BATTLING OVER AMERICA’s MEMORY

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India]

The battle for America’s collective memory is erupting once again.

Leftists spent the last decade destroying America’s traditional identity and well-established historic narrative.  The Left filled classrooms, books, articles, parks, and museums with their mantra of a nation “built on stolen land and by slave labor”.  At the same time, they wantonly assaulted the physical touch stones of America’s origins by removing statues and other monuments. 

The Left intended to replace the connective fabric of American society with an alternative reality promoting a tyrannical communist government. They embraced the cautionary words from George Orwell’s “1984”: "Who controls the past controls the future”.

They are now howling from the roof tops as President Donald Trump is reversing their plans to reshape America.

America is unique.  It is a country based upon ideas - not based on geography, language, or tribe.  Our historic sites and markers ground us in who we are, and why we are. 

History is about collective memory and frames of reference.  Statues and historic sites are there to commemorate and remind, not to celebrate. Knowing and discussing our origin is fundamental to a civic culture where shared values hold us together.  Civil dialogue with those we disagree is the structure that allows our institutions, our communities, and ourselves to exist. 

Our Constitution is about forming “a more perfect union”.  This means America is always a work in progress.  The Constitution itself is the greatest “rules of engagement” for collective action that has ever been written.  Looking beyond ourselves to our origins reaffirms our nation and our individual and collective roles in it.

Starting in 2009, the Left anointed itself as morally entitled to determine what memories should be saved or destroyed. The chorus of Leftist commentators from the media, academia, and politics wove a tapestry of excuses justifying official and unofficial acts of destruction and desecration. Tax dollars were used to dismantle memories and insert radical anti-white, anti-capitalist, and anti-American content into classrooms, museums, and parks. This is the very essence of tyranny and fanaticism.

Humans have attempted to alter collective memory since competing Pharaohs chiseled away Cartouches and defaced hieroglyphs.  Carthage was destroyed, Rome was sacked.  Mongol hordes obliterated cities along the Silk Road.  Islamic hordes burned the Library of Alexandria.  Vikings ravaged monasteries and burned centuries old manuscripts.  Cromwell’s Puritan army smashed stained glass windows in countless churches.

World history has been saved by those who transcended their immediate impulse for destruction.  Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella calmed their Christian fervor when they saw the wonder of the Alhambra.  Napoleon’s armies avoided destroying European cities and towns during nearly twenty years of war. 

The Twentieth Century saw a disturbing shift in how history was viewed.  The rise of Communism and Nazism led to intentionally obliterating history on a strategic scale.  Worse, the followers of these dogmas made fabricating history a priority.  Destroying reality and then faking an alternative became one of the greatest threats to civilization.  Cultural treasures were lost to the ages as the Nazi’s raped Europe, the Soviets raped Eastern Europe, and Mao’s minions unleashed their Cultural Revolution.

The 21^st Century brought a new wave of Islamic hordes whose primary mission was to destroy anything, and anyone, not sufficiently promoting their fanaticism.  From the Taliban blowing up thousand-year-old Buddhist statues, to ISIS smashing the Tomb of Abraham and leveling Palmyra, the erasure of irreplaceable historic sites and artifacts has known no bounds.

Fanaticism is all about intolerance and silencing opponents.  It is all about indoctrination and erasing individualism.  Fanatics are not satisfied until they completely destroy independent thought.  Their dream is a “hive mind” - thinking and acting as one.  Leftists, Islamic radicals, and Communists want to anoint one leader who is all powerful, surrounded by blind devotion.  Their goal is the end of civilization as we know it. 

George Orwell, a Socialist who grew to understand the threat of tyranny, sent us a timeless warning: “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

On March 27, 2025, President Donald Trump set about stopping the Left’s obliteration of America’s identity. He issued Executive Order 14253, stating:

“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.  This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.  Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”

Trump’s Executive Order requires the Secretary of Interior to “determine whether, since January 1, 2020, public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history”.

As with most Executive Orders, the Interior Secretary then issued his own detailed guidance to implement the President’s policy.  On May 20, 2025, Secretarial Order 3431 required the heads of the  various federal land units to: “take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”

The Secretary’s Order outlined a process for compiling and reporting on such instances, including soliciting public input.  These reports will be reviewed and appeals heard before actions occur.  It will be months before this process is completed.

America’s Leftists are spreading false rumors of widespread removals of slavery documents and displays.  These same Leftists previously demanded the removal of Confederate statues and tore down memorials to Lincoln and the Founding Fathers.  These same Leftists are now waving signs, “Hands Off History!” to preserve their woke legacy. 

