range field goals. He
missed a 48-yard attempt, albeit in horrific weather conditions. Not that the
weather is an excuse mind you he is only
3 for 7 on the year and his longest is the
47-yard game winner against… yup you
guessed it DALLAS – thanks for that
one, Nick. The Skins did get three out
of the lad before the half ended in Philly,
though just a 32-yarder. That would be
the only scoring the Redskins would do,
unless you count Mark Brunell’s 70yard interception that went for an Eagle
touchdown. There were very few bright
spots for the Hall of Fame coach and his
seemingly all-star cast of characters. The
truth is the Skins owner Daniel Snyder
tried to buy a championship and that, as I
have said before, is not how you do it. I
hate to only write the negative about this
year’s squad, so before I do I will try to
shed some light. First of all, it can’t get
any worse and if it can god help them.
But at least after this past week’s performance by Brunell maybe the once very
successful Hall of Fame coach will recognize that this veteran QB needs to accept a teaching spot and let number 17
take the reins. I am not saying that it is
an instant cure or answer for success.
However, I think he has learned what he
can by watching – in fact watching the
Brunell-led offense much longer may
have a negative impact on his transition
into the NFL game. Is Gibbs waiting for
him to become a veteran before letting
him play? It boggles the mind to try and
understand what is going on. The second
reason for putting in the young guy is
that at least the offense will start to mesh
around him, and they’ll have longer to
do it. Now to the negative side of things: since
our last issue the Redskins have gone 12 and scored 47 points. They have allowed 82 points. They have failed miserably this season at taking away the ball.
Washington has averaged over the years
around 25-30 takeaways per season. This
season through nine games they have
five total takeaways. That should sicken
any football fan let alone a Redskins
fan who watched the defense propel the
team into the playoffs last season. Their
kicker(s) can’t kick with any consistency
Page 25
or distance, their quarterback belongs in
the NFL retirement home, and the largest
humble pie ever served is being eaten by
one of the most all star coaching staffs
in the league. And just to add insult to
injury Clinton Portis broke his right hand
– when it rains, it pours, doesn’t it? The
brighter side of that is we have two really
good backups to carry the load. Ladell
Betts and T.J. Duckett, who are established running backs and did well yesterday in relief.
I have said it all season long – the Washington Redskins need a change. I am not
sure if it is just at quarterback or – please
forgive me for even thinking it – but at
the coaching helm as well? Is this season
some sort of science fiction aberration or
has the old Hall of Fame coach and his
super staff lost their edge or perspective
or whatever, after last year’s playoff run?
I, like other Skin fans, want to wake up
from this nightmare, we want answers
and we want solutions – AND we want
them sooner than next year!
The Skins schedule over the next two
weeks
11/19 @Tampa Bay
11/26 Carolina – they better win that
one, it’s my birthday and I’ll be there Del. Clifford L. “Clay” Athey, Jr.
18th District House of Delegates
Serving Fauquier, Frederick, and Warren County
Stacey & I thank you for the opportunity to serve.
If I can be of any help, please contact me at (540) 635-7917,
in Richmond at: (804) 698-1018,
by E-Mail at:[email protected],
or by mail at:
PO Box 406, Room 510
Richmond, VA 23218
Page 26
Tattoo (from pg. 24)
but they can say, ‘That’s exactly what I
wanted.’
“We also recommend that people bring
us views and visions of what they want.
We break on their vision, lay it out on
“And in a shop like ours, or any legitimate shop you’re able to go in and get
what you want at will, it’s almost therapeutic for a lot of people, I think, like
Troy’s tattoos – his whole top half is going to be jungle arrangements, that single
Outside the Cool and Selective Tattoo and Art Studio, from left, are tattoo artist Michael
Walker, William Rowlee, T.J. Johnson, Donna and Luis Torres and Troy Williams.
paper, they view it a couple times, we set
it up so they see what’s going to happen,
how the image is broken down and we go
from there.”
“When you go to a shop to meet an artist and you’re looking to get work, you
have to develop a relationship with that
artist so that your dream, your idea, your
imagination can come out through that
relationship,” friend and co-worker T.J.
Johnson says.
Sense of self, sense of place
The personal inspiration for a tattoo can
come from anywhere – from inside the
mind’s eye or from an object in nature
or the world that is meaningful to the individual, Torres, his staff and customers
point out. And while the individualistic
aspect of body art is of undeniable importance, particularly as it has risen in
popularity in the West, so traditionally is
the social element.
“For centuries in cultures around the
world it has been a tribal way of showing
maturity and the power of chiefs and other important people in the group,” Johnson notes. “When the females matured
and were ready to marry they would get
facial tattoos and body tattoos. So, tattooing throughout whole cultures and
with man in general has always been a
sign or way of showing where you belong in the group.
theme.”
With very little prompting, shop customer Troy Williams displayed the
theme Johnson spoke of. “It’s all about
the animals with me,” Williams says of
the inspiration for his evolving canvass.
“Other people like skulls and crossbones
or dragons but when I was growing up
my bedroom was always done in wildlife, African safaris, tropical rainforests.
“But my first tattoo I got when I was 18
was a skull with wings, which is now underneath the gorilla. I covered it up because I didn’t like it anymore and once
we did that we started going with the animal theme. I’ll bring Michael a picture,
like the one of lions, I brought it to him
and he did the rest. He said, ‘You want to
do it this way?’ and I just told him to go
with it and it turned out excellent, same
way with the leopards. I brought him a
picture of a momma leopard and two
little leopards and he did the rest, the tree
and all the rest were his add-ons.
“You’ve got to trust the person – after
all, they’ve got a needle and ink and are
working on you. Once he did the first one
on me, we became friends,” Williams
said of his relationship with his tattoo
artist.
“I knew Luis when he first came around,
we always talked and had a good relationship,” another customer, William
Rowlee, said of Torres. “And when Luis
started painting tattoos real hard then
for me that was just the man to see, the
only man to see. I don’t really trust too
many people and like Troy said, they’ve
got a needle and it’s hitting you quite a
few times. I’ve only had one other tattoo
done by another person,” Rowlee said,
indicating one on his arm. “And that one
hurt worse than Luis doing almost my
entire back. He’s real light handed and
he does real good work.”
Katie Allen agrees about the importance
of the relationship between the person
seeking a tattoo and their artist. “I kind
of always wanted one and my first tattoo
is a nautical star, it’s always been a symbol for me that I just loved. And he drew
it up and did it and he was making me
laugh the whole time and it wasn’t a traumatic experience at all,” Allen said of her
first tattoo done by Walker. “My second
tattoo, I came in and showed him another
design I liked and said I want something
like this but not this exact one. So, he
added his own view on what he thought
would look good and I love them both.”
