Mayor Dimos and many members of the Middleburg Town Council arrived early at the Town Offices on Thursday, September 8, to lend their support to Project Helping Hands' latest fund-raising effort, a special project for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. A special 6:30 PM meeting yielded preliminary plans for a public event to be held at Community Center on October 28, with music, dancing, special events featuring the community's school children, a live auction and other activities still to be determined. Following the Project Helping Hands meeting, Mayor Tim Dimos gaveled the formal session of the Town Council to order promptly at 7:30 PM. All members present.

Public Comments

Parking and open-space issues dominated this month's public comments. Virginia Lux, who owns the Glassy Horse on Federal Street, expressed concerns about parking problems, she feared would result if and when a new restaurant owned by David McDonald opens near her in the old Laundromat building. John Deering of Middleburg Auto Parts expressed similar concerns. McDonald wants the town's parking requirements waived for his new restaurant. Sally Bolton who owns the nearby Corner Garden argued that should the town waive the requirements for McDonald's restaurant, justice would require refunding the parking fees paid by businesses like hers, in the past. Later in the session Marchant Schneider, Town Planner/Zoning Administrator noted that the entire issue of parking and parking waivers in areas zoned C-2 and C-3 needed further study. Waivers had been approved in the past to promote "tourist friendly" business development in C-2 areas. Schneider suggested that seeing whether or not the experiment had worked should precede extending such waivers to C-3. Tom Patterson, President of the Fox Run Homeowners Association, voiced concern about whether or not open space requirements for Steeplechase Run were being appropriately met by the current plan for the project. Members noted that both parking and open space will, no doubt, require further ongoing careful attention by the Council.

Staff Reports and Action Items

Town Mike Casey reported that a contractor accidentally cracked an 8-inch water main near the Safeway earlier in the week. Water service to the town was shut down for about an hour and a half until the main could be repaired. The Council unanimously agreed to hire Karen Pfister to serve as the new Town Clerk. Pfister, a graduate of the University of Virginia, will work 32 hours per week for the Town, beginning September 15. She replaces Claudia Dornin, who leaves her Clerk's post to take up the challenge of serving as the Town of Middleburg's new Economic Development Director. The Council then authorized the Town Administrator to arrange financing for Utility Improvements listed in the FY'06 Budget. The removal of a dead (or dying) tree near the Middleburg Real Estate offices on East Washington Street required Council to approve an apparently hotly contended retroactive tree-removal waiver, which it did with one member abstaining. The abstainer was Council Member "Bundles" Murdock, who said she felt honor-bound to pay for the removal of the tree. After the tree had been removed, a question had arisen about what contractor was authorized to remove the tree, and whether proper procedure had been followed approving its removal. Council Member Murdock informed the Council that she had given what seemed at the time sound and logical advice about removing the dead and possibly dangerous tree, and that it had been removed. Council agreed with her and gave the removal retroactive authorization. The Council's commitment to "slow growth" was reaffirmed unanimously, and Mayor Dimos was named as the Council's "official" representative and spokesperson at the upcoming, September 26, Loudoun County Planning Commission Public Hearing. Whether or not he should regularly represent the town's views on growth at County Board of Supervisors meetings was left for later consideration and decision.