Help During an Extra Hungry Holiday Season
BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.comWith cold weather and Thanksgiving here, more families are giving thanks for the nonprofits, volunteers and donors working to ensure they don’t spend the holiday going hungry.
Loudoun’s hunger nonprofits have just finished Thanksgiving meal distributions, and they continue to have long lists of people asking for help. The annual surge in need during the cold weather and holiday season adds to a time of hardship that has not ended since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic more than
two years ago. And at the same time, the rising costs of living under high inflation have made it a little harder to make ends meet, and, for those more fortunate, to give a little extra.
Supervisors Consider Equity Policy
BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.comLoudoun County supervisors are considering a resolution that would affirm equity as a fundamental value of the county government and lay out a series of projects and goals to put that value into action.
In 2020, supervisors created the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the position of chief equity officer, but that position wasn’t hired until July 2021 amid a COVID-19 pandemic-related freeze on new spending.
On Nov. 15, Chief Equity Officer Carl Rush presented the results of an extensive research project on the history of racial inequity in Loudoun County, accompanying the three-page resolution with commitments from both county supervisors and the government staff to view their decisions through an equity lens—starting with establishing a shared definition of the world.
The resolution defines equity as “a fundamental value defined as the commitment to promote fairness and justice in the formation of priorities, policies, and programs.”
“Often we talk about the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and we talk about EQUITY continues on page 46
continues on page 46
Middle Schoolers Get Hands-on Restaurant Experience at Ford’s
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@loudounnow.comFord’s Fish Shack opened its doors and kitchen to an eighth grade class es this week to give them a behind-thescenes look at what it’s like to work in a restaurant.
Students in the Family and Consum er Sciences (FACS) classes at Belmont Ridge Middle School received handson training in knife safety, food safety and preparation, sanitation, and custom er service from staff at the Lansdowne restaurant.
Teacher Kelly Merritt said she likes to take her students on field trips into the community so they can see the skills she is teaching in the classroom in action in the real world.
“It reinforces what I teach in the classroom about safety and sanitation and workforce readiness. It’s two whole separate things, but it combines them all together,” Merritt said. “It makes it appli cable and more authentic for them.”
Merritt tries to take her students out in the field before they move into the kitchen
classroom and start cutting and cooking.
She said this year students just start ed in the kitchen making guacamole and learning food preparation and sanitation and some knife skills. The field trip was perfect timing for them to see these skills in action.
Sydney Tarae, 13, said she feels more confident using knives.
“It makes me more comfortable like cutting stuff now. Now I know what it’s like in the kitchen and it makes me feel more safe in the kitchen and its pretty fun coming here,” she said.
Kasey Carlson, 14, said she learned a lot more about what goes on behind the kitchen doors at a restaurant.
“It made me feel safer knowing they care so much about sanitizing and keep ing our food nice and clean. It just made it more interesting knowing that when we are out here talking and waiting there is so much more stuff going on there [in the kitchen],” she said.
This is the third year Ford’s Fish Shack has opened its kitchen to the students at Belmont Ridge Middle School, and the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic
shuttered schools and many businesses.
When asked why he lets students in for this one-of-a-kind look at his restaurant, Ford’s owner Tony Stafford said, “why not?”
“For us, it’s always about giving back to the kids. We live in the community. We work in the community and my son goes to school in the community, so why not give back?” he said.
In addition to kitchen safety and cook ing skills, students also learn workforce readiness skills like customer service, work ethic, teamwork, communication skills and some management skills.
Merritt said the FACS curriculum cov ers a lot of important life and interperson al skills, many skills students will need as they get older and live on their own.
“Employers are into soft skills right now and a lot of people focus on math and science but these soft skills, people skills, are very important today and FACS focuses on that,” she said.
Stafford taught the kids about custom er service and said he thinks every kid
FACS CLASS continues on page 47
Students Go Behind the Scenes at Inova Hospital
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@louduonnow.comAbout 100 sixth graders from three middle schools got real-world experience from professionals in the health and medical sciences field on Monday, with another 100 from three more middle schools joining the program Tuesday.
The students took part in the Building Learning Opportunities and Options in Medical Sciences, or BLOOM, program, which gave the students a hands-on day of ex ploration into careers in the medical sciences field.
On Monday, students from Sen eca Ridge Middle School, Sterling Middle School and Riverbend Mid dle School heard from speakers from a range of jobs in the medical field, practiced CPR with Loudoun Fire and Rescue, toured the Inova Loudoun Hospital mobile health bus and tried their virtual reality skills with Dr. Arik King of Future Kings, a nonprofit after-school pro gram that serves boys of color from economically challenged communi ties and focuses on STEM.
“What we are going to do is we are going to bloom and what does bloom mean? We are really trying to build some learning op portunities and options in health
CAREER
EXPERIENCE
continues on page 47
ON THE Agenda Loudoun
Supervisors Vote to Offer Grants to Businesses on Renamed Roads
BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.comLoudoun County will offer grants to businesses with addresses on roads the Board of Supervisors voted to rename, to help cover the extra costs those votes created for those businesses.
Supervisors on Nov. 15 allocated $443,250 for the Road Renaming Business Assistance Program, allowing businesses to apply for grants to offset the costs ranging from new business cards and letterheads to roadside signs and vehicle graphics, where those will have to be updated to reflect the businesses’ new street addresses.
The grants could provide some relief for homes in the Hillwood Estates neighborhood near Round Hill, and on Jeb Stuart Road, Fort Johnston Road, Rt. 7 and Rt. 50. In Hillwood Estates, the roads were named for Confederate military leaders, Rt. 7 is named for segregationist Virginia lawmaker and governor Harry Byrd who led “massive resistance,” and Rt. 50 is named for Confederate cavalry
colonel John Mosby.
Supervisors have voted to rename all of those. Both Rt. 7 and Rt. 50 will again bear the names they had before the General Assembly renamed them for Byrd and Mosby in 1968 and 1980. Rt. 7 will be renamed Leesburg Pike, already its name in Fairfax County, and Rt. 50 will be renamed Little River Turnpike. The timeline for finalizing those name changes depends on the Virginia Department of Transportation.
The new names for the remaining roads have not yet been decided. One road in Hillwood Estates will not be renamed—Mosby Court is entirely within Round Hill town limits, and the Town Council voted not to change the name at the request of residents living on that cul de sac.
The grants will also be available to addresses on two other roads that were recently renamed, Compass Rose Court in Sterling and Vilgrain Farm Lane in Aldie. Formerly Leesburg Court and Little River Lane, they apparently were renamed to avoid confusion with the renamed Rt. 7 and Rt. 50. The county by policy avoids duplicate and similar road names to ensure emergency responders arrive at the correct address.
The grant fund size is based on county staff members’ estimates for how many businesses will be affected by the renaming and the costs they will incur as a result. In April, they surveyed businesses
RENAMED ROADS continues on page 6
Design Cabinet Presents Signatures of Loudoun Awards
LOUDOUN NOW STAFF REPORT
The Loudoun County Design Cabinet last week announced the winners of its 2022 Signatures of Loudoun Design Excellence Program, which puts the spotlight on exceptional structures and public spaces.
It is the 19th year for the awards program conducted by the volunteer group of architects, planners and engineers seeking to support economic development by encouraging high-quality design.
Recognized this year were:
MAKEOVERS AWARD: 338 Net Zero. Peter Burnett’s carbon-neutral coworking office building on East Market Street in Leesburg was remodeled from a former Tastee Freez restaurant.
PUBLIC SPACES AWARD: King Street
Station Public Plaza. The gathering space in The Knutson Companies’ south King Street project features a train depot-themed pavilion with ample open-air seating.
INTERIORS AWARD: Lightridge High School. The interior design of Loudoun’s newest high school was recognized for its “striking cutting-edge design” and “innovative details” that create spaces to inspire students.
FAMILIAR AWARD: Lucketts Fire and Rescue Station. The village’s larger replacement fire-rescue station was lauded for its agricultural stylings, including a silo feature.
“You couldn’t ask for a more contextual structure than this farm structure look with its water tower silo, and the actual station itself has the barn vernacular. It was very fitting for its rural setting... At the same time, in this envelope and agriculture and all is a state-of-theart facility,” Design Cabinet Chair Al-
SIGNATURES OF LOUDOUN continues on page 6
On 60th Anniversary, Dulles Airport Celebrates Loudoun Partnership
On the 60th anniversary of Dulles International Airport’s opening on Nov. 17, 1962, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials thanked Loudoun County supervisors for the airport and the county’s longstanding collaboration.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Vice President and Manager of Dulles Airport Richard Golinowski presented the county with a model of the airport’s Dulles air traffic control tower as a token of that partnership.
“A lot of people say that the airport is the economic driver of the region, and I always say we can’t be the economic driver unless we have partners,” Golinowski said. “And as partners, the leading partner is, Loudoun County. We are not where we are today without Loudoun.”
The airport is, is so important to us. It is a driver for the economy, but it is also a driver for diversity, it’s a driver for equity, it’s a driver for inclusion, it’s a driver for a lot of things,” Loudoun County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) said. And she recalled photos of the airport at the time—an international airport among cow fields.
“Whoever had the foresight to put the airport in what was then
If you’re suffering from Fibromyalgia you understand this sentiment all too well Local resident Elyse K found herself at a turning point when she noticed her diagnosis had started to take a toll on her marriage
“I was angry all the time because of all the things I couldn’t do anymore because of my Fibromyalgia. That anger cycled through to depression and affected everyone around me, my husband more than anyone. It made our lives miserable.”
Fibromyalgia affects the entire body. To make things complicated it affects everyone’s body a little differently. To make things even more complicated, those effects can change on a daily basis. Some times you’re plagued with wide spread muscle pain and fatigue, and other days it’s a headache and heightened sensitivity to touch.
“I could barely stand to have the light weight of bedsheets touching me, much less a hug from my husband.” explains Elyse.
This is what it’s like to suffer from Fibromyalgia. Symptoms make everyday life incredibly difficult. Mundane, daily tasks are nearly impossible.
WAS TIRED OF LIVING WITH MY FIBROMYALGIA PAIN
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And too often, these symptoms are only made worse because practitioners find it difficult to understand and even more troublesome to treat It’s characterized by widespread pain in muscles, and tissues rather than inflammation of the joints, muscles and tissues
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Elyse put it this way, “My life was no longer my own.”
Eventually Elyse did her own research and discovered that acupuncture can improve the quality of life in Fibro patients. Determined to find the best in the business, she discovered FIREFLY Acupuncture & Wellness lead by Rachal Lohr, L.Ac.
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If you’re looking for a practitioner and a clinic who understands your diagnosis and has a proven solution for chronic pain, look no further than FIREFLY. Elyse describes FIREFLY almost as enthusiastically as she does their treatments. “I love it here!”
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Supervisors, Residents Look for Airport Noise Solution
BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.comCounty supervisors and residents liv ing near Dulles Airport continued seek ing answers to the problem of jet noise over their homes at a Nov. 21 community meeting.
People living around the airport— many of whom are experiencing unprec edented jet noise as new flight paths are bringing planes low over their homes for the first time—and increasingly some supervisors have been asking why those planes can’t keep taking the same routes they took before. Previously on takeoff, those planes took a straighter path and climbed higher before turning, and turn ing sooner has put them low over new ar eas of Loudoun.
“We have the ability to say ‘take all of the jumbos and fly them straight,’ and there goes 50 percent of the problem,”
Brian Beha, one resident who has been active in the citizen-led Loudoun Aircraft Noise Mitigation Committee, said.
“If you’re one of the few major airports in the region without a noise compatibil ity program, why is it that we couldn’t come to the table to work on something that benefits the entire community?” Car olyn McCulley, another member of that group, said.
“With due respect, did you all think you would end up hearing no airplane noise?” County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) asked as she has before. Meeting attendees said their concerns are not about having no noise, but about the new noise.
One person pointed to the good schools, Hal and Berni Regional Hanson Park, Metrorail stops, and other ameni ties in the area. “I keep hearing this re frain, ‘why did you buy here?’” he said. “You did a great job of enticing me to buy here.”
The Federal Aviation Administration, which did not have a representative at the meeting, has ultimate authority over flight tracks. Representatives of the Metropoli tan Washington Airports Authority at the meeting Monday said those changes may not be so simple, as air traffic in around Dulles is part of a complex pattern of flights over the region.
But Randall and others still wondered why it wouldn’t be possible, and deliber ated meeting with the FAA.
However, some county and airports leaders stressed that a decision on updat ing the county’s airport noise zone bound
aries coming before supervisors in Janu ary has nothing to do with changing flight paths—it is a local zoning issue.
Supervisors in January are scheduled to vote on an update to the county’s Air
Signatures of Loudoun
fred Gooden said.
INFRASTRUCTURE AWARD: ReThink9 Hillsboro. The Rt. 9 project not only transformed how traffic moves through town, but created a new environment for pedestrian activities.
“It’s a little bit familiar, and it’s very much of a big makeover, but it was a mi raculous project, because when you think about what they did in this envelope, is they incorporated all the real infrastruc
Renamed roads
in the affected area, finding the vast ma jority were small businesses, and 60% had less than 10 employees. They also surveyed businesses about the costs they expect to see, as well as getting quotes from marketing, printing, and graphics companies.
County staff members estimate around 345 businesses in total will be affect ed. The grants will be available in dif ferent amounts depending on the type of business.
Home-based businesses may be eli gible for grants of $500, and non-homebased businesses for $750. Proof of the
port Impact Overlay District. That district is based on the airports authority’s projec tions on possible noise at the airport’s full potential capacity, including a planned east-west runway on the southern end of
airport property that isn’t yet built. Coun ty policy forbids new residential develop ment in the highest-noise area, requires additional sound insulation in the nexthighest-noise area, and requires poten tial homebuyers be notified of the airport noise in a one-mile buffer around that.
But homeowners could also see im pacts from changes to that district— homeowners that were not previously in the high-noise areas of the overlay have said they could face higher insurance costs, with the new requirement that if their home is damaged it must be rebuilt with additional noise insulation.
Supervisor Michael R. Turner (D-Ash burn) said either someone will have to come up with the cash for sound insula tion in affected homes, or the flight paths will have to change.
“I simply find, if I’m an airport man ager, and I’ve got potentially all kind of issues with trying to noise mitigate thou sands of homes, or simply flying straight. … I go with option B,” Turner said. n
ture that we live in today’s life,” Gooden said, noting the project included modern ization of the town’s utility system and the installation of fiber optic broadband access throughout town.
LEGENDS AWARD: VCE Loudoun Mas ter Gardener Demonstration Garden. This year the volunteer group celebrated 30th anniversary of the Ida Lee Park garden.
“It has stood the test of time and is a very familiar place for most of us who have had the opportunity to be part of it. This garden also has a great impact on the community,” Gooden said.
VISION IN DESIGN AWARD: Paul
required changes may be required.
Non-home-based businesses will also be able to apply for additional reimburse ment up to $2,000 with receipts. And an other grant of up to $5,000 will be avail able to business owners with freestanding signs or vehicle signage that needs to be updated, with receipts and photographs of the outdated signs required.
To qualify for the grants and reim bursements, businesses must also be current on their county taxes and have a current business license or get verification from county staff after they apply that a license is not required.
The program cost also factors in $12,000 for mailings and setting up the online application with the Department of
Reimers, PR Construction. Reimers, who died in July at age 59, was recognized for his “indelible impact on the street scapes of Leesburg and so many other places.” In presenting the award, Martha Semmes noted Reimers’s commitment to high-quality design and construction, dedication to historic preservation, men torship to employees, and civic service in cluding as a member of Leesburg’s Board of Architectural Review. She noted Re imers lived in the Memorial Drive neigh borhood he built in downtown Leesburg and for which he was awarded a Signa tures of Loudoun award in 2005. n
Economic Development’s grant manage ment software provider.
“People who looked like me driving down streets named after people who would have been more than happy to keep them enslaved is not something that I will ever, ever, ever think is OK,” Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large), a Black woman, said.
Supervisors voted 8-0-1 to approve the grant program, Supervisor Sylvia R. Glass (D-Broad Run) off the dais. The grants are expected to be available be tween April and May of 2023.
The county maintains a web page with updates on the ongo ing work to rename those roads at loudoun.gov/roadrenaming. n
considered way out there in Loudoun County, was a brilliant person. And now it is such a central point of this whole area,” she said.
Broadband Expansion Construction to Begin in 2023
The construction project to expand broadband internet across Loudoun is expected to begin within the first three months of 2023, the county government has announced.
The project, partnering All Points Broadband with the county and electric providers, will install fiber optic cable along existing utility poles. The $61 mil lion project is supported by a $17.5 mil lion Virginia Telecommunications Initia tive state grant and $12.425 million of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act fund ing. Preliminary planning, permitting and other work is already underway.
Finishing all connections is expected to take two to two and a half years. More than 8,600 residences and businesses are planned for a connection. More informa tion is online at loudoun.gov/broadban dexpansion.
Supervisors Contract for Labor Relations Administrator
County supervisors have approved a contract with Keith D. Greenburg to serve as Labor Relations Administrator, the neutral third party that administers certi fying and decertifying bargaining repre sentatives, resolving labor-management dispute, and assisting with selecting me diators and arbitrators as needed.
He was selected after interviewing with a Proposal Analysis Group of rep resentatives from county administration, the county attorney’s office, the Service Employees International Union and the International Association of Fire Fighters, the union representing Loudoun career firefighters. Among other qualifications, he comes with experience serving as the neutral party for impasses in collective bargaining between Montgomery County, MD and the Montgomery County IAFF, as the permanent arbitrator for Maryland Transit Associated and the Amalgamated Transit Union, and on the Personnel Ap peals Board of the United States Govern ment Accountability Office.
The county had difficulty raising interest in the contract; a first Request for
Proposals got no responses, and Green burg was the only respondent to a revised second RFP advertised directly to vari ous arbitrator and related organizations. However, the Proposal Analysis Group after interviewing him recommended him unanimously.
The county has set aside $300,000 in annual operating funds to support col lective bargaining costs such as Green burg’s services, which will be used on an as-needed basis.
County Invites Transit, Commuter Plan Input
Loudoun County Transit and Commut er Services invites members of the public to provide comment about their transpor tation needs and priorities as the county works to update the strategic plans for its transit and commuter assistance pro grams.
Comment may be provided through an online survey at loudoun.gov/transitstra tegicplans, and at a series of listening ses sions in November and December.
In-person listening sessions are planned at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at the Loudoun County Gov ernment Center, 1 Harrison Street SE in Leesburg; Monday, Dec. 5 at Woodgrove High School, 36811 Allder School Road in Purcellville; and Wednesday, Dec. 7 at Briar Woods High School, 22525 Belmont Ridge Road in Ashburn. A virtual listening session is scheduled Thursday, Dec. 1 at 6 p.m. Information on attending that meeting and about the strategic planning process is online at loudoun.gov/transitstrategicplans. n
Leesburg AROUND town
Tree Lighting Ceremony Set for Dec. 2
The Town of Leesburg will hold its holiday tree lighting ceremony on the Town Green on Friday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m.
The event will feature holiday music from the Lost Locals, holiday character for photo opportunities, and remarks from Mayor Kelly Burk.
During the event, West Market Street will be closed between Wirt and King streets.
This event is free and open to the public. It will also be broadcasted live on the town’s Facebook page. For more information and updates, go to leesburgva.gov/ holidaysinleesburg.
Toys for Tots Collection Now Underway
Freeze Your Gizzard Race Marks 20 Years
Cole Williamson set the pace in the 20th annual Freeze Your Gizzard race at Leesburg’s Ida Lee Park on Saturday morning. Appropriately, the temperature was 28 degrees at starting time.
The 18-year-old from Mount Airy, MD, completed the 5K course with a time of 16:39, placing first among more than 600 runners. Emma Ahren, 18, of Stephen City, was the top female finisher, crossing the line at 19:50. Another 200 participants joined the event for the 1-mile fun run in the park.
The event helped kick off the holiday season in Leesburg and supports Loudoun Hunger Relief and its food pantry operations. Race participants brought food donations to help stock the shelves as LHR volunteers prepared hundreds of holiday meal packages to distribute to area families.
Through this year’s event, LHR received almost 800 pounds of food donations and raised $30,000 through sponsorships and registrations. n
Holiday Kickoff at the Village
The Leesburg government is joining in the Toys for Tots campaign, with donations being collected at five locations through Dec. 9.
Donated toys should be new, unwrapped, and appropriate for children ages newborn to 16 years. They will be distributed solely within Loudoun County.
Donations may be dropped off at Town Hall, the Thomas Balch Library, the Leesburg Police Department, the Ida Lee Park Recreation Center, or at Leesburg Executive Airport.
The local program is led by County Marine Corps League Detachment. Monetary donations may be given directly to that organization. Learn more at loudoun-va.toysfortots.org.
Uncle Dave’s Celebrates Re-opening
A ribbon cutting was held on Tuesday to celebrate the grand re-opening of Uncle Dave’s Kettle Korn.
Owner Felisha Battle has been serving the area since 2015. What started as a small tent setup in the
Williamsburg Outlets has grown to a nationally recognized brand.
“I came here to sell popcorn in 2015, made it through COVID, and I’m still here,” Battle said. “I’m just looking forward to seeing all of my customers who have been asking,
‘When are you coming back?’ Well, we’re back.”
Uncle Dave’s Kettle Korn is located in the center courtyard of the Leesburg Premium Outlets just outside the Coach store. The business will officially re-open to the public on Friday, Nov. 25 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
For more information, go to udkettlekorn.com. n
Public Safety
Roldan Pleads Guilty to 2011 Murder
STAFF REPORT
Eleven years after 21-year-old Bethany Anne Decker was reported missing, investigators closed their case last week.
During a Nov. 17 Circuit Court hearing, Ronald D. Roldan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. A sentencing hearing is scheduled Feb. 21. He faces a sentence of five to 40 years in prison.
Roldan, who was charged with her death in 2020, was set for a six-week jury trial starting in January.
Roldan was living with Decker in Ashburn when she went missing in 2011. Decker was five months pregnant and in her final semester at George Mason University. Her car was left in the parking lot of her apartment complex, and she has never been found.
Roldan had been a person of interest in the case since Decker’s disappearance, but was not charged in the case until November 2020.
Roldan had a criminal record before Decker’s disappearance—and since has pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflict-
ing serious injury and felony assault inflicting serious bodily injury in Pinehurst, NC after being charged with attempted murder of his then-girlfriend Vickey Willoughby. Roldan was sentenced to a minimum of six years in prison, after which he was to be deported to his native Bolivia.