First decision, final decisions
A polling of staff and clientele at the
Cool and Selective Tattoo and Art Studio
zeroed in on 18 as a minimum viable age
to acquire a first tattoo. And all reiterated
that the motivation should be more internal, than simply keeping up with what
one’s peers are doing. Torres noted that
Late Nov. 2006
parental consent is legally required for
children 16 and under, “Because anything younger, they really don’t have a
true grounding to understand what they
are doing.”
The 42-year-old Williams agreed, noting his own experience at 18 when he
acquired his winged skull to fit in with a
peer group he later outgrew. “At the time
I had to have that skull with wings – 15
years later I covered it up with something
that came from inside me.”
“I have tattoos that are almost 15 years
old and I’m still showing them off,” Torres adds. “And we all sit around showing
off our tattoos, looking at what specific
styles are out, what different color tones
you used for certain things. It’s a big
world,” Torres says of the tattoo industry. “It’s grown so fast in the last 10 years
that it’s hard to keep up with.
“But I honestly think that if you’re going
to get tattooed, make it about who you
are, not what you want – does that make
sense? – Because it’s a life choice,” Torres says. “I do it on a lot of soul, when
I touch the skin and when I touch the
thought, it starts. It’s not a matter of,
yea, this is another picture, I’ll take it for
granted, lay it down and not worry about
it when they leave here. It’s more than
that.”
Additional information on Torres’ studio
may be accessed at www.coolandselectivetattoos.com
Cool and Selective Tattoo Parlor proprietor Luis Torres came across this tattoo of a
fireman saving a child at one of the many tattoo conventions he attends. The dramatic
portrayal illustrates the concept of tattoo art as life chronicle, this one perhaps memorializing a firefighter lost on 9/11 in NYC. WCR photo by Roger Bianchini
Late Nov. 2006
Obituaries
Lee Dodson and Galen Vance “Bimbo”
Dodson both of North Carolina; two
grandchildren Miranda Blevins and
April Dodson. He was preceded in death
by two sisters Louise Faye ”Sissy” Jones
and Nannie Geneva “Pud” Dodson.
Pallbearers were Gary Smoot, Vincent Burke, Jr., Carlton Harper, Edward
Lawson, Donald Lawson, and Daniel
Lawson.
Honorary pallbearers were Thomas
Jones, Hollis Tharpe, George Whitmer,
Robert Donivan, Sidney Donivan, Jason
Donivan, and Angie Caison.
Arrangements were by Maddox Funeral Home in Front Royal.
Harry Joseph “Joe” Dodson
Harry Joseph “Joe” Dodson, 59, of
Front Royal died Monday, September
18, 2006 at Warren Memorial Hospital.
A funeral service was held on Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. at
Dynamic Life Praise and Worship Center
at 1600 John Marshall Highway, Front
Royal, conducted by Pastor Carlton
Rogers and Rev. Teresa Sharp. Burial
followed at Bennett’s Chapel Cemetery
with military honors conducted by the
U.S. Army and Winchester VFW Post
2123.
Mr. Dodson was born February 7,
1947 in Page County son of the late
John Thomas “Tom” Dodson and Sarah
Frances Deavers Dodson. He was a U.
S. Army veteran and was a painter and
electrician with Giles Henry, Jr. He attended Dynamic Life Praise and Worship Center and was a former member of
Calvary Deliverance Ministries and New
Covenant Church.
Surviving are his wife of 32 years
Barbara Foley Dodson of Front Royal;
two daughters Joyce Blevins and Dawn
Dodson both of Front Royal; five stepchildren Douglas Blair of California,
Sarah Smith , Brenda Smoot, Linda
Whitmer, and Thomas Jones all of Front
Royal; four sisters Emma Jean Boone
and Mary “Pootsie” Baker both of Front
Royal, Betty Ann Chamberlain of Haymarket and Evelyn Mae Gaines of Culpeper; four brothers John William “Billy” Dodson, Sr. of Middletown, Charles
Thomas “Buck” Dodson of Luray, Roger
Benjamin Hunter Mark
“Raccoon” Gibbs
Benjamin Hunter Mark “Raccoon”
Gibbs, 42, of Linden, died Saturday,
September 23, 2006 in Prince William
County.
A funeral service was held on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 1:00 p.m.
at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic
Church in Front Royal conducted by The
Rev Edward C. Hathaway. Burial was
held in the Gibbs Family Cemetery in
Linden.
Mr. Gibbs was born May 23, 1964 in
Front Royal, VA son of Elizabeth Margaret “Bessie” Johnson Gibbs of Cincinnati, Ohio and the late H. Ray Gibbs. He
was a songwriter, street musician and
folk hero.
Surviving along with his mother are
nine brothers and sisters.
Pallbearers were brothers and
friends.
Memorial contributions may be made
to Catholic Relief Services, P.O. Box
17152, Baltimore, MD 21297-1152.
Richard J. McDermott
WORCESTER-Richard J. McDermott, 67, of 21 Dillon Street, died Thursday, October 26th, in Autumn Village
Nursing Center. He leaves a son, Ryan
P. McDermott of Worcester; 2 brothers,
James H. McDermott of State College,
PA, and John E. McDermott of Stephens
City, VA; a grandson, Ryan P. McDermott II of Worcester; nephews, nieces
and cousins. He was predeceased by a
brother, Francis McDermott, in 1978.
He was born in Worcester, the son of
Augustine H. and Madeline Y. McDer-
mott and lived here all his life. Mr. McDermott was a supervisor at several area
plastics companies before retiring.
A graveside service was held Tuesday, October 31st at 1:00 PM Tuesday
in Worcester County Memorial Park,
Paxton. Contributions may be made
to Autumn Village Nursing Center, 25
Oriol Drive, Worcester, MA 01605.
Oâ€™CONNOR BROTHERS FUNERAL HOME, 592 Park Avenue, directed
arrangements.
C. Lyle McFall
The life of C. Lyle McFall was celebrated in a memorial service at 11:00
a.m. on November 6th. Coach McFall
was a long-time resident of Front Royal
and a beloved coach, teacher, and athletic director at Randolph-Macon Academy
for 35 years. He passed away on October
7, 2006 at the age of 91. The service was
held at Boggs Chapel on the R-MA campus.
Thomas Jonas Peachey
Thomas Jonas Peachey died Wednesday morning in his home at age 62. Tom
is survived by a large and loving family,
including Theresa Ann Marks Peachey,
his wife of almost 40 years; three daughters and sons-in-law: Elizabeth Rebecca
Peachey; Jennifer Peachey Schaefer and
James Michael Schaefer, Susan Rose
Marks Peachey and Ryan David Kenney, and Christopher Thomas Wood; his
granddaughter Jill Peachey Schaefer;
his sisters and brother: Donna Staples,
Evelyn Anderson, Marlin Peachey, and
Lydia Penrod; and his mother, Goldie
Evelyn Peachey.
Tom was born to Goldie and Milo
Page 27
Rudy Peachey (deceased) on December
14, 1943 in Strasburg, Virginia. He was
a past member of the Buckton Presbyterian Church, the Warren County Mental
Health Association, and Board member
and trainer for Concern Hotline.
