Drayage Brokersin Front Royal, VA

FRONT ROYAL, Va. — A public library in Front Royal is forced to make adjustments after concerns over sexually explicit material.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors approved the typical $1 million budget for Samuels Public Library during a work session meeting on Tuesday.

However, four of the five members voted to keep 75% of the funding for now. From July through September, the county will appropriate $256,000.

Supervisor Jay Butler said the county wanted to give the money quarterly to “work things out” with the library about books some parents deemed controversial and inappropriate for children. Butler agrees with the parents who vocalized their issues that some of the content are pornographic.

“If they want to keep it in the library, that’s up to them,” Butler told WUSA9. “We just don’t want to have that available. We’re just letting folks know that if our public money is going to be used, then it’s going to be under scrutiny.”

Butler did not say if the books still exist after the first quarter that the county will withhold the rest of the funding.

Samuels Public Library Executive Director Michelle Ross said the team is working with the board on a couple of compromises to avoid infringing on anyone’s rights.

Ross said the library board would still have to vote on the ideas which include creating a New Adults section to move content from the Young Adults section. There is a proposal to have new library cards that would give parents the option and authority on what kind of book their child can check out.

“We are really a beloved institution here in our community, so I don't think the board of supervisors wants to defund the library,” said Ross.

Since late May, the library received nearly 600 complaints about 134 books.

In a board meeting last week, dozens of parents, many affiliated with the online group “CleanUpSamuels,” called the books “disgusting” and demanded the library be held accountable.

“A library that threatens the innocence of children puts parents in a situation where they can't trust the same community they paid with their tax money to maintain,” said one mother.

There is also an overwhelming amount of support for the library, which also makes money through different donations. In the same board meeting, many community members favored protecting the library and keeping the books.

Sydney Patton questions if the complaints are more geared towards LGBTQ+ literature. She believes opponents cherry picked lines to get a reaction and failed to consider the entirety of the book and its cultural and creative context.

In her opinion, the library is being ransomed of its money to comply with demands from the opposing groups.

“We have always said you have the option not to look at the material,” said Patton. “If you don't want your child to have access to it, then don't check it out.”

“Where are they going to come next?” questioned Patton. “There are plenty of other sections in here that they can attack. There's material in here that I don't like but a well cultivated library has different opinions and should reflect the diversity of the community.”

An online petition to support the library has garnered more than 16,000 signatures.

Leading Recovery Provider Offers Medication-Assisted Treatment and Hope to Communities

FRONT ROYAL, Va., July 31, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pinnacle Treatment Centers (PTC), a leading provider of comprehensive substance abuse treatment services, is pleased to announce the opening of its newest location in Front Royal, Virginia. With a commitment to delivering personalized and evidence-based care, Pinnacle Treatment Centers aims to make a positive impact on individuals struggling with addiction in the local community. The facility is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of experienced medical professionals, therapists, and addiction specialists who are dedicated to helping individuals achieve lasting recovery.

Situated in the picturesque town of Front Royal, Front Royal Treatment Center will provide a wide range of services to address the unique needs of each patient. The facility is conveniently located at 10269 Winchester Road, Front Royal, VA 22630, easily accessible to residents of Front Royal and the surrounding areas.

Pinnacle is one of a select few treatment facilities in the area to provide underserved communities with affordable substance abuse treatment and the option of outpatient care. This model of care empowers patients to take control of their treatment as it affords them the opportunity to continue and maintain employment, school obligations and family commitments while getting the treatment necessary to address their recovery.

"The opioid epidemic has taken a huge toll throughout the state. Treatment is needed now more than ever. Pinnacle is committed to bringing care directly into the community to help solve this crisis," said Joe Pritchard, CEO of Pinnacle Treatment Centers, who made his personal journey through recovery and is now dedicated to helping others.

Pritchard recognizes the need for outpatient programs that are designed to offer support in managing stress and providing patients with relapse prevention strategies, while connecting them with community support. "We are taking active steps to provide aid to Virginia for substance and opioid use disorder treatment. Virginia has been heavily affected by the opioid epidemic and we are bringing relief directly into the communities being impacted."

"At Pinnacle Treatment Center, we are committed to providing compassionate and effective addiction treatment services to individuals and families," said Steven Quackenbush, Executive Director at Front Royal Treatment Center. "The opioid epidemic has taken a huge toll on our state. Our Front Royal location represents an important step in expanding our reach and helping more people overcome the challenges of addiction."