Roldan was charged in the Loudoun case as he completed his North Carolina sentence.
According to information included in a December 2014 search warrant—and several subsequent warrants—requested by the Loudoun Sheriff’s Office to obtain electronic data on Roldan’s cell phone, tablet and laptop at his then-North Carolina residence, Decker’s relatives said she was attempting to leave her abusive relationship with Roldan before she went missing. Willoughby also told Loudoun detectives that Roldan once told her, “I made someone disappear once and I’ll do it again.”
That search warrant also notes that Roldan refused to submit to a polygraph test and further interviews in the case of Decker’s disappearance. n
SAFETY Briefs
Childcare Center Worker Charged with Abuse of Infant
An Ashburn childcare center employee faces criminal charges after an investigation into a report that she caused life-threatening injuries to an infant, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
At 5 p.m. Nov. 7, deputies were called to an area hospital for a report of an infant suffering from life-threatening injuries. Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit determined that the injuries occurred at the Winwood Children’s Center on Hay Road.
On Nov. 18, Shabana Saleem, 50, of Ashburn, was arrested and charged with child abuse and neglect. It is alleged that Saleem did not render aid to the infant after the injuries. She was held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.
The infant has since been released from the hospital.
LPD Investigates Sneaker Store Smash and
Grab
The Leesburg Police Department is investigating a Nov. 17 burglary at Restocked Sneakers in the Crescent Place neighborhood.
According to the report, officers were called to the store shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday after a plate glass window was found shattered and an undetermined amount of property was taken. Discarded merchandise was located nearby in Raflo Park near the W&OD Trail.
Anyone who has not already spoken with law enforcement and has information about the incident is asked to contact Detective M. Ware at 703-7714500 or at mware@leesburgva.gov. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call the Leesburg Crime Line at 703-443-TIPS (8477). Information can also be sent using TIPSUBMIT via text. Text 274637 (CRIMES) and begin your message with LPDTIP.
Loudoun Dispatcher Earns Statewide Award
STAFF REPORT
Loudoun County Emergency Communications Center Dispatcher Adriane Heiden has been awarded the Virginia Governor’s EMS Award for Outstanding Contribution to EMS Telecommunications.
The Governor’s Fire
Service Awards were established in 2002 to honor excellence in Virginia’s Fire Service. The program is operated by the Virginia Department of Fire Programs, in partnership with the Virginia Fire Services Board. Using her experience as an avid hiker, Heiden developed a training program to assist other dispatchers in processing calls from individuals experiencing medical emergencies on trails around the county. The training covers call processing techniques, location determination programs, and trail identification systems. It has been presented to all Loudoun County Fire and Rescue employees, new uniformed fire officers, and all newly hired personnel within the center. n
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Education SCHOOL Notebook
6 Calendar Options Under Board Review
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@loudounnow.comThree more student calendar options for the 2023-24 school year are up for review, making a total of six the for the School Board to choose from.
Chief Human Resources Officer Lisa Boland presented two new calendar options during last week’s School Board meeting, Denise Corbo (At-Large) presented a third.
The new options provide six more days of student instruction than the original proposals.
In student calendar option four, students would be in school for 180 days, with the first day of school being Aug. 21 and the last day June 12. The Friday before Labor Day is off for students and teachers. Winter break is eight days in this option, as opposed to 11. The corresponding teacher calendar puts 197-day contracted teachers as having 194 scheduled work days, giving them three self-scheduled, unencumbered days to use at their discretion. This calendar gives 14 nonscheduled work days, which according to Boland aligns with what has historically been done in the county. Teachers return to school Aug. 10 and end June 14.
Student calendar option five also has 180 for students, with school starting Thursday, Aug. 24 and ending Friday, June 14. It also has a shorter winter break of eight days and recognizes the Friday before Labor Day as a holiday. The corresponding teacher calendar has the 197 day contracted teachers working 194 days, again giving them three self-scheduled days to use at their discretion. It also has 14 nonstudent scheduled work days. Teachers would start Aug. 16 with their last day being June 18. This option would have Nov. 7, Election Day, as a work day which would require a change to regulations.
In the proposed 2023-24 calendar, teachers would have 20 non-scheduled work days. The only other year they have had 20 non-scheduled work days in the past 15 years was during the 2020-2021 school year, according to the chart created by school district staff.
Corbo presented a sixth calendar option. Her proposal took option five and changed the end date to June 12, moved teacher work days up a few days in June,
and kept Nov. 7 a holiday.
Boland said they created the extra options after concerns were brought following the October board meetings when the first three were presented. Boland said the concerns focused on teacher start dates, the number of non-student days prior to the first day of school and the late June ending date for teachers. She said increasing concerns of learning loss and falling literacy and math rates were also factors.
She said the Human Resources and Talent Development staff did more research and got more feedback from teachers and parents as well as feedback from principals.
Additionally, she said they reviewed the history of the division’s calendars over the past 15 years and saw that student calendars historically had 180 instructional days, with 197-day contracted teachers having 194 work days.
She noted by looking at the past 15 years they saw the length of winter break as well as the amount of teacher work days varied, leaving on the table the option to shorten winter breaks and set teacher work days at 14, which had been historically done.
Boland said feedback from parents about the initial three proposals was positive in that student instructional days had increased to 174. In 2022-23 instructional days were 170. However, she noted that parents wanted to know why students weren’t in school for 180,
as in previous years.
The last time student instructional days were 180 was the 2019-2020 school year. It had been consistently 180 days since 2011-2012. Another thing to note, up until the 2020-2021 school year, holidays that caused division wide closures were consistent at 13 each year. In 2020-2021, five additional holidays were added to the calendar.
Calendar option one has 174 instructional days with an Aug. 24 start date and a June 14 end date. It recognizes the Friday before Labor Day as a holiday and gives two weeks off for winter break.
Calendar option two has 174 instructional days with Aug. 21 being the first day of school and June 7 the last day. It recognizes the Friday before Labor Day as a holiday and gives two weeks off for winter break.
Calendar option three also has 174 instructional days, but the first day of school is Sept. 5, after Labor Day and the last day is June 18. It recognizes the Friday before Labor Day as a holiday and has a shorter winter break.
All six calendars will be up for review and go before the full board on Nov. 29.
Boland said administrators plan to present possible calendar options for the 202425 and 2025-26 school year at the board’s Dec. 13 meeting to “begin a conversation about possibly approving calendars three years in advance” to help teachers and students better prepare for future years. n
ParentVUE, StudentVUE to Undergo Maintenance
During the week of Dec 5, Loudoun County Public Schools will perform its annual maintenance on the ParentVUE and StudentVUE systems.
The work will remove older PDF files, including report cards and testing assessments and documents from the 2019-20 school year and earlier.
Parents are encouraged to download any documents they want to keep before Nov. 28. After the PDF’s are removed, parents can access scores in the test history section in ParentVUE and grades can be accessed in course history.
Rock Ridge Presents ‘Big Fish, The Musical!’
Rock Ridge High School Performing Arts will perform “Big Fish, The Musical!” next weekend.
Written by Daniel Wallace, the play tells the story of Edward Bloom, a traveling salesman living life to the fullest. Edward shares “fantastical” stories from his life to the delight of everyone around him, except his son Will. Will is a journalist who values “journalistic truth” and facts. Will is trying to understand the truth behind his father’s seemingly tall tales as he and his wife prepare for the birth of their first child. Tony Cimino-Johnson directs the play.
The play runs Dec. 1 and 2 at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 4 at 3 p.m. at Rock Ridge High School in Ashburn.
Tickets are available at rrpa.booktix.com. n
Sexually Explicit Content Notification Policy Heads to School Board Vote
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@loudounnow.comPolicy 5055, the proposed requirement for advance parental notification of sex ually explicit school materials, is set for a final round of debate and a vote by the School Board on Nov. 29.
The policy was presented during last week’s meeting after the Curriculum and Instruction Committee unanimously voted to send it to the full board Nov. 9.
After some discussion, Chair Jeff Morse (Dulles) decided it wasn’t ready to be placed on the consent agenda at the next meeting, and instead put it as an action item to allow for more discussion before the policy is adopted.
During the Nov. 15 discussion, John Beatty (Catoctin) raised questions about how the policy would affect classes like art history, as well as existing classroom library materials.
Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Neil Slevin said a key phrase in the definition is “lewd nudity” and not just simply nudity and said statues or artworks would likely not fall into the requirements of the policy, but that some other art may need to be reviewed.
Slevin said library materials did not fall under the policy, but are governed by Policy 5045, which sets procedure for the selection, review and challenge of educa tional materials and will be reviewed in the spring. However, if a teacher were to create a list of books they recommended for a particular unit for students to read and if any of those books were deemed to have sexually explicit content then the teacher would be required to let parents know.
Tiffany Polifko (Broad Run), attending her first meeting after being elected Nov. 8 to fill an unexpired term, expressed frus tration over the order the policies were be ing discussed.
“One of the problems we have with Policy 5045 is that right now there is no clear definition for what those materials are, and they are in our schools. While I understand that what’s in the library may not directly impact this policy because it may not be included in assigned classroom instruction, it’s very difficult to wrap my head around this because I feel like in some ways, we are putting the cart before the horse because we haven’t addressed that Policy 5045 issue,” she said.
While acknowledging the new policy is being required by the state government, she said, “we are being asked to adopt a policy that basically states that this sexu
ally explicit content is in our schools, may be in our schools, and it may be taught to your children, meaning my kids as well … and I’m being asked to approve a policy and essentially say, I’m OK with that con tent being in our schools and I personally am not.”
Slevin said the School Board has a Jan. 1 deadline to adopt Policy 5055 but assured her that Policy 5045 would be addressed.
He said throughout the process of creat ing Policy 5055 and getting feedback staff members realized they have an opportuni ty to address many of the issues the com munity is having discussions about as they work through Policy 5045.
The 2022 model policies were created after the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 656 in April to require the VDOE cre ate model polices that notify parents about instructional materials with sexually ex plicit content. Policy 5055 was created to bring the school division into compliance with the law. All school divisions must adopt the policies by Jan. 1.
The School Board will take up the pol icy on Nov. 29.
Teachers who intend to use instruction al materials that contain sexually explicit content must notify parents by Dec. 1 to comply with the law. n
Virginia’s Draft History SOLs Raise Questions of Inclusion
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@loudounnow.comThe state Board of Education last week rejected the proposed revisions to Virgin ia’s History and Social Science Standards of Learning version in the face of criti cism of significant omissions in the ver sion crafted by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration.
Among the critics was NAACP Loudoun President Pastor Michelle C. Thomas, who held a press conference out side the Loudoun County Public Schools Administration building Nov. 17 to de nounce the proposed standards. Thomas was one of many invited by then-Gov. Ralph Northam last year to give input on rewriting the history and social science SOLs.
Thomas said the new changes, which were released Nov. 11 and presented to the Virginia Board of Education last week, fail to adequately present the his tory of Black, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Indigenous people.
“These are founding principles and history that we cannot erase. We may not understand them, we may not agree with them, we may be embarrassed about them, but that is part and parcel of who America is and what we’ve all had to go through in this American experience,” Thomas said.
She quoted a Virginia Department of Education statement from June 2020 during the previous gubernatorial admin istration that stated access to high-quality public education is a fundamental right of all Virginians regardless of race, gen der, creed, color or sexual orientation and recognized systemic racism still ex isted in public education and a promise to recognize and confront racism and discrimination.
Thomas said Youngkin’s administra tion was trying to erase certain history and going against the 2020 VDOE statement.
The Virginia Department of Education revised its draft of K-12 history standards on Nov. 16 to include Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth in elemen tary school after public outcry. According to a spokesperson, the omissions were unintentional.
Speaking to reporters, Youngkin said he was disappointed in the history stan dards released by the VDOE last week.
“The proposed history SOL standards were egregiously bad, as even the gov ernor has admitted,” School Board Vice
Chair Ian Serotkin (Blue Ridge) wrote by email. “I look forward to a revised draft that can be used by our educators to accu rately and completely teach the history of our country and the world.”
“Throughout my campaign I was vo cal about the need for all of history to be taught, including the good, bad, and ugly,” School Board member Tiffany Po lifko emailed. “I am hopeful that the final draft will satisfy the need to teach history to Virginia’s students in a balanced, factbased manner.”
The state Board of Education asked for a revised version using Youngkin’s as a baseline and to correct errors and incor porate parts of Northam’s draft.
“When they decided to insert at the last moment the MLK Day, they decided to put it in at the seventh grade SOL. Imag ine going to school from kindergarten all the way to seventh grade before you hear about one of America’s greatest heroes who happened to be African American. Imagine that,” Thomas said.
“If you go through the new proposed SOL, you will see they have stripped all references to diversity, all references to equity, and all references to equality. There are only a few places where racism and systemic racism is mentioned,” she
said. “Listen, if we are going to tell his tory, we’ve got to tell it all or not at all.”
Meredith Ray, a mother and board member of Loudoun 4 All, said she at tended the forum because she wants an accurate portrayal of history of all cul tures and races.
She said her son was given inaccurate information about Robert E. Lee and the reason he fought for the Confederacy last year during fourth grade Virginia history. She said it stayed with her son throughout the day and required a long conversation to correct it.
“I just want kids to learn accurate in formation. I don’t necessarily think that was accurate and it was obviously some thing that stuck out to him enough that he was able to repeat it back to me at the end of the day. Little pieces of information like that over the course of K-12th grade will stick with people and it affects how they live their life as an adult,” she said.
Danielle Matson said she isn’t OK with state leaders adopting the current draft, calling it a step back from a year’s worth of work, and that it does not contain tools for educators.
“Stakeholders, people with years of experience, actionable ways and tools to educate children is what the original doc
umentation had,” she said. “Whereas if the revisions are the finalized guidelines for SOLs, they are sorely inadequate.”
The VDOE’s draft SOL is a 53-page document that outlines what students in Virginia public schools will learn in his tory and social science for the next seven years. Kindergarteners will study people, places and events from the past starting with America’s first “immigrants” from Asia at the end of the last ice age and go through early, middle and late woodland periods. The standards also have kinder garteners identifying historical events and people and how they shaped local communities.
The Guiding Principles for Virginia’s 2022 History and Social Sciences Stan dards Revisions outline expectations and principles of the new standards.
This was the first review of the Stan dards document, VDOE plans to hold a public engagement process between Nov. 28 and Dec. 16. Public hearings are scheduled for Jan. 9-13, with the board planning to adopt the final version in Feb ruary. Standards would go in effect during the 2024-25 school year.
State law requires the VDOE to review SOLs across all content areas every seven years. n
Obituaries
Joseph (Bill) William O'Dell, 81, of Lansdowne, Virginia, passed away November 9, 2022.
He was preceded in death by his par ents and his son, Joseph Trevor O'Dell, brothers Ron, Gene, Mork, Ben, and sisters Joann Wells and Wilma Phipps. He is survived by his loving wife of almost 60 years, Suzanne, his daughters, Renee (Gabe) Salama and Kiska (Ted) Mattingly. His grandchildren, Aaron and Amarissa Salama, Tyler and Kailyn Mattingly, Hilet O'Dell and many nieces and nephews. As well as, his sisters, Betty Curtis, Linda Allen, Connie Brown and brother, Gary O'Dell.
Family and friends are invited to a Celebration of Life at 1757 Golf Club in Ashburn, Virginia on Monday, Decem ber 5, 2022, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Private grave site services will be at Union Cemetery in Leesburg, Virginia.
Lorine Evelyn Bryant, 59, of Broadlands, VA passed away November 10, 2022.
Lorine is survived by her husband Andy Stephenson (Ashburn, VA); daughter Macy Stephenson (Richmond, VA); sister Danielle Bryant (San Antonio, TX); broth er and sister-in-law Rick and Lisa Bryant (Cedar Park, TX); nephew Zachary Bryant and his wife McKayla (Yukon, OK); and niece Taylor Bryant (Fort Worth, TX).
In lieu of flowers, Lorine requested that donations be made to this pro gram at https://pushpay.com/g/cross roadsnovausing Fund: ESL/Lorine Bryant.
Robert V. Magarity, Jr, passed away on November 13, 2022. In addition to being survived by Robert’s wife Teresa Magarity, are his children, Robert and wife Cari Magarity, daughter Sheilah and her husband, Adam Dimopoulous. Robert was also survived by 10 grandchildren, granddaughter Hannah and husband Josh Shellabarger, Andries Dimopoulous, Alena Dimopoulous, Ayla Magarity, Keeli Sinnett, Aidan Magarity, Ella Magarity, Silas Sinnett, Roman Dimopoulous as well as a great-grandson Hayes Dimopoulos and, a soon to be born Magarity grand child due in May.
Robert is also survived by his sister Susan Hetzer of VA, sister Virginia (Rene) Richards of GA, sister Helen C. Magarity of GA and sister Mary Clarey in GA and deceased bother Wesley Magarity of VA. A service in remembrance of Robert V. Magarity was held at Loudoun Funeral
Chapel & Crematory in Leesburg, VA on Saturday, November 19, 2022, at 1:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests any donations be made to The National Kidney Foundation (see link below, copy and paste as needed), https://www.kidney. org/offices/nkf-serving-national-capi tal-area.
Cecilia Agnes Fallon (nee Herr mann), 85, of Ashburn, VA, passed away on Thursday, November 10, 2022. Cecilia was predeceased by her loving husband of 53 years, Patrick F. Fallon, Sr. in 2014, and her parents, August J. Herrmann and Mary Ganley Herrmann; as well as her siblings, sisters Anna, Mary, Regina, Evelyn, Marguerite, and brother John. Cecilia is survived by her three sons, Stephen (Jill) of Medford, NJ, Patrick, Jr. (Nancy) of Potomac Falls, VA, and Kevin of Salisbury, MD, and five grandchildren, Conor, Delaney, Kaitlyn, William, and Kevin, Jr. The Funeral Mass was celebrated at 10:30 am, on Friday, No vember 18 at St. Theresa Catholic Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Cecilia’s memory to St. Theresa Cath olic Church Ashby Ponds Bus Service. Private interment.
Lives are like rivers:
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Nonprofit GIVING back School Food Drive Brings Students, Community Together
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@loudounnow.comWhat started out as a friendly competition between clubs at Loudoun County High School, quickly turned into a community-building experience that embraced students with special needs.
Students in the Future Business Leaders of America/Interact Club decided to host a food drive after hearing from Phillip Martin, a guest speaker from the Leesburg Daybreak Rotary Club—a sponsor of FBLA/Interact and a board member with Tree of Life Ministries, a nonprofit that works to help the poor and needy in Loudoun County.
Quinn Keyes, president of FBLA/Interact at Loudoun County High School, said her club worked with Martin to create a food drive with a friendly competition between several clubs to see which could bring in the most donations.
Keyes said she was behind the idea 100%. “I know that is how a lot of kids work, that is how I work, I always want to win,” she said.
The club invited other clubs at the high school, including Educators Rising, Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) and the National Honor Society to participate and set the drive in motion.
The food drive was held over a twoweek period, Oct. 10-28.
Ethan Brun, vice president of the school’s National Honor Society chapter, said the food drive was a great way to help out and get volunteer hours.
“It was definitely an incentive to get hours. You could get up to five hours for 50 items and that is a huge chunk out of your total 36 hours each year,” Brun said.
As the food drive was in full swing Molly Gibbins, a job coach who helps students transition from high school into adulthood, happened to see a flyer advertising the food drive and its beneficiary.
She let Jennifer Marden, FBLA/Interact advisor and co-advisor of NHS and a teacher at Loudoun County High School, know that the students she works with in special education worked at Tree of Life every Friday doing a variety of tasks.
The two then reached out to Kayla Malaney, a learning resource teacher at the school, to get the special education students involved.
Malaney said students with special needs may participate in the Community Independence Instruction (CII) program, which provides opportunities for students to go into the community for non-paid work experience. Job coaches like Gibbins help them get work readiness skills at different job sites—in this case Tree of Life, where students were packing and organizing food on site.
Malaney said the food drive at the school provided an opportunity to give the students an in-house CII program and to work with other students.
“It’s really great work experience for our students to be able to work on even the smallest of work readiness skills such as matching cans, reading the labels on the cans or navigating around the tables or lifting heavy bags,” Malaney said. “And what was nice, usually when we do CII experiences for our students, they are working by themselves. It’s fairly independent with the support of a job coach, but in this instance all of the students were working together and communicating. … It was a lot of group effort they don’t normally get.”
The food drive yielded about 1,200
items totaling about 1,200 pounds.
Marden said with 1,200 items, it was a lot of sorting and labeling to make sure expired food didn’t get into the final boxes going to Tree of Life—skills the students in the special education class had mastered.
Malaney and Marden said the students loved interacting with each other.
Katelyn Lanham, a senior at Loudoun County High School, said she enjoyed working with the clubs and especially the students in the special education classroom.
“This food drive really showed me how many people are actually in need of food in our community. And it taught me that giving back could really benefit you as a person and inspired you and others to continue to do it. … It really showed how coming together as a [school] community can have a really big impact on the bigger community,” she said.
Regional Director of the Sterling-Ashburn Center for Tree of Life Ministries Saleh Sabatt said the model the
FOOD DRIVE continues on page 17
Mobile Hope Lands $50K Grant
The Rosendin Foundation last week presented a $50,000 donation to the Mobile Hope Association to help support at-risk, precariously housed, and homeless youth up to the age of 24 and empowering them to become self-sufficient.
Since 2021, The Rosendin Foundation has given $70,000 to Mobile Hope to help build a pre-apprenticeship program for displaced teens. The Rosendin Foundation is the charitable arm of Rosendin Holdings, the parent company of Rosendin, one of the nation’s largest design-build specialty electrical contractors, and Modular Power Solutions, one of the nation’s largest electrical manufacturing companies. Since its inception, the foundation has given more than $1.2 million to nonprofits in communities where Rosendin and MPS employees live and work.
“We are overwhelmed by The Rosendin Foundation’s generosity, and we are grateful for the support it has provided us as we carry out our mission. Everyone we have met from Rosendin has been incredibly compassionate and supportive. Their dedication to us as we work to empower our homeless youth speaks to their dedication to our community,” Mobile Hope founder and CEO Donna Fortier said. “We are thankful to all of Rosendin’s volunteers and donors who have boosted our efforts to empower homeless youth and build security for families living in poverty.”
Forward Turn Opens Grant Applications
Youth-led charitable grantmaking program Forward Turn is accepting applications from nonprofits working in Loudoun and Fauquier counties to strengthen positive lifestyles, create united communities, and encourage community involvement.