Tom spent a year at the Colegio
Quinze de Novembro in Garahums, Brazil as he considered a career as a missionary. He received a B.A. in History at
Virginia Tech in 1967 and went on to receive a M.A. in Psychology with a minor
in Education from East Tennessee State
University in 1969.
Immediately following his graduation
from ETSU, Tom spent a year teaching
history at the 15th Street School in Front
Royal. He then spent several years working as a counselor and psychologist for
mental health agencies in South Carolina,
North Carolina, and West Virginia. Tom
then began his career with Northwestern
Community Services in 1981. During
his 25 years with the agency, Tom held
many positions, and he served as Acting
Director on two occasions. He retired as
Clinical Director in December of 2005
at which time the Northwestern Community Services Center for Health and
Development was renamed the Thomas
J. Peachey Center in his honor. He was
a lifetime advocate for mental health issues, and he always received great joy
from helping others better their lives.
In his spare time, Tom enjoyed music. He recently learned to play his
fiddle (named “Frenchie”), cello, and
viola (“Gypsy Dan”) and spent the last
few months teaching his granddaughter
to bang on the keyboard and strum on
Frenchie. One of Tom’s longtime goals
was to write a cookbook entitled “Livin’
Lard,” to include his highly demanded
recipes including his fried potatoes, apple pancakes, sausage gravy, potato soup,
and the famous Peachey “Jesus Gravy.”
A memorial service was held at Maddox Funeral Home at 11 a.m. on Saturday the 28th
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Blue Ridge Hospice, Northwestern Community Services,
or St. Luke’s Community Clinic.
Liane Rosel Theoharis
Liane Rosel Theoharis, 76, of Warren
County passed away on Monday, October 16, 2006 at Warren Memorial Hospital.
Mrs. Theoharis was born December
16, 1929 in Camden, New Jersey daughter of the late Kurt R. and Johanna S.
Obituaries, Pg. 29
Page 28
For the fourth year, South Warren Ruritan Club member Lloyd G. Baltimore worked the
polls for the Democrats at the Bentonville fire hall. WCR photo by Dan McDermott
84 year old World War II veteran Edgar Baldwin stood in the rain for the Democrats. He
got interested in politics fifty years ago because he is concerned about social security,
medicare, and the working man. He is a former chairman of the Warren County Democratic party. WCR photo by Dan McDermott.
It was smooth sailing at the Bentonville firehall on election day as election officer Tancy
Seal shows folks how to use the fancy machines. WCR photo by Dan McDermott
Late Nov. 2006
Richard Radi has been a volunteer for the Republicans since George W. Bush was
elected. He considers Bush a great president. “If we don’t fight the terrorists over there,
“ he said, “we’ll be fighting them in the streets. WCR photo by Dan McDermott.
New Front Royal Town Manager J. Michael Graham takes a break from a radio interview
to read the latest news in a snazzy new copy of Warren County Report. :-) WCR photo
by Dan McDermott.
Rose Terry and Pat Hollenbaugh finally got hitched. WCR photo by Dan McDermott
Late Nov. 2006
Obituaries (from pg. 27)
Bachmann Muench. She worked for
Safeway in the meat department and
was the owner of a house cleaning
service. She was married to the late
Christ G. Theoharis.
Surviving is one daughter Christina J. “Tina” Varnau and her husband
Kenneth Wayne Varnau, Sr. of Front
Royal; two grandchildren; and one
great-grandchild.
Arrangements were by Maddox
Funeral Home in Front Royal.
Nancy Hunter
Ambler Urbanski
Nancy Hunter Ambler Urbanski,
82, of Fiery Run Rd., Linden, VA, died
at home Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006.
A memorial service was held on
Monday at 11:00 a.m. at Leeds Episcopal Church in Hume conducted by
Father Alex Darby.
Mrs. Urbanski was born Oct. 19,
1923, at Mt. Welby Farm in Linden,
daughter of the late James Markham
Marshall Ambler and Nancy “Nannie”
Hunter Dulany deButts Ambler. She
was a graduate of Alexandria High
School and the Washington School for
Secretaries. She was a legal secretary
in Front Royal and a secretary for the
Washington National Airport Air Traffic Safety Control Officer. Since 1969,
she and her husband have owned
and operated Willow Run Kennels
in Linden. She was a member of the
Warrenton Kennel Club, the American
Brittany Club, and the Rappahannock
Brittany Club. She was a member of
Leeds Episcopal Church.
She is survived by her husband
Sgt. Maj. John Francis Urbanski, Sr.,
USMC Ret.; a daughter Susan U. Simar
of Mercersburg, PA and her husband
Ron; a son John “Jeff” Francis Urbanski, Jr. of Linden; five grandchildren
Eric Ambler Mercer, Millicent Ambler
Urbanski, John Francis Urbanski IV,
Matthew Louis Simar, and Seton Ross
Simar; three great-grandchildren; and
three nieces.
In addition to her parents, she was
preceded in death by two sisters Julia
Ambler Cox and Mary Ambler Feagans.
In lieu of flowers, donations may
be made to the Hospice of the Rapidan, P.O. Box 1715, Culpeper, VA
22701.
Maddox Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Page 29
Opinion
Front Royal Town Council’s trashy logic
Garbage
collection
as
law
enforcement
By ROGER BIANCHINI
If the Front Royal Town government has its way garbage collection is poised to become an arm of town law enforcement.
While curious in its own right, that may be a demotion in some ways because it seems that Front Royal’s garbage men – God
bless them and the very crucial social function they perform – have already been elevated by council to the level of policy makers for town government. But who’s to say that may not be a step in the right direction.
For while proposed ordinance changes regarding the weekly collection of trash in town may be a result of input from garbage men and designed to make the trash man’s job more palatable and time efficient, one can hardly imagine the discussion on
the back of a garbage truck being as inane as that heard in the halls of government when the Front Royal Town Council gathers
to discuss the local results of rampant conspicuous consumption.
Among the pending offenses leading to Class 3 Misdemeanor citations with fines varying from $10 to $25 per day and up
to $500 for violations of the town trash collection policy are: non-bagging of all trash, setting your trash out after 6:30 a.m. on
collection days, not keeping an odor and vermin-free container, disposal of medical waste and verbal harassment of garbage
men.
Another pending violation is the non-separation of recyclable items – cans, plastics and paper – though a failure to recycle
will remain legal. While the goal may be more efficient time management for crews, one wonders if criminalizing the mixing
of recyclables will really help achieve another public works goal – increased participation in recycling.
But perhaps most baffling, particularly from a safety point of view, is the legally mandated placement of the town’s lovely
blue 96-gallon containers in the street rather than on the curb.
