Middleburg’s Community Community Newspaper Middleburg’s Volume 15 Issue 5
B E L O CA L BUY LOCAL
OP ITY AND SH R COMMUN SUPPORT OU
mbecc.com
Printed using recycled fiber
Music For An August Evening
Page 7
LOCALLY
August 30 ~ September 27, 2018
Old Ox Brewery on tap Middleburg Town Council Report
Dan Morrow
Continued page 20
Request in homes by Thursday 9/30/17
facebook.com/MiddleburgEccentric
PRST STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID DULLES, VA PERMIT NO 723
Mark Duffell of Whitestone Farm cutting hay with Chris and Cash, two of his four Belgians. Mark recently acquired young Chris and Cash to complete a matching Belgian four-in-hand driving team that includes Willie and Waylon. “They love to work” Mark says, and uses the pairs to cultivate and till the garden, rake hay, and feed square bales in the winter to the cattle. He even uses a 4-horse evener when driving all four, shoulder to shoulder, to chain harrow the fields when the ground is too soggy and wet for a tractor. And let’s not forget the wagonette that carries 16 smiling passengers around the farm or in the Middleburg Christmas parade. Keeping fit and happy, “Farm Use” at its finest! Full Story on Page 3
POSTAL CUSTOMER
Photo by Nancy Kleck
From Health Center to Brewery At its regular monthly meeting on August 23, 2018, Town Council passed, without dissent, a resolution authorizing “the sale or disposition of Town-owned property located at 14-16 South Madison Street, known as the Health Center Building, to Hip Hop Real Estate, LLC on behalf of Old Ox Brewery. The Town is requesting $750,000 for the building and associated property. The “Health Center” building once held the offices of Dr. Robert E. McConnell, MD, hence its nickname. Dr. McConnell willed the property to the town at his death in 1987 with the proviso that all “profits” from rental income be distributed by the Town to worthy charitable organizations. Over more than a quarter century the building has provided office and residential space for a constantly changing parade of tenants, and for many years served
as Middleburg’s Police Headquarters. Current plans call for Old Ox Brewery to install a “small brewing system” on the site and open both a tasting room and an ”outdoor beer garden.” Current tenants, according to Old Ox, will be invited to “remain in the building.” In addition to retaining control over some uses of the building, the Town insisted on “the right of first refusal” should the property be again put up for sale, and for the town to receive “a portion”, some 95%, “of any profit realized from the resale of the property within eighteen months of the brewery opening . . . .” In keeping with the spirit and intent of Dr. McConnell’s original gift, the proceeds from the sale of the property will be “invested in a separate Town account” and with the income derived from it “to be used by the Town Council for charitable purposes.” Precisely how the Town intends to invest or otherwise manage the funds derived from the