The absurdity of the Left’s outrage is that promoting slavery was at the core of the 19^th Century Democrat Party while stopping the spread of slavery was the founding principle of the Republican Party.  This divide continued beyond the Civil War as Democrats formed the Ku Klux Klan as a paramilitary force to kill freed Blacks and their Republican supporters.  In the 20^th Century, Democrats promoted lynching of Blacks and opposed Republicans who tried to prevent this terror. 

The Left’s accusation about President Trump, and his Department of Interior, wantonly removing slavery displays is baseless.  Republicans would not erase their Party’s original reason to exist.

The Honorable Scot Faulkner served as the first Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives, Director of Personnel for Reagan’s 1980 Campaign, Administrator of Personnel for the Presidential Transition, and on the White House Staff. His best-selling memoir, “Naked Emperors” is available on Amazon.com.

 

DERAILING THE MONEY GRAB

 

[NOTE:  On August 17, the plan of out-of-state billionaires to build an oversized hotel in the heart of the Harpers Ferry Historic District hit a wall.  The Jefferson County Commission set aside a $30 million taxpayer subsidy (tax increment financing - TIF) to this private equity firm as local residents raised major concerns. Since 2008, the billionaires asserted that their project was fully funded.  Since then, they have sought subsidies and grants, along with waivers from taxes and fees.]

JEFFERSON COUNTY COMMISSION

HILLTOP TIF HEARING - Scot Faulkner Remarks

There are several issues you need to consider before giving up to $30 million to a private equity company.

First, this will be the only hotel to receive a government subsidy from this Commission.

You are creating a dangerous precedent.

Government should not pick winners and losers in the private sector.

What prevents existing or future hotels demanding subsidies from Jefferson County Taxpayers?

Second, you are ignoring the facts.

When SWaN first arrived in Harpers Ferry, they promised to shower riches on the community.

Instead, SWaN has been given waivers from the taxes and fees they promised to pay.

SWaN has also been given federal grants and now is asking for $30 million from County Taxpayers.

During the last 15 years, SWaN has not provided or promised even one dollar of proffers to the town.

Another fact – the justification for the $30 million, and all the other waivers and subsidies, is that the SWaN hotel will save Harpers Ferry.  Somehow, Harpers Ferry will become a ghost town without the oversized SWaN hotel.

Since the closing of the old Hill Top House in March 2008, Harpers Ferry has experienced a tripling of visitors.  The town is packed with tourists, especially on weekends.

Over the last ten years, every major travel magazine, website, and rating has named Harpers Ferry the top tourist town in America. 

All of this is happening without an oversized government subsidized hotel.

Third, all citizens of Jefferson County deserve to vote on whether $30 million of their money should go to a private interest in the smallest municipality.

Jefferson County voters have voted on smaller bond issues, including the $19 million school bond in 2016. At least school bonds benefit everyone, not a small group of private investors.

This Commission has one vacancy.  It cannot speak for the entire population.

Let the people speak instead.  This should go to a public referendum.

 

HOW TO MAKE AN IMPACT

 

What does a homegrown citizen movement look like?

Jefferson County, West Virginia is a rural county located 60 miles northwest of Washington, DC.  It is known for being the location of John Brown’s Raid and other significant events in American history.  Tourists flock to enjoy breathtaking scenery. 

Jefferson’s neighbor, Loudoun County, Virginia, is America’s fastest growing county.  In the late 1980s, land speculators swarmed into Jefferson County viewing its untouched farmland as a developer gold mine.

The speculators were welcomed into Jefferson County by “Court House” insiders.  This web of family and business elites had run Jefferson since the Civil War. Elected and appointed officials had grown arrogant, unaccountable, and out of touch with the citizens they were supposed to serve.  By the late 1990s, they were about to leverage their unchallenged power to reap the riches of urban sprawl.

In 1998, the developers briefly exposed their agenda by presenting a master plan to run water and sewer lines throughout the Jefferson County, literally laying the groundwork for explosive growth.  Local officials embraced the plan.  More importantly, they shut down public comment and held countless meetings without involving, or even informing, the public. 

The water and sewer master plan, and the blatant abuse of power by the Court House elite, were the sparks that ignited one of the most successful local reform movements in America.

A dozen concerned citizens mapped out a strategy to create a “level playing field”.  This meant opening-up public meetings to the public; making public documents readily available to the public; making sure elected and appointed officials served public, not private, agendas, and making sure the rule of law prevailed. 