The pending criminal act of putting your trashcan on the curb perhaps best illustrates the lack of common sense displayed
by Front Royal’s lawmakers. This condition has been proposed because of “numerous” citizen complaints about having to walk
around garbage containers blocking sidewalks, council says. Yes, walking around a large garbage container the town forces its
citizens to possess (now with a proposed $55 deposit) and use, surely impacts the comfort level of people both too lazy and too
distracted to step around them safely. But I thought the Communists lost the Cold War – when did Front Royal, an American
town, become a dictatorship of the proletariat? I thought that in a representative democracy, which the U.S. used to be, the informed populous elected officials to make decisions based on their access to information not as readily available to the general
public and that such decisions be based on the common good without regard for factional discontent.
Questioned about the “in the street” aspect of the proposed ordinance, Front Royal’s mayor recalled one outraged citizen
who keyed a car parked on a service station lot in retaliation for having to walk around the business’s trash containers. Now
there’s an interesting theory – legislative change as a deterrent to criminal behavior. If a few phone calls and one angry woman
with a key can get the law changed, well I see limitless possibilities here.
But more seriously, one wonders if the first person forced to exit their vehicle in the street to move town garbage cans
blocking parking spaces who is struck down by a distracted, perhaps cell-phone chatting driver, will be able to call town staff
to express their displeasure with the town’s in-the-street garbage can ordinance? Has council or staff pondered the insurance
liability of that potential case?
But not to worry – no fatalities, or calls from that side . . . yet. So, we’ll go with the flow of public opinion and criminal behavior
rather than attempt to think this one through logically . . . after all, it works for the placement of stop signs on secondary street
intersections in random sequences throughout town.
“Ridiculous,” “amusing,” the creation of “another layer of bureaucracy to accomplish what existing laws already should
achieve,” were among the colorful descriptions of the proposal offered by two citizens, Suzanne Silek and Bonnie Gabbert, at
the public hearing on the proposed ordinance change. From this perspective these citizens appear to have given more considered thought to the problem than council has.
“Am I going to be fined if someone walks by and throws a bottle or some loose trash in my container? At least it’s in a can
and not thrown in the street. But how will you determine who put it in there?” Suzanne Silek asked council about its enforcement policies. “It reminds me of a little boys club that gathers to hand out punishments for rules they make up because they
don’t have anything else to do,” Silek observed.
But perhaps we are selling our town fathers short and the new garbage rules are simply part of a well-conceived plan that
will allow the town to balance future, spiraling budgets by gouging the public over every misstep taken outside the safety of
their own homes.
Elsewhere in this issue, town Public Works Director Steve Burke puts forth a fairly convincing argument for at least some
of the proposed changes. If those changes work as Burke envisions, the new policy might work to the benefit of both the town
and its citizen. However, if citations become plentiful for minor infractions that annoy our beloved garbage men when they are
having a bad day, then we would suggest council adopt an alternate strategy to punish blatant offenders under existing laws and
put this whole trash collection criminalization policy in the trash (bagged of course).
Opinion, Pg. 30
Page 30
Late Nov. 2006
Opinion (from pg. 29)
The Scourge of the Bac-N’ Fin
A bedtime Fable:
Front Royal as the center of the universe. All local delicacies are national brand standards. Nature is replaced with cities
as the norm
The life of a journeyman journalist has once again led me to pick up my pencil and pad and strike out for a new city, a new
paper, and a new adventure. The challenge of making it in the big leagues makes this a grand venture indeed. What stringer
hasn’t hoped to land a beat inside the nation’s capital beltway in the fabled Mountain Metropolis of Front Royal? I’ve followed the Interstates east for 2 days now, tracing the same path that Carson McLauder did in the 1950s as he drove
his Bac-N’ Fin mobile east on U.S. 55 in the days before I-66. Just as he knew opportunity laid somewhere to the east beyond
the Alleghenies, so did I. I’d sustained myself on more than a few McSaumburgers, lured off the highway by the inviting
golden arches. But now they seemed to taste better the closer
I got to their corporate headquarters, for nowhere else on earth has the perfect balance of mountain streams filled with acid rain
met the hormonally charged chicken excrement found in the Shenandoah River, that has allowed the spawning of that most
unique of commercially viable livestock aquaculture – the Bac-N’ Fin.
Sure I’d done my research, as all good journalists do, and had read the Wikipedia entry on the pork/smallmouth bass hybrid. Like some mythical Kirin, this beastie has the head of a pig, the tail of a fish, and the appetite of a hundred offensive tackles
– but instead of triple whoppers with cheese and milk shakes with steroid chasers, these creatures lusted for river grass and
garbage. They’d stripped the South Fork of the Shenandoah of most grasses within a few years post hybridization, and then
the trouble began.
Foraging herds of what appeared to be drooling mermaids with Rosie McDonald’s face and a maniacal lust for leftovers
became a nightly spectacle. Their initial forays resulted in bloody and vicious encounters as the valley’s black bears defended
their turf in the Andy Guest Shenandoah State Park. If the valley had been in Montana, and the bears had been 12-foot Grizzlies, perhaps they could have held their own.
But our native, 350-pound black bears were forced to retreat to the mountains, where the Bac-N’ Fins could not follow,
leaving the valley to a new king. The ascent of the Bac-N fin left Bentonville largely abandoned, as the beast’s nightly forays
from river to the dump, their favored feeding ground, proved too dangerous for most human habitation. But like any good story, this one has its gallant protagonist, saving the town and its inhabitants from Mother Nature run
amok. Brace Noel was a simple man, with a legendary love for the river and an unmatched prowess with the fly rod and
paddle…..
and it was here that the Bac-N’ Fin met its match. Like breaking a horse, it was less a battle than a simple matter of establishing who the master was. Brace had spent his life
mastering the river, and all of its creatures. Half horse whisperer, half Aquaman, Brace exerted his will over the abomination
that was the product of all he had fought against during his life. However, the great irony became more evident as his domestication of the Bac-N’Fin resulted in one of the fast food industry’s most profitable creations since the square cod.
But that story will have to wait for next time . . . - Jado Jack
Pat Tillman’s Brother Breaks his Silence
By Dave Zirin
When Pat Tillman, former NFL player and Army Ranger, died in Afghanistan
in 2004, it unleashed a drama that moved
from tragedy to obscenity to mystery.
First there was Pat’s death. Because Tillman wasn’t the kind of anonymous fallen
soldier the Bush administration could
blithely ignore, we all bore witness to the
tears of his family – including his brother, best friend, and fellow Army Ranger,
Kevin.
Pat’s death - like every last death
that’s resulted from this horrific Middle
Eastern escapade – was tragedy. Then
came obscenity: it came out after Pat’s
funeral, that he had died at the hands of
his own troops in a case of “friendly fire.”
This bit of information was suppressed
from everyone outside the Pentagon and
Oval Office, even from Pat’s family. It
was even kept from Kevin, serving in
Pat’s battalion. Eulogists like John McCain - knowingly or unknowingly – told
lies over Pat Tillman’s body about death
in combat. Bush gave a speech about
Tillman over the jumbotron at football
stadiums. From the perspective of this
administration, Pat died for the noble
cause of PR.
