March 24, 2021
Our 204th year | Vol. 204, No. 12 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50
KETTLE RUN IS PLAYOFF BOUND: Cougars dispatch Liberty 26-7 to stay unbeaten. SPORTS, PAGES 18-20
New courthouse included in proposed five-year capital improvement spending plan $55 million expenditure would trigger referendum By Coy Ferrell
Times Staff Writer
The demands on Fauquier County court facilities have far outgrown existing space and security measures, according to a report commissioned by county supervisors and completed last year. Rectifying the situation could cost at least $55.4 million. Fauquier courts and related services currently operate in a total of about 39,000 square feet across three courthouses, the report found. Under statewide guidelines, Fauquier courts should have more than 71,000 square feet of operating space based on current caseloads, and even more space to accommodate the projected growth of the next two decades. See COURTHOUSE, page 10 TIMES STAFF PHOTO/COY FERRELL
Fauquier High history teacher Charles Wesley Lewis is a descendent of Wesley Washington.
‘The other Wesley’s’ rise from slavery inspired legacy of teachers TIMES STAFF PHOTO/ROBIN EARL
Edith Bailey and Joan Sansone participate in a group drumming class at The Villa.
Visitors welcomed back into long-term care facilities ‘It’s good for everybody’s mental health’ By Robin Earl
Times Staff Writer
As long-term care facility residents have been mostly vaccinated for COVID-19 and community spread diminishes, Fauquier Health is beginning to allow family members to spend time face to face with their loved ones at its senior care facilities, The Villa at Suffield Meadows and the Fauquier Health Rehabilitation & Nursing Center. See NURSING HOMES, page 2
Just before the Civil War began, nearly half of Fauquier County’s residents were enslaved. Their lives, even their names, are buried in the past. It is beyond time to remember them. This is the second story in an occasional Fauquier Times series highlighting the forgotten -- many of whom have descendants living here today -- and the local residents working to uncover their histories. By Nichelle Calhoun
Piedmont Journalism Foundation
Charles Wesley Lewis’s family has been teaching the children of Fauquier County for five generations. “Education is the family business,” Lewis says. “Pursuing a higher education is the family culture. It is not a matter if you are going to teach, but what you are going to teach.” What he teaches at Fauquier High School is American government, U.S. history and African American studies. And because of his own roots--his family’s long and robust history from slavery to success--he knows the value of helping students connect their present to their past. His family stories--handed
Filling in Fauquier’s Past down by family griots, or oral-history tellers--have helped him understand that he is a man with a heritage that preceded him and expanded him. See WESLEY, page 4
INSIDE Classified............................................26 Opinion...............................................17 Obituaries...........................................24 Puzzles...............................................16 Sports.................................................18
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