LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
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LoudounNow MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT Building a better safety net
COST OF FULL-DAY KINDERGARTEN School leaders crunch the numbers
Vol. 1, No. 12
LOCO LIVING Your cabin fever cure
loudounnow.com
January 28, 2016
Still Buried Leesburg Hit with Criticism Over Snow-Clearing Delays LOUDOUN NOW STAFF While Loudoun County officials were hopeful that every street under their care would see a snowplow by Wednesday, Leesburg town leaders could make no such promises. It may be as late as Friday before plows clear one passable lane on every Leesburg street, according to Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Renee LaFollette. She delivered the less-than-welcome news on a conference call Monday night, prompting heavy criticism from politicians and residents alike over the town’s snow removal strategy. Town Manager Kaj Dentler organized the call, along with Town Council members, and opened it to members of the public and media. With roughly 40 percent of town roads still under a heavy blanket of snow two days after the last flake had fallen, several town residents on the call questioned the jurisdiction’s plan to turn its attention to making primary roads clear instead of starting on neighborhood roads earlier in the storm. In a Facebook post Tuesday, Supervisor Kristen Umstattd (D-Leesburg), who recently completed 13 years as the town’s mayor, questioned the town’s snow removal strategies. She said while they are perhaps well intentioned, “in the end, [they] will have seriously and unnecessarily jeopardized public safety.” Town Public Information Officer Betsy Arnett emphasized that the town’s snow removal strategy has not changed recently. In years past, when John Wells was still serving as town manager, the town experimented with the strategy of just making primary roads passable rather than completely clearing them. “What our experience was that the more people drove on the primary roads, they became slushy and icy overnight and it was a mess. You really need to have the primary roads clear,” she said. STILL BURIED continues on page 19
Norman K. Styer/Loudoun Now
Crews on King Street in downtown Leesburg continued the massive snow removal effort Tuesday afternoon. Town leaders said it could be as late as Friday before every street in town is passable.
Patience Urged in Wake of Historic Storm RENSS GREENE & KARA RODRIGUEZ CLARK The beeping and roaring of snow plows at all hours of the night and day have become familiar sounds to Loudouners— at least, the lucky ones. Parts of the county are still digging out from a historic twoday snowstorm that began Friday afternoon and dumped up to 3 feet of snow over the weekend. The storm forced hundreds of cancelled flights at Dulles Airport, closed schools and businesses and left residents homebound.
Otherwise routine calls for fire-rescue workers became complex operations with lives on the line. And the Washington Redskins’ training center bubble in Ashburn deflated under the heavy snow. Through it all, snow removal crews worked around the clock to keep main roads passable and, eventually, clear neighborhood streets. Matt Coughlin, of Blake Landscapes, was one of them. He spent the majority of his weekend out in the cold, helping to abate the large snow drifts
and impassable streets. “It’s been a rough few days,” he said wearily Monday during a rare break. “What we’ve found is a truck with a plow on it is just not enough for this amount of snow.” It was a rough week in Loudoun for local businesses, who at times struggled to keep up with the pre-blizzard pandemonium, as well as its grueling aftermath. Many were still in the process of digging out by mid-week and few were open
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PATIENCE URGED continues on page 18
INDEX
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OPINION
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