Finally from obscenity sprung mystery. For Pat’s parents Mary and Pat,
Sr. there were unanswered questions.
Why were they fed lies? Why were
Pat’s clothes and equipment burned at
the scene? Why wasn’t Kevin told the
truth at the scene? What happened to
Pat’s journal, that he had kept with him
for years? To pressure army investigators, Mary and Pat, Sr. went public about
Pat’s true feelings about the war in Iraq
(he thought it was illegal) and his growing questioning about the Bush “war on
terror.” Now Pat’s brother Kevin has broken his silence as well. Kevin has written
a brilliant piece that should be distributed
in front of every army recruitment center
and sent to every person who wears the
uniform. I don’t agree with every word,
but that’s hardly the point: Kevin, like
Pat, represents a growing surge in this
country against the machinery of death
and the lies that grease its wheels. We
have paid dearly for those lies. It’s time
to bring the troops home now.
After Pat’s Birthday
By Kevin Tillman
It is Pat’s birthday on November 6,
and elections are the day after. It gets
me thinking about a conversation I had
with Pat before we joined the military.
He spoke about the risks with signing
the papers. How once we committed, we
were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we
could be thrown in a direction not of our
volition. How fighting as a soldier would
leave us without a voice . . . until we get
out.
Much has happened since we handed
over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a
nation because it was a direct threat to
the American people, or to the world, or
harbored terrorists, or was involved in the
September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had
mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had
a need to be liberated, or we needed to
establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that
can’t be called a civil war even though it
is. Something like that.
Somehow America has become a
country that projects everything that it is
not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow our elected leaders were
subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around
the world, secretly kidnapping people,
secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything,
secretly torturing them. Somehow that
overt policy of torture became the fault
of a few “bad apples” in the military.
Somehow back at home, support for
the soldiers meant having a five-year-old
kindergartener scribble a picture with
crayons and send it overseas, or slapping
stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress
for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth
tour should care about a drawing from a
five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car
as his friends die around him; or an extra
pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him
when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet
into the air as his body comes apart and
his skin melts to the seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that die,
the more legitimate the illegal invasion
becomes.
Somehow American leadership,
whose only credit is lying to its people
and illegally invading a nation, has been
allowed to steal the courage, virtue and
honor of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed
to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.
Somehow faking character, virtue
and strength is tolerated.
Somehow profiting from tragedy and
horror is tolerated.
Somehow the death of tens, if not
hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.
Opinion, Pg. 31
Late Nov. 2006
Opinion (from pg. 30)
Somehow subversion of the Bill of
Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
Somehow suspension of Habeas
Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.
Somehow American leadership
managed to create a more dangerous
world.
Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
Somehow America has become a
country that projects everything that it
is not and condemns everything that it
is.
Somehow the most reasonable,
trusted and respected country in the
world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has
been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent,
narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of
this country.
Somehow this is tolerated.
Somehow nobody is accountable
for this.
In a democracy, the policy of the
leaders is the policy of the people. So
don’t be shocked when our grandkids
bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to
humanity. Most likely, they will come
to know that “somehow” was nurtured
by fear, insecurity and indifference,
leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice.
People still can take action. It can start
after Pat’s birthday.
Letters to the Editor
Revenue maneuvers
Editor,
Ronald Mabry told three local newspaqpers and a radio station that our Warren County Commissioner of the Revenue John H. Smedley Sr., told him that
he would not run for re-election in 2007.
If we look at that statement in the most
favorable light for Mabry, if we believe
what Mabry said, then why didn’t Mabry
allow Smedley the opportunity to make
his own statement about hhis future
plans? It was presumptuous of Mabry to
announce Smedley’s retirement. I don’t
remeber this ever happening before.
Did Danny McEathron announce Warren COunty Sheriff Lynn Armwentrout’s
retirement? Did Jennifer SIms announce
Clerk of COurt Bill Hall’s retirement?
Did Wanda Bryant announce Treasurer
Doris Miller’s retirement?
I believe . . . [Mabry’s recruiters] knew
Smedley was running - that is why they
recruited Mabry to run.
I see Smedley several times a week. I
know Smedley always was preparing to
run next year. How do I know? He asked
for my support after his last election so he
would be eligible for his full retirement
benefits as were Armentrout, Hall and
Miller. Actually, 59 is kindd of young to
retire. After 27 years in local government
wouldn’t you want your full benefits?
Richard Campbell
Front Royal
“A Message to
Both Parties”
takes) but Rumsfeld has not been fired;
inequitable tax policies; scandals galore
including but not limited to Abramoff,
“No Child Left Behind,” Valerie Plame,
(Note, this letter was sent October 28, William Jefferson, Curt Weldon, Mark
2006. This was after our pre-election is- Foley, Harry Reid, etc. (And the biggest
sue.)
scandal of all, the fact that nothing has
Editor,
been done about this mess); fiscal irre We need to send a message to politi- sponsibility; no straight talk, only evacians of both parties that what is going siveness and spin; lack of action on Soon and not going on in Washington is un- cial Security, immigration, health care,
acceptable. I have worked the polls here global warming, energy independence,
in Front Royal for the Republican Party etc.; and finally, general incompetence,
and I have provided some financial sup- for example, the administration’s report - meager though it may have been. sponse (or lack thereof) with regard to
Two years ago I was dissatisfied with the the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.
progress of the war in Iraq (particularly All of this has happened on the Rethe Abu Ghraib scandal) and made my publican’s watch when they were in confeelings known to my local Republican trol of both the legislative and executive
contacts asking that they be passed on up branches of our government. They need
the line.
to be held accountable. We need to send
Surprise! Surprise! They weren’t an unmistakable message from the true
passed up the line or the politicians didn’t “grass roots” of America that what is gopay any attention. So I voted Democrat- ing on is not acceptable no matter who is
ic for the first time last November to send running the show.
a message to the Republican leadership. If and when the Democrats are in conAnd they got the wrong message – when trol in Washington and they fail in their
Kaine was elected governor of Virginia, responsibility to us, I will vote against
Republicans said they lost because they them. But this year I am going to hold
had not been “conservative” enough.
the Republicans accountable. I am going
I need help (lots of it) to let politi- to vote Democratic
cians of both parties know that the following are not acceptable: No account- Help!
ability - the Defense Department was
responsible for Abu Ghraib and the fact Waller H. Wilson
that there was no post war planning for The Promised Land
Iraq (not to mention countless other mis- Front Royal, Virginia
We’d love to hear your opinion too!
Please send letters to:
Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman
[Dave Zirin is the author of “’What’s
My Name Fool?’: Sports and Resistance in the United States” (Haymarket Books) You can receive his column
Edge of Sports, every week by e-mailing
edgeofsports-subscribe@zirin.
com. Contact him at [email protected]]
Page 31
[email protected]
or mail to us at the address on page 2.
