Each year the Town of Middleburg donates to local charities a significant portion of what the private sector would term the town's "operating profits" from "The Health Center," a building the town owns and rents out at a non-profit "profit" to tenants including the Middleburg Police Department.

This year's contributions totaled $29,000. The recipients included:

Seven Loaves $10,000
Middleburg Volunteer Fire and Rescue $4,000
Windy Hill Tutoring Program $2,000
Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Fund $500
Middleburg Public Library Advisory Board $2,000
Middleburg FISH $2,500
Loudoun Abused Women's Shelter $2,500
Middleburg Community Center $4,000
American Legion $500
A Place to Be $500

The Town also appears to have finally fixed the heating system in the Health Center building. Minutes after the year's Health Center grants were approved, a tenant in the building appeared to announce that his patience was at last at an end after 601 days of tenancy with an essentially non-functional heating system. He loved the building and the location, he said, and would happily buy the property from the town and fix it himself.

Mayor Davis and Town Administrator Semmes reported that they believed that the heating and heating control problems had, at last, been fixed.

The tenant noted that he had been an excellent steward of the space he rented, had paid his company's entire annual rent in advance, and has made, he said, more than $80,000 worth of permanent improvements to the property himself.

His patience had come to an end, he said, after 601 days of misery, and he took Council to task for its slow and, in his view, completely inadequate response to the problem.

Mayor Davis apologized for the town, and Council appeared to agree that some compensation was due. Details were to be worked out with the Town Administrator.