Food drive
students created at Loudoun County High School—the competition between clubs and inviting students with special needs to help—will be the model Tree of Life uses with food drives at other schools.
Sabatt said while 1,200 items is a big haul, it represents about a two week sup ply because demand is so high right now.
He said they are hoping to get one school to do a drive each month.
“If we can get a school every month to bring in 1,200 pounds of food plus oth er food drives that is really going to help us,” he said.
He said his goal is to be able to support 80 families a month by providing two to three weeks of food.
Right now, he said they are working to get two high schools in Sterling lined up to hold food drives.
Meanwhile, students in the FBLA/In teract and NHS clubs at Loudoun County High School are gearing up for their next service activity, Smile Kits for the Barnett Searing Cancer Foundation in Fairfax.
The clubs team up with clubs from other county high schools to bring in do nations of fuzzy socks, lip balm, adult coloring books and colored pencils, and a small blanket and ship them to women going through cancer treatment all over the country.
Last year, the clubs made nearly 400 kits; this year, they plan to do 550.
They also plan to team up with the stu dents in the special needs class again for this project to help them sort. Keyes said last year it took almost an entire Saturday to get everything sorted and boxed, ready to be shipped.
Those interested in donating items to the Barnett Searing Cancer Foundation Smile kits may drop off items at Loudoun County High School through Dec. 11. n
Ursula Landsrath Animal Rescue Fund Grants $65K
LOUDOUN NOW STAFF REPORT
The Ursula Landsrath Animal Rescue Fund and the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties on Monday announced $65,000 in grants to 26 nonprofit animal rescue organiza tions across Virginia, including four based in Loudoun and several more that count Loudoun among the areas they serve.
In Loudoun, the Equine Rescue League Foundation was awarded $2,500 to support the care and shelter of rescued horses in Loudoun; the Humane Society of Loudoun County was awarded $2,500 to support their Community Cat Program; the Loudoun Community Cat Coalition was awarded $2,500 to support commu nity cat spay, neuter and kitten rescue; and the Middleburg Humane Foundation was awarded $3,000 to support animal care supplies for animals that need spay, neu ter, and medical care.
Other organizations like Dewey An imals in Fairfax and Wildlife Veterinary Care in Boyce also provide support in Loudoun.
And among the awardees outside Loudoun: the Humane Society of Shenan
doah, which was awarded $2,500 to sup port their cat spay and neuter program, “Operation Catsnip.”
Ursula Landsrath founded the Animal Rescue Fund of Virginia as an indepen dent organization in 2008, distributing more than $1 million to Virginia-based animal rescue organizations before shut ting down grantmaking operations in 2017 when she became seriously ill. Her husband and friends created the Ursula Landsrath Animal Rescue Fund within the Community Foundation after she died in January 2019.
The Ursula Landsrath Animal Rescue Fund continues to provide funding to grassroots animal rescue organizations while benefitting from staffing and in vestment support from the Community Foundation. Last year, the Ursula Lands rath Animal Rescue Fund granted $57,000 to animal welfare nonprofits.
“Since Ursula’s passing in 2019, ULARF has given out $209,200. Our committee hopes to build on this, raising our fund base to serve more nonprofit an imal organizations in Virginia,” Ursula Landsrath Animal Rescue Fund Grants Committee Chair Mary Johnson said. n
GIVING back
continued from page 16
Grants range from $500 to $1,500.
The Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties and its Forward Turn Youth Advisors will evaluate applications, with a preference for youth involvement in the application process. They will also prioritize projects that include collaboration with another student, group, faith-based organization, or charitable nonprofit; that leverage ad ditional resources, like volunteer time, inkind gifts of materials or supplies, or that are matched by other funding sources; and that have a high impact with a small grant.
Example programs include work to address substance use disorders or eating disorders in teens, educate teens about in
ternet safety or bullying, offer educational mentoring or tutoring, improve school at tendance, teach safe driving, or help with teen hunger, clothing, shelter, and pover ty influences. Forward Turn grant appli cants may be faith-based organizations, local nonprofit organizations, govern ment groups, or schools serving Loudoun and/or Northern Fauquier Counties.
Forward Turn partners with Loudoun’s Youth Advisory Council and is funded by the S. Murray and Mary H.C. Rust Stu dent Philanthropy Project endowment fund, a permanent endowment creat ed by the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Stirling and Mur ray Rust.
For more information, grant re quirements, details of a pre-application workshop planned Jan. 5. Apply at com munityfoundationlf.org/forward-turn.
Applications are due Friday, Feb. 3. n
Politics
Higgins Announces State Senate Bid
BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.comFormer county supervisor and School Board member Geary Higgins has announced he will take another shot at a seat in the Virginia Senate.
Higgins in 2019 sought the 13th Senate District seat, long held by Republican Sen. Dick Black, but lost to Sen. John Bell (D-13) in a year when Democrats took control of the state Senate, House, and Loudoun Board of Supervisors. Since then, he has chaired the Virginia 10th District Republican Committee, the committee pushing for Republican control of Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10)’s seat in Congress.
“My state Senate run will focus on ending the liberal blockade of Governor Youngkin’s agenda, returning power to the people, giving parents a voice in their children’s education, protecting women’s sports, championing lower taxes and eliminating wasteful spending.” Higgins stated in a Nov. 21 campaign announcement. “I will work hand-in-hand with Governor Youngkin to bring back common-sense open-door leadership to Richmond and put an end to failed progressive policies.”
Higgins represented the Catoctin District on the county School Board for one term from 2000 to 2004, and for two on the Board of Supervisors from 2012 through 2019. He criticized COVID-19 precautions that saved lives during the pandemic, but also had serious impacts on student growth.
“Mandated masks, vaccines, and the unnecessary closing of our schools, which stole two years of our children’s classroom time and dumbed down the curriculum with the outcome of drastically lowering our children’s learning achievement scores, can never happen again,” Higgins stated. “In my opinion, it doesn’t matter if you are an Independent, Republican or Democrat, everyone wants the best for their child and they want our schools to return to focusing on academic excellence for our children, recognize the rights that parents have in their child’s education, and providing a safe learning environment for our students.”
Higgins also pinned global inflation on the Biden administration and legislation like the American Rescue Plan Act.
“Let’s be clear, today’s inflation is not a fluke and was not started by Vladimir Putin,” he stated. “It started with Biden halting domestic energy production followed by $5 trillion in spending between the American Rescue Plan, the March 2020 Cares Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. President Biden’s economic policies wrecked the economy and brought us $5 a gallon gas prices along with inflation at 40-year highs.”
Higgins also served on the board of the Loudoun Museum from 1998 to 2017, and represented the Board of Supervisors on the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, the Loudoun County Agricultural District Advisory Committee and the Annexation Area Development Policy Committee. He retired as the vice president of Labor Relations for the National Electrical Contractors Association in Bethesda, MD. He and his wife moved to Loudoun in 1977 and live in Waterford and have three adult daughters and six grandchildren.
“Virginians are tired of an agenda of division and discord. They want to live their lives in beautiful Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, raise their families, send their kids to good schools, have good jobs, help their neighbors, help their communities, and pursue their dreams, whatever they may be, in safe environments,” Higgins stated.
Higgins will be running in the first election under newly drawn election districts. The 31st Senate District includes all of Loudoun west of Ashburn, as well as north of Rt. 7, and the northern portion of Fauquier County to Warrenton. n
Fechter to Seek LCDC Chairmanship
Avram“Avi” Fechter is seeking to lead the Loudoun County Democratic Committee following the announcement that Chair Lissa Savaglio will step down to run for a seat on the Board of Supervisors.
Fechter is the deputy chair. The party leadership election is scheduled for Jan. 5.
Fechter has been active in the LCDC leadership since 2017 when he served as the candidate recruitment coordinator. He also has served as the Finance Committee chair and Redistricting Committee chair.
“In those positions I helped recruit, train, and assist our [House of Delegates] candidates flip seats from red to blue in 2017, our State Senate, Supervisor, Constitutional Officer, and School Board candidates do the same in 2019, organized one of the most successful LCDC Fundraising Events in 2021 (the virtual Gala), drafted LCDC’s redistricting guidelines, and have been working on launching our “Blue Loudoun” campaign for 2023,” he wrote in a letter to members announcing his intent to seek the post.
“If elected, I will focus my efforts to ensure we have high quality candidates running for every state and county office that will be on the ballot in 2023 –and then to use the resources of LCDC to help ensure their victory in November,” he wrote. n
“I will work hand-inhand with Governor Youngkin to bring back common-sense open-door leadership to Richmond and put an end to failed progressive policies.”
— Geary M. Higgins
New Wellness Center Coming to Brambleton Early 2023
BY HANNA PAMPALONI hpampaloni@loudounnow.comRestore Hyper Wellness, a spa-like wellness and recovery center, will open its first Loudoun County location in Brambleton early next year.
Franchisee Justin Galiani is opening the location with his father John Galiani and uncle Kirk Galiani.
The wellness center offers a variety of services including intravenous drip therapy, mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy, red light therapy, infrared sauna treatments, intramuscular shots, HydraFacials, biomarker assessments, Circadia oxygen facials and cryotherapy. The center will offer monthly memberships as well as individual appointments.
Justin Galiani said health has always been at the forefront of his family’s interests and he is excited be a part of a new way to manage one’s health.
“Historically, it’s been nutrition and
fitness, those have kind of been the two prongs to improve your wellness in a proactive manner,” he said. “Until Restore founded a really innovative idea and concept, there’s not really any business that I’ve come across like it.”
He said he also excited to make these kind of next-level treatments and services available for everyone.
“Restore is a place where folks can come and receive cutting edge services that used to be reserved only for the 1% but now under this ‘all under one roof model’ [we] can bring it to the masses and transform folks’ lives,” he said.
Galiani said the center is projected to open in the first quarter of 2023. n
Connolly Named National Sales Manager at Lansdowne Resort
Lesly Connolly is the new national sales manager at Lansdowne Resort.
The 20-year Leesburg resident brings more than 30 years of hospitality experience to the resort. She most recently served as director of sales and marketing for the Doubletree by Hilton Washington DC North/ Gaithersburg. She also has worked at The National Conference Center, The Homestead, and Omni Bedford Springs, in addition to brands such as Hilton, Marriott, and IHG. She is past president of Meeting Professionals International.
“We are so happy to welcome Lesly back to the Lansdowne Resort sales team,’’ Managing Director Kevin Carter said. “She is well connected in the industry, and we will look forward to
the targeted business she will bring to the Resort.”
LEOcloud Join Commercial Space Station Effort
Ashburn-based LEOcloud has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Axiom Space, the developer of the world’s first commercial space station, for the purpose of developing and delivering spacebased cloud services.
LEOcloud’s Space Edge infrastructure as a service will enable cloud edge computing services as a seamless extension of terrestrial cloud services. The system is extensible from low-Earth orbit to the lunar region and beyond, bringing the benefits of edge computing as close as possible to the sources and users of data. End users can operate their services or application workloads in a local hybrid cloud environment just as they would on Earth.
Axiom operates end-to-end missions to the International Space Station and is privately building its successor, Axiom Station, the first permanent commercial destination in low-Earth orbit. n
Towns
Anzivino Delivers Staffing Analysis to Purcellville Town Council
BY HANNA PAMPALONI hpampaloni@loudounnow.comIn a follow up to his initial management analysis presentation, John Anzivino last week delivered a second presentation on his analysis of Purcellville’s staffing situation to the Town Council.
Anzivino, a municipal management consultant who previously served as the town’s interim town manager, benchmarked Purcellville’s government staffing against seven other towns—Ashland, Berryville, Culpeper, Front Royal, Leesburg, Vienna, and Warrenton.
The 85-page report included 36 recommendations for the council to consider including hiring 10 additional full-time staff members by fiscal year 2026, implementing a transition plan to replace staff members eligible to retire, improving compensation for employees, and developing training and career development programs for current employees.
The town’s current full- and part-time
positions add up to the equivalent of 85.9 full-time positions.
In his presentation to the Town Council, Anzivino stressed the importance of preparing for the departure of several members of staff over the next few years.
“You’ve got twelve key staff before 2024, 2025 that can retire,” he said. “Three of them can retire right now. These include key department heads: director of public works, police chief, your deputy police chief that stepped out, your director of engineering and planning and development. Plus, you’ve got two water operators, class one operators, that can go.”
Anzivino also pointed out that many departments had just enough staff to fulfill the necessary work without having any extra staff to fill in for sudden departures. According to his report, Purcellville falls behind two of the benchmark towns and is tied with two other benchmark towns for number of full-time employees per capita. The average number of full-time
employees for the benchmark towns is 9.9 per thousand residents. Purcellville currently employs 9.4 full-time employees per thousand residents.
“As we say in sports, ‘great team, but weak bench,’” he said. “And by weak bench I mean you’re about one deep in many positions. And if someone goes, you’ve got no one immediately ready to step in to continue those duties on that you may be able to trust, to act to perform at as high a level as the individual who departs.”
Another concern Anzivino raised was the level of compensation that the town was currently offering employees and potential employees.
“Employees are a community’s most valuable resource,” he said. “They want to be treated fairly and equitably.”
He also added “there are more jobs available for folks that are looking for
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HILLSBORO
Tickets on Sale for Holiday Homes Tour
The Hillsboro Preservation Foundation presents the Holiday Hillsboro Homes walking Tour on Dec. 11, in collaboration with the Short Hill Historical Society.
Visitors may purchase $15 ticket that will give them access to a walking tour through the town of Hillsboro and entrance to four homes and one outdoor space. All these homes will be decorated by teams of volunteers according to different historical styles: colonial, Victorian and even art-deco-revival.
Each tour group will be accompanied through town by a volunteer guide providing historical context to some of the most significant buildings along the route.
Tickets are sold with designated time slots between noon and 6 p.m. Patrons are encouraged to buy tickets in advance.
For details, go to oldstoneschool.org.
LOVETTSVILLE
continues on page 21
Lovettsville Council Seeks Lighter Touch on Livestock Rules
BY HANNA PAMPALONI hpampaloni@loudounnow.comThe Lovettsville Town Council on Thursday declined to enact a package of regulations proposed by the town’s Planning Commission to allow livestock and fowl within town limits and sent it back to the panel to be made less specific and restrictive.
Currently, most areas in town do not allow for animals such as fowl and livestock, although that has not been strictly enforced in the past.
Planning Director John Merrithew during the meeting said, “the zoning ordinance right now only allows livestock and fowl in the agricultural area which is the CRA-1 zoning district, which only applies to newly annexed properties.”
The council has been working with the Planning Commission to create an ordinance that would allow for backyard animals while still protecting neighbors
from adverse effects such as smell and noise. Merrithew also pointed out that the main complaint against backyard animals was noise from roosters.
The draft presented by Merrithew contained specific restrictions on the
number of animals per square foot, the distance the animals could be kept from the property line, and the
LIVESTOCK continues on page 21
Lovettsville Appoints Treasurer, Oktoberfest Committee Member
The Lovettsville Town Council last week appointed Tanya George to be the town’s new treasurer following a closed session meeting.
George works for the Loudoun County Treasurer’s office, and council members said that experience gave her an edge over the other applicants.
When asked what she was most
AROUND towns
looking forward to in this new role, George said it was the challenge.
“[I’ll be] coming into a treasurer’s position that hasn’t been filled in a few months and making it my own,” she said. And the job comes with a shorter com mute, she noted.
George will start at the Lovettsville Town Hall on Nov. 28.
The council also appointed Tom Bud nar to the town’s Oktoberfest Committee.
Mayor-elect Christopher Hornbaker said he was looking forward to working with Budnar in the future.
“I do want to thank Tom. I know you’ve been at a couple meetings and have already started to come up to speed and ask some great questions.”
PURCELLVILLE
New Planning Commission Members Needed
The Purcellville Town Council is seek ing applicants to fill vacancies on the Planning Commission after two members were elected to council seats.
The terms will be for four years begin ning in January. The Purcellville Planning Commission meets at Town Hall on the first and third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.
Every local government in Virginia is required to have a Planning Commission “in order to promote the orderly develop ment of the locality and its environs.” The Planning Commission is a seven-member body of town residents who are appointed by the Town Council to advise on matters relating to planning and development. The commission also develops and rec ommends updates to the town’s Compre hensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance.
Those interested in serving on the
Purcellville staffing
continued from page 20
work. It was three to one, it has kind of dropped to two to one now is the most re cent statistic that I have. But still there are two jobs for everybody looking for one. And consequently, that presents some challenges.”
He added that while the town does pay well, it needs to be even more competitive in the salaries and benefits to attract quali ty candidates to the area.
Planning Commission should complete the online application form at purcellvil leva.gov/forms.aspx?FID=78. A member of staff will be in touch with you to sched ule your interview with the Town Council. Interviews are expected to take place in January.
Nature Journal Program Offered Sunday
Come to the Chapman DeMary Trail at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27 to start your own nature journal.
The Purcellville Arts Council is co-hosting this nature activity with the Purcellville Parks and Recreation Adviso ry Board.
In addition to supplying the notebooks and colored pencils, members of the Arts Council will share tips about how to start a nature journal and how to sketch some items found in nature. Those who re ceived journaling supplies at the October nature walk or during Hail to the Trail are encouraged to attend this and future na ture walks to get a sticker in their journals. Those with six or more stickers from the monthly nature walks through November 2023 will get a prize.
Learn more and register online on the Monthly Nature Walks page in the Events and Activities section of the town’s web site, purcellvilleva.gov.
Potter’s Players Perform Dec. 8-10
The Potter’s Players will be presenting their Christmas theater production, “Light Has Come,” next weekend at Purcellville Baptist Church.
The performances will be Thursday Dec. 8 at 7 p.m., Friday Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. and Saturday Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. The play, featuring music and dancing, is directed by Patrice and Mark Smith and has more than 30 cast and ensemble members. It also showcases original music by local composer Daniel Morrison.
Mayor-elect Stanley Milan again raised the idea of creating an apprentice ship program to help fill staffing gaps. An zivino responded that he thought it was a good way to get people, especially young people, involved and interested in town government jobs. Town Manager David Mekarski said he and two superintendents would be introducing an apprentice pro gram idea to the council during the first budget session of 2023.
When asked by Milan what the staff indicated they needed most to be success ful, Anzivino said it was training.
Admission is free.
For more information on The Potter’s Players or to learn about joining the group go to purbap.org/potters-players.
ROUND HILL
Lovettsville livestock
continued from page 20
types of animals allowed.
Specifically, the ordinance would per mit one chicken per 20 square feet of fenced land with no more than 12 birds and one duck per 30 square feet of fenced land with no more than 12 birds. It also stated that roosters would be prohibited. Regarding livestock, the ordinance would permit only specifically listed animals and limit the number per acre of land. It also required that the fenced livestock area must be 20 feet from the property line.
Merrithew also pointed out that this or dinance would grandfather in current live stock and fowl within the town.
Lohr Recognized for Project Leadership
The Town Council last week formally applauded the five-year effort by project manager Rob Lohr to shepherd the Main Street/Franklin Park Trail project.
Council members in particular high lighted Lohr’s hands-on with residents and businesses in the construction zone to address their concerns throughout the project, even helping to redesign elements of the work to better address their con cerns. The individual attention he provid ed, they said, should be held as a model for town operations.
In addition to a formal resolution of commendation, Lohr receive a cus tom-made plaque and a gold-painted con struction hard hat.
Owens Promoted to Treasurer
With Round Hill Treasurer Sue Hol land stepping down from her post Dec. 16, the Town Council last week appointed Cathy Owners to take her place.
Holland has served as treasurer for the past four and a half years. Owens is the town’s finance support specialist. n
“They don’t have enough time now [to train],” he said. “And particularly your line staff don’t have enough time to do training so that they can improve their skills to provide a higher level of service. So developing a training program with the resources to be able to allow them to take advantage of the training program would be something that I strongly rec ommend.”
He added that the exception to this was the Purcellville Police Department.
The full report can be found at purcellvilleva.gov. n
Council member Buchanan Smith raised concerns about the specificity of the limits listed in the ordinance, while noting, “full disclosure, I’m a chicken farmer.”
“Where did you guys get square foot age for chickens?” he asked. “Nobody talks about square footage for chickens, because you keep them in coops.”
“It sounds like the government needs to get out of our backyards,” Smith said.
Merrithew said the commission looked at other ordinances in localities and the USDA standards for foraging to develop the specifications.
Planning Commission member Richard Efthim said most members of the planning commission lived in neighborhoods whose HOAs restricted fowl and livestock.
“It puts them in an awkward place to be trying to approve something they already can’t do,” he said.
Council member-elect Robert Merhaut also addressed the council, saying he had chickens and found roosters to be essential to protecting his flock.
“We had a rooster that actually we loved, that got killed by a predator because he was protecting the flock … that’s their job,” he said.
Council member Joy Pritz also ex pressed concern over placing such specific restrictions on residents regarding a topic she knew little about.
The council voted 6-0-1, with Renee Edmonston absent, to send the draft back to the Planning Commission.
“The council is looking to make this a lot less restrictive, right?” Mayor Nathan iel Fontaine said. “To be able to support this. I think the sentiment is all there, right? To make this as least restrictive as possible to ensure that people have the ability to do on their property as much as they can.” n
Holidays in Loudoun
Middleburg
The Town of Middleburg kicks things off Friday, Dec. 2 with a tree lighting ceremony and evening of caroling starting at 5 p.m. The Middleburg Nutcracker Ballet Holiday performance planned for 6:15 p.m. is at the Community Center.
On Saturday, Dec. 3, the town offers a full day of holiday events. The day kicks off with breakfast with Santa starting at 8 a.m. at the Middleburg Community Charter School.
At 11 a.m., visitors will line up along Washington Street to watch the popular Middleburg Hunt & Hounds Review.
The crowds return to Washington Street at 2 p.m. for the mile-long Christ-
mas parade that features community groups, lots of horses and dogs, and Santa.
During the afternoon, the town’s bistros, cafés, pubs, and restaurants join in the Spirits of Middleburg promotion.
Event organizers are working to control the size of the crowd in town and there are a limited number of parking passes available for visitors. Parking lots with shuttle buses will be at Foxchase Farm, Mickie Gordon Park, and Lost Barrel Brewing. Parking will not be permitted in town. Car passes range from $40-$100 and are expected to sell out.
For more details and to pur-
HOLIDAYS IN LOUDOUN continues on page 23
Community holiday traditions abound in Loudoun and the coming weeks offer many opportunities to get into the holiday—and local shopping—spirit.