The Warren County Board of Supervisors recently voted to put the full budget for Samuels Public Library on hold amid concerns over sexually explicit material.

FRONT ROYAL, Va. — The future of the budget for Samuels Public Library in Front Royal remains in question weeks after a controversial decision.

Several Front Royal residents spoke up during the Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday to urge members to provide the full budget to the beloved public library.

Supervisors approved the typical $1 million budget for the library during a work session meeting last month, but four of the five members voted to keep 75% of the funding for now.

The vote comes after ongoing concerns over sexually explicit and pornographic books in the library, primarily from the group Clean Up Samuels Library. The group said the “movement is dedicated to safeguarding the well-being and innocence of our children by advocating for a safe and enriching environment in the children’s section of our public libraries. We strive to uphold the values of our community and protect taxpayer funds while promoting age-appropriate materials.”

“There's no reason for them to keep holding three-quarters worth of funding,” said Front Royal resident Kelsey Lawrence. “It should be given to the library.”

To help alleviate concerns and avoid infringing on freedom of speech rights, the library has created a new collection and section inside known as the “New Adult” Collection. The area would house books whose target audience is 16 and up.

The library also implemented a new card system which allows parents to limit what their child can rent.

However, it is unclear if the changes are enough. When asked what the changes to the library would mean for the budget, Supervisor Jay Butler said, “I still want to sit down and talk with the library and get a sense or a feeling from the other board members and we'll go from there.”

The library’s Board of Trustees recently announced two of the books in question, Juvenile Non-Fiction titles, will remain in place while a third will move to the new section. They have not removed any books.

“Is there a sense if books are not banned that they may not get the full budget?” WUSA9 asked.

“No, I wouldn't say that. We want to make sure the library is working in the best interest as a whole.”

Before the county vote on the budget, Butler himself provided two requests for reconsideration.

He told WUSA9 he is pleased with the changes and cooperation from the library, but is concerned by the influx in requests, which is now close to 800.

“If you get too many of them, people start looking at it, ‘Well, what do we do with all this?” he said.

Currently, there are no official plans to have a meeting about the budget.

FRONT ROYAL — At Bel Air on Happy Creek Road, history comes alive through 250 years of families who lived there, guests they hosted and renovations they’ve made.

The 1795 Classical Revival brick and stucco house at 269 Happy Creek Road, with its sweeping porches that overlook the downtown, is the ancestral home of Lucy Buck, a famous Civil War diarist who recorded her accounts with her sister and parents as the house changed hands about 15 times during the war, every time troops from either side needed a place to stay.

The house will be featured along with several other historic downtown houses on the Historic Garden Week tour hosted by the Garden Club of Warren County on April 15. The tour is one of dozens of tours being held in communities throughout Virginia in mid-April.

Situated on a hill above Happy Creek, Bel Air provided a respite and exceptional lookout, said current homeowner Jeff LeHew, 62, who descends from Peter LeHew, founding father of Front Royal, previously named LeHewtown after he purchased a 200-acre property there in 1754.

Peter LeHew sold the property to the Buck Family, and Capt. Thomas Buck built the house, which his family owned for about 110 years until they sold it to the Downing family in 1906. Jeff LeHew’s father, Larry, then purchased the rundown house in the early 1970s.

“He was able to save this house,” LeHew said of his father. “He and Mom took a lot of great pride in restoring it.”

Since inheriting the house from his father in 2020, LeHew has been restoring the outside of the house, before he addresses any concerns inside.

“I promised him that I would keep this house in the family,” he said.

The local tour will highlight the history of the town and historic Chester Street, said third-time chairwoman Beth DeBergh.

“This one is more about history,” she said. “I think it’s a very rich history. It’s different, and I like it.”

LeHew was 12 when he and his family moved into Bel Air. His family added a breakfast room off of a dining room that had been added in 1906/07.

Above the breakfast room, the LeHews added upstairs rooms that offered another access point to the attic where previous owners had added plexiglass to preserve signatures of residents and guests from over the decades, including those of the Buck family.

The Buck Family, which LeHew said enslaved several people who left during the Civil War, survived the conflict. Lucy Buck later moved with her sister to a small house at 64 Chester St., which they built in 1904 after the family’s financial downturn. The Buck House, nicknamed Cozy Corner, is another downtown building featured during Virginia’s 90th Historic Garden Week, along with J.S. Petty-Sumption House and the three houses in the Warren Heritage Society Village on Chester Street.