The first step was creating an information network so the diverse and geographically dispersed concerned citizens could communicate and share knowledge.  The “Listener” website and forum quickly grew to 1,000 participants.  It spawned home-based gatherings to discuss what to do.  One group, the “Sewer Underground” met bi-weekly and focused on stopping the water/sewer lines.

As local officials flaunted their conflicts of interest, it became clear that only by electing “reform minded” candidates would things change.  Reformers ran classified ads in the local newspapers to recruit candidates.  In 2000, one answered the call.

This first candidate had never run for office, in fact she broke out in sweats when speaking publicly.  She ran for County Commissioner against a well-financed and well-connected member of the Court House elite.  She lost, but inspired others.

In 2002, “Citizens for Jefferson’s Future” ran another set of ads for candidates.  This time they fielded a complete slate for the School Board and for two County Commission seats.  They won them all.  Their 2000 losing candidate was one of the landslide winners for the School Board, ending years of nepotism and sole source contracting.

In 2004, Jennifer Maghan, a recently returned veteran, answered the ad for County Clerk.  She was interviewed by reform leaders at the local Dairy Queen.  It was a critical moment.  The longest serving clerk in West Virginia was retiring and the Court House elites wanted complete control of voting and public records.  The local media consistently supported the Court House candidates and denigrated the reformers.

Jennifer was outspent 10-1, but her charismatic personality and the 2002 momentum won the day.  The reformers also won another County Commission seat achieving a 3-2 majority.  Jennifer became the first Republican to become Jefferson County Clerk since the county was formed in 1803.  She also became the first Korean-American to be elected to public office in West Virginia’s history.

Emboldened by two series of victories that shocked the Court House elite, the reformers moved swiftly to revolutionize the County’s government, digitalizing documents, creating websites, and ushering in the most open and transparent government in the state.

Battles were won, but the war continued.  The developers created their own Political Action Committee (PAC) and hired consultants.  They fought their way back into a County Commission majority in 2008. 

Thankfully in 2010, Jennifer was re-elected by the largest margin in the county’s history.  She was catapulted to national prominence by turning her opponents attack, “stop stirring the pot”, into her campaign symbol.  Her ads went viral and were merchandized as t-shirts. They became iconic in the battle to topple the Court House elite.  It bolstered the election of a reform-minded judge, who won by a landslide.

In 2014, a veteran was recruited to run for County Commission.  He was the first candidate to exclusively use Facebook to achieve victory.  That same year, the reformers recruited two faith-based House of Delegate candidates.  Both became the “gold standard” for door-to-door campaigning. One won and one lost.  The one who lost ran for State Senate in 2016 and won, having been outspent 21-1!

2016 was the landslide year for the reformers.  They won everything.  Two Commissioners, a new Clerk (as Jennifer retired), all state legislative seats in the County, and for the first time since the County was formed in 1803, a Republican County Prosecutor.

Today, Jefferson County remains a model for open accountable government and citizen activism. 

The lessons are numerous:

•      Have a strategy.
•          Have a committed core of leaders who will remain involved for years.
•      Realize that it will take years to sustainably prevail.
•      Actively recruit candidates. Do not depend on party functionaries.
•      Always look for new candidates as elected ones will retire or run for other offices.  Never let the other side’s candidates run unopposed.

·        One way to recruit and credential candidates is appoint them to local boards and commissions (planning, emergency service, parks & recreations, etc.).  Serving on these panels is a great way to learn about government processes, running meetings, public speaking, and messaging.

•         Losses are inevitable.  Learn and regroup.
•         Good candidates and good issues will live to win another day.
•      The opposition will not give up and will fight back.
•      Combine technology (social media) with traditional actions (door-to-door).
•      Money matters but mobilizing volunteers and igniting “fervor” among your supporters matter more.

MOST IMPORTANT:

Deliver on your promises.  Voters want change – give it to them.

 

 

HILL TOP REALITIES

SWaN Investors have done a masterful job orchestrating an “echo chamber” of positive media.  Countless Letters to the Editor purportedly from Harpers Ferry “residents”, news releases, and unsubstantiated assertions, have flooded local media.

SWaN’s goal is to stampede four of the seven voting Members of the Harpers Ferry Town Council to ignore, bend, and invent rules in order to give the out-of-state billionaires everything they desire as quickly as possible.

Facts and laws must drive the decision that will shape the next century of Harpers Ferry. 

The first reality check is to remember that the Hill Top Hotel was fully operational the day SWaN bought it.  Tour groups filled its rooms, hungry customers lined up for Hill Top’s famous fried chicken and buffet, and community groups regularly met there. 