Holidays in Loudoun
chase parking passes, go to christmasinmiddleburg.org.
Leesburg
The Town of Leesburg opens its holiday celebration Friday, Dec. 2 with a tree lighting ceremony on the Town Green at 6 p.m.
That weekend—from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 3 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 4—the Ida Lee Park Recreation Center hosts the annual Holiday Fine Arts and Crafts Show featuring local and regional artisans selling hand-made items including candles, stained glass, carved wood, jewelry, table linens, and more.
During the month, the George C. Marshall International Center will feature the Marshall Plan Tree Walk at Dodona Manor. The display includes 17 trees decorated to represent each of the nations that benefited from the European Recovery Program. A lighting ceremony will be held at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 3, On Saturday, Dec. 10, visitors will
gather along King Street for the 6 p.m. Christmas and Holiday Parade. The parade starts at Ida Lee Park and ends at Fairfax Street. That weekend also features the return of the all-star Jingle Jam Band to the Tally Ho Theater; however, tickets for all three shows sold out within a few hours last month.
Purcellville
The Town of Purcellville also celebrates its tree lighting ceremony on Fri-
day, Dec. 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
On Saturday, Dec. 10, the Christmas in Purcellville parade will begin at noon, following a route from Blue Ridge Middle School to 20th Street, Main Street and Maple Avenue.
Other events in town that day include at Holiday Market featuring local artists and crafters at the Bush Tabernacle, photos with Santa and ornament decorations at the Train Station, and a self-guided tour of the town’s best holiday light displays.
For details, go to purcellvilleva. gov/799/Holiday-and-Christmas-Activities.
Lovett sville
Lovettsville’s Love Winter campaign includes a host of holiday activities throughout the month.
On Saturday, Dec. 3, businesses team up for the Cocoa Crawl from 2 to 5 p.m.
HOLIDAYS IN
LOUDOUN continues on page 26
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Holidays in Loudoun
continued from page 23
offering special deals all around town. From 5:15 to 6 p.m., the community center invites residents to create orna ments and decorate their own lanterns before the evening’s procession from the community center to Town Square for the tree lighting ceremony.
On Saturday, Dec. 10, the Light Up Lovettsville judges will tour the town to identify the best holiday displays and award prizes in several categories.
A Menorah Lighting ceremony will be held Monday, Dec. 19.
Hillsboro
Hillsboro will be a holiday destina tion during the Dec. 10-11 weekend.
On both days, the Historic Hillsboro Holiday Market will be held at the Old Stone School, showcasing holiday items and gifts from local artists and crafters.
On Sunday, Nov. 11, the town will sponsor a special guided walking tour to view the decorations throughout town. Tours, which include five historic prop
erties and live performances along the route, will be offered from noon to 6 p.m., leaving every 20 minutes from the Old Stone School. Tickets are limited and should be purchased in advance at oldstoneschool.org.
Menorah Lighting: Unite for Light
The fifth an nual event will be held 4-5:45 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18 at One Loudoun’s pla za. The event will feature a performance by the Afri can Ameri can Flyers and a Gelt Drop, along with ap pearances by Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears and Holocaust survivor Irene Weiss. Learn more at jewishloudoun.org/ grand-menorah-lighting. n
LoCo Living
Finding Home in ‘The Snow Monster’
A Place to Be Tackles Tough Emotions in New Holiday Show
BY JAN MERCKER jmercker@loudounnow.comAs the most wonderful time of the year moves into full swing, negative and complicated emotions can rear their heads.
Loudoun’s noted music therapy studio A Place to Be addresses anger and learning to communicate emotions in its new winter show, “The Snow Monster,” an original musical written and directed by co-founder and creative director Tom Sweitzer.
“It’s very traditionally children’s theater, very Mr. Rogers-esque, with a moral and a message about how we all have
anger inside of us that we have to deal with and how—with tools to deal with our anger—we can communicate better, and we can feel better,” Sweitzer said.
The show, designed for children 5 and older and their families, has a festive winter/holiday theme, but delves deeper into the importance of processing and communicating negative emotions.
“The Snow Monster” tells the story of Davis, a child in foster care who finds a home with a loving family after moving through the system. In his new home, Davis builds a snowman, George, who is stolen from his yard and taken to a snow monster’s lair. Davis enlists his new
friend and neighbor Lena to join him on a hunt to find George. When they arrive in the snow monster’s domain, they find thousands of snowmen stolen from children’s backyards. But as the kids get to know the monster and understand the root of his actions, Davis forms an unexpected connection with his adversary.
“The little boy and the snow monster both have anger issues, so they learn from each other,” Sweitzer said. “The gist of the show is about how we all have anger. … It’s also about finding a home.”
HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS
Dirt Farm Christmas Market
Sunday, Nov. 27, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Dirt Farm Brewing, 18701 Foggy Bottom Road, Bluemont
Details: dirtfarmbrewing.com
Shop for unique handmade items from more than a dozen local artisans and vendors while enjoying holiday craft beverage specials.
Vanish Holiday Sip and Shop
Sunday, Nov. 27, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Vanish Farmwoods Brewery, 42245 Black Hops Lane, Lucketts
Details: vanishbeer.com
Check out more than 30 small businesses selling everything from art to jewelry to clothing. The event features alpacas from Whispering Meadows to keep you company while you shop.
LOCO LIVE
Black Friday at Breaux
Friday, Nov. 25, 1-8 p.m.
Breaux Vineyards, 36888 Breaux Vineyards Lane, Hillsboro
Details: breauxvineyards.com
Breaux celebrates Black Friday with live music from Ken Wenzel from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. and Andy Carignan from 5 to 8 p.m.
Live Music: Acoustic Soul Friday, Nov. 25, 4 p.m.
Lost Barrel Brewing, 36138 John Mosby Highway, Middleburg Details: lostbarrel.com
Acoustic Soul’s Steven Shaffer and Bruce Turner are a guitar and vocals duo who pay tribute to legendary classic rock, blues, R&B and American roots artists.
Live Music: Lenny Burridge Friday, Nov. 25, 5 p.m.
Dirt Farm Brewing, 18701 Foggy Bottom Road, Bluemont
Details: dirtfarmbrewing.com
Wind down with acoustic blues and Americana, classic rock and new rock from Lenny Burridge.
Live Music: Cary Wimbish
Friday, Nov. 25, 5 p.m.
Spanky’s Shenanigans, 538 E. Market St., Leesburg Details: spankyspub.com
Richmond-based Wimbish returns to Spanky’s with traditional country, bluegrass, classic rock, and blues songs along with crowd-pleasing originals.
Live Music: Warren Hayford Friday, Nov. 25, 6 p.m.
Flying Ace Distillery and Brewery, 40950 Flying Ace Lane, Lovettsville
Details: flyingacefarm.com
Catch groovy psychedelic Americana from a Loudoun native.
continues on page 29
Snow Monster
The performances, which take place in a pop-up theater in a retail space at Village of Leesburg, are a prelude to Middleburg-based APTB’s expansion to a new space at VAL in April, 2023. The new studio will feature 7,500 square feet of innovative music therapy rooms and a small family theater. Meanwhile, VAL’s owner Rappaport has donated space in another area of the retail center for re hearsals and performances of the current holiday show.
Sweitzer and his team are turning the entire room into “winter wonderland” to create an immersive experience. Chil dren can sit on the floor for the 50-min ute production, with chairs available for adults. And while the show has plenty of feel-good warmth and cuteness, early De cember is also a perfect time to be talking about the complex emotions both chil dren and adults can experience, Sweitzer said.
The musical features a cast of 14 APTB performers, many of whom are neurodivergent or have disabilities. The diverse cast includes both new and vet eran performers. Newcomers Josiah Critchfield and Jenni Sable star as Davis and Lena. For these elementary school students, a big part of the show is having fun, enjoying rehearsals and making new friends. But Sweitzer said the entire cast and crew have been working hard to put on the kind of top-notch show APTB is known for.
“It’s the first time for many of these guys,” Sweitzer said. “We’re going to be showing a very tight, well-rehearsed mu sical.”
“The Snow Monster” also features performances from several young adults who have appeared in past shows with APTB, a program known for taking a message of acceptance and inclusion to schools around Loudoun with produc tions like “The Same Sky Project” and “A Will to Survive.”
Noah Hickman, 22, who plays Davis’s dad is a veteran APTB performer who now works as an administrative assistant at the studio. While Hickman has been away from the stage in recent years, he wanted to return for this very special hol iday show.
“I had retired from acting,” Hickman said. “I love the art. I had taken a break from it, but I wanted to make one last memory and this is it.”
“The Snow Monster” features APTB
veterans Scott Meeker as George the snowman and Cass Parker-Price as the snow monster looking for a home.
Mental health advocate and past per former Abby Dahl has also returned to the stage in the role of Davis’ mother. But Dahl also is focused on mentoring young er actors.
“She’s helping lead the whole thing,” Sweitzer said.
Dahl performed in APTB’s “A Will to Survive,” the rock opera created by the APTB team after the death of Dahl’s close friend Will Robinson by suicide in 2016. “A Will to Survive” toured Loudoun’s high schools and appeared at the Kennedy Center in 2017. That show inspired Dahl, now 25, to become a men tal health advocate.
“Through A Place to Be, I learned more about mental health and how im portant it is as I went through my own personal losses,” she said.
Sweitzer encouraged Dahl to return to the stage for “The Snow Monster,” where she serves as a mentor for younger actors.
“Being able to be here and support these kids through this process is great for my mental health,” Dahl said. “It just fills my heart with joy. They’re doing such a good job and working so hard, and the story itself is so beautiful. All the parents are going to cry—100 percent.” n
A Place To Be’s original musical “The Snow Monster” runs two full weekends at its pop-up theater in Village at Lees burg. Performances take place Fridays Dec. 2 and Dec. 9 at 7 p.m., Saturdays Dec. 3 and Dec. 10 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays Dec. 4 and Dec. 11 at 2 p.m. Look for the giant snowman at 1609 Village Market Blvd. SE #110. Admission is free.
tJingle Jam
BUILT 4 COMFORT
Saturday, Nov. 26, 6:30 p.m.
MacDowell’s macdowellsbrewkitchen.com
THINGS to do
Live Music: JA Legacy Band
Friday, Nov. 25, 6:30 p.m.
MacDowell Brew Kitchen, 202 South St. SE, Leesburg Details: macsbeach.com
The legacy band pays tribute to the late D.C. musician Johnny Artis with a smooth blend of rock, soul and rhythm & blues.
DC Improv Comedy Friday, Nov. 25, 6:30 and 9 p.m.
Tally Ho Theater, 19 W. Market St., Leesburg Details: tallyhotheater.com
DC Improv returns with two Friday night shows hosted by Jamal Rusell and featuring top DMV comics including Greg “Judge” Pool, Dana Lollar, Christine O’Dea and Josh Kuderna. Tickets are $22$32.
Live Music: Live Keys with Neil McKillips Friday, Nov. 25, 7 p.m.
1836 Kitchen and Taproom, 34 E. Broad Way, Lovettsville
Details: 1836kitchenandtaproom.com
The Live Keys play favorite singalong tunes and take audience requests.
Live Music: Chris Timbers Band Friday, Nov. 25, 8 p.m.
Monk’s BBQ, 251 N. 21st St., Purcellville Details: monksq.com
This NOVA Native plays alternative soul with jazz, blues, rock and country influences.
Live Music: Rowdy Ace Saturday, Nov. 26, 2 p.m.
Harvest Gap Brewery, 15485 Purcellville Road, Hillsboro
Details: harvestgap.com
Kick back with a fun mix of country and rock tunes from Rowdy Ace.
Live Music; David Sparrow
Saturday, Nov. 26, 2 p.m.
Breaux Vineyards, 36888 Breaux Vineyards Lane, Hillsboro
Details: breauxvineyards.com
Maryland-based David Sparrow has a penchant for melody and songcraft with an extensive repertoire of soulful originals.
Live Music: Matthew Burridge Saturday, Nov. 26, 3 p.m.
Flying Ace Distillery and Brewery, 40950 Flying Ace Lane, Lovettsville
BEST BETS
THE TEN BAND
Saturday, Nov. 26, 7 p.m. (doors) Tally Ho Theater tallyhotheater.com
Details: flyingacefarm.com
Fredericksburg-based Matt Burridge plays favorite covers at Flying Ace.
Live Music: Sela Campbell Saturday, Nov. 26, 3 p.m.
Notaviva Craft Fermentations, 13274 Sagle Road, Hillsboro Details: notavivavineyards.com
Rising star Sela Campbell returns to Notaviva with an eclectic mix of country favorites.
Live Music: Robert Mabe Trio Saturday, Nov. 26, 5 p.m.
Lost Barrel Brewing, 36138 John Mosby Highway, Middleburg Details: lostbarrel.com
Mabe is a stellar banjo player and singer/songwriter from the hills of North Carolina. His unique style covers a wide range of music from bluegrass to jazz, Irish and roots tunes.
Live Music: Jake Phillips, Mike Jewel and Pete Thomas Saturday, Nov. 26, 7 p.m.
Monk’s BBQ, 251 N. 21st St., Purcellville Details: monksq.com
Three longtime Loudoun musicians join forces for a rocking Saturday night.
Live Music: Built 4 Comfort Saturday, Nov. 26, 7 p.m.
MacDowell Brew Kitchen, 202 South St. SE, Leesburg Details: macsbeach.com
This group of local music veterans brings a range of cover songs in their own signature style: soulful and sassy with lots of hip-shaking goodness and groove.
Live Music: Tejas Singh Saturday, Nov. 26, 7 p.m.
Social House Kitchen and Tap, 42841 Creek View Plaza, Ashburn
Details: socialhouseashburn.com NOVA-based singer/songwriter Tejas Singh brings his angelic voice and devilish guitar skills to Social House.
Live Music: Berlin Calling Saturday, Nov. 26, 8 p.m.
Crooked Run Fermentation, 22455 Davis Drive #120, Sterling Details: crookedrunbrewing.com It’s a post-Thanksgiving ’80s dance party with favorite tunes from Berlin Calling.
Live Music: Ten Pearl Jam Tribute Saturday, Nov. 26, 8 p.m.
Tally Ho Theater, 19 W. Market St., Leesburg Details: tallyhotheater.com
HOLIDAY SIP & SHOP
Sunday, Nov. 27, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Vanish Farmwoods Brewery vanishbeer.com
It’s back to the 90s with this authentic Pearl Jam tribute. Tickets are $15.
Live Music: Eric Campbell Sunday, Nov. 27, 1 p.m.
Lost Barrel Brewing, 36138 John Mosby Highway, Middleburg Details: lostbarrel.com
Campbell serves up a variety of rock, folk and alt tunes for a fun Sunday afternoon.
Live Music: Bruno Acoustic Sunday, Nov. 27, 1 p.m.
Firefly Cellars, 40325 Charles Town Pike, Hamilton Details: fireflycellars.com
Loudoun’s Bruno Campos puts a fun acoustic twist on rock favorites.
Live Music: Shane Gamble Sunday, Nov. 27, 2 p.m.
Breaux Vineyards, 36888 Breaux Vineyards Lane, Hillsboro
Details: breauxvineyards.com
Rising country music start Shane Gamble returns to Breaux for an afternoon of great tunes.
Live Music: Morris and Morris Sunday, Nov. 27, 2 p.m.
Flying Ace Distillery and Brewery, 40950 Flying Ace Lane, Lovettsville
Details: flyingacefarm.com
Morris and Morris is a father/son duo performing standards, jazz, classic rock and blues.
Live Music: Kidd G
Thursday, Dec. 1, 8 p.m.
Tally Ho Theater, 19 W. Market St., Leesburg Details: tallyhotheater.com
LA-based Kidd G brings his new record “People Talk” on an East Coast tour. Tickets are $25.
LOCO CULTURE
Music for Dessert: Crooked Angels
Wednesday, Nov. 30, 7-8 p.m.
Franklin Park Arts Center, 36441 Blueridge View Lane, Purcellville
Details: franklinparkartscenter.org
The Crooked Angels, fronted by songwriters Amy and Jamie Potter, offer up a soulful blend of Americana, mixing in classic country, bluegrass and blues.
Their latest release “Indian Summer” finds the duo exploring the “cosmic American” musical landscape of their heroes Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. Tickets are $15, $8 for students and $8 for virtual viewing.
Town of Leesburg
Employment Opportunities
Please visit www.leesburgva.gov/jobs for more information and to apply online. Resumes may be submitted as supplemental only. EOE/ADA.
Position Department
Aquatics Facility Supervisor
Vertical 2.5” by 10.75”
Salary Range
Closing Date
Parks & Recreation $52,446-$95,178 DOQ Open until filled
Assistant Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Public Works & Capital Projects $86,040-$156,137 DOQ Open until filled
Assistant Director of Utilities, Engineering Programs Utilities $86,040-$156,137 DOQ Open until filled
Assistant Zoning Administrator Planning & Zoning $72,952-$132,386 DOQ Open until filled
Billing and Collections Coordinator Finance & Administrative Services Department $52,446-$95,178 DOQ Open until filled
Communications Technician (Police Dispatcher) Police $50,000-$88,774 DOQ Open until filled
Custodian Parks & Recreation $50,000-$63,626 DOQ Open until filled
Deputy Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Public Works & Capital Projects $93,438-$169,567 DOQ Open until filled
Groundskeeper Parks & Recreation $50,000-$81,495 DOQ Open until filled
Land Acquisition Manager Town Attorney $72,952-$132,387 DOQ Open until filled
Maintenance Worker I
Public Works & Capital Projects $50,000-$75,040 DOQ Open until filled
Police Detective Police $68,356-$109,934 DOQ Open until filled
Police Officer Police $62,000-$109,934 DOQ Open until filled
Police School Resource Officer Police $68,356-$109,934 DOQ Open until filled
Police Traffic Officer Police $68,356-$109,934 DOQ Open until filled
Project Manager Utilities $76,426-$138,530 DOQ Open until filled
Senior Engineer Plan Review $70,374-$127,560 DOQ Open until filled
Senior Planner (Preservation and Zoning Administration) Planning & Zoning $67,175-$121,947 DOQ Open until filled
Stormwater and Environmental Manager
Public Works & Capital Projects $82,999-$150,445 DOQ Open until filled
Transportation Engineer Public Works & Capital Projects $82,999-$150,445 DOQ Open until filled
Utility Inspector II Utilities $56,956-$103,363 DOQ Open until filled
Utility Plant Technician or Senior Utility Plant Technician Utilities $50,000-$95,178 DOQ Open until filled
Wastewater Plant Operator Trainee, I or II Utilities $50,000-$95,178 DOQ Open until filled
Water Meter Operations Supervisor Utilities $61,857-$112,250 DOQ Open until filled
Flexible Part-Time Position
Position
Department
Hourly Rate Closing Date
Library Assistant Thomas Balch LIbrary $20.51-$33.42 DOQ Open until filled
Seeking an Administrative Assistant
Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church, Lovettsville, VA
Mount Olivet United Methodist Church in Lovettsville is seeking a Church
Administrative Assistant. This is a paid, part time position, 12 15 hours per week, at a salary of $15 per hour. A confidentiality agreement will be required.
Duties and Responsibilities: The Administrative Assistant works at the direction of Pastor and under the direction of several committees. The person selected will run the office in the course of the week and be responsible for the administration of Mt. Olivet, providing administrative support for the Pastor, church staff, and lay ministries
The person filling this position will be required to perform a variety of duties and tasks, which will be outlined during the interview. The individual hired will have a great deal of latitude in shaping the requirements to be efficient and cost effective.
Skills and qualifications sought:
■Knowledge of modem office practices
■Efficiency in maintaining files.
■Proficiency in the use of office equipment, computers, and online systems ■Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite. ■Prepare effective correspondence on routine matters.
■Work independently and maintain confidentiality. ■Work with church members and staff and interact effectively and pleasantly with people of different backgrounds. ■Must pass background check and if previously employed, have verifiable employment references. ■Enthusiastically affirm and support the values, vision, and mission of Mt. Olivet UMC
Interested personnel seeking information, please call Phil Nesbitt, Mt. Olivet Lay Leader, at 571 366 0613.
Resumes can be sent to pnesbitt@verizon.net
Legal Notices
ORDER OF PUBLICATION
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA VA. CODE § 8.01-316
Case No.: JJ045837-04-00, 05-00;JJ045838-04-00, 05-00;JJ0458394-00, 05-00 JJ045840-04-00, 05-00; JJ045841-04-00, 05-00; JJ045842-04-00, 05-00
Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Zubayer Ekren, Sumeyyah Ekren, Asiyeh Ekren, Khadija Ekren, Fatima Ekren and Osama Ekren
Loudoun County Department of Family Services /v.
Unknown Mother and Unknown Father(s)
The object of this suit is to hold a permanency planning hearing and review of foster care plan with a goal of adoption, pursuant to Virginia Code §§ 16.1-282.1 and 16.1-281 for Zubayer Ekren, Sumeyyah Ekren, Asiyeh Ekren, Khadija Ekren, Fatima Ekren and Osama Ekren; and Petition for Termination of Parental Rights of Unknown Mother of Zubayer Ekren, and Unknown Father(s) of Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren pursuant to Virginia Code § 16.1-283. Unknown Mother of Zubayer and Unknown Father(s) of Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren are hereby notified that failure to appear on the hereinafter noticed date and time may result in the entry of an Order approving a permanency goal of adoption as well as the termination of residual parental rights with respect to Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren. Unknown Mother of Zubayer and Unknown Father(s) of Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren are hereby further notified that if their residual parental rights are terminated, they will no longer have any legal rights with respect to said minor children, including, but not limited to, the right to visit Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren, any authority with respect to the care and supervision of Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren, or the right to make health related decisions or determine the religious affiliation of Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren. Further, Unknown Mother of Zubayer Ekren and Unknown Father(s) of Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren will have no legal and /or financial obligations with respect to Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren, and the Department of Family Services of Loudoun County, Virginia may be granted the authority to place Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren for adoption and consent to the adoption of Zubayer, Sumeyyah, Asiyeh, Khadija, Fatima and Osama Ekren,
It is ORDERED that the defendant Unknown Mother and Unknown Father(s) appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his or her interests on or before December 5, 2022 at 10 a.m. 11/24 & 12/1/22
COUNTY OF LOUDOUN FIRST HALF REAL PROPERTY TAX DEADLINE
H. Roger Zurn, Jr., TreasurerDECEMBER 5, 2022
The deadline for payment of the second half real property tax is December 5, 2022
Payments received or postmarked after December 5, 2022, will incur a 10 percent penalty and interest. Any such penalty, when assessed, shall become part of the tax with interest accruing on both the tax and penalty at a rate of 10% annually. The due date will not be extended for bills where assessment questions have been filed with the Board of Equalization. Taxpayers who are having financial difficulties should contact our Collections Team at 703-771-5656 who stand ready to assist.
