Fauquier Times 11/21/2023

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SPECIAL SECTION: Holidays around the Piedmont, pages 13-19 November 21, 2023

Our 206th year | Vol. 206, No. 47 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50 VIRGINIA PRESS ASSOCIATION: BEST SMALL NEWSPAPER IN VIRGINIA 2017-2022

Councilman-elect says he’ll curb data centers, boost transparency But stopping the Amazon project will prove difficult Hunter Savery

Fauquier Times Staff Writer

Nearly a year after the Warrenton Town Council voted to approve a special use permit for an Amazon data center, many residents remain opposed to that decision and expressed their frustration at the polls by electing Eric Gagnon in the town’s Nov. 7 special election. Gagnon, 65, a retired publisher and vociferous data center opponent, said he believes he tapped into a sense of collective grievance among Warrenton residents who felt sold out by the town council. Voter turnout in the race was just over 50%, which was higher than the countywide 48%. Only 32 votes separated Gagnon from his opponent Karen Lavarnway. But because only 733 ballots were cast

PHOTO BY DOUG STROUD

Eric Gagnon won the special election for Warrenton town council. in the race, Gagnon won with about 52% of the vote compared to Lavarnway’s 48%. “Voters said that they like

living in Warrenton as a small town,” Gagnon told the Fauquier Times. “They want to see more trust and transparency from their government.” Gagnon had harsh words for the town’s handling of the Amazon data center decision, saying: “The town basically steamrolled over their citizens.” When Gagnon is sworn in early next month, he will join three other like-minded town councilmembers who voted against the Amazon permit, resulting in what could be a new 4-3 anti-data center majority on the council. But stopping the project may prove difficult. Gagnon acknowledged that it will likely take a win in court for the issue to return to the town council for a direct up and down vote. If that does happen, Gagnon says he will be an unequivocal “no” vote.

See TURKEYS, page 2

See BARRETT, page 4

At Mountainside Montessori, tending animals helps middleschoolers learn about business, life, serving the community

On a warm morning in early November, students in the Mountainside Montessori Adolescent Program are pulling out hoses, carrying bags of feed, filling troughs and checking on the pigs, chickens and turkeys COURTESY PHOTO

Silas Hibbard, a seventhgrade student at Mountainside Montessori in Marshall, with one of the student-raised turkeys.

By Cher Muzyk

Fauquier Times Staff Writer

on their Marshall campus. They talk to the turkeys as they clean and fill their water and pass feed over the fence to one another. “They’re goofy and hang out in a clump,” an eighth grader said of the turkeys. “You can yell at them, and they talk back.” The students have a favorite, the biggest tom, which they’ve named Squidward. “But we know he’s going to end up on a plate,” a seventh grader said.

Raising turkeys, learning lessons By Beth Raisin

46 dogs seized from Fauquier home put down A jury found Fauquier County dog breeder Irina Barrett guilty of 60 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals on Friday after a week-long tri- Irina Barrett al in Fauquier County Circuit Court. Each conviction could result in a sentence of up to one year in jail for a maximum of 60 years behind bars. But the 12-member jury also found Barrett, 45, not guilty of three felony animal abuse charges tied to the dog breeding operation she ran out of her Broad Run home, where 75 dogs were seized from filthy conditions in January 2020. The difference between the misdemeanor and felony charges has to do with the element of intent. For the misdemeanors, the prosecution only had to prove that dogs were “ill-treated” in Barrett’s care or that Barrett deprived dogs “of necessary food, drink, shelter or emergency veterinary treatment.” To convict Barrett of the three felony counts, the jury had to agree that Barrett willfully inflicted inhumane injury on three dogs connected to those charges. Each of the three had to be put down because of health conditions. Based on its verdict, the jury did not find that Barrett intended to harm her dogs.

See GAGNON, page 5

Special to the Fauquier Times

Jury convicts dog breeder of animal abuse

Kettle Run loses in playoffs; Esports team at Liberty; FHS volleyball. SPORTS, Pages 10, 11, 21, 22 connecting You to

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