Bel Air sits on a 24-acre lot northeast of Main Street and includes a stable and paddock for horses, which LeHew keeps for fox hunting.

Visitors to the house on April 15 will get to tour the original dining room, hall and parlor, which feature several reproductions of local Civil War scenes by famed artists Mort Kunstler and John Paul Strain. Two prints in the hall are copies of originals that hung in the house while LeHew’s father lived there and which LeHew has since removed to a home he owns in Rockland.

Receiving prime placement above a fireplace in the parlor is a Kunstler painting of sisters Lucy and Laura Buck, which imagines their meeting with Robert E. Lee when he and his troops stayed at the house.

The tour will also feature the following properties:

• Ivy Lodge, at 101 Chester St., which dates to 1819 and will serve as the tour headquarters for the tour. The house is one of the few historic architectural structures surviving on Chester Street. It was built by George Tyler in the 1850s, and Dr. Bernard Samuels donated it to the town for a public library a century later. Many others have lived there too, and it’s featured in more political, social, religious, patriotic and cultural events than any other place still standing in Front Royal. It now houses the Warren County Heritage Society and a museum.

• Belle Boyd Cottage, at 101 Chester St., behind Ivy Lodge, which was the home of infamous Confederate spy Belle Boyd. The information that Boyd gathered on Union troop dispositions helped Gen. Stonewall Jackson win the Battle of Front Royal (May 23, 1862). Her efforts also landed her in Washington’s Old Capital Prison. After the war, the cottage was an apartment building until it was donated to the Warren Heritage Society in 1982 and was moved 2.5 blocks from its original location. The house contains period pieces and items connected with Belle Boyd.

The cottage features a garden that won the Garden Club of Warren County the prestigious Garden Club of Virginia Commonwealth Award and is now maintained by the local master gardeners.

• Balthis House, at 55 Chester St., which dates to 1787 and is named for the William Balthis Family, who lived there from 1838 to 1908. It’s the oldest surviving house in Front Royal. In 2000, the Warren Heritage Society purchased the house, with its spacious gardens and several dependencies in the rear.

• The Buck House, at 64 Chester St., owned by Doug and Cathy Gleason. It’s a typical example of Folk Victorian architecture, with decorative trim on the porches and a beautifully carved newel post on the main staircase, a tour brochure explains. The house’s historical significance derives largely from Lucy Buck’s posthumous reputation as a Civil War diarist. Many of the family’s letters and other artifacts were found in the attic.

• J.S. Petty-Sumption House, at 123 Chester St., which dates to 1788 and is owned by Bill Cammack. One of Front Royal’s most significant historic log homes, it was built by George Cheek, one of the landowners named in the 1788 Charter incorporating Front Royal. Records show that James Petty lived in the house in 1831. In 1923, the property was sold to the Warren County School Board. At that time, the house was bought by Charles Franklin Sumption and moved across the street to its present site. The home has antique pine floors, massive fireplaces and a fenced courtyard.

Chester Street is also part of the walking tour in Front Royal’s Historic District.

As part of the earliest thoroughfare from Winchester crossing the Blue Ridge, it will allow visitors to stroll through two centuries of the county’s history.

The tour will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April. 15. Tickets are $30 in advance and help pay for restoration efforts for gardens on historic properties around Virginia, as well as a couple of garden club scholarships. For tickets or more information, go to vagardenweek.org/tours/warren-county-front-royal.

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, artist Melissa Ichiuji found herself drawn to nature and community. Having exhibited her work globally, the Front Royal-based creator felt compelled to focus her attention much more locally.

To that end, she’ll debut the Melissa Ichiuji Studio Gallery on the corner of Main and Cloud streets with an open house from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Ichiuji will be on-site during the event to discuss her work, some of which is for mature audiences, she said. After the open house, the gallery will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and by appointment only.

“Once the pandemic hit, I was very invested in focusing my attention on how I can bring art to the community,” she said. A town resident for about 20 years, Ichiuji’s efforts to promote the local art scene are apparent throughout downtown. She painted the 26 indigenous flowers that adorn the Afton Inn project on the corner of Main Street and Royal Avenue and was active in developing the town’s mural series as well as the pole banners that promote local dining, shopping, and activities in Front Royal and Warren County.

“It’s all an effort to bring more awareness of art, maybe to inspire others to initiate art projects and to involve the community and to activate the spaces in a more creative way. Ultimately it’s to bring more awareness to Front Royal, to bring more tourism, and to support the economy,” she said.