For your safety and convenience, please consider making payments online, by phone or mail.
CONVENIENT PAYMENT OPTIONS AND LOCATIONS
Online: www.loudounportal.com/taxes Pay using electronic check, VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover
By Telephone: 24-hour line 1-800-269-5971 703-777-0280 during regular business hours. Pay using electronic check, VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover
Please note: There is a convenience fee added to a Credit Card transaction. There is no fee for electronic checks (e-check).
By Mail: County of Loudoun P.O. Box 1000 Leesburg, Virginia 20177-1000
TREASURER’S OFFICE HOURS AND LOCATIONS
1 Harrison Street, S.E. 46000 Center Oak Plaza 1st Floor Suite 110 Leesburg, Virginia 20175 Sterling, Virginia 20166
24-hour depository boxes are located outside each office.
Regular Hours: 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM
Please contact the Loudoun County Treasurer's Office at 703-777-0280 or email us at taxes@loudoun.gov with questions or if you have not received your bill.
Stay up to date on tax information by subscribing to the Tax Notices category of Alert Loudoun at www.louduon.gov/alert. You can also text the word “TAXES” to 888777 to receive text messages about tax-related information, including upcoming deadlines.
For information regarding Real Property Tax Relief for the Elderly or for Disabled Persons, please contact the Tax Exemption and Deferrals division of the Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office at tax relief@loudoun.gov by phone 703-737-8557 or visit www.loudoun.gov/taxrelief.
NOTICE OF IMPOUNDMENT OF ABANDONED VEHICLES
This notice is to inform the owner and any person having a security interest in their right to reclaim the motor vehicle herein described within 15 days after the date of storage charges resulting from placing the vehicle in custody, and the failure of the owner or persons having security interests to exercise their right to reclaim the vehicle within the time provided shall be deemed a waiver by the owner, and all persons having security interests of all right, title and interest in the vehicle, and consent to the sale of the abandoned motor vehicle at a public auction. This notice shall also advise the owner of record of his or her right to contest the determination by the Sheriff that the motor vehicle was “abandoned,” as provided in Chapter 630.08 of the Loudoun County Ordinance, by requesting a hearing before the County Administrator in writing. Such written request for a hearing must be made within 15 days of the notice.
YR. MAKE MODEL VIN STORAGE PHONE#
2007 TOYOTA YARIS JTDJT92397509401 AL’S TOWING 703-435-8888
2004 NISSAN MURANO JN8AZ08W94W327524 ROADRUNNER 703-450-7555
2017 DODGE CARAVAN 2C4RDGCG7HR731426
AL’S TOWING 703-435-8888
PUBLIC HEARING
The LOUDOUN COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION will hold a public hearing in the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Room on the first floor of the County Government Center, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, on Monday, December 12, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. to consider the following:
ZMAP-20202-0009, ZMOD-2022-0038
ZMOD-2022-0039 & ZMOD-2022-0040
ZONING ORDINANCE SECTION PROPOSED MODIFICATION
STATION SOUTH (Zoning Map Amendment, Special Exception & Zoning Modifications)
GUILFORD
Guilford Station LLC, of Bethesda, Maryland, has submitted an application to rezone approximately 1.5 acres from the C-1 (Commercial – 1) zoning district under the 1972 Zoning Ordinance to the PD-IP (Planned Development – Commercial Center (Small Regional Center)) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance in order to develop a stand-alone car wash. The applicant also requests the following Zoning Ordinance modification(s):
ZONING ORDINANCE SECTION
§4-202(C), PD-CC Planned Development –Commercial Center, Purpose, Size and Location of Individual Districts, Small Regional Center (SC).
§4-205(C), PD-CC Planned Development –Commercial Center, Lot Requirements, Yards.
§4-205(C)(1)(c), PD-CC Planned Development – Commercial Center, Lot Requirements, Yards, Adjacent to Roads, Small Regional Center (SC).
PROPOSED MODIFICATION
Reduce the minimum size of the PD-CC(SC) zoning district from 20 acres to 1.5 acres.
Reduce the required setbacks from 35 feet to 10 feet.
Reduce the required setbacks from 35 feet to 10 feet along adjacent roadways.
The subject property is located within the Route 28 Taxing District and within the AI (Airport Impact) Overlay District outside of but within one (1) mile of the Ldn 60 aircraft noise contours. The subject property is located north of West Church Road (Route 625) west of Atlantic Boulevard (Route 1902), at 22060 Rail Car Drive, Sterling, VA, in the Sterling Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as PIN 044-40-8919. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Mixed Use Place Type) which supports Retail and Service Commercial uses at a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of up to 1.0 within a pedestrian-oriented environment.
ZRTD-2022-0002
T-4
VENTURES
(Zoning Conversion in the Route 28 Taxing District)
CWC Gas LC, of Fairfax, Virginia, has submitted an application to rezone approximately 15.58 acres from the PD-IP (Planned Development – Industrial Park) zoning district under the 1972 Zoning Ordinance to the PD-IP zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance in order to permit certain principal and accessory uses permitted in the PD-IP zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance at a maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 0.6 (up to 1.0 by Special Exception). The subject property is located within the Route 28 Taxing District, partially within the QN (Quarry Notification) Overlay District (part of parcel 034-47-9040) and fully within the Route 28 Optional Overlay district and the AI (Airport Impact) Overlay District, outside of but within one (1) mile of the Ldn 60, aircraft noise contour. The subject property is approximately 15.58 acres in size and is located south of Glenn Drive (Route 864), west of Davis Drive (Route 868), east of Terminal Drive, and north of Platform Plaza in the Broad Run Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as PINs: 033-19-0248 and 034-47-9040. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area (Suburban Employment Place Type)), which designate this area for Office, Production, Research and Development, Flex Space, and Contractor without outdoor storage uses at a FAR of up to 1.0.
ZMAP-2021-0022, ZMOD-2021-0086, ZMOD-2021-0087, ZMOD-2022-0042 ZMOD-2022-0043 & ZMOD-2022-0044
UNIVERSITY CENTER LAKEVIEW (Zoning Map Amendment & Zoning Modifications in the Rt. 28 Tax District)
LAKEVIEW 1 LC, of Fairfax, Virginia, has submitted an application to rezone approximately 21.55 acres from PD-RDP (Planned Development – Research and Development Park) zoning district under the 1972 Zoning Ordinance to the R-24 (Townhouse/Multifamily) zoning district under Affordable Dwelling Unit (ADU) regulations of the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance in order to develop 617 multifamily dwelling units at 28.6 dwelling units per acre. The applicant also requests the following Zoning Ordinance modification(s):
§3-702(A), R-24 Multifamily Residential, Size and Location.
§3-707(B), R-24 Multifamily Residential, Building Requirements, Building Height.
§5-1102, Table 5-1102, Off Street Parking and Loading Requirements, Number of Parking and Loading Spaces Required.
To allow access to lots created after rezoning to be provided by private roads.
To increase maximum building height to 60 feet without additional setbacks from streets or lot lines for each foot of increased height.
To modify the parking requirements for Multifamily Residential to permit a minimum of 1 parking spaces per studio and onebedroom ADU and a minimum of 1.3 parking spaces per two- and three-bedroom ADU.
§5-1404(D), Landscaping, Buffer Yards, Screening, and Landscape Plans, Buffer Yards, Buffer Yard Widths and Plant Requirements.
§5-1408(B)(2)(d), Landscaping, Buffer Yards, Screening, and Landscape Plans, General Landscape Provisions, Plant Unit Requirements.
To decrease the width of portions of required Buffer Yard Type A to five feet.
To increase the maximum percentage of shrubs from 30 percent to 80 percent permitted within the Buffer Yard Type A.
The subject property is located within the Route 28 Taxing District, the Route 28 CB (Corridor Business) Optional Overlay, and the AI (Airport Impact) Overlay District, outside of but within one (1) mile of the Ldn 60 airport noise contour. The subject property is approximately 21.55 acres in size and is located north of Harry Byrd Highway (Route 7), south of George Washington Boulevard (Route 1050), and east of Riverside Parkway (Route 607) in Ashburn, Virginia, in the Algonkian Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as PIN: 039-35-5892 and PIN: 039-25-8839. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area (Suburban Mixed Use Place Type)) which designate this area for compact, pedestrian-oriented environments with opportunities for a mix of Residential, Commercial, Entertainment, Cultural, and Recreational uses at a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of up to 1.0.
ZMAP-2022-0007 & SPEX-2022-0023
VANTAGE DATA
CENTER (Zoning Map Amendment & Special Exception)
Vantage Data Centers VA2, LLC, of Sterling, Virginia, has submitted an application to rezone approximately 18.59 acres from the PD-IP (Planned Development – Industrial Park) zoning district under the 1972 Zoning Ordinance and Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance and the R-4 (Single Family Residential) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance to the PD-IP zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance in order to develop a data center campus. The applicant is also requesting a Special Exception in order to permit an increase in the maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR) from 0.6 to 1.0 for the development of all principal and accessory uses in the PD-IP zoning district. These applications are subject to the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance, and the proposed increase in maximum FAR is permitted by Special Exception under Section 4-506(C).
The subject property is approximately 18.59 acres in size and is located south of Belfort Park Drive (Route 891), west of Glenn Drive (Route 864), and on the east side of Shaw Road (Route 636) in the Sterling Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as follows:
PIN PROPERTY ADDRESS
044-10-7257 N/A 044-10-9177 N/A 044-10-6480 N/A 032-15-0581 N/A 032-15-3041 N/A 032-15-5119 N/A 044-10-6869 N/A
The subject property is located within the Route 28 Taxing District, the Route 28 CB (Corridor Business) Optional Overlay, and the AI (Airport Impact) Overlay District, outside of but within one (1) mile of the Ldn 60 airport noise contour. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area) in the Suburban Mixed Use Place Type which designate this area for a mix of Residential, Commercial, Entertainment, Cultural and Recreational uses at a recommended FAR of 1.0.
Legal Notices
ZMAP-2021-0017, SPEX-2021-0043, SPEX-2021-0044, SPMI-2022-0002 SPMI-2022-0012, SPMI-2022-0013, ZMOD-2021-0056, ZMOD-2021-0057 ZMOD-2021-0058, ZMOD-2021-0059, ZMOD-2021-0060, ZMOD-2021-0061 ZMOD-2021-0062, ZMOD-2021-0063 & ZMOD-2021-0064
NORTHSTAR SQUARE
(Zoning Map Amendment, Special Exceptions, Minor Special Exceptions & Zoning Modifications)
Belmont Land LP, of Ashburn, Virginia, has submitted applications for the following: (1) to rezone approximately 7.16 acres from the from the PD-OP (Planned Development – Office Park) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance to the PD-RDP (Planned Development – Research Development Park) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance; (2) to rezone approximately 6.39 acres from the PD-OP and PD-H4 (Planned Development – Housing 4) zoning districts under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance to the PD-CC(CC) (Planned Development - Commercial Center, Community Center) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance; (3) to rezone approximately 13.94 acres from the PD-OP (Planned Development – Office Park) and PD-H4 (Planned Development –Housing 4) zoning districts under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance to the R-24 ADU (Townhouse/ Multifamily Residential-24, ADU Development Regulations) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance; (4) to rezone approximately 83.29 acres from the PD-OP (Planned Development –Office Park) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance to the R-16 ADU (Townhouse/ Multifamily Residential-16, ADU Development Regulations) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance in order to develop 1,245 residential units, consisting of a maximum 297 single family attached units, a maximum of 592 multifamily attached units and a maximum of 356 multifamily stacked units at a density of approximately 12.8 dwelling units per acre; (5) Special Exceptions to permit the modification of the minimum yard requirements for ADU developments in the R-16 and R-24 ADU zoning districts; and (6) Minor Special Exceptions to modify Section 5-637 and Section 5-1405(C) and (D) of the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance. These applications are subject to the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance and the proposed modification of the minimum yard requirements for ADU developments in the R-16 and R-24 ADU zoning districts are listed as Special Exceptions under Sections 7-903(C)(3) and 7-1003(C).
The applicant also requests the following Zoning Ordinance modification(s):
ZONING ORDINANCE SECTION
§1-205(A) Interpretation of Ordinance, Limitations and Methods for Measurements of Lots, Yards and Related Terms, Lot Access Requirements.
§3-602 R-16 Townhouse/Multifamily Residential, Size and Location.
§3-607(B)(1) R-16 Townhouse/Multifamily Residential, Building Requirements, Building Height.
§3-607(B)(2) R-16 Townhouse/Multifamily Residential, Building Requirements, Building Height.
§3-607(C) R-16 Townhouse/Multifamily Residential, Building Requirements, Maximum Units Per Building.
§3-707(B) R-24 Multifamily Residential, Building Requirements, Building Height.
§4-205(C)(1)(b) PD-CC Planned Development - Commercial Center, Lot Requirements, Yards, Adjacent to Roads, Community Center (CC).
§4-205(C)(2) PD-CC Planned Development - Commercial Center, Lot Requirements, Yards, Adjacent to Agricultural and Residential Districts and Land Bays Allowing Residential Uses.
§4-205(C)(3) PD-CC Planned DevelopmentCommercial Center, Lot Requirements, Yards, Adjacent to Other Nonresidential Districts.
§4-206(D)(2) PD-CC Planned Development –Commercial, Building Requirements, Vehicular Access, Community Centers.
PROPOSED MODIFICATION
Allow structures to be erected on lots that front onto open space.
ZONING ORDINANCE SECTION PROPOSED MODIFICATION
§4-207 (D)(2) PD-CC Planned Development - Commercial Center, Use limitations, Site Planning- Internal Relationships.
§4-402, PD-RDP, Planned Development –Research and Development Park, Size and Location.
§4-405(B)(1) PD-RDP, Planned Development – Research and Development Park, Lot Requirements, Yards, Adjacent to Roads.
§4-405(B)(2) PD-RDP, Planned Development – Research and Development Park, Lot Requirements, Yards, Adjacent to Agricultural and Residential Districts and Land Bays Allowing Residential Uses.
§4-407(E) PD-RDP, Planned Development – Research and Development Park, Use Limitations, Minimum Floor Space Mix.
§5-1303(D), Tree Planting and Replacement, Canopy Requirements, Existing Conditions.
§5-1403(B) Landscaping Buffer Yards, Screening, and Landscape Plans. Road Corridor Buffer and Setbacks, Road Corridor Buffer and Setbacks Matrix, Table 5-1403(B), Other Arterial Roads.
Permit vehicular access to a local access road.
Reduce the minimum district size from 20 acres to 7.16 acres.
Eliminate required parking setbacks.
Permit a reduction for building, outdoor storage, areas for collection of refuse adjacent to a residential landbay from 100 feet to 50 feet and a reduction of the parking setback adjacent to a residential landbay from 50 feet to 5 feet.
Eliminate the minimum floor space requirement.
Allow existing trees preserved and located within the open space areas of Northstar Square to be allocated to and count toward canopy requirements for each site plan filed for development areas within the ZMAP area as development occurs.
Reduce the minimum required building and parking setbacks along Route 7 as follows:
(a) Reduce Building Setback from 200 feet to 165 feet;
(b) Reduce Parking Setback from 125 feet to 100 feet;
(c) Eliminate the Road Corridor Gateway Buffer along the Route 7 frontage of the existing Viewshed Easement.
AND
Increase the maximum district size from 25 acres to 84 acres.
Increase the maximum height for single family attached buildings from 45 feet to 55 feet without additional setbacks.
Increase the maximum height for multifamily buildings from 45 feet to 70 feet without additional setbacks.
Increase the maximum unit count per building from eight units to ten units.
Increase the maximum height for multifamily buildings from 45 feet to 70 feet without additional setbacks.
Allow for buildings to be located within five feet of any road right-of-way and to eliminate parking setbacks from any road right-of-way.
Reduce the maximum building setback from 100 feet to five feet, and eliminate the parking setback adjacent to residential districts.
Eliminate the hundred foot setback requirement for refuse collection or loading areas adjacent to residential districts.
Reduce the maximum building setback from 35 feet to 25 feet and eliminate the parking, outdoor storage, and loading area setback requirement adjacent to nonresidential districts.
Permit vehicular access to a local access road.
§7-903(E), R-16 Townhouse/Multifamily District, Lot and Building Requirements, Active Recreation Space.
§7-1003(E), R-24 Multifamily District, Active Recreation Open Space.
Reduce Building Setback from 35 feet to 15 feet in Land Bay 3.
AND
(a) Reduce Building Setback from 75 feet to 35 feet in Land Bays 5 and 6.
(b) No Change
(c) Modify the Road Corridor Buffer along both sides of Russell Branch Parkway within the Viewshed Easement.
AND
In Land Bay 3, reduce the building setback from 100 feet to 25 feet, eliminate the parking setback and provide a Type 1 Buffer adjacent to the existing Belmont Ridge Road.
AND
In Land Bays 1 and 2, reduce the building setback from 100 feet to 25 feet, eliminate the parking setback and provide a Type 1 Buffer adjacent to the existing and future Belmont Ridge Road.
Reduce the active recreation space requirements.
Reduce the active recreation space requirements.
Legal Notices
The subject property is located partially within the FOD (Floodplain Overlay District). The subject property is approximately 110.79 acres in size and is located east of Belmont Ridge Road (Route 659) and south of Harry Byrd Highway (Route 7) in the Ashburn Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as follows:
PIN PROPERTY ADDRESS
083-35-9224 19508 Freedom Trail Road, Ashburn Virginia 113-29-0452 19400 Freedom Trail Road, Ashburn, Virginia
The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area (Suburban Mixed Use Place Type and Suburban Neighborhood Place Type)) which designates this area for a mix of Residential, Commercial, Entertainment, Cultural and Recreational uses at recommended Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 1.0 (Suburban Mixed Use Place Type) and for predominately residential uses arranged on medium-to-large lots at a density of four (4) dwelling units per acre (Suburban Neighborhood Place Type).
NIVO SUBSTATION EXPANSION
(Zoning Conversion in the Route 28 Taxing District, Commission Permit, and Minor Special Exception)
Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion Energy Virginia) of Glen Allen, Virginia, has submitted applications for the following: to rezone approximately 3.85 acres from the PD-IP (Planned Development – Industrial Park) zoning district under the 1972 Zoning Ordinance to the PD-IP zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance in order to permit the development of all principal and accessory uses permitted in the PD-IP zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance at a maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 0.6 (up to 1.0 by Special Exception); and Planning Commission approval to permit the expansion of an existing Utility Substation, Distribution use in the PD-IP zoning district. These applications are subject to the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance and require a Commission Permit in accordance with Section 6-1101. The applicant also seeks a modification of the buffer yard requirements under Section 5-616(D) of the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance which is authorized by Minor Special Exception under Section 5-600. The applicant requests the following modification(s):
ZONING ORDINANCE SECTION PROPOSED MODIFICATION
§5-616(D), Additional Regulations for Specific Uses, Utility Substations.
Reduce the minimum percentage of plant units assigned to evergreen trees from 40% to 30% for the northern perimeter of the Utility Substation use, AND
Eliminate the 40% minimum percentage requirement for plant units assigned to evergreen trees for the southern perimeter of the Utility Substation use.
The subject property is located within the Route 28 Taxing District and within the AI (Airport Impact) Overlay District between the Ldn 60-65 noise contours. The subject property is approximately 10.26 acres
in size and is located on the east side of Smith Switch Road (Route 1950), south of Gloucester Parkway (Route 2150), and north of Waxpool Road (Route 625), at 21380 Smith Switch Road, Ashburn, Virginia, in the Broad Run Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as PIN: 060-28-0333. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area (Suburban Employment Place Type)) which designate this area for a broad array of Employment uses at a recommended FAR of up to 1.0.
Unless otherwise noted above, full and complete copies of the above-referenced amendments, applications, ordinances and/or plans, and related documents may be examined in the Loudoun County Department of Building and Development, County Government Center, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., 2nd Floor, Leesburg, Virginia, from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday or call 703-7770220, or electronically at www.loudoun.gov/lola. This link also provides an additional opportunity for public input on active applications. Additionally, documents may be viewed and downloaded electronically the week before the hearing at www.loudoun.gov/pc. For further information, contact the Department of Planning and Zoning at 703-777-0246.
Citizens are encouraged to call in advance to sign up to speak at the public hearing. If you wish to sign up in advance of the hearing, please call the Department of Planning and Zoning at 703-7770246 prior to 12:00 PM on the day of the public hearing. Speakers may also sign up at the hearing. Written comments are welcomed at any time and may be sent to the Loudoun County Planning Commission, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., 3rd Floor, MSC #62, Leesburg, Virginia 20175, or by e-mail to loudounpc@loudoun.gov. If written comments are presented at the hearing, please provide ten (10) copies for distribution to the Commission and the Clerk’s records. All members of the public will be heard as to their views pertinent to these matters. Any individual representing and/or proposing to be the sole speaker on behalf of a citizen’s organization or civic association is encouraged to contact the Department of Planning and Zoning prior to the date of the public hearing if special arrangements for additional speaking time and/or audio-visual equipment will be requested. Such an organization representative will be allotted 6 minutes to speak, and the Chairman may grant additional time if the request is made prior to the date of the hearing and the need for additional time is reasonably justified.
Citizens are encouraged to call the Department of Planning and Zoning on the day of the public hearing to confirm that an item is on the agenda, or, the most current agenda may be viewed on the Planning Commission’s website at www.loudoun.gov/pc. In the event that the second Thursday is a holiday or the meeting may not be held due to inclement weather or other conditions that make it hazardous for members to attend, the meeting will be moved to the third Tuesday of the month. In the event that Tuesday is a holiday or the Tuesday meeting may not be held due to inclement weather or other conditions that make it hazardous for members to attend, the meeting will be held on the following Thursday. The meeting will be held at a place determined by the Chairman.
Hearing assistance is available for meetings in the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Room. FM Assistive Listening System is available at the meetings at all other locations. If you require any type of reasonable accommodation as a result of a physical, sensory or mental disability to participate in this meeting, contact the Department of Planning and Zoning at 703-777-0246. Please provide three days’ notice.