The second reality check is to remember that it was SWaN, no one else, who closed the Hill Top Hotel. They asserted that Hill Top must be completely torn down.  To validate their assertion, SWaN allowed Hill Top to become derelict.  No repairs occurred, windows were broken, and water seeped in, collapsing the hotel’s front facade.  Those saddened by Hill Top’s current state of disrepair should remember who is responsible.

The third reality check is that the Town of Harpers Ferry owns the roads and undeveloped paper streets that SWaN so desperately craves.  These streets were laid out by War Department engineers under President George Washington.  They were officially documented in the 1869 War Department plat.  These streets are not “fake”.  They contribute to the integrity of Harpers Ferry’s Historic District, which was established by the Department of Interior in 1976.  Harpers Ferry’s Town Ordinances do not allow for the sale or transfer of these streets to anyone. The 2016 Ordinance amendment was only intended for disposing of Personal Property. No street has ever been given, sold, or ceded to anyone since 1790.  No amount of undocumented assertions changes this.

The fourth reality check is SWaN’s heavy-handed efforts to control public access to the Promontory.  Armed thugs brandishing guns have accosted members of the community when they are on paved portions of East Ridge and Columbia Streets.  In one instance, Harpers Ferry police had to order a SWaN thug to “stand down” and retreat to actual SWaN property.  SWaN refuses to release its “Security and Safety” Policy that will dictate when the community can access the Promontory.  Their secret policy could all but eliminate access. 

SWaN’s proposed land swap of their nearly vertical property for all the adjoining paper streets would bankrupt Harpers Ferry.  Accessing the Promontory using a massive zig-zagging wooden stairway would generate lawsuits and costs for making the 45% incline comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.  No-one in a wheel chair, on crutches, or infirm may be able to enjoy one of our region’s greatest vistas.

The fifth reality check is that the number of Harpers Ferry visitors has increased since Hill Top Hotel closed in March 2008.  That year 260,000 visitors entered the Park.  In 2017, there were 342,534 Park visitors, an increase of 31.7 percent.  Since Hill Top closed, Harpers Ferry has been listed as one of America’s top tourist destinations in countless travel magazines and websites.  Harpers Ferry is certainly not a dying ghost town portrayed by SWaN’s acolytes.

The final reality check is about the true nature of SWaN and its proponents.  None of those appearing at Town meetings, or writing as “residents”, were involved, in any way, with the thirty preservation initiatives, since 1988, that saved the historic and scenic resources of the Harpers Ferry area from being destroyed. None of SWaN’s “community” proponents helped with the 50^th Anniversary of the Park, the Centennial of the Second Niagara Movement, or any of the Sesquicentennial commemorations of the John Brown Raid or the area’s Civil War battles. 

No one from SWaN even had the decency to attend the funeral of Bill Stanhagen, the person who sold Hill Top to SWaN.

These are the realities of the Hill Top project, and its supporters. 

Hopefully, they will be aired during the March 9 Town Workshop on the Concept Plan.

Scot Faulkner is President of Friends of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and co-chaired the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Park.

BARRAT FOR COMMISSION

Voters of Jefferson County need to remember that Jane Tabb gave us the Rockwool mess.

Tabb was tasked with meeting with the West Virginia Development Authority and with Rockwool executives to assess the project. Her “ringing endorsement” of Rockwool was the basis for the 5-0 Commission vote to move forward.

It is time to elect Robert Barrat to the Jefferson County Commission. Our County needs someone we can trust to listen to all the people, not just foreign special interests.

Tabb is well documented in callously disregarding community opinion. Her actions have undermined and skirted official procedures and the law for many years.

Secret accounts, costly court battles, executive overreach, and a relentless desire to wipe out what makes our area unique is not the record that deserves another term.

Incumbent Tabb claims she is running for re-election “to be a voice of rational, thoughtful discussion and decision making”. When challenged, she simpers about being just a “simple farm wife”.

Tabb’s record is quite the opposite.

During her first term on the Jefferson County Commission, Tabb became obsessed with tearing down the historic county jail in Charles Town. Despite massive public opposition, Tabb led the charge to rid the historic district of a major contributing building. Tabb also led the way for the County Commission to ignore state preservation laws.

Thankfully, Carol Gallant, the late Jim Whipple, and a core of concerned citizens established the Jefferson County Preservation Alliance to Save Our Heritage (JCPASH). Major public rallies, countless letters to local editors, and hundreds of citizens voicing their opposition did not stop Tabb’s crusade against the jail.

