By Ben Orcutt -- Daily Staff Writer

FRONT ROYAL — Last week's 5-1 vote by the Town Council to return funding to the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority could be a sign that relations between the two entities are on the mend.

"I'm excited that we're going to have a great working relationship with the town, and I see a bright future for the EDA and the town relationship," said EDA Executive Director Jennifer R. McDonald. "I think we'll get our mission accomplished."

McDonald attended the Aug. 25 Town Council meeting to brief the panel on EDA activities, which appeared to be well-received by a majority of the council.

"I hope so and I plan to keep doing that," McDonald said. "It keeps everybody up to date on what's going on and no one's lost."

McDonald previously worked for the EDA as a property manager before leaving the agency in 2005. She began work as the executive director on June 1, succeeding Mike South, who served as the interim executive director after Paul Carroll resigned from the post on Nov. 30.

Jorie Martin, the EDA's deputy executive director and business services administrator, resigned on July 25.

When Vice Mayor Bret W. Hrbek made the motion last week that the town give the EDA $30,917 that the previous council voted on May 27 to place in a reserve contingency fund, he did not mention the personnel turnover in the EDA.

Hrbek said that since the town voted to withhold the EDA's funding, he has been pleased with its direction.

"I'm excited about it," Hrbek said.

Hrbek said restoring the EDA's funding for fiscal 2009 would be a way of extending an "olive branch" to the independent entity.

Councilman Thomas H. Sayre cast the only vote against restoring the EDA's funding. Sayre told his colleagues on the council that he had thought when the panel passed a resolution by a 5-1 vote asking that the EDA be revamped on June 9, that those changes had to occur before the agency got its funding back.

"I don't think anything has happened," Sayre said of concerns the previous council had expressed about the EDA.

The June 9 resolution included two amendments by Councilman Stanley W. "Stan" Brooks Jr., who did not seek re-election and left the council June 30. The first amendment was that the EDA return all profits from the sale of real estate to the town and the county on property purchased before the fair funding formula was put into effect on a 50-50 split.

The second amendment adopted by the council is that the EDA make a joint presentation to the council and the supervisors for its annual operating budget request.

The supervisors passed a similar resolution on June 3 by a 3-2 vote, with Happy Creek Supervisor Tony F. Carter and Shenandoah Supervisor Richard H.C. "Dick" Traczyk dissenting. The supervisors have not taken a vote on the council's amended resolution.

The only councilman to vote against withholding the EDA's funding was Eugene R. Tewalt, who is now the town's mayor. At last week's meeting, Tewalt told Sayre that the vote to withhold the EDA's funding was not tied to the resolution the previous council passed on April 14 and then amended on June 9.

Tewalt said if Sayre wished to discuss the EDA resolutions, he could ask that they be placed on a work session agenda. Sayre then asked Hrbek if he would be willing to table his motion to restore the EDA's funding until a work session could be held, and Hrbek said he would rather move forward and restore the EDA's funding.

* Contact Ben Orcutt at borcutt@nvdaily.com