SPORTS: Kettle Run dominates Senior Night swim meet; boys basketball report. PAGES 13, 14 January 31, 2024
Our 207th year | Vol. 207, No. 5 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50 VIRGINIA PRESS ASSOCIATION: BEST SMALL NEWSPAPER IN VIRGINIA 2017-2022
Keeping business brewing As market tightens, local breweries must find their niche By Dayna Smith
Special to the Fauquier Times
In an increasingly crowded Virginia craft beer market, breweries aim to survive by finding ways to be different, embracing and doubling down on the niches they fit best. The result is good for the beer consumer in the sense that there is something for everyone — from crowded bars with live music and dancing to a quiet taproom offering Sunday brunch with a friend. Want a place to play a game of Old Maid with your kids? There is a brewery for that, too.
Consider these different scenes, all within a 30-minute drive: In Manassas, one of the hottest entertainment complexes in the area is 2 Silos Brewing Co., and it was rollicking on a recent evening. People of all ages — babies to baby boomers — were packed into the long communal tables. A musician was singing, the tune struggling to compete with all the crackling conversation. A bit north in Haymarket, two friends with dogs caught up over a couple of “Jazzercise the Demons” hard seltzers at Trouvaille Brewing Company. At another table, a man sipped and swiped — a “Data Center” lager in one hand, iPhone in the other. Trouvaille, built into a former elementary See BREWERIES, page 4
PHOTO BY DAYNA SMITH
Lauren and Jared Fisher enjoy a game of Old Maid with their two young daughters during a visit to Old Busthead Brewery in Vint Hill.
Town council argues over side meetings with developers By Hunter Savery
Fauquier Times Staff Writer
PHOTO BY DOUG STROUD
Riley Min nails ‘sedge’ for Fauquier spelling bee win
Riley Min, 13, an eighth grader at Auburn Middle School, previously competed in the Fauquier County Public Schools’ Spelling Bee in as a third, fourth and fifth grader. She won the top prize Saturday, Jan. 27 with the word “sedge.” Story on page 2.
Warrenton Town Councilmembers traded sharp words Friday over whether it was proper for two of its members to hold a side meeting with Fauquier County officials and a developer that hopes to adjust the town’s boundary lines to add up to 270 new homes. While most of the town council’s all-day strategic planning meeting, held Friday, Jan. 26, focused on team-building exercises and goal setting, it devolved into shouting and accusations of impropriety regarding an informal meeting about the Arrington residential development held last September. That meeting included only two of the seven town council members as well as two former Fauquier County supervisors and both town and county staff. It resulted in significant changes in the project, which led to its renewed approval by the county board of supervisors last November. The supervisors’ vote signaled
their willingness for Arrington to be included in the Town of Warrenton so its new homes could be connected to the town’s sewer system. That led Town Council member Brett Hamby to propose a resolution in December signaling the town’s support for the needed boundary-line adjustment. Although that process is still ongoing, Councilmembers Bill Semple and Eric Gagnon raised objections in January to the informal meeting with developers and the resolution that followed. They continued to air their frustrations Friday, arguing that the meeting—which included Hamby and David McGuire — was improper and violated the town’s code of ethics. Hamby defended himself and took aim at Semple’s statements to the press. Gagnon joined Semple’s criticism of the Arrington meeting but met swift blowback from other council members. See COUNCIL, page 7
Teens choose Rainbow Therapeutic Riding Center for $10K grant, page 3
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