The Jefferson County Jail was constructed in1918. It is on the National Register and Inventory of American Labor Landmarks. The jail was the pre-trial detention facility for William Blizzard, and other leaders of the “Coal Mine Wars”, prior to their treason trials at the Jefferson County Courthouse in 1922. Had she succeeded, Tabb would have destroyed a major landmark in American history, West Virginia History, local history, and American Labor/Worker history.

A six year legal battle ended with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals siding with JCPASH. In the process, evidence exposed Tabb’s attempt to change state law to restrict historic preservation, and the establishment of a secret Commission “demolition fund”. Thankfully, sloppy bookkeeping co-mingled other County money with the fund, rendering it inoperable.

In it final ruling, the WV Supreme Court admonished Tabb and her colleagues and asserted, “it is incumbent upon us to insure that future generations may still appreciate the beauty and history of these many fine structures”. In spite of this final loss, Tabb tried to mount new legal moves, that were shut down by her Commission colleagues.

JCPASH earned the WV Preservation Alliance’s Most Significant Endangered Property Save award. Its leaders celebrated the reopening of a fully renovated and re-purposed county jail in September 2008.

Public outrage over Tabb’s imperious overreach to destroy history led to her defeat in 2006.

Local memories are short. Tabb returned to office in 2012 benefiting from Republican resurgence in the state and county.

Tabb immediately began where she left off, becoming an ally of Commissioner Walter Pellish in rezoning rural land along Route 340 East as commercial and heavy industrial. They ignored wide-spread public opposition, along with state and local efforts to preserve West Virginia’s tourism gateway. They moved quickly to preempt policy guidance from the Route 340 Gateway Study that was moving through public hearings under the leadership of Commissioner Lyn Widmyer.

We have the opportunity to finally end the career of County Commission Member Jane Tabb.

Robert E. Barrat is the clear choice for all who care about government integrity, openness, and accountability. The future health and well-being of Jefferson County is at stake.

[Scot Faulkner is a lifelong Republican, who served on the State Republican Executive Committees in Minnesota, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and on the staffs of two National Republican Conventions. He was named College Republican and Young Republican of the year. Faulkner was the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served as Ronald Reagan’s Director of Personnel on the 1980 National Campaign, on Reagan’s White House Staff, and as a Reagan Executive Branch Appointee.]

HEFESTAY FOR COMMISSION

On May 8, voters of Jefferson County need to remember that, Jane Tabb’s record displays a callous disregard for public opinion. Her actions undermined and skirted official procedures and the law.

Secret accounts, costly court battles, executive overreach, and a relentless desire to wipe out what makes our area unique is not the record that deserves another term.

Incumbent Tabb claims she is running for re-election “to be a voice of rational, thoughtful discussion and decision making”.

Tabb’s record is quite the opposite.

During her first term on the Jefferson County Commission, Tabb became obsessed with tearing down the historic county jail in Charles Town. Despite massive public opposition, Tabb led the charge to rid the historic district of a major contributing building. Tabb also led the way for the County Commission to ignore state preservation laws.

Thankfully, Carol Gallant, the late Jim Whipple, and a core of concerned citizens established the Jefferson County Preservation Alliance to Save Our Heritage (JCPASH). Major public rallies, countless letters to local editors, and hundreds of citizens voicing their opposition did not stop Tabb’s crusade against the jail.

The Jefferson County Jail was constructed in1918. It is on the National Register and Inventory of American Labor Landmarks. The jail was the pre-trial detention facility for William Blizzard, and other leaders of the “Coal Mine Wars”, prior to their treason trials at the Jefferson County Courthouse in 1922. Had she succeeded, Tabb would have destroyed a major landmark in American history, West Virginia History, local history, and American Labor/Worker history.

A six year legal battle ended with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals siding with JCPASH. In the process, evidence exposed Tabb’s attempt to change state law to restrict historic preservation, and the establishment of a secret Commission “demolition fund”. Thankfully, sloppy bookkeeping co-mingled other County money with the fund, rendering it inoperable.

In it final ruling, the WV Supreme Court admonished Tabb and her colleagues and asserted, “it is incumbent upon us to insure that future generations may still appreciate the beauty and history of these many fine structures”. In spite of this final loss, Tabb tried to mount new legal moves, that were shut down by her Commission colleagues.

JCPASH earned the WV Preservation Alliance’s Most Significant Endangered Property Save award. Its leaders celebrated the reopening of a fully renovated and re-purposed county jail in September 2008.

Public outrage over Tabb’s imperious overreach to destroy history led to her defeat in 2006.

Local memories are short. Tabb returned to office in 2012 benefiting from Republican resurgence in the state and county.