BY
ORDER OF: FOREST HAYES,CHAIRMAN LOUDOUN COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION 11/24 & 12/1/22
TOWN OF LOVETTSVILLE
PLANNING COMMISSION
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
LVCU 2021-0001, APPLICATION FOR CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT
The LOVETTSVILLE PLANNING COMMISSION will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, De cember 7, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers, 6 E. Pennsylvania Avenue, Lovettsville, Virginia, to consider amending Section 42-290 to establish standards that permit decks and accessory structures on townhouse lots to extend to interior property lines of the lot.
All persons desiring to speak will be given an opportunity to do so at this meeting.
Written comments regarding this item can be submitted to clerk@lovettsvilleva.gov by 3:00PM on the day of the meeting. Members of the public may access and participate in this meeting electronically. The proposed zoning amendment is available for review on the Town website at: www.lovettsvilleva.gov/ government/planning-commission/ You may also request a copy be sent to you via email by contacting John Merrithew, Planning Director at (540) 822-5788 between the hours of 8:30am and 4:30pm week days, holidays excepted. In the event the meeting is postponed, the public hearing will be convened on the next regularly scheduled meeting at the same time and place.
11/24/22, 12/1/22
Pursuant to Sections 15.2-2204 and 15.2-2286 of the 1950 Code of Virginia, as amended, the LOVETTS VILLE PLANNING COMMISSION will hold a public hearing Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers, 6 E. Pennsylvania Avenue, Lovettsville, Virginia, to consider an application for a Conditional Use Permit filed by One Family Brewing LLC to increase the building setback from Lutheran Church Road beyond the 40-foot maximum setback permitted in the CRA-1 Commercial Residential Annexation zoning district pursuant to Section 42-233(d)(3). The parcel of land that is the subject of this request is Parcel Identification Numbers 371394189 and is 27.07 acres in area. The property is located at 12890 Berlin Turnpike.
All persons desiring to speak will be given the opportunity to do so at this meeting.
Written comments regarding this item can be submitted to clerk@lovettsvilleva.gov by 3:00PM on the day of the meeting. Members of the public may access and participate in this meeting elec tronically. The proposed Conditional Use Permit is available for review on the Town website at: www.lovettsvilleva.gov/government/planning-commission/ You may also request a copy be sent to you via email by contacting John Merrithew, Planning Director at (540) 822-5788 between the hours of 8:30am and 4:30pm weekdays, holidays excepted. In the event the meeting is postponed, the public hearing will be convened on the next regularly scheduled meeting at the same time and place.
Legal Notices
PUBLIC HEARING
The LOUDOUN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS will hold a public hearing in the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Room, County Government Center, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, at 6:00 p.m. on WEDNESDAY, December 14, 2022, in order to consider:
ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH A NEW CHAPTER OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF LOUDOUN COUNTY
New Chapter 1099
Flood Mitigation and Protection Grant Program
Pursuant to Virginia Code §§15.2-1427 and §15.2-2114.01, the Board of Supervisors gives notice of its intention to propose for passage an ordinance to establish a new chapter of the Codified Ordinances of Loudoun County, Chapter 1099 to be titled “Flood Mitigation and Protection Grant Program.” The pro posed ordinance would establish a program where County appropriated funds may be provided as grants to an owner of private property or a common interest community for flood mitigation and protection measures in accordance with the requirements of Virginia Code §15.2-2114.01, and the Flood Mitigation and Protection Guidelines as endorsed by the Board.
A complete copy of the full text of the above-referenced proposed ordinance is on file and available for public inspection at the Loudoun County Government Center, Office of County Administrator, Information Desk, 1st Floor, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday or call (703) 777-0200. Documents also may be viewed and downloaded electronically 72 hours in advance of the public hearing at: www.loudoun.gov/bosdocuments (for Public Hearing documents, follow the link for “Board of Supervisors Business Meetings, Public Hearings and Special Meetings”).
AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 1040 OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF LOUDOUN COUNTY Waterwells
Pursuant to Virginia Code §§ 15.2-1427 and 15.2-958, the Board of Supervisors gives notice of its inten tion to amend Chapter 1040, Waterwells, of the Codified Ordinances of Loudoun County. The purpose of this amendment is to resolve a perceived regulatory conflict between the Codified Ordinances and the Virginia Waterworks Regulations regarding public water supply systems.
The proposed amendment to Chapter 1040 will be effective upon adoption by the Board of Supervisors.
A complete copy of the full text of the above-referenced proposed ordinance amendment is on file and available for public inspection at the Loudoun County Government Center, Office of County Adminis trator, Information Desk, 1st Floor, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or call 703-777-0200. Documents may also be viewed and downloaded electronically 72 hours in advance of the public hearing at: www.loudoun.gov/bosdocuments (for Public Hearing documents, follow the link for “Board of Supervisors Business Meetings, Public Hearings and Special Meetings”).
AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 878 OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCE OF LOUDOUN COUNTY Transient Occupancy Tax
Pursuant to Virginia Code §15.2-1427, the Board of Supervisors gives notice of its intention to amend Chapter 878 Transient Occupancy Tax, of the Codified Ordinances of Loudon County. Chapter 878 con tains provisions for assessing and collecting Transient Occupancy Tax on the total charge made to tran sients for use or possession of a room meant for overnight stays. The proposed amendments are as follows:
• Updates to definitions in Loudoun Codified Ordinances, Chapter 878.01 Definitions, defining a “Ho tel” to include all places that offer overnight accommodations regardless of capacity. The current ordinance defines hotel as a place which can lodge four or more persons at one time. Additional updates to the definition of “Room rental”, changing it to “Room Charge” and aligning the definition with recent updates to the Code of Virginia.
• Removal of gender specific pronouns in Loudoun Codified Ordinances in Chapter 878.01 Definitions
• Modernization and clarification of language throughout Loudoun Codified Ordinance Chapter 878.
A complete copy of the full text of the above-referenced proposed ordinance amendment is on file and available for public inspection at the Loudoun County Government Center, Office of County Adminis trator, Information Desk, 1st Floor, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or call 703-777-0200. Documents may also be viewed and downloaded electronically 72 hours in advance of the public hearing at: www.loudoun.gov/bosdocuments (for Public Hearing documents, follow the link for “Board of Supervisors Business Meetings, Public Hearings and Special Meetings”).
ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH A NEW CHAPTER OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF LOUDOUN COUNTY
Real Estate Classification for Property Owned by Surviving Spouses of Certain Persons Killed in The Line of Duty
Pursuant to Virginia Code §15.2-1427, the Board of Supervisors gives notice of its intention to propose for passage a new Chapter of the Codified Ordinances of Loudoun County establishing a Real Estate Classification for Tax Rate Purposes for Property Owned by Surviving Spouses of Certain Persons Killed in the Line of Duty.
A complete copy of the full text of the above-referenced proposed amendments is on file and available for public inspection at the Loudoun County Government Center, Information Desk, 1st Floor, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or call 703-7770200. Documents also may be viewed and downloaded electronically 72 hours in advance of the public hearing at: www.loudoun.gov/bosdocuments (for Public Hearing documents, follow the link for “Board of Supervisors Business Meetings, Public Hearings and Special Meetings”).
AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 848 OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF LOUDOUN COUNTY
Special Assessment for Land Preservation
Pursuant to Virginia Code §15.2-1427, the Board of Supervisors gives notice of its intention to propose for passage amendments to Chapter 848, Special Assessment for Land Preservation, of the Codified Or dinances of Loudoun County. The proposed amendments will align the local ordinance with updates to the Code of Virginia.
A complete copy of the full text of the above-referenced proposed amendments is on file and available for public inspection at the Loudoun County Government Center, Information Desk, 1st Floor, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or call 703-7770200. Documents also may be viewed and downloaded electronically 72 hours in advance of the public hearing at: www.loudoun.gov/bosdocuments (for Public Hearing documents, follow the link for “Board of Supervisors Business Meetings, Public Hearings and Special Meetings”).
AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 868 OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF LOUDOUN COUNTY
Exemption for Certified Solar Energy Equipment
Pursuant to Virginia Code §15.2-1427, the Board of Supervisors gives notice of its intention to amend Chapter 868, Exemption for Certified Solar Energy Equipment, of the Codified Ordinances of Loudoun County. The proposed amendments will align the local ordinance with updates to the Code of Virginia.
A complete copy of the full text of the above-referenced proposed amendments is on file and available for public inspection at the Loudoun County Government Center, Office of County Administrator, Information Desk, 1st Floor, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or call 703-777-0200. Documents also may be viewed and downloaded electronically 72 hours in advance of the public hearing at: www.loudoun.gov/bosdocuments (for Public Hearing documents, follow the link for “Board of Supervisors Business Meetings, Public Hearings and Special Meetings”).
SPEX-2022-0001 & SIDP-2022-0002
BELMONT AUTOMOBILE SERVICE STATION
(Special Exception, Sign Development Plan)
Belmont Green Commercial, LLC of Baltimore, Maryland, has submitted applications for the follow ing: 1) a Special Exception to permit an automobile service station in the PD-H3 (Planned Development – Housing 3) administered as PD-CC(CC) (Planned Development – Commercial Center (Community Center)) zoning district; and 2) a Sign Development Plan to request alternative sign regulations for per mitted signs in order to increase the total aggregate sign area and to increase the number of signs. These applications are subject to the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance, and the proposed use is listed as a Special Exception use under Section 4-204 (B), and pursuant to Section 5-1202(E) alternative sign regulations for permitted signs may be requested with the submission of a Sign Development Plan. The subject property is located within the QN (Quarry Notification) Overlay District (Luck Note Area). The subject property is approximately 2.13 acres in size and is located south of Belmont Ridge Road (Route 659), west of Ports mouth Boulevard (Route 1937) in the Ashburn Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as PIN: 152-20-4348 and a portion of PIN:152-20-4210. The area is governed by the polices of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area (Suburban Mixed Use Place Type)), which supports Retail and Service Commercial uses at a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of up to 1.0.
SPMI-2022-0011
CHICK-FIL-A (Minor Special Exception)
Chick-Fil-A, Inc of Atlanta, Georgia, has submitted an application for a Minor Special Exception to modify the Regulations of Section 5-1403(B) of the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance regarding the parking setback from Route 7 from the Fairfax County Line to the west of Broad Run, in order to reduce the parking setback to accommodate a two-lane drive-through as part of the renovation of the existing Chick-Fil-A fast-food restaurant with a drive-through use. The existing development has a non-conforming legacy parking setback of 28.5 feet. This application is subject to the PD-CC(SC) (Planned Development-Commercial Center (Small Regional Center)) zoning district. The modification of the Regulations of Section 5-1403(B) is authorized by Minor Special Exception under Section 5-1409(B)(1), pursuant to which the application requests the following modification:
ZONING ORDINANCE SECTION
§5-1403(B), Road Corridor Buffer and Setbacks Matrix, Table 5-1403(B), Parking Setback from Route 7: Fairfax County Line, West to Broad Run.
PROPOSED MODIFICATION
Reduce
The subject property is a 0.2-acre section of an approximately 22-acre parcel and is located south of Route 7 and east of Lakeland Drive (Route 821) at 26920 Community Plaza, Sterling, Virginia, in the Sterling Elec tion District. The subject parcel is more particularly described as PIN: 014-38-2990. The subject parcel is lo cated partially within minor floodplain in the Floodplain Overlay District and has areas of Moderately Steep and Very Steep Slopes. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Sub urban Policy Area (Suburban Mixed Use Place Type)), which designates this area for a mix of residential, commercial, entertainment, cultural, and recreational uses at a recommended Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 1.0.
SIDP-2022-0001
EVERGREEN MEADOWS (Sign Development Plan)
Evergreen Mills Road LLC of Rockville, Maryland, has submitted an application for a Sign Development Plan to request alternative sign regulations for permitted signs in order to: 1) increase the total aggregate sign area; 2) increase the maximum number of signs; 3) the maximum area of any one sign; and 4) in crease the maximum sign height. The subject property is located in the PD-IP (Planned Development –Industrial Park) and the CR-1 (Countryside Residential – 1) zoning district under the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance. This application is subject to the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance, and pursuant to Section 5-1202(E) alternative sign regulations for permitted signs may be requested with the submission of a Sign Development Plan. The subject property is located within the AI (Airport Impact) Overlay District, within the Ldn 65 or higher aircraft noise contours. The subject property is approximately 4.03 acres in size and is located south of Arcola Mills Drive (Route 621), west of Briarfield Lane (Route 3442), in Aldie, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as PIN: 202-29-4526 and PIN: 202-29-7203. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area (Suburban Neighborhood Place Type)), which designate this area for residential uses arranged on medium-to-large lots at a recommended density of up to six dwelling units per acre for infill development.
SPEX-2022-0037
INTERCONNECTION SUBSTATION (Special Exception)
Virginia Electric and Power Company of Glen Allen, Virginia, has submitted an application for a Special Exception to permit an increase in the maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR) from 0.6 to 0.63 for utility
substation, distribution use in the PD-IP (Planned Development – Industrial Park) zoning district. This application is subject to the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance, and the proposed use is permitted under Section 4-506(C). The subject property is located within the Route 28 Taxing District and the AI (Airport Impact) Overlay District, between the Ldn 60-65 and outside of but within one (1) mile of the Ldn 60 aircraft noise contours, and located partially within the FOD (Floodplain Overlay District) and has areas with Steep Slopes (moderately steep slopes). The subject property is approximately 10.18 acres in size and is located on the north side of Loudoun County Parkway (Route 607) and the east side of Beaumeade Cir cle (Route 3037) at 21529 Beaumeade Circle, Ashburn, Virginia, in the Broad Run Election District. The subject property is more particularly described as PIN: 042-15-2579. The area is governed by the policies of the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan (Suburban Policy Area (Suburban Employment Place Type) which designate this area for Office, Production, Flex Space, and Warehousing uses at a recommended Floor Area Ratio (FAR) up to a 1.0.
Unless otherwise noted in the above notices, copies of the above-referenced amendments, applications, ordinances, and/or plans and related documents may be examined by request at the Loudoun County Gov ernment Center, Information Desk, 1st Floor, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg, Virginia, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or call 703-7770246 (option 5) to request hard copies or electronic copies, or electronically at www.loudoun.gov/lola. This link also provides an additional opportunity for public input on active applications. Documents also may be viewed and downloaded electronically 72 hours in advance of the public hearing at: www.loudoun.gov/bosdocuments (for Public Hearing docu ments, follow the link for “Board of Supervisors Business Meetings, Public Hearings and Special Meet ings”). In addition, for detailed instructions on how to access documents using LOLA, to request that documents be emailed to you, to receive physical copies of documents, or to arrange a time to view the file at the Loudoun County Government Center, please email DPZ@loudoun.gov or call 703-777-0246 (option 5).
Board of Supervisors public hearings are available for live viewing on television on Comcast Government Channel 23 and Verizon FiOS Channel 40, and livestreamed at loudoun.gov/meetings. All members of the public who desire to speak will be heard as to their views pertinent to these matters. Public input may be provided by electronic means at Board public hearings. Members of the public who wish to provide public input, whether electronically or in person, will be accommodated without advanced sign-up during the hearing, however, members of the public are strongly encouraged to sign-up in advance. For this public hearing, advanced sign-up will be taken after 8:30 a.m. on December 2, 2022, and no later than 12:00 p.m. on December 14, 2022. If you wish to sign-up in advance, call the Office of the County Administrator at (703) 777-0200. Citizens will also have the option to sign-up during the public hearing. Citizens may also submit written comments by email sent to bos@loudoun.gov. Any written comments received prior to the public hearing will be distributed to Board members and made part of the minutes for the public hearing.
Hearing assistance is available for meetings in the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Room. If you require any type of reasonable accommodation as a result of a physical, sensory or mental disability to participate in this meeting, please contact the Office of the County Administrator at 703-777-0200. At least one busi ness day of advance notice is requested; some accommodations may require more than one day of notice. FM Assistive Listening System is available at the meetings.
BY ORDER OF: PHYLLIS RANDALL, CHAIR LOUDOUN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS11/24 & 12/1/22
Legal Notices
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE
TOWN OF PURCELLVILLE TOWN COUNCIL
FIELDS FARM PARK APPLICATIONS FOR REZONING, SPECIAL USE PERMITS, & COMMISSION PERMITS
PARCEL NUMBERS 522-29-5928 & 522-29-6381
OWNER: LOUDOUN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORSThe Town Council of the Town of Purcellville will conduct a public hearing on TUESDAY, DECEM BER 13, 2022, at 7:00 PM for the purpose of receiving comments on, considering, and possibly voting on the following applications:
The County of Loudoun has submitted 5 applications, proposing to rezone parcel numbers 522-29-5928 and 522-29-6381 (“the Property”), so that the Property may be developed with two special uses: a Com muter Parking Lot, and an Outdoor Lighted Public Recreational Facility consisting of 8 athletic fields, all as follows:
(1) One Rezoning application (“RZ 20-01”), which proposes to amend the zoning designation of the Property from the existing “X - Transitional” designation, to the “Institutional and Public Use District” designation (“IP”). The existing X-Transitional zoning district is the zoning district assigned by the Town to land when it is annexed into the Town’s corporate limits, and therefore has been the zoning designation of the property since it was annexed into the Town in 2008. The proposed “IP” zoning designation is described by the Town Zoning Ordinance as follows: “[The “IP”] district is intended to permit the location and growth of public and private educational, institutional, public, and semi-public uses in areas appro priate for such uses. The district is intended to encourage the retention or adaptive reuse of larger public and institutional uses on sites identified for such uses in the adopted comprehensive plan.” The zoning amendment is necessary in order to obtain the two Special Use Permit applications, described below. (2) Two Special Use Permit applications (“SUP 20-01” and “SUP 20-02”) for the following special uses:
(a) One Commuter Parking Lot with up to 260 parking spaces, and (b) Eight (8) Lighted Outdoor Public Recreational Fields.
While the Property consists of about 226 acres, the portion of the Property proposed to be rezoned and de veloped with the two Special Uses consists of approximately 69 acres, and is shown in yellow on the map associated with this advertisement (“Special Use Area”). The Special Use Area currently has 2 existing soccer fields, with the remainder of the land being currently vacant. The Special Use Area is located north of Route 7, between Routes 690 and 611. The Special Use Area is immediately south of Woodgrove High School, and abuts the west side of the Mayfair residential and industrial subdivisions. The Special Use Area is proximate to the future interchange planned to be constructed at Route 690 and Route 7.
A full and complete copy of the proposed applications and all related documents are available for review on the town’s website at https://www.purcellvilleva.gov/1017/Fields-Farm-Park-Projects, and also in-per son at the office of the Town Clerk, or at the office of the Planning Department, both located within the Purcellville Town Hall, 221 S. Nursery Avenue, Purcellville, Virginia from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday, holidays excepted. For questions, please call (540) 338-7421.
At this public hearing, all persons desiring to present their views concerning this matter will be heard. If you require any type of reasonable accommodation to participate in this meeting as a result of a physical, sensory or mental disability, contact the Town Clerk at 540-751-2334; please provide notice of the accom modation at least three days in advance of the meeting.
ORDER OF PUBLICATION
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA VA. CODE § 8.01-316
Case No.: JJ045188-07-00
Loudoun Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Ashli Martinez-Bonilla
Loudoun County Department of Family Services /v.
Maynor Martinez Acosta, putative father, and Unknown Father
The object of this suit is to hold a foster care review hearing and review of foster care plan pursuant to Virginia Code §§ 16.1-282 and 16.1-281 for Ashli Martinez Bonilla.
It is ORDERED that the defendant Maynor Martinez Acosta, putative father, and Unknown Father appear at the above-named Court and protect his or her interests on or before January 4, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
11/24, 12/1, 12/8 & 12/15/22
ORDER OF PUBLICATION
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA VA. CODE § 8.01-316
Case No.: JJ046150-03-00
Loudoun Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Marjorie Cruz
Loudoun County Department of Family Services /v.
Endenilson Alavarado, putative father & Unknown Father
The object of this suit is to hold a foster care review hearing and review of foster care plan pursuant to Virginia Code §§ 16.1-282 and 16.1-281 for Marjorie Cruz.
It is ORDERED that the defendant Endenilson Alavarado, putative father, and Unknown Father appear at the above-named Court and protect his or her interests on or January 10, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
11/24, 12/1, 12/8 & 12/15/22
Remote Participation Through “GoToMeeting” -- If you have already installed the GoToMeeting app and wish to comment during the hearing but cannot attend in person, please join the Public Hearing re motely by going to the following: Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://meet.goto.com/906286093
You can also dial in using your phone. Access Code: 906-286-093 United States: +1 (571) 317-3122
To install the app: https://meet.goto.com/install
Email Your Comments: In addition, all persons have the option of sending an email to the Town Clerk, townclerk@purcellvilleva.gov, with written comments or questions concerning the proposed project. Emails sent by 6:00 PM the day of the Public Hearing will be part of the written record for the public hearing and project, but may not necessarily be read aloud into the record at the public hearing.
LOUDOUN COUNTY WILL BE ACCEPTING SEALED COMPETITIVE BIDS FOR:
JANITORIAL SERVICES FOR ZONE 3, IFB No. 566785 until prior to 4:00 p.m., local “Atomic Time”, December 29, 2022.
PURCHASE OF STREAM AND WETLAND MITIGATION CREDITS FOR ROUTE 15 NORTH WIDENING, IFB No. 569786 until prior to 4:00 p.m., local “Atomic Time”, January 16, 2023.
WORKRITE NOMEX IIIA UNIFORMS FOR FIRE AND RESCUE PERSONNEL, IFB No. 562784 until prior to 4:00 p.m., local “Atomic Time”, December 19, 2022.
Solicitation forms may be obtained 24 hours a day by visiting our web site at www. loudoun.gov/procurement. If you do not have access to the Internet, call (703) 7770403, M - F, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
WHEN CALLING, PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU NEED ANY REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR ANY TYPE OF DISABILITY IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCUREMENT.
11/24/22
Legal Notices
TOWN OF LEESBURG
NOTICE OF TOWN COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING
TO CONSIDER MINOR SPECIAL EXCEPTION APPLICATION TLSE2022-0007 OLD MILL VETERINARY HOSPITAL EXPANSION
Pursuant to Sections 15.2-1427, 15.2-2204, 15.2-2205 and 15.2-2285 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, the LEESBURG TOWN COUNCIL will hold a public hearing on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia 20176, to consider Minor Special Exception application TLSE-2022-0007, Old Mill Veterinary Hospital Expansion.
