With elections set for May, a new budget due in June, and all members present and accounted for, Middleburg's Town Council had been making every meeting count. Indeed, ever since last year's scrapping of the Council's antiquated committee structure in favor of ongoing work as a "committee of the whole," the Council's sparsely-attended "work sessions" have become as productive, if not more so, than regular monthly Council meetings. This month was no exception.

Road Damage Feared

At a March 27 work session, Council approved spending up to $5,000 for a "geotechnical study" designed to assess the risk posed by heavy construction equipment to the access road serving the town's existing water treatment plant. In a letter to Town Administrator Jerry Schiro, Middleburg's Town Engineer, Phil DeLeon expressed concern about impact of heavy traffic on the stability and integrity of the roadway and noted that the narrow right of way was critical for both new construction traffic and the ongoing operations of the existing town water treatment facilities. Accidents or pollution of nearby wetlands caused by a crumbling roadbed, or accidents caused by it, could require entering into lengthy analysis and permitting procedures with the Army Corps of Engineers and other interested parties, possibly delaying construction of both the Salamander Inn and the Town's new water treatment facilities for nine months or more.

Schiro pointed that it was the Town's responsibility to "keep the access open and make sure it is protected before allowing construction traffic on it . . . ." and that it would be wise to assess the risks before they became real problems. In discussions before the Town Planning Commission, the use of steel plates to protect the road's surface had been suggested, but, according to Schiro, the Town Engineer was "not confident" that such measures would be adequate.

The Tree at the Red Fox Inn

With great regret, the Council also authorized the removal of a large tree in the public right-of-way adjacent to the Red Fox Inn. According to Town Administrator Schiro, Dominion Virginia Power had first offered to prune the tree and had contacted the owner of the Inn, Turner Reuter. Reuter, according to Council reports, "... did not want the tree to be removed, wanted to supervise the pruning, [but] did not want to accept [legal] responsibility in the event the tree were to fall." Concerned about potential liability Schiro consulted the Town Arborist, who recommended cutting the tree down. Pruning, the Arborist noted, would "probably kill the tree" and "... the Town would be faced with a liability situation once it was dead."

On the brighter side of what all agreed was a regrettable situation, Town Planner David Beniamino noted that the Middleburg Beautification Committee has replacement trees available, and that the matter was already on the Streetscape Committee's next agenda.

Water Restrictions Lifted

With Council Members Lisa Patterson and Mark Snyder in opposition, Council approved lifting the mandatory water-use restrictions currently in force, while continuing to urge citizens to use water carefully. Patterson opposed the measure, in part because of predictions by State authorities that drought conditions would persist in our area for the next decade. She noted that, while streams "refresh" themselves quickly, ground water, which feeds the Town's wells, does not. Snyder had requested that the Council delay its decision for a month or so. He noted that the town's recently completed program of "flushing" its pipes had used a lot of water, and that more time was needed for town's wells to recover from the process.

A typical "flushing," according to Town Administrator Schiro, required pushing water through the lines for two nights a week, for four consecutive weeks, using somewhere between 320,000 gallons of water (Schiro's figure) or twice that (Snyder's calculation.)

Middleburg MacMansions