Tabb immediately began where she left off, becoming an ally of Commissioner Walter Pellish in rezoning rural land along Route 340 East as commercial and heavy industrial. They ignored wide-spread public opposition, along with state and local efforts to preserve West Virginia’s tourism gateway. They moved quickly to pre-empt policy guidance from the Route 340 Gateway Study that was moving through public hearings under the leadership of Commissioner Lyn Widmyer.

May 8 is the opportunity to finally end the career of County Commission Member Jane Tabb.

Jack Hefestay is the clear choice for all who care about government integrity, openness, and accountability.

[Scot Faulkner is a lifelong Republican, who served on the State Republican Executive Committees in Minnesota, Virginia, and Wisconsin, and on the staffs of two National Republican Conventions. He was named College Republican and Young Republican of the year. Faulkner was the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served as Ronald Reagan’s Director of Personnel on the 1980 National Campaign, on Reagan’s White House Staff, and as a Reagan Executive Branch Appointee.]

HILLTOP BOOGEYMAN

By Scot Faulkner

Published at http://www.journal-news.net/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/2017/03/harpers-ferrys-hilltop-boogeyman/

There are many scary issues surrounding the long running battle over the future of the Hilltop House property.  The collapsing Hilltop House structure is a favorite spooky site on Youtube.  Neighbors worry about the 81 police incidents that have made the Hilltop House the center for drugs, vandalism, and worse.

The latest scare is “by right”.  Spokespeople for SWaN Investors, the Hilltop owners, have used their ominous voice to threaten that terrible things will happen if they do not get their way.  Their current boogeyman of choice is that SWaN will build a new hotel on a 1.25 acre commercial site “by right”.

“By right” sounds scary, but it is just the legal term for “grandfathered”, a right granted to any property owner.  “Grandfathered” does not sound as scary, which is why SWaN avoids it.  The better to spook Harpers Ferry’s elected officials and townspeople.

In 2015, a major fire destroyed three commercial buildings in the lower town of Harpers Ferry.  These buildings are slowly being rebuilt “by right”.  It is totally legal to build “like for like” when something needs replacing. 

Harpers Ferry is a National Historic District, administered by the Department of Interior and the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.  In order to comply with these national organizations, the town has very strict and detailed ordinances governing what can be built or rebuilt.  Architectural style and building materials must be approved to preserve the integrity of the Historic District.  The three buildings destroyed by fire are being rebuilt within these guidelines, even though they are “grandfathered” in terms of commercial use and their overall dimensions.

The Hilltop House owners can proceed, right now, with a “by right” or “grandfathered” hotel on their one and a quarter commercially zoned acres.  SWaN tries to make this sound terrible.  They are proposing an alternative that will develop an area nearly seven times larger, turning private residential lots into commercial space, and taking over three public streets.

SWaN’s “overlay district” is the real boogeyman.  Their “overlay” creates an area devoid of all ordinances and restrictions, which govern the town’s Historic District. 

Once approved by the Harpers Ferry Town Council, this seven times larger “overlay district” will become the new “by right” area where SWaN can tear down historic structures, clear cut trees, blast, jack hammer, take over public land, alter streets, and bulldoze with impunity. 

SWaN’s “overlay district” will allow them to build whatever they want in any style, shape, and size they want.  SWaN and its Town Council allies are already pushing for expedited permit approvals, some of which would be issued administratively without public notice or comment.

It is very scary in Harpers Ferry.  People shouldn’t worry about the ghosts of old, but fear the demons being created.

[Scot Faulkner has been an active member of the Harpers Ferry community since 1987]

A TOWN TORN ASUNDER

[NOTE: The Martinsburg Journal, specifically reporter Jeff McCoy, covered this highly divisive issue fairly.  However, earlier this week, perhaps under pressure, McCoy was reassigned and this letter was never published.  Once again outside developers are undermining our community and civic culture. Here are some of McCoy’s articles for background:

http://www.journal-news.net/news/local-news/2017/01/overlay-ordinance-increases-concerns/

http://www.journal-news.net/news/local-news/2017/01/new-battle-erupts-in-harpers-ferry/

http://www.journal-news.net/news/local-news/2017/01/motion-denied-for-harpers-ferry-plaintiffs/]

Harpers Ferry is at war with itself.  Not since the Civil War has the community been so divided.

Neighbors no longer speak to each other.  Threats of physical violence spring up on social media.  Public hearings degenerate into tears and shouting.  Armed police keep order at meetings.  Petitions and counter petitions circulate.  One lawsuit is now before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.  An injunction has just been filed in the Circuit Court.

What is going on?