The opening of her gallery takes that mission a step further and will offer a taste of Ichiuji’s bold, playful, and powerful sculptures and paintings. Her work, which has been exhibited in museums and galleries in Paris, Brussels, Munich, Berlin, New York City, and Washington, D.C., is full of metaphors and sexual puns and explores themes of transcendence, psychological tension, and metamorphosis.

“This first opening is a survey of my work from about 2012 until the present time, so there’s a variety of different materials, different subject matter, and so you’ll get a good sense of the trajectory of my studio practice,” said Ichiuji, noting that her art studio is located in the back of the building.

“I’m kind of known primarily for working with textiles. A lot of my work is reminiscent of dolls. In the past I would primarily show my work out of the area and overseas so this was a good opportunity, because I’m in the community, to go ahead and share my work and let folks know what I’m up to,” she said. Ichiuji works with a wide variety of materials, including welded steel, ceramics, textiles, found objects, and oil paint. “Not everything is for sale, that’s not really the point. It’s really an extension of my studio. It’s not so much an opportunity to sell the work as it is to share the work,” she said.

On one wall, the gallery will display work from a 2012 exhibition called Fair Game. Large textile caricatures bring to life mostly political figures from that time, including the Obamas, the Romneys, Newt Gingrich, and Paul Ryan. Hung to mimic trophy heads, the soft sculptures reflect various scandals or interests of the subjects, created from a variety of items such as pantyhose, men’s suits, found objects, and women’s lingerie.

Ichiuji’s steelwork will also be on display. After learning to weld in the early 2000s through a class at Northern Virginia Community College, Ichiuji has played with the medium in a variety of ways over the years. Her stunning “Goddess of the Burning House” sculpture stands about 12 feet tall with three heads and six arms, holding a burning house in each hand. The sculpture is a nod to Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, who is also often associated with motherly love and creation. The work is an example of the juxtaposition that Ichiuji loves to explore in her work.

“I’m interested in exploring the vacillation between the sense of strength and empowerment and a sense of vulnerability which might be distinctly a feminine experience,” she said, noting that she’s drawn to contrasting lightness with more serious content relating to the frailty of the human condition, coming of age, and awakenings.

Lately, she’s been creating steel flower sculptures.

“For me, working with steel and flowers is really, in a way, a metaphor for preserving something that’s naturally ephemeral. It’s an exploration of mortality in general. A lot of the flowers are captured at their peak and, in a sense, they’re eternal because they’re made of steel,” Ichiuji said. “There’s also something about the juxtaposition between a very feminine, traditional representation with a typically masculine modality of creating, which I like. It’s sort of bringing an industrial quality to something that’s very delicate and I like that energy of forcing something that’s resistant, like metal, into something more fluid and yielding.”

Contrasting with the strong, fragile-looking flowers are the sculptures’ exposed roots, which are perhaps a reference to the jagged underworld or the damaged planet. “Maybe it’s resilient in spite of the way it’s uprooted,” Ichiuji mused. “It still juggles the dark and the light, the yin and yang that I feel in my work.”

A graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Ichiuji was a professional dancer with an interest in art from a very early age.

“I started making dolls when I was 6 years old, on the heels of a house fire. My family barely escaped. The house burned to the ground. It was a miracle we even got out. We lost everything,” recalled Ichiuji. With her family suddenly dependent on the community, Ichiuji began collecting fabric, buttons, and knickknacks.

“Because I’d lost all my toys, I just started making things. I think, on a deeper level, it was just a way to process what had happened. None of this was premeditated. It was a natural inclination toward processing emotion through the making of things. And that just kind of stuck,” she said, noting that she had been exposed to creativity by her artistic parents and her Appalachian grandmother who made quilts.

Raised in Northern Virginia, Ichiuji discovered Front Royal in the early 2000s. After falling in love with a historical house, she moved to the town with her family and later purchased the former Ramsey’s Hardware store building, which now houses her studio and gallery.

“That was one of my favorite places, both my husband and I because we were renovating our house and we were hardware store junkies. You never knew what you’d find. It was like a time capsule,” Ichiuji said. “I’m excited to be able to take the building, restore it and reinvent it to bring it new life and reimagine what it could be.”

With exhibits planned for later in the year in Paris and Miami, Ichiuji plans to offer classes and lectures at the Front Royal studio sometime in the future. “I just want to share my work and create dialogue,” she said.

For more information on Ichiuji’s work, visit www.melissaichiuji.com.