The subject of the application is an existing veterinary hospital situated at 91 Lawson Road SE. The property is zoned I-1, Industrial Research Park and is further described by Loudoun County Parcel Identification Numbers (PINs) 231-19-8510-001 and 231-19-8510-002.
Minor Special Exception Application TLSE-2022-0007 is a request by Old Mill Boarding Kennel & Animal Hospital to allow a 6,700 square foot addition to the existing veterinary hospital pursuant to Town of Leesburg Zoning Ordinance Section 6.7.2 Use Regulations.
Additional information and copies of this application are available at the Department of Planning and Zoning located on the second floor of the Leesburg Town Hall, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia 20176 during normal business hours (Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), or by contacting Christopher Murphy, Senior Planning Project Manager by telephone at 703-737-7009, or by email at cmurphy@leesburgva.gov
At these hearings, all persons desiring to express their views concerning these matters will be heard. Persons requiring special accommodations at the meeting should contact the Clerk of Council at (703) 771-2733 three days in advance of the meeting. For TTY/TDD service, use the Virginia Relay Center by dialing 711. 11/17 & 11/23/2022
TOWN OF LEESBURG NOTICE OF TOWN COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER AMENDMENTS TO ZONING ORDINANCE ARTICLES 5, 6, 9 AND 18 FOR THE PURPOSE OF REVISING ACCESSORY DWELLING REGULATIONS AND REMOVING EXTENDED FAMILY RESIDENCE REGULATIONS
Pursuant to Sections 15.2-1427, 15.2-2204, 15.2-2205 and 15.2-2285 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, the LEESBURG TOWN COUNCIL will hold a public hearing on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia, 20176 to consider Zoning Ordinance Amendment TLOA-2022-0002 to revise the following articles of the Zoning Ordinance:
• Article 5 Residential Zoning Districts to allow an Accessory Dwelling and Guest House as a permitted or Minor Special Exception Use in the R-E, R-1, R-2, R-4, R-HD Districts, and to remove Extended Family Residences as a use from the R-4, R-6 and R-8 Districts.
• Article 6 Nonresidential Districts to allow an Accessory Dwelling and Guest House as a permitted or Minor Special Exception use in the B-1 District.
• Article 9 Use Regulations to establish use standards for Accessory Dwellings and Guest Houses and to remove Extended Family Residences use standards
• Article 9 Use Table to revise the Use Table to reflect these changes in the district uses.
• Article 18 Definitions – to revise definitions as necessary for Accessory Dwelling and Guest House, and to remove the Extended Family Residence definition.
Copies and additional information regarding these proposed Zoning Ordinance amendments are available at the Department of Planning and Zoning located on the second floor of the Leesburg Town Hall, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia 20176 during normal business hours (Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), or by calling 703-771-2774 and asking for Brian Boucher, Deputy Director. Mr. Boucher can also be reached by email at bboucher@leesburgva.gov. This Zoning Ordinance amendment application is identified as case number TLOA-2022-0002.
At this hearing all persons desiring to express their views concerning these matters will be heard. Persons requiring special accommodations should contact the Clerk of Council at (703) 771-2733, three days in advance of the meeting. For TTY/TDD service, use the Virginia Relay Center by dialing 711.
11/17 & 11/24/2022
LEGAL NOTICE for ABC License
Amia Salon & Spa, LLC, trading as LipLash Organic Spa, 20755 Williamsport PL, Unit 220, Ashburn, VA 20147-6523.
The above establishment is applying to the VIRGNIA ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL (ABC) AUTHORITY for a Marketplace License to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages.
Judson H. Bach/Michelle Khau
Note: Objections to the issuance of this license must be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www.abc.virginia.gov or 800-552-3200. 11/17 & 11/24/22
ORDER OF PUBLICATION
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA VA. CODE § 8.01-316 Case No.: JJ046340-02-00
Loudoun Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Zarabella Tucker
Loudoun County Department of Family Services
The object of this suit is to hold a foster care review hearing and review of foster care plan pursuant to Virginia Code §§ 16.1-282 and 16.1-281 for Zarabella Tucker.
It is ORDERED that the defendant Jason Tucker, putative father, appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his or her interests on or before December 7, 2022 at 3:00 PM 11/3, 11/10, 11/17 & 11/24/22
ORDER OF PUBLICATION
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA VA. CODE § 8.01-316
Case No.: JJ030702
Loudoun Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Aislan Trevor McCall
Loudoun County Department of Family Services /v.
Dyana Elizabeth Guaraldi, mother
The object of this suit is to hold an adjudicatory hearing regarding child protective order pursuant to Virginia Code § 16.1-253 for Aislan Trevor McCall, and; hold a dispositional hearing regarding child protective order pursuant to Virginia Code § 16.1-278.2 for Aislan Trevor McCall.
It is ORDERED that the defendant Dyana Elizabeth Guaraldi, mother appear at the above-named Court and protect his or her interests on or before November 16, 2022 at 2:00pm (adj) and December 12, 2022 at 10:00am (disp).
11/10, 11/17, 11/24 & 12/01/22
VIRGINIA:
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF LOUDOUN
PAYAM NIKOUEIH Complainant, V. HELLIA BEHROUZ Defendant.
Civil Case No. _________
AFFIDAVIT FOR SERVICE BY PUBLICATION
COMES NOW the Complainant, Payam Nikoueih, and being duly sworn, upon oath deposes and states that to the best of Complainant's knowledge, information and
1. The last known place of abode of the above named Defendant, Heilia Behrouz is 8421 Broad Street, Tysons, Virginia 22102 where Complainant, and Defendant lived; and
2. The Defendant is not a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, nor has he been such within the past thirty (30) days, nor is he a member of the United States Public Health Service; and
3. The Complainant sent multiple correspondences to find the whereabouts of the Defendant but never received a response. The complainant has attempted to contact the Defendant through legitimate and diligent efforts but has been unsuccessful.
4. The Defendant in the above case is believed to be a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
PUBLIC NOTICE INVITATION FOR BID (IFB)
The Town of Leesburg will accept bids electronically via the Commonwealth’s e-procurement website (www.eva.virginia. gov), until 3:00 p.m. on December 14, 2022 for the following:
IFB No. 100417-FY23-33
CARBON DIOXIDE – LIQUID POOL CHEMICAL FOR IDA LEE RECREATION CENTER
The Town of Leesburg is accepting sealed bids from qualified firms to furnish and deliver pool chemicals on a reoccurring and as-needed basis for three swimming pool facilities. Chemicals will be delivered to the Town’s AV Symington Aquatic Center located at 80 Ida Lee Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176 and Ida Lee Recreation Center located at 60 Ida Lee Drive, Leesburg, VA 20176.
For additional information, visit: http://www.leesburgva.gov/bidboard 11/24/22
Legal Notices
Loudoun County Public Schools
Fiscal Year 2024 – 2029 Capital Improvement Program
Fiscal Year 2024 – 2029 Capital Asset Preservation Program
The Loudoun County School Board has scheduled meetings for the Fiscal Year 2024 - 2029 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Capital Asset Preservation Program (CAPP) budgets.
Date Time School Board Meeting Topic
Tuesday, November 15, 2022* 4:00 p.m. Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2024-FY 2029 CIP & CAPP Budgets Presented to School Board
Monday, November 28, 2022 6:30 p.m. School Board FY 2024-FY 2029 CIP & CAPP Public Hearing/Work Session
Monday, December 5, 2022 6:30 p.m. School Board FY 2024-FY 2029 CIP & CAPP Public Hearing/Work Session
Tuesday, December 13, 2022* 6:30 p.m. School Board Adoption of FY 2024-FY 2029 CIP & CAPP Budgets
*Regular School Board Business Meeting
The meetings will be held at the Loudoun County Public Schools Administration Building (21000 Education Court, Ashburn) and broadcast live on Comcast channel 18 and Verizon Fios channel 43, as well as viewable via simultaneous webcast on the Loudoun County Public Schools website (https:// www.lcps.org/webcast).
Detail on how to sign up to speak at the hearings is provided at https://www.lcps.org/Page/223425. In-person sign-up will also be available between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., on the evening of each attendance zone public hearing.
Those who need translation/interpretation assistance or a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability in order to participate meaningfully in the School Board meetings or public hearings should contact the Superintendent’s Office at 571-252-1020 at least three (3) days prior to the meeting.
Kevin L. Lewis, Chief Operations Officer
Loudoun County Public Schools, Department of Support Services 21000 Education Court, Ashburn, Virginia 20148 Telephone: 571-252-1385 Email: LCPSPLAN@LCPS.ORG
11/11/2022, 11/18/2022, 11/25/2022, 12/2/2022, 12/9/2022
TOWN OF LOVETTSVILLE PLANNING COMMISSION NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
LVZA 2022-0003
AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 42, ZONING, ARTICLE 42 VI (Residential Districts), and ARTICLE 42VII (Commercial and Light Industrial Zoning Districts)
The LOVETTSVILLE PLANNING COMMISSION will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers, 6 E. Pennsylvania Avenue, Lovettsville, Virginia, to consider the following amendments to the Lovettsville Zoning Ordinance:
• Sections 42-233 CRA-1, 42-258 C-1, Section 42-259 C-2, Section 42-260 CI-1: modification of uses to increase protection for the Town’s water supply by requiring legislative review of commercial uses that may include the storage, distribution, or sale of herbicides, pesticides, petroleum products or other hazardous or toxic materials.
• Section 42-257: regulate the storage of hazardous and toxic materials within 1,000 feet of a Town well.
All persons desiring to speak will be given an opportunity to do so at this meeting.
Written comments regarding this item can be submitted to clerk@lovettsvilleva.gov by 3:00PM on the day of the meeting. Members of the public may access and participate in this meeting electronically. The proposed zoning amendment is available for review on the Town website at: www.lovettsvilleva. gov/government/planning-commission/ You may also request a copy be sent to you via email by contacting John Merrithew, Planning Director at (540) 822-5788 between the hours of 8:30am and 4:30pm weekdays, holidays excepted. In the event the meeting is postponed, the public hearing will be convened on the next regularly scheduled meeting at the same time and place.
11/24/22, 12/1/22
TOWN OF LEESBURG NOTICE OF TOWN COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER AMENDMENTS TO ZONING ORDINANCE ARTICLE 9 FOR THE PURPOSE OF REVISING HOMESTAY USE STANDARDS
Pursuant to Sections 15.2-1427, 15.2-2204, 15.2-2205 and 15.2-2285 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, the LEESBURG TOWN COUNCIL will hold a public hearing on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia, 20176 to consider Zoning Ordinance Amendment TLOA-2021-0012 to revise the following section of the Zoning Ordinance:
Section 9.3.11.3 Homestay – amending various sections to revise the standards applicable to a Homestay use, or temporary short-term lodging, in the Town of Leesburg.
Copies and additional information regarding these proposed Zoning Ordinance amendments are available at the Department of Planning and Zoning located on the second floor of the Leesburg Town Hall, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia 20176 during normal business hours (MondayFriday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), or by calling 703-737-7920 and asking for Michael Watkins, Zoning Administrator. Mr. Watkins can also be reached by email at mwatkins@leesburgva.gov. This Zoning Ordinance amendment application is identified as case number TLOA-2021-0012.
At this hearing all persons desiring to express their views concerning these matters will be heard. Persons requiring special accommodations should contact the Clerk of Council at (703) 771-2733 three days in advance of the meeting. For TTY/TDD service, use the Virginia Relay Center by dialing 711.
11/17 & 11/24/2022
ORDER OF PUBLICATION
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA VA. CODE § 8.01-316
Case No.: JJ045875-03-00, 04-00, 05-00
Loudoun Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Joseph Kevin O’Brien
Loudoun County Department of Family Services /v. Patrick Kevin O’Brien
The object of this suit is to hold a permanency planning hearing and review of foster care plan with goal of adoption, pursuant to Virginia Code §§ 16.1-282.1 and 16.1-281 for Joseph Kevin O’Brien and Petition for Termination of Parental Rights of Johnette Mae Nickens, mother, and Patrick Kevin O’Brien, father, pursuant to Virginia Code §16.1-283 for Joseph Kevin O’Brien. Patrick Kevin O’Brien, father, is hereby notified that failure to appear on the hereinafter noticed date and time may result in the entry of an Order approving a permanency goal of adoption as well as the termination of his residual parental rights with respect to Joseph Kevin O’Brien. Patrick Kevin O’Brien, father, is hereby further notified that if his residual parental rights are terminated, he will no longer have any legal rights with respect to said minor child, including, but not limited to, the right to visit Joseph Kevin O’Brien; any authority with respect to the care and supervision of Joseph Kevin O’Brien; or the right to make health related decisions or determine the religious affiliation of Joseph Kevin O’Brien. Further, Johnette Mae Nickens, mother, and Patrick Kevin O’Brien, father, will have no legal and /or financial obligations with respect to Joseph Kevin O’Brien, and the Department of Family Services of Loudoun County, Virginia may be granted the authority to place Joseph Kevin O’Brien for adoption and consent to the adoption of Joseph Kevin O’Brien.
It is ORDERED that the defendant Patrick Kevin O’Brien appear at the above-named Court and protect his or her interests on or before December 13, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.
11/24, 12/1 & 12/8/22
Public Notice
The Town of Leesburg Board of Zoning Appeals
The Town of Leesburg is soliciting resumes and letters of interest for an appointment to serve on the Board of Zoning Appeals. This position is appointed by the Loudoun County Circuit Court to fill a former member’s unexpired term ending December 31, 2023.
The Board of Zoning Appeals meets as necessary the third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in Town Hall, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, VA. Additional information concerning this quasi-judicial board is available from the Clerk of Council during normal business hours (Mon – Fri 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) at 703-771-2733 or eboeing@leesburgva.gov, or the Town of Leesburg website at www.leesburgva.gov
Please submit your letter of interest and resume materials by 5:00 p.m., Friday, December 2, 2022, to the Clerk of Council, at the Town of Leesburg, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia, 20176 or via email to eboeing@leesburgva.gov. All interested parties will be forwarded to the Loudoun County Circuit Court for consideration.
11/10, 11/17, 11/24, 12/1/22
Legal Notices
PUBLIC AUCTION
This proceeding is for the judicial sale of real properties located in Loudoun County, Virginia, for payment of delinquent taxes pursuant to the provisions of Virginia Code §§ 58.1-3965, et seq. Pursuant to Orders entered by the Circuit Court of Loudoun County, Virginia, the undersigned Robert J. Sproul, Special Commissioner of Sale of said Court, will offer the real properties described below for sale at public auction to the highest bidder in front of the Loudoun County Courthouse, at 18 East Market Street, in Leesburg, Virginia on: December 6, 2022 3:00 p.m.
RAIN OR SHINE Registration Starts at 2:30 p.m.
TERMS OF SALE:
1. The sale of any real property is subject to the approval and confirmation by the Circuit Court of Loudoun County.
2. The Special Commissioner of Sale reserves the right to withdraw from sale any property listed and to reject any bid by declaring “NO SALE” after the last bid received on a property.
3. Any person who wishes to bid on any property during the auction must register with County staff before the start of bidding. As part of the registration process, potential bidders must: (i) have suf ficient funds on hand to pay the Minimum Deposit required for each parcel on which they want to bid; and (ii) sign a form certifying that they do not own any property in Loudoun County for which any delinquent taxes are due, or for which there are zoning or other violations.
4. The Minimum Deposit required for each parcel is specified below, as part of the property descrip tion. The full amount of the Minimum Deposit must be paid by cashier’s or certified check made payable to Gary Clemens, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Loudoun County, at the time the auctioneer declares the sale.
5. In lieu of attending the auction, bidders may submit written bids to Robert J. Sproul, Special Commissioner of Sale, at the address listed below. All written bids must be accompanied by the applicable Minimum Deposit, which shall be paid by cashier’s or certified check made payable to Gary Clemens, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Loudoun County. Written bids must also be accompanied by a certification that the bidder is not the owner of any property in Loudoun County for which delinquent taxes are due, or for which there are zoning or other violations. A written bid form, which includes the required certification, can be obtained from the Special Commissioner of Sale or the Treasurer’s website.
6. Written bids (with the required deposit and certification) will be received by the Special Commis sioner of Sale at any time prior to the date of auction and held under seal until the date of the auc tion. If a written bid exceeds the highest live bid received from the audience during the auction, the audience will have an opportunity to bid against the written bid. If a higher bid is not received from the audience, the Special Commissioner of Sale may declare the sale to the proponent of the highest written bid or may reject all bids by declaring “NO SALE.”
7. If either a written bid or a live auction bid is approved by the Circuit Court of Loudoun County, the balance of the purchase price must be paid in full within 30 days after Court approval.
8. Once a submitted written bid or a live bid has been accepted during the auction, it cannot be with drawn except by leave of the Circuit Court of Loudoun County. Any bidder who attempts to with draw his/her bid after it has been accepted by the Special Commissioners of Sale may be required to forfeit his/her deposit.
9. Properties are offered “as is”, with all faults and without warranties or guarantees either expressed or implied. Prospective bidders should investigate the title on properties prior to bidding. The sale of the properties is not subject to the successful bidders’ ability to obtain title insurance. The sale of the properties is made free and clear only of liens of defendant(s) named in the respective judicial proceeding, and of those liens recorded after the County filed a lis pendens with the Circuit Court of Loudoun County.
10. All recording costs (including but not limited to any grantor’s tax/fee) will be at the expense of the purchaser. All property will be conveyed by Special Warranty Deed from the Special Commissioner of Sale.
11. Announcements made on the day of sale take precedence over any prior verbal or written terms of sale.
The Special Commissioner of Sale represents that information regarding the property to be offered for sale, including acreage, type of improvements, etc., is taken from tax and/or land records, and is not guaranteed for either accuracy or completeness. Bidders are encouraged to make their own investigation to determine the title, condition of improvements, accessibility, and occupancy status of each property and to bid accordingly. The sale will be made subject to matters visible upon inspection, and to restric tions, conditions, rights-of-way and easements, if any, contained in the instruments constituting the chain of title. Any costs incurred by a bidder to inspect or investigate any property are the bidder’s respon sibility and are not reimbursable. The owner of any property listed below may redeem it at any time before the date of the auction by paying all taxes, penalties, interest, costs (including the pro rata costs of publishing this advertisement and attorney’s fees) incurred through the date before the auction. Below is a brief description of each property to be offered for sale at the auction. More detailed information may be obtained by examining the files in the Clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of Loudoun County, or by contacting the Special Commissioner of Sale at (703) 777- 0307; or N. Rebekah Long, Deputy Treasurer for Collections at (703) 771-5656.
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THE COUNTY OF LOUDOUN v. NANCY J. LANG, et al. CIVIL ACTION NO. CL 22-4464
LOUDOUN COUNTY TAX MAP NO. 100/P/1P6A-401 PIN 204-25-9192-025
Robert J. Sproul, Special Commissioner of Sale Minimum Deposit Required: $38,730.00
Residential condominium located at 41895 Cathedral Valley Square, Unit 401, Alide, Virginia, and described of record, among the land records of Loudoun County, Virginia as:
Condominium Unit No-A-401, Phase 6, Building A, Centre Park at Stone Ridge Condominium, together with the use of the limited common elements appurtenant thereto, including the use of limited common element garage unit no. A-401, and parking space 28, established by the condo minium instruments recorded on February 26, 2014 as Instrument No. 20140226-0009257, with plat and plans recorded as Instrument No. 20140226-0009258, and as amended in Instrument No. 20141031-0061717, and any and all supplemental declarations and/or amendments recorded subsequent thereto, among the land records of Loudoun County, Virginia.
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THE COUNTY OF LOUDOUN v. UNKNOWN OWNERS.
CIVIL ACTION NO. CL 22-5089
LOUDOUN COUNTY TAX MAP NO. /68///4////UK/ PIN 688-45-3782-000
Robert J. Sproul, Special Commissioner of Sale Minimum Deposit Required: $4,271.87
Unimproved land containing 13.22 acres, more or less, with no situs address and otherwise described as being located in the southwest corner of the County, between Trappe Road and Blueridge Mountain Road, bordered to the north by a parcel identified as PIN 693-208-837-000 with a current owner shown as Spurlock Family LLC, to the west by a parcel identified as PIN 693-196-566-000, also with a current owner shown as Spurlock Family, LLC, to the south by a parcel identified as PIN 688-455-304-000 with a current owner shown as Victor E. Ferrall, Jr., and to the east by a parcel identified as PIN 688-379-524-000 with a current owner shown as Barbara Balfanz Allbritton.
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Robert J. Sproul
Special Commissioner of Sale
Office of County Attorney
1 Harrison Street, S.E. P.O. Box 7000
Leesburg, Virginia 20177-7000 (703) 777-0307
11/10, 11/17, 11/24 & 12/01/22
Loudoun County Public Schools Fall 2022 Secondary School Attendance Zone Change Process for Ashburn, Central Loudoun and Eastern Loudoun
The Loudoun County School Board has scheduled a series of meetings to facilitate the review of Ashburn, Central Loudoun and Eastern Loudoun area secondary school attendance zones. The current boundaries for Broad Run High School/Farmwell Station Middle School, Dominion High School/Sen eca Ridge Middle School, Heritage High School/Harper Park Middle School, Loudoun County High School/J. Lupton Simpson Middle School, Park View High School/Sterling Middle School, Potomac Falls High School/River Bend Middle School, Riverside High School/Belmont Ridge Middle School, Stone Bridge High School/Trailside Middle School and Tuscarora High School/Smart’s Mill Middle School will be reviewed in the attendance zone process.
Thursday, October 13, 2022 6:30 p.m. School Board Attendance Zone Overview
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 6:30 p.m. Staff Briefing & School Board Attendance Zone Public Hearing
Tuesday, November 1, 2022 6:30 p.m. School Board Attendance Zone Work Session
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 6:30 p.m. Staff Briefing & School Board Attendance Zone Public Hearing
Monday, November 14, 2022 6:30 p.m. School Board Attendance Zone Work Session
Tuesday, November 29, 2022* 6:30 p.m. School Board Review of Secondary School Attendance Zone Recommendations (Information Item)
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 6:30 p.m. Staff Briefing & School Board Attendance Zone Public Hearing
Tuesday, December 13, 2022* 6:30 p.m. School Board Adoption of Secondary School Attendance Zones
*Regular School Board Business Meeting
The meetings will be held at the Loudoun County Public Schools Administration Building (21000 Education Court, Ashburn) and broadcast live on Comcast channel 18 and Verizon Fios channel 43, as well as viewable via simultaneous webcast on the Loudoun County Public Schools website (https:// www.lcps.org/webcast).