Harpers Ferry is at a crossroads. Harpers Ferry is consistently listed as one of the most historic and scenic small towns in America.  Over 300,000 tourists, and numerous movie production companies, bring revenue to the town every year.  Even with this success, the area is missing a core element that symbolized it as a tourist mecca for decades.

The Hilltop House Hotel was a defining presence in Harpers Ferry since Thomas S. Lovett, an African American businessman and hotelier, constructed the hotel in 1888. The Hotel’s breathtaking views, great food, and service became a magnet for America’s elite. It was the Presidential summer retreat before Camp David. Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain, Carl Sandburg, and Pearl S. Buck were among the notables who stayed at the Hotel. In 1946, Hilltop House hosted the preliminary meetings which led the establishment of UNESCO.

Those glory days are long gone.  A series of owners let the Hotel deteriorate until it became a decrepit reflection of its storied past.  In 2007, SWaN Investors purchased the hotel and its adjoining properties, promising to restore the facility. 

What has happened since SWaN’s arrival depends on one’s perspective.  Is SWaN a savior or a nefarious “Harold Hill” preying on citizens’ naiveté turning the “Music Man” plot into a horror story?

Harpers Ferry’s historic district is protected by layers of town ordinances complying with West Virginia Law and guidelines from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.  This regulatory environment is intended to maintain the architectural integrity. Townspeople must submit detailed forms and drawings, sometime waiting up to two years to alter a rain gutter or doorway. 

Larger projects, and new construction, must fit into Harpers Ferry’s comprehensive plan.  For projects not fitting, the town has the ability to issue a “Conditional Use Permit” that grants specific waivers in the face of a compelling community interest.

This is where the current civil war began.  SWaN refused to follow the town’s ordinances. SWaN refused to go through the Conditional Use Permit process.  SWaN demanded that a new “overlay district” be created, providing them the flexibility to do build what they wanted as big as they wanted. 

Town officials, desperate for a new Hilltop House complex, bent to SWaN’s every whim.  Local citizens raised concerns: will SWaN actually build a hotel or flip the property to a buyer who could build a casino, luxury condos, or something else on the site?  SWaN did little to calm the fears, requesting that requirements for a business plan, and even the requirement for a hotel, be stripped from the draft overlay ordinance.

Town officials went further.  Instead of asking SWaN for proffers, town officials promised SWaN public resources like expanded water and free police protection.  The town has not issued citations for the eighty police incidents on derelict SWaN properties, while townspeople are cited for unmowed lawns.

This unequal treatment has raised concerns that something else is going on.  It is public record that SWaN’s owners have wined and dined town officials.  Rumors swirl of other favors or pay-offs.  Private meetings occur with SWaN.  Townspeople’s public comments are limited to 2-3 minutes while SWaN representatives are given unlimited time.

As the Harpers Ferry’s civil war begins its ninth year many wheels are turning.  2017 may see prosecutions over town finances, court rulings to enforce the rule of law, a voter revolt against the town government, and SWaN leaving.  SWaN’s supporters, which include the town’s elected officials, are hoping the new year brings them victory with the sounds of dynamite blowing-up the overlay district, clearing the way for a 450 car underground parking ramp, and a massive building project.

[Scot Faulkner has been a resident of the Harpers Ferry area since 1987].

Losing our Memory

The following article was published on the History News Network 

http://hnn.us/articles/losing-our-national-historic-parks-and-our-memory

Six months before the Afghan-based Al Qaeda terrorists blew up the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Afghan-based Taliban blew up the 1700-year old Bamiyan Buddha statues [1].  The world decried this wanton destruction of history.

Unfortunately, every day America’s history is also being wantonly destroyed.  These touchstones of our national identity are not being leveled by Taliban tanks, but by developer bulldozers.

America is in the middle of commemorating the 150^th Anniversary of its Civil War and the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.  It is heart breaking to watch these events against a backdrop of impending threats to core historical properties and viewsheds.

“Sprawl and commercial development are threatening the historic sites where our nation was forged and shaped,” Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) recently said.  “Each time a historic battlefield is replaced with a parking lot, a chapter of American history is obscured, and future generations lose an important window onto their heritage.”

Thirty acres of America’s history are lost each day.  Over twenty percent of America’s battlefields are already lost forever, of the remaining 3+ million acres only fifteen percent are protected by National Parks. [3] While additional acres are protected by state and local parks and by private organizations, the threat to America’s collective memory remains tragically real and immediate.

