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Peter Brewington Fauquier Times Sports Editor
May 6, 2020
Our 203rd year | Vol. 203, No. 19 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50
Virginia Gold Cup scheduled for June 27. But you’re not invited. Fauquier’s signature sporting event to run without an audience
By Coy Ferrell
Times Staff Writer
job at Appleton Campbell, where she had worked for four and a half years. She moved to Warrenton to be close to that job, she said, and so far, she hasn’t heard anything from
Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday that some restrictions on restaurants, retail, fitness, personal care, grooming and entertainment businesses will “likely” end on Friday, May 15, a week later than originally mandated (see page 3). The date is contingent on several public health indicators, the governor said. Although many restaurants and other food service businesses have been able to conduct some sales by offering takeout and delivery, dining rooms have been closed throughout the state since March 24; hair salons have been forced to close altogether. Neal Wavra, owner of Field & Main Restaurant in Marshall, said he is taking a cautious approach to returning to pre-pandemic operations. As far as immediate plans for the restaurant, the governor’s order “doesn’t change anything at the moment. We’re going to maintain course.” The restaurant’s operations had been retooled toward a takeout model, he said, and there would be a significant investment required to shift business operations back toward the dining room. “A percentage opening is not in our interest at this point,” he said of the possibility of limited dine-in service. “We learned there is a viable business with the ‘to-go’ model,” and
See PERSONAL TOLL, page 4
See LOCAL BUSINESS, page 8
By Betsy Burke Parker Special to the Times
Fauquier’s biggest sporting event may happen next month. You can’t go. That’s the way it’s going to work at Gold Cup according to Gov. Ralph Northam and race co-chair Al Griffin. The 95th Virginia Gold Cup may run June 27 – rescheduled from May 2 -- and the 100th Middleburg Spring Races on June 13, Griffin said, but it won’t be like anything anyone has ever seen. Virginia guidelines do not currently allow spectators at sporting events. This year won’t be the traditional, al fresco tailgate party for 50,000 spectators that Gold Cup has become, Griffin said. Instead, it will be strictly about supporting horse
COVID-19 leaves more than 3,600 in Fauquier without a job The novel coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent restrictions on public gatherings and businesses have dealt a devastating blow to the labor force, both locally and throughout the United States. The number of unemployment claims has already exceeded those seen at the height of the Great Recession a decade ago.
See UNEMPLOYMENT, page 4
Local business owners cautious about reopening
PHOTO BY BETSY BURKE PARKER
Though up to 50,000 spectators attend the Virginia Gold Cup races annually since it first ran in 1922, the rescheduled version this year will be conducted in an empty house. sports at the grassroots – participant – level. “Everyone in the (steeplechase) game has been so positive” about retaining this small portion of the
schedule, Griffin said. Five Virginia point-to-points were canceled altogether due to the COVID-19 crisis, See GOLD CUP, page 5
Historic unemployment takes a personal toll By Coy Ferrell
Times Staff Writer
“This is scary. This is really scary,” said Donna Alger, 52, of Warrenton. Alger was laid off on March 20 from her administrative
INSIDE Classified............................................24 Opinion...............................................11 Obituaries...........................................21 Puzzles...............................................12 Sports.................................................17 Real Estate..........................................19
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