Town Administrator Martha Semmes formally kicked off the long-awaited improvement project for Middleburg's award-winning main street at a meeting that took place the first week in December.

Middleburg was awarded a rare $30,000 "Transportation Land Use" study grant for the project from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

The grant will make it possible for the Town to hire experts in contemporary urban design to review and ideally improve the functionality and safety of Middleburg's Main Street, a streetscape honored in 2010 by the American Planning Association with a coveted "Great Places in America" award.

According to Semmes, the town wants to use the project for, among other things, laying the groundwork for improving our sidewalks, protecting our existing trees, and planning for systematic "succession" plantings.

Noting that the town's beloved Main Street would be "tricky to improve" without destroying its time-honored character, Semmes announced with pleasure that Washington, DC-based Rhodeside and Harwell has been retained as the project's lead consultant.

Among other projects the firm has worked with the Waterford-based "Journey Through Hallowed Ground" organization to plan its "Living Legacy" Gettysburg-to-Charlottesville tree planting project designed to honor the fallen in the American Civil War.

"They know how to be respectful of historic streetscapes," Semmes noted.