Page 32
Late Nov. 2006
Boys of Summer, Fall from Grace
(Managing editor’s note: sports fans
at every level can relate to the pleasure/pain/emotional void experience
expressed below in the “Strike 3” rumination of a transplanted native Long Islander and lifelong Mets fan. The opening subject line “Strike 3” is a reference
to the final pitch of the National League
Championship Series taken by perhaps
the Mets’ best player, Carlos Beltran.
With the Mets trailing 3-1 with the bases
loaded, and two outs, Beltran stood frozen with the hearts and minds of the Mets
faithful, watching a huge breaking ball
drop Icarus-like through the chilly night
air at Shea Stadium for a called third
strike to send St. Louis to the World Series and the MLB championship. Rob’s
Mets angst resurrected old scars from
deep inside a transplanted baby boomer
and D.C. native’s Major League Baseball-torn heart.)
Action: “Strike 3”
As I sit here wondering what will fill
the baseball void ‘til April, I listen to Dionne Warwick’s Theme from the Valley
of the Dolls over & over & over on my
MP3 player. I hope maybe to plug the
hole with music, but I do not feel particularly inspired by anything right at this
moment. The theme from the Valley of
the Dolls over & over & over is about all
I can deal with. It feels comfortable.
The whole mystique of the Mets is
based around the fact that hope DOES
spring eternal in the human heart – even
in the darkest night. But the Mets twist
that theme. Over their years, right from
the beginning, they will look good, then
falter and seem a hopeless cause. You almost give up on them. Then like a Phoenix, they rise miraculously and when the
pinnacle is within reach, they implode
to flutter back to mediocrity. This NLCS
was a microcosm of the whole Met mystique. Even in the years of the Stengle/
Thornberry Mets they would have brilliant late inning comebacks only to loose
in the 9th. I spent many childhood nights
with a transistor radio under my pillow
as an ear witness to these.
They were impotent when the stakes
were high . . . and with or without the
players who were on the DL, they could
not get the job done and it will take a
winter of bleak dank volumes of vacu-
um void with no baseball to re-cultivate
my Mets-ness back to where it was just
hours ago with the winning run on in the
bottom of the ninth.
– Rob
Reaction: A Baby Boomer’s Lament
on Baseball and Corporate Culture
What do lawyers, TV sports announcers and commentators all have in
common? I’ll tell you what they all have
in common – they’re all like locust in the
height of plague season. At least most
lawyers don’t invade my home via my
TV, the corporate cultural conduit for
the plastic fantastic American dream machine assimilator, and they don’t act like
they must use a microphone to kidnap
me during baseball playoff games.
It escapes me why TV’s baseball announcers think it is in their best interest
to torture me, to beat me relentlessly with
their words and words of deadened insensibilities and silliness about a game that
frequently escapes their futile attempts
to convey, as would-be provocative commentary, the pure joy of the game. But
for now their silence has been rendered
mercifully complete and the lengthening shadows of the dying season now
enshroud the memories of summer. Rob
will eventually succeed in exorcising his
disappointments and reestablishing his
“Metness,” as we will all be nourished
in the sacrament of our belief in the hallowed continuum of baseball.
With further reflection upon Rob’s
haunting lament, I am brought back to
my new relationship with MLB – I am
a recovering fan. I know I have an addiction but I now know better the demon
temptress. Having been a childhood
devotee of my beloved Senators since
the mid-1950s, it can be difficult to fully
comprehend a crushing loss in terms of
losing a championship. My team almost
always failed to approach a .500 season
and frequently finished last in the American League. But I adored them as my
team and to this day the memories of Roy
Sievers, Pedro Ramos, Camillo Pascual,
Clint Courtney still play on my field of
dreams. And then off to Minnesota they
went. That first marriage with MLB
ended sadly. My second installment of
Senators was a bargain basement expansion team that eventually brought Ted
Williams, Frank Howard and many other
memorable figures to town. But soon the
second marriage with MLB would also
end in bitter divorce. Regardless of those
failed extended summer romances, I have
kept my loyalty to the concept of “my
team” from the summers of my youth.
Being jilted twice by MLB, like a
whoring wife, left me cold to the machinations of the baseball business. The
seventies, eighties, and nineties would
leave me calloused further to the teasing of the temptress that is MLB. These
decades since the Senators had left but
a mild interest in MLB. But MLB has
reared its ugly head once again in my
hometown. She re-arrived with promises of undying devotion and love if we
would consummate another marriage
with her. A more mature and sophisticated but no less tempting seductress
was running her fingers through my hair
with one hand and searching my pants
with her other to check out the thickness
of my wallet. I became immediately enthralled and intoxicated with my desire
for my new team, the Nationals. We met
many times in the summer of our courtship, but it soon became evident that
MLB and its merry band of robber-baron
owners would again be unfaithful to the
fans and the franchise. We were denied
ownership for two years and a means to
effectively compete until MLB had had
its way with us. Eventually, MLB turned
an unprecedented profit in the sale of the
team, but in the meantime had turned a
franchise with immediate hope into one
of calculated depreciation. Many of us
felt raped. But now with a third rocky
relationship behind us, the Nationals are
still in town, local owner in tow and are
finally ready to make their mark on my
heart. But what a brotherhood of bandits
these owners are. Their acts of collusion
to maximize their profit at the expense
of the consumer are only possible with
the sanctions of the U.S. Congress and
the Anti-Trust exemption status of these
thieves.
And then we have Alphonso in his
shopping spree with thoughts of Frank
Robinson, the man who mentored his
transition into a newer and better stardom, and he walks away with no one to
take his place – Frank’s nor his . . . a twofer,. one-er for MLB in old D.C.
In contrast to Rob’s NLCS game 7 angst,
imagine a Cardinal fan’s sinking, sinking feeling as he watched an atrophied
season running off the fumes of winter’s
high hopes . . . and the fading into reality the Tiger fans would hauntingly come
to grips with as the summer wore on . .
. and then the triumphant New Yorkers
waiting in the wings for the bitter bite of
the anti-baseball grand climax, the playoffs, where fortunes of statistical purity
– the 162-game season is sacrificed to the
gods of TV upon the alter of the church
of consumer saints. The purity of statistics bleeds from the altar into a five-game
series . . . and then into the throes of
baseball winter two best of seven series
played at night to appease the consumer
saints and their wind-chill gods – the Tigers, Yankees and Mets choked the evangelical TV tells me – LIES, LIES, LIES I
scream at the microphone-toting baseball
bobble-heads whose images emblazon
the idol!