Attendance zone information and data, as it becomes available (including potential attendance zone plans being considered or reviewed by the School Board), will be posted on the ‘Fall 2022 – Secondary School Attendance Zone Change Process’ webpage (https://www.lcps.org/Page/246406).
Detail on how to sign up to speak at the hearings is provided at https://www.lcps.org/Page/223425. In-person sign-up will also be available between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., on the evening of each attendance zone public hearing.
Those who need translation/interpretation assistance or a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability in order to participate meaningfully in the School Board meetings or public hearings should contact the Superintendent’s Office at 571-252-1020 at least three (3) days prior to the meeting.
Beverly I. Tate, Director
Loudoun County Public Schools
Division of Planning & GIS Services 21000 Education Court, Ashburn, Virginia 20148
Telephone: 571-252-1050
Email: LCPSPLAN@LCPS.ORG
10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17, 11/24, 12/1 & 12/8/22
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE
MIDDLEBURG TOWN COUNCIL
The Middleburg Town Council will hold a public hearing beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 8, 2022 to hear public comments on the following:
Zoning Text Amendment 22-02 - AN AMENDMENT TO CHAPTERS II, V, X AND XVI OF THE MIDDLEBURG ZONING ORDINANCE PERTAINING TO SHORT-TERM RENTALS
The hearing will take place at the Town Office, 10 W. Marshall Street, Middleburg, Virginia. The proposed amendment may be reviewed online at www.middleburgva.gov/313/Public-Hearings or in the Town Office from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, holidays excepted. Questions may be directed to Deputy Town Manager Will Moore at (540) 687-5152 or by email at wmoore@ middleburgva.gov
The Town of Middleburg strives to make its hearings accessible to all. Please advise of accommodations the Town can make to help you participate in the hearing.
11/24 & 12/1/22
DRPT FY24 PUBLIC NOTICE
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is accepting applications from qualified eligible applicants for transit, rail, and commuter assistance program (CAP) grants for the 2024 fiscal year. The state’s annual grant application period is open from December 1, 2022, through February 1, 2023. Transit and CAP funds are available through multiple state and federal funding sources to support transit service, human service transportation, and commuter assistance programs in Virginia. Eligible project categories include capital purchases, administrative and operating costs, technical assistance, demonstration grants, and commuter assistance program costs. Funds are available for rail initiatives through the Freight and Rail Preservation program. In addition, funding to provide access to freight rail shipping for Virginia businesses is available year round through the Rail Industrial Access program. Complete details on eligibility and the application procedures for DRPT grant programs are available online. To learn more about transit, rail, and transportation demand management funding in Virginia, visit www.drpt.virginia.gov. Applications can be submitted online at https://olga.drpt.virginia.gov/. DRPT is committed to ensuring that no person is excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of its services on the basis of race, color, or national origin, as protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. DRPT will also provide reasonable accommodations and interpretive services for persons who require special assistance to participate in the grant application process as required by the ADA. For accommodations, additional information on how to file a complaint, please contact our Title VI Compliance Officer, (804) 786-4440, or 600 E. Main Street, Suite 2102, Richmond, VA 23219, or visit our website at www.drpt.virginia.gov
Opinion
Showing Up
“We are super grateful that this community shows up when we ask for help, and I think that’s how it has always been.”
“We are truly grateful for the ongoing community support. We couldn’t do what we do without the community.”
These comments from the leaders of Loudoun’s two largest food pantries serve both to acknowledge the generosity of our neighbors and to highlight the challenges we face in helping the growing number of families struggling to make ends meet.
It’s one more stress test of the community safety net that performed remarkably well in addressing the unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic over the past two years. During that period, local relief efforts were bolstered significantly by a flood of federal money that played a critical role in meeting the needs.
That spigot is no longer flowing.
Unfortunately, the need for assistance continues to grow, now driven by new economic factors— soaring inflation rates on a scale that has not been experienced by the American public in two generations.
And those typically called upon to help likely are facing their own financial challenges. Rising food and energy prices hit every pocketbook. Many of those who once had room to give are themselves juggling to cope with unanticipated price increases, perhaps even needing assistance from the charities they’ve donated to in the past.
Nonetheless, it is up to us to find ways to meet the needs—through volunteer time, food donations or cash contributions, even if all are smaller than in years past.
We must still show up. That is how it has always been. n
LETTERS to the Editor
Honored Editor:
I am honored to be re-elected mayor and thrilled to serve again as mayor of the town I love, Leesburg. Thank you to the citizens of Leesburg for trusting me to represent me as your mayor. I look forward to working with the council and our town team to continue improving our beautiful town and serving our constituents’ needs.
Leesburg is great because of the people who live here. In addition, we are fortunate to have dedicated town staff and a police department committed to excellent customer service and ensuring everything
runs smoothly. Our unique and varied business community has chosen to invest here and to help our town prosper. We have non-profit charities to offer a helping hand and our various religious congregations to provide comfort and guidance.
As elected officials, we are, and have to be, accountable to you. I will continue planning Leesburg’s future while honoring our past. My focus will be to ensure our economy is strong, our town is safe, and we spend your tax dollars efficiently and effectively. My commitment to making our government more transparent and accessible continues with my Meet the Mayor events, the
next one is happening on Nov. 25 at SimplyBe from 9 to 11 am.
If we work together, no matter our opinions, we can make a difference and use our shared love of Leesburg to maintain a place where people want to live, work, and visit. I look forward to your ideas and concerns and am always available to meet and talk. My direct number is 703-771-6522. I’m here to help, so don’t hesitate to contact me with any needs or ideas to build a better Leesburg.
— Kelly Burk, LeesburgLETTERS TO THE EDITOR continues on page 45
Norman K. Styer, Publisher and Editor - nstyer@loudounnow.com
EDITORIAL
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PO Box 207 Leesburg, VA 20178 703-770-9723
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The Top Catalyst
Editor:
Thank you, Loudoun Now, for the excellent coverage of the Silver Line opening to Loudoun.
However, one important name was not mentioned in the article, who in my view, was probably the one Loudoun County elected official who was so instrumental to bringing Metro to Ashburn—and that is former Chairman Scott York.
Mr. York is now executive director of the Committee for Dulles, so he may not have wanted to be in the media or the limelight for this grand opening Nov. 15, and he’s never been known to toot his horn. However, his involvement as a county supervisor (1996 to 2015) was immeasurable.
Mr. York served on the county plan ning commission in the early 1990s when the comprehensive plan was changed to enable Metro and the appropriate plan ning and zoning at the stations at Routes 772, 606 and 28. As board chair he shep herded Loudoun to support rail as the locally preferred alternative and worked to ensure Loudoun’s excellent express bus system would remain intact and not converted to route passengers to the stations. This means Loudoun commuters have a choice—bus or Metro.
Prior to my election as Leesburg Dis trict supervisor in 2011, he helped secure a less expensive redesign of the Dulles Airport station so the project’s Phase II (Wiehle to Ashburn) could qualify for federal funding. And it was on my time on the board when he worked to vacate a bad project labor agreement requirement the Airports Authority Board wanted, but which also would have raised costs.
That move helped me, a long time Metro opponent, to be the deciding vote in July 2012 to bring the Silver Line beyond the airport, although the main reason was Chairman York helped devise a special tax district whereby the cost of Metro, operating, maintenance and cap ital, would be shouldered by those with properties near or at the stations—not the overall homeowners and businesses in the county.
I am sure I neglected to mention more of Scott York’s actions to bring the Silver Line to Loudoun, but wanted to be sure Loudoun Now readers he was probably the No. 1 catalyst among elected leaders to make it a reality.
The Cost of Housing in Loudoun:
Putting Your Money Where Your Needs Are
BY ERICA SIMSLoudoun Coun ty is one of seven localities in Vir ginia to operate a local housing trust fund to finance new housing production.
Loudoun joins more than 800 localities around the country that recognize the magical impact local funds have on the housing ecosystem.
Housing trust funds are one of the single most effective tools localities have to combat housing unaffordabili ty. Earlier this year, Loudoun made the significant step in identifying a source of funds for this work. It’s yet another step on a long and historic path towards strengthening Loudoun’s housing market.
The growth in local housing trust funds is directly related to the federal government’s significant disinvestment in housing programs. Federal spending on housing has decreased by 30 percent relative to GDP since 1980. Over this time, localities increasingly assumed this responsibility. The reason for this is as clear as Loudoun’s recent Workforce Housing Now campaign—housing is foundational.
Housing trust funds are designed with the community’s priorities from the ground up. Localities have full con trol over the fund’s administration and awards. Funds can therefore be more nimble and flexible than larger pro grams run by state or federal housing agencies, allowing greater flexibility to address emergent and rapidly changing housing needs.
Flexibility can also lend itself to in novation. For example, California’s San Mateo County’s Housing Trust Fund used a portion of its funds to create green architectural plans and a unique financing mechanism for the county’s new accessory dwelling unit program.
But the real magic is in a local hous ing funds’ ability to serve as leveraged and gap financing. For every $1 of local funds invested in a project, at least an other $6 in private or other public funds are leveraged. Loudoun’s $5.9 million this year will seed over $35 million in additional investment in Loudoun County.
Successful housing trust funds build a reputation as effective tools to com bat housing issues. This can often mean attracting new, outside capital as invest ment. Earlier this year, in Greenville South Carolina, the local housing trust fund announced that $4 million dollars were contributed from 15 local, pri vate-sector investors. Businesses, foun
dations, and private individuals in the community saw the local housing trust fund as a logical and efficient conduit to workforce housing production and invested in it. In the city of Ithaca New York, the major employer there, Cornell University, provides regular, ongoing financial contributions to their commu nity’s fund.
Housing trust fund dollars serve as “gap” funding - the difference between a project being completed or staying on paper—the “last mile” of funding need ed to bring a project to fruition. In this way, local dollars play an outsized role in effectuating new housing production in communities. Loudoun has made great strides in using this tool and has great opportunities in the future to con tinue this trend. n
Erica Sims has worked with Housing Forward Virginia for five years, most recently as co-executive director. Hous ingForward Virginia is the common wealth’s trusted resource for affordable housing data and actionable insights. Advocates, planners, developers, and mission-aligned organizations rely on us to help them build connections and advance their work. With those tools, they’re able to better identify needs, in fluence decision makers, and ultimately increase access to affordable housing for all.
— Ken Reid, McLean Leesburg District Supervisor, 2012 to 2015
Keep the Trees
Editor:
I was both encouraged and discour aged by the recent decision by the Board of Supervisors to allow utility scale solar at Dulles Airport.
I am pleased that Loudoun asserted its authority in the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and Dominion Energy application for an 835-acre, 100-mega watt solar installation. I am disheart ened, however, that Loudoun’s premiere environmental groups’ recommendations for rooftop and parking lot solar were not heeded.
It’s ironic that a carbon offset argu ment is used to support destruction of 80
acres of fragile and valuable wetlands and hundreds of acres of old growth for est. Carbon offsets are usually applied to projects that emit global warming green house gas, GHG. Typically, the carbon offset practice is to plant trees because trees remove the most common GHG carbon dioxide from the air. Perversely, at Dulles Airport trees will be removed for a project that will not emit GHG.
Trees should not be removed. There are six reasons why old growth forests are very important. Trees can mitigate climate change by storing more carbon than young forests; provide unique, un disturbed habitat for wildlife; and clean our water and air.
Wetlands should not be destroyed. Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs. Wetlands play a critical role by supporting development of organ
isms that form the base of the food web; and by providing food, water, and shelter for mammals and birds, especially during migration.
While rezoning the land from resi dential to industrial is appropriate, loss of forest including old growth forest and wetlands, is not. The environmental groups’ analysis showed that roof top and parking lot solar can produce 80% of the electricity that the forest displacing ground mount solar can produce.
Solar at Dulles doesn’t have to be an either/or choice. Loudoun can have it both ways. Installing rooftop and parking lot solar will be good for the environment and good for climate change. Send the application back to the drawing board even if it requires a different department at Dominion Energy.
— Natalie Pien, LeesburgHungry holiday
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“People are struggling, and inflation is affecting everyone,” Loudoun Hunger Relief President and CEO Jennifer Mont gomery said. “Food prices in particular have gone up significantly, so if you’re al ready struggling to make ends meet, then that’s really having an impact on what you can buy.”
This year’s Thanksgiving meal distri butions through the schools give a sense of the scope. Last year, Loudoun Hunger Relief got requests for 500 bags; this year, they got 1,200.
The need has never dropped to pre-pan demic levels. Montgomery said last fall, with COVID-19 vaccination becoming common and schools reopening, the num bers started to drop, but they were still double the pre-pandemic level. And ear ly this year, as inflation accelerated, the need climbed again. Before COVID-19, Loudoun Hunger served around 250 fam ilies a week. Now, it is serving more than twice that, about 650 families a week. In fiscal year 2022, Loudoun Hunger Relief reported distributing more than 2.3 mil lion pounds of food to 12,000 people.
Loudoun Hunger Relief, the largest hunger nonprofit in the county, also sits
Equity
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not looking at somebody by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, but I ask for us to go a little bit further, and to really dig deep into what he [Martin Luther King Jr.] meant by ‘beloved community,’” Rush said. “And this is one of the quotes that was from there—it says ‘this will never be a world of equality, or fairness, or human decency that leaves no room for poverty, prejudice or violence unless we built it.’ So I think that we are in a place right now, here with in this county, that we are poised to build that beloved community.”
But some supervisors were dissatisfied that the report and resolution focus large ly on race. Supervisors Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) and Kristen C. Umstattd (D-Leesburg) said the report was weak on topics like gender equity.
“I guess my only disappointment is that women always seem to be forgotten when we’re talking about equity, and yet to this day they don’t make as much as men, and they’re the ones who get abused more often in relationships,” Umstattd
at the center of a network of nonprofits and organizations, sharing resources to get food and supplies where they are most needed. Montgomery said in an informal survey of the organizations in the Loudoun Food Providers Network, all have seen an uptick in demand and a small decrease in food donations.
Dulles South Food Pantry, the county’s second-largest distributer of meals, has seen similar trends. Executive Director Meg Phillips said there the numbers are even higher than their pandemic peak.
Last year, the nonprofit’s Thanksgiv ing distribution served 199 families. Last week’s Thanksgiving distribution served 361 families, or 1,570 people, Phillips said.
“The community has always really ral lied around us, but we’re finding we need to purchase more food than we normally do, just because the volume of people we are serving is so much higher,” Phillips said. The nonprofit is looking toward more grant funding and corporate donors to help meet the growing need.
“Some people were living paycheck to paycheck, and those are the ones who can no longer make their ends meet, and I think other people are just needing to tighten up on their spending,” Phillips said.
But with the season also comes gen erosity of spirit—and small holiday
said. “So I don’t think the battle for wom en’s rights is over yet, and I would have liked to have seen more inclusiveness this resolution. But for what it does focus on, it does a superb job.”
Supervisor Caleb E. Kershner (R-Ca toctin) doubted the premise.
“I think when we begin to change lan guage from equal opportunity to equity, then those are some of the concerns I have, because I think a lot of the racial issues that we continue to have in this country are largely because we continue to raise these issues of race,” he said.
“We should really be racially blind, or colorblind, ultimately,” he said.
County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) agreed to delay a vote on the res olution to give supervisors more time to learn and deliberate. Rather than Decem ber, supervisors are now scheduled to vote in January. Other supervisors, particularly Black supervisors, encouraged Kershner to meet with Rush with those questions.
Randall said being color-blind is not the goal.
“You cannot celebrate what you cannot see. So no, I don’t want to be colorblind. I want to celebrate different cultures, I want to celebrate different colors, I don’t want to be colorblind, I want to be inclusive,” she said.
miracles.
The nonprofits rely on a dedicated corps of volunteers who give up their time during the holidays to help.
“I’ve been here for like two years, but they were one of the reasons why I stayed,” Waters said. “It was coworkers, it was the volunteers, all just great people that inspire me to be a better person my self. They’re giving up their time to come help other people freely.”
“We are really, really fortunate to have amazing, committed volunteers and a very supportive community,” Phillips said.
The Loudoun community can be a giv ing one. This year’s Scouting for Food, the campaign asking people to prepare bags of donated food for Scouts to pick up from the doorstep, collected 59,835 pounds of food, helped along by the work of 809 Scouts and 579 adults. That collection helped support 13 food pantries and com munity organizations.
And Loudoun Hunger Relief Purchas ing and Inventory Coordinator Kyle Wa ters said when they have a need, the uni verse tends to answer.
“It’s happened many times, but one ex ample, a weird one, is I just needed small trash bags to fit in office trash cans. I’ve never seen those come through here,” he said. “I needed to order them, because I forgot it on the order that I did, and liter
She pointed out that in the current board’s term, supervisors renamed a spot near Claude Moore Park long known as “Negro Hill.” And she said her own son, who “got into every school he applied to,” chose to go to North Carolina A&T, a his torically Black college.
“He said to me, ‘all my life I’ve been the Black kid in the school. If I just want to be a kid in school for the next four years, I have to go to an HBCU, so that’s why I want to go.’ Because being in Loudoun County, being in LCPS, being in the county and being Black is a very different experience, and I don’t begrudge anyone who doesn’t have the experience, because how would you have the experi ence if you don’t live in these bodies? But I do begrudge you not being willing to listen and hear that it is a different experi ence, and different things happen.”
Supervisors voted 8-0-1, Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) ab sent, to forward the resolution to their sec ond meeting in January for action. Super visors will set their calendar of meetings for the year at their first January meeting.
During the discussion, Kershner ques tioned whether racial inequality persists in Loudoun.
“In Loudoun County as a whole—and I know this is only focused on the county
ally within the hour a box of them came in as a donation. I’ve never seen it before.”
Similarly, Montgomery said, last week Loudoun Hunger was short 408 gift cards to go with the Thanksgiving dinner bags going out to 28 schools. That day, a church donated 403 gift cards, and they were able to close the gap.
“We are super grateful that this com munity shows up when we ask for help, and I think that’s how it has always been,” Montgomery said.
“We are truly grateful for the ongoing community support. We couldn’t do what we do without the community,” Phillips said.
Donating money is always helpful— Loudoun Hunger Relief, in particular, can make that money go further by buy ing food tax-exempt at wholesale prices. Picking up a couple extra items at the grocery store while holiday shopping is also always helpful—Dulles South Food Pantry updates the list of its most-needed food items on its website and Facebook weekly. And there’s always room for one more pair of helping hands—Dulles South runs monthly trainings for new volunteers.
To learn more, donate food or mon ey, or learn more about volunteering, visit loudounhunger.org and dsfp.org. And to get help finding food, go to loudounfeeds.org. n
itself—as a whole, we’re doing extremely well,” he said. “I’ve looked at the num bers in terms of the Black and minority communities, and they are, in terms of income, for example, doing extremely well. You mentioned in your comments, for example, some issues in the schools. I would really like to see how those things in the past, which have been eradicated in large part, are actually impacting us now. You mentioned COVID, I’m going to want to know exactly how that’s im pacting us now. Because I think we do see some of these discrepancies within vari ous communities—I just don’t see them here in Loudoun County.”
His optimistic outlook isn’t reflected in statistics, however. The Census Bureau estimates in 2021, the median household income in Loudoun Black-owned or rent ed households was $122,425, 77% of the median income in white-owned or rented households, $158,963. Loudoun’s Black students continue to lag white students in on-time graduation rates and SOL pass rates, and are recovering more slowly from COVID-19 dips in scoring, accord ing to the school division. n
FACS class
should have a job working in customer service because of the skills they learn.
“A lot of the skills they learn here whether it’s answering the phone, multi tasking, or cleaning up a mess, they can take it to any career they choose. We hope its hospitality but if it’s not, then whatever career they choose. These are very trans ferable skills,” Stafford said.
Stafford said having kids learn account ability and responsibility are some of the most important skills students can learn from working.
Stafford said over the past 12 years, about 400 local kids got their first job at his Loudoun restaurants.
Kylie Quinn, a recent graduate from Tuscarora High School started at Ford’s two years ago as a part-time hostess. Now, she works full-time at the restaurant.
“This is the best job I’ve ever had. It’s great management and the people here are really nice. It’s like we are family,” Quinn said. n
Career experience
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and medical sciences. We want to give you an opportunity to explore all of the potential career paths that you might have in health and medical sciences, and you all have a captive audience of the profes sionals and the experts in the field to give you these experiences,” said Renee Daw son, assistant director of CTE, computer science and community connection with the school division.
Dawson said she is always looking at ways to expand opportunities to provide division students with college and career readiness. She said they decided to gear BLOOM toward sixth graders to give the students the earliest touch point in middle school, to give them a taste and open their minds to what is possible.
She said workforce data shows ca reers in health and medical sciences are trending up, and preparing students for this field while partnering with Ino va, Loudoun Fire and Rescue and King seemed like a “natural marriage.”
Loudoun Fire and Rescue Deputy Bat talion Chief, Jamie Cooper talked with students about a career in fire and rescue and answered questions about the job, sal ary and how they get patients in and out of the ambulance.
“It’s a job where you can make a dif ference in someone’s life,” Cooper said.
Cooper said one of the coolest things about working with fire and EMS is the opportunities for high school students to get involved before they graduate, when a program through Loudoun Fire and Res cue hires and trains them in 26 weeks.
He said there are jobs available to stu dents who want to work in the medical field but who don’t want to spend years in school.
“The cool thing about the fire depart ment and EMS services is, it doesn’t mat ter what your hobby or interest is, there is
a place for you in today’s fire service,” he said. “If you like IT, we have an IT track we can put you on. If you like medicine, we will pay for all your schooling up through becoming a paramedic.”
Sixth grader Mikaela Wakefield said she attended BLOOM because she was always interested in science and how the heart worked. She said she wanted to hear from people who actually work in the field to get more information about ca reers in the medical field.
“It’s not what we think, you only think about doctors and nurses but there are other jobs,” Wakefield said. She said she
learned that a hospital is like a city and there are many different positions.
“If you have this opportunity to do this, it’s really cool,” she said.
BLOOM is a collaborative effort be tween Loudoun County Public Schools, The Loudoun Education Foundation and Inova Health System. Inova Health Sys tem provided a $12,000 grant to fund the program.
On Tuesday, students from J.L. Simpson, Smart’s Mill, and Harp er Park Middle School got the same experience. n