On September 11, 2012 the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2489 reauthorizing and expanding the American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP).  This legislation also covers Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battlefields. Since 1999, the program’s matching grants have helped save more than 16,500 acres of historic sites in 14 states. [4]

The ABPP is currently seeking public comment on its latest report, which details the threats to 383 Civil War sites (Deadline October 12, 2012). [5] Unfortunately, detailed reports and a matching grant program are too little too late.

What is needed is a priority comprehensive federal initiative to save America’s memory.  This should be embraced by leaders across the political spectrum.  Liberals can rally around open spaces and preservation.  Conservatives can rally around making sure patriotic sacred ground and sites that establish America’s exceptionalism remain intact and in context for future generations.

Step One – Identify the land.  The ABPP has already identified core and contributing battlefield land in detail.  Groups such as the Civil War Trust have gone further to identify ownership parcel by parcel.  This information, along with data from local historical groups, should be compiled into both a national map and a set of battle-specific “metes and bounds” setting the stage for Omnibus Battlefield Boundary legislation.

Step Two – Create and pass Omnibus Battlefield Boundary legislation, which would expand the boundaries of existing national parks to encompass all battlefield land.  Where National Parks (battlefields, historical parks, monuments) do not currently exist, establish national historic areas that authorize cooperative agreements with state, local, and private entities to preserve this land. These arrangements would be similar to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District. [6]

Step Three – Authorize and appropriate sufficient funds within the Department of Interior’s existing Land & Water Conservation Fund to purchase all the battlefield land.  The current state of America’s economy prevents state and local government, and private groups, from buying land.  Only a fully funded federal effort will meet preservation needs before it is too late. 

Conservatives will balk at this program, but they should view it as stimulating the economy by jump starting the real estate market and family farms.  Most battlefield land is near urban areas and will vanish under developer bulldozers once the real estate market returns (current predictions are for normal sales activity by 2014 and a return to January 2006 market conditions by 2020). [7] Many farmers view their undeveloped land as their 401k investment.  Why not provide them with the ability to cash-in and at the same time save history?

Property rights conservatives will want to avoid eminent domain and have land bought from willing sellers at market rates. The main problem is that, by law, the federal government has to pay appraised value instead of asking price.  While appraisals prevent fraud and extortion, they do not reflect the fact that many of these battlefield properties are “under water” – worth less than their original purchase price or their current mortgage.  There needs to be a way to create clearly documented and reviewed waivers that allow federal realty officials to purchase battlefield land over and above appraised value. Congressional review and/or Federal Register publication with public comment prior to finalizing sales contracts could avoid problems.

Fiscal conservatives will be concerned about increasing the ongoing operational costs for this newly preserved battlefield.  Most unprotected battlefield land is agricultural.  The National Park Service could lease this land back to farmers, thus generating revenue while preserving the land. As this land is contiguous to existing Parks, existing Park personnel would monitor the land.  They probably drive by much of this land while monitoring existing Park acreage anyway.  Additional funds for archeology and public access/interpretation would be decided via normal Park management processes.  The main intent of this legislation is to preserve battlefield land while the realty market is stagnant.  This land will be lost forever once the realty market returns.

Step Four – Mandate a sense of urgency with the National Park Service and provide focused leadership to make sure this mandate is promptly and properly implemented.  This is fundamental to the success of this initiative because too many Park officials mouth preservation platitudes while doing nothing.  It is well documented that some lower level functionaries find ways not to do their job, that too many front line Park officials refuse to think outside their existing boundaries when developing their General Management Plans, that career regional and national Park leaders play internal power games and squander resources on pet projects, and that officials at individual Parks remain unwilling to protect land within their existing Park boundaries from development threats.  Top to bottom reform of the National Park Service will take time and needs to be mounted as part of a general management effort.  It must not stand in the way of this timely rescue.

Historian David McCullough stated, "History is who we are and why we are the way we are." America has a rapidly vanishing opportunity to preserve land on which its collective memory resides.  Failure to fully meet this current challenge will undermine America’s unique identity for generations to come.

[Scot Faulkner is President of Friends of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and a Trustee with The Journey Through Hallowed Ground]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1326063/After-1700-years-Buddhas-fall-to-Taliban-dynamite.html 

[2] http://holt.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1047&Itemid=18

[3] http://www.civilwar.org/take-action/save-a-battlefield/

[4] Op Cit Holt http://holt.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1047&Itemid=18

[5] http://historycoalition.org/2012/09/14/national-park-service-seeks-input-on-civil-war-battlefield-preservation/

[6] https://www.cfda.gov/?s=program&mode=form&tab=step1&id=06c9a62e6758e4c455c97037e3ff7b4e

[7] http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/05/housing-markets