Home runs and averages are compiled
over the long haul and hitting is fickle, a
minor slump in July is a catastrophe in
October. And how many timely hits are
necessary to win a couple of games? And
how often do these pre-winter classics
present us with the non-star in starring
roles. They can’t do it for a season but
when you’re hot it can last a week or so
and a few bad games can ruin a season in
a week in October no matter the season
record. I’m reminded of the 1960s – no
playoffs, the season’s two best squaring
off during the light of day. I remember
my mother letting me stay home from
school to watch the seventh game of the
1960 World Series – Yankees-Pirates, 99 in the bottom of the ninth. Ralph Terry
started his windup . . . Bill Mazeroski
waited at the plate . . .
Excuse this on and on. I watched almost all the playoffs – that’s a lot of TV. I
am still recuperating from the pyramid of
packaged contrivances in the ecology of
consumer spiritualism. But the strangest
thing happened one night, the electronic
veil was lifted and I saw the eye of the
pyramid, I saw it close up in extra innings – the eye was my TV.
Now with the season switched fully
to the gridiron, maybe this revelation can
somehow explain the rationale for the
BCS.
– Shoeless Joe Bazooka
Late Nov. 2006
Page 33
Community calendar
Planning Commission Meeting
11/15/2006 - 7:00pm
The Front Royal Planning Commission meets on the 3rd Wednesday
of each month in the Warren County
Government Center’s Board Meeting
Room.
Christmas Bazaar
11/18/2006 - 8:00am - 2:00pm
You are invited to Browntown for their
annual Christmas Bazaar held in the
Browntown Community Center. Enjoy
the talents of local crafters as well as
a tour of the historic Updike Building
and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Lunch and Browntown items will be
available for sale.
THANKSGIVING - Town Holiday
11/23/2006
THANKSGIVING DAY - The Town of
Front Royal business offices will be
closed today. Trash, Yard Waste and
Recycling pick-up for this day will be
Wednesday, November 22.
Bluegrass Party
11/24/2006 - 7:00pm -10:00pm
You are invited to a Bluegrass Picking
Party tonight at the Warren County
Senior Center located at 1217 Commonwealth Avenue. This is a Community Jam Session where all musicians
at all levels are welcome. Acoustic Instruments Only. Coffee and food will
be available for purchase. Admission
is FREE. Donations are welcome.
Proceeds benefit the Warren County
Senior Center.
Town Council Meeting
11/27/2006 - 7:00pm
The Front Royal Town Council meets
in the Warren County Government
Center’s Board Meeting Room on the
2nd & 4th Monday of each month (with
the exception of December, when the
Council meets the 3rd Monday).
Caroling
12/15/2006 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm
You are welcome to join neighbors
and friends singing old favorites accompanied by a local pianoistin the
Christmas Celebration
Browntown Community Center in
12/1/2006 - 10:00am - 5:00pm
Browntown. Don’t miss out on the
It’s “Home for the Holidays - Old Time rendition of the “Twelve Days of
Christmas Celebration” in Downtown Christmas”.
Front Royal at the Gazebo. The famous Kriskindlmartkt (a Christmas Town Council Meeting
Market) opens today. This event is 12/18/2006 - 7:00pm
sponsored by the Downtown Busi- The Front Royal Town Council meets
ness Association. More information is in the Warren County Government
available at (540)631-0099 or www. Center’s Board Meeting Room on the
downtownfrontroyal.com.
2nd & 4th Monday of each month (with
the exception of December, when the
Christmas Parade
Council meets the 3rd Monday).
12/2/2006 - 4:15pm
Today is the Annual Christmas parade BZA Meeting
in historic Downtown Front Royal. This 12/18/2006 - 7:30pm
event is sponsored by the Downtown The Front Royal Board of Zoning ApBusiness Association. For more infor- peals (BZA) meets on the 3rd Monday
mation please call (540)631-0099.
of each month (applications permitting) in the Warren County GovernBluegrass Party
ment Center’s Board Meeting Room.
12/8/2006 - 7:00pm - 10:00pm
The Town Council also meets on this
Come out and listen to gospel and night, therefore the BZA will meet in
old time music played by acoutstic the Caucus Room, which is adjacent
instruments, at the Browntown Com- to the Board Room. Please call the
munity Center. All levels of musicians Town of Front Royal Planning/Zoning
are welcome. Food & drinks available Office for more information(540)635for purchase. All proceeds benefit 4236.
the Browntown Community Center.
Please contact (540)778-4777 or Planning Commission Meeting
(540)636-3588 for more information. 12/20/2006 - 7:00pm
The Front Royal Planning CommisBAR Meeting
sion meets on the 3rd Wednesday
12/12/2006 - 7:30pm
of each month in the Warren County
The Front Royal Board of Architec- Government Center’s Board Meeting
tural Review (BAR) meets the 2nd Room.
Tuesday of each month (applications
permitting) in the Warren County Christmas Concert
Government Center’s Board Meeting 12/22/2006 - 1:30pm
Room.
Enjoy a wonderful holiday concert at
Randolph Macon Academy Melton
Gymnasium today.
Bluegrass Party
12/22/2006 - 7:00pm - 10:00pm
You are invited to a Bluegrass Picking
Party tonight at the Warren County
Senior Center located at 1217 Commonwealth Avenue. This is a Community Jam Session where all musicians
at all levels are welcome. Acoustic Instruments Only. Coffee and food will
be available for purchase. Admission
is FREE. Donations are welcome.
Proceeds benefit the Warren County
Senior Center.
CHRISTMAS EVE
12/24/2006
Since today is Sunday, the Town of
Front Royal will celebrate Christmas
Eve on Tuesday, December 26, 2006.
Garbage, Recycling & Yard Waste will
be picked up on Wednesday, December 27, 2006.
CHRISTMAS DAY - Town Holiday
12/25/2006
Christmas Day - The Town of Front
Royal Business Offices will be closed
today. Trash, Yard Waste and Recycling pick-up for this day will be
Wednesday, December 27. The Town
of Front Royal wishes you a Merry
Christmas!
Town Holiday
12/26/2006
The Town of Front Royal Business Offices will be closed today. Trash, Yard
Waste and Recycling pick-up for this
day will be Wednesday, January 4.
The Town of Front Royal wishes you
a Merry Christmas!
Page 34
Late Nov. 2006
Late Nov. 2006
Page 35
Cliff Rigney, the new program director for the Northern Virginia 4-H Educational Center
in Front Royal, appears on The Valley Today talk show on 95.3 FM and 1450 AM to encourage locals of college age to apply to be camp counselors for the 2007 season. He
can be reached at (540) 635-7171 and promises counselors long hours, loads of fun with
kids, and memories they’ll cherish for a lifetime. WCR photo by Dan McDermott
These two cans belonging to the Warren County Government Administration are in
violation of not only new ordinances, but old ones that allow the town garbage men
to not collect trash that overflows out of the mandated town containers. If you think
town-county relations are deteriorating over water issues, let the town stop taking the
county’s trash and see how things develop. WCR photo by Roger Bianchini
Italian Restaurant
“Authentic Italian Meals”
·
·
·
·
·
·
Pasta
· Pizza
Steaks · Chicken
Veal · Stromboli
Full Course Dinners
Beer, Wine & Cocktails
Banquets up to 100
A Great Taste from Italy to the Valley
Mon thru Thurs 11am - 10pm · Fri & Sat 11-11 · Sun Noon-10pm · Closed Tues
(Above) Governor Timothy Kaine and his entourage arrive at “Andy Guest” Shenandoah River State Park in Bentonville in a snazzy black Chevy SUV. The governor was
at the park to meet with the Shenandoah River Fish Kill Task Force and to announce
$150,000 in funding to continue scientific research into the fish kills that have plagued
the river. (Inset) Bentonville resident Ciera Shank was a trooper and hung on for a while
during the Governor’s speech but eventually gave in to her nap time.
WCR Photos by Becky Darnell
865 John Marshall Hwy · Rt 55E near 522 Intersection
Page 36
Puzzles
Solutions on Page 39
Late Nov. 2006
Late Nov. 2006
Giving thanks
ACROSS
1 Bakery employee
5 Parts of plants
10 Ms. McEntire
14 Long-running Broadway play
15 Depended
17 Get even for
20 Beginning of Psalm 107
23 Distress
24 So, on the brae
25 Bind
26 Ridiculous
28 Curve
29 Hunter, for one
31 Dark color
34 Start of many California cities
35 “Kiss Me, __”
36 Certain NCO
39 Big bill
40 Aide-de-camp: abbr.
41 Did a post-wedding task
48 Burr
49 Plunder; pillage
50 With 120 Across, song from 1958’s
Best Picture
54 On the house
55 Weasels
58 Nav. bigwig
60 Destruction
61 Type of cap
62 Barbarian
63 Observer
65 Systematic analyses of conscience
67 Refinery
70 “Once __, always a Marine!”
72 Foreign appreciation
75 Leader’s title, once
77 Here in France
78 And not
81 Patient
82 From __ Z
84 962
86 Nincompoop
87 Used up
88 Loos and others
90 Esbjerg residents
91 Hope’s theme
97 Mont Blanc’s location
100 Expire
101 Nettle
102 __ instant; immediately
103 Spoil
104 Automaton
106 Uncertain words
107 Copy
110 Martin, for one
112 Palms off
117 Suffix denoting origin
119 Liquid meas.
120 See 50 Across
125 Make certain
126 Jeweled accessories
127 Does a lawn chore
128 Take care of
129 Krona spender
6 Circus spot
7 Actress Sommer
8 Cloudiness
9 Clockmaker __ Thomas
10 “Hooray!”
11 First wife
12 Misrepresent
13 Prolific poet?
14 Parts of psyches
16 Female animals
18 Ground covering
19 Millay and Ferber
20 Have obligations
21 Tract of wasteland
22 Taught
27 Suffix for persist or absorb
30 Arthur, for one
32 Halloween greeting
33 Building site
35 Barbie’s beau
36 Witt & Lipinski
37 Wanderer
130 Dagger
DOWN
1 Climbing plants
2 Two decks
3 Limoges seasons
4 Knocking sound
5 Madre’s title: abbr.
38 You: Fr.
40 “What __!”; “Alas”
41 Float on the breeze
42 __ avis
43 City in Utah
44 Foot part
45 Gun owners’ org
Page 37
46 Make harmless
47 Mr. Allen
51 Address abbr.
52 Negative prefix
53 Catholic men’s org.
55 New York stadium
56 __, Oklahoma
57 Canadian prov.
59 Foreign appreciation
64 Set aside for a special purpose
66 VI and VII
67 Perfumes
68 Glee
69 Waist-length jackets
71 __-en-Provence
72 Krypton or xenon
73 Fabled napper
74 Beverage
76 Script learner
78 Prohibited thing
79 River in Poland
80 Optimistic
83 Depart
85 Nav. transport
86 Barrier
89 “__ had a hammer...”
90 TV room, often
92 Ruckus
93 Part of a pen
94 Go quickly
95 Register
96 Dog owners
97 Dawns, for short
98 Shaping machine
99 Pretty oneself
104 Musical show
105 Honk
107 Concur
108 Friends
109 Letters
111 Great in size
113 Three-petaled flower
114 Cool dish
115 Rubber item
116 Part of the name of many South
African towns
118 Actor Richard
121 Sea eagle
122 Beatty or Sparks
123 Part of Mao’s name
124 Mamie’s man
Solution on Pg. 39
Page 38
Alice Barlow hangs out on her horse Mickey toward the
end of the late October Warren County Community Day at
Riverton Church. WCR photo by Dan McDermott
Late Nov. 2006
Red Ranger protects his
Trick or Treat companion,
Hula Pig, from maurauding photographers on
Halloween night. WCR
photo by Roger Bianchini
The Midway Towing crew’s scary Halloween theme display at the Mystik Gas Station
was the consequences of bad or inattentive driving. From left are, Billy Williams, “injured passenger” Ken Zehring and Kelly Thomas. WCR photo by Roger Bianchini
Royal Broadcasting Inc. President Andrew Shearer discusses the importance of local
radio programming to the Front Royal/Warren County Chamber of Commerce Youth
Leadership Class following their appearance on The Valley Today, broadcast on WZRV
95.3 FM and WFTR 1450 AM.
It was pizza with pizzazz on Halloween night at the Melting Pot. Kamikaze bartender
Ryan Wines, ‘Lil Pumpkin Katie Allen, angel (or is she a fly?) Ashley Nowell and Shane
Robinson, we mean Gene Simmons of Kiss stare down Jimmy Olsen.
From left, WCJHS Show
Chorus members Katie
Jones, Amanda Franklin
and Ericka Carden work
on sets for the Christmas
Concert. WCR photo by
Roger Bianchini
Warren County Report publisher Dan McDermott is seen here with his parents, Pat and
Jack McDermott of Stephens City. They were attending the Tyson’s Corner wedding of
Dan and Mindy Harman of Falls Church. WCR photo by Kelly Harman.
Late Nov. 2006
Solutions
Puzzles on Pages 36 & 37
Page 39
Reliance Woods
(540) 631-8989 (540) 305-9042
(540) 305-9678 (540) 631-8532
Enjoy serenity and peace in this new subdivision in
highly sought-after Warren County. Estate lots range
from 2 to 6 acres. Live just 2 miles from I-66. Relax
just minutes away from 5 golf courses. Only 20 lots
remain. Claim yours before they are gone forever!
A beautiful wooded environment with nearby golf, two new
shopping centers, and the historic Shenandoah River. Did we
mention it’s just 2 miles from I-66? Who says you can’t have it all!
Attention Developers!
Call for information on two other hot properties:
· 5 lot subdivision in Warren County
· 28 townhouse lot subdivision in Page County

Warren County Report 50 - Warren County Report Newspaper

Transcription

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