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Middleburg Eccentric

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Middleburg Town Council Report

Save Mickie Gordon

· By Jay Hubbard
Residents speak about Mickie Gordon Memorial Park during public comment, June 8, 2023. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)
Residents speak about Mickie Gordon Memorial Park during public comment, June 8, 2023. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)

A month after it stood up for the east end, Middleburg stood up for a ballfield. Loudoun County's parks department wanted to turn Mickie Gordon Memorial Park, just east of town, into a three-field cricket complex, and in June the neighbors, the Council and finally the parks director himself agreed that was a mistake. The rest of the month was short and practical: a federal check 15 months late, milky water, a water tower in a torn curtain, and a cleaning contract for a building nobody has moved into yet.

Council met June 8 and June 22, both times without Councilmember Darlene Kirk. On June 22 Deputy Town Manager Will Moore sat in for Town Manager Danny Davis. Mayor Bridge Littleton votes only to break a tie.

Save Mickie Gordon

Megan Gallagher, back at the lectern two weeks after the inn fight, asked Council on June 8 to oppose the County's plan ▶ video. She listed new turn lanes on Route 50, "a clear contradiction" of 50 years of traffic calming, and "18, 100 foot lighted towers for three tournament level cricket fields that would operate from March to November up to 11:00 at night." Less than 5 percent of the park would stay as it is, she said, and the plan would wipe out the baseball diamond, which "increasingly has become the focus of an interesting and valued part of African American history." Kristin Noggle, Kathyjo Shea, Jilann Brunett and Joan Ramsey agreed. Chris Gore spoke for a young neighbor on East Marshall Street who wanted to know where people would play ball.

Littleton had already been working the phones ▶ video. The park, he said, "was built and provided for the African American community during segregation," and it still serves the town. He told County Board Chair Phyllis Randall, who hadn't heard of the plan, that this was "not a comment that we don't need additional cricket facilities... We absolutely do," only that Mickie Gordon was the wrong place for them, and that the district is already 30 acres short of the parkland the County's own plans call for. Parks Director Steve Torpy agreed to put off the hearing until fall and to come to Middleburg to listen.

Council was unanimous. "As an Englishman who grew up playing cricket, this is the wrong place for cricket," said Vice Mayor Peter Leonard-Morgan. Councilmember Kevin Daly noted that a cricket match can run eight hours, "That's why the lights are going to be on until 11:00 at night." Councilmember Cindy Pearson, recalling the night Officer Tim Tharpe was struck by a car on Route 50 during Christmas in Middleburg, said "Big no needs to come from here." Council decided to wait for the County's meeting and then send a letter signed by all its members.

By June 22 an online petition had about 700 signatures ▶ video. Littleton was preparing a list for the County: restore the main baseball field, which now has an artificial-turf strip down its middle; replace the soccer goals that ended up in the woods; fix the tennis courts. When a County staffer told Supervisor Tony Buffington's office that hardly anyone asks to play there, Littleton explained that Mickie Gordon isn't a league park: people show up for pickup games. Councilmember Bud Jacobs asked for a marker telling the park's history.

The County held its meeting on June 29 at the American Legion, to a standing-room-only crowd. Asbury Lloyd, who learned to pitch at the park and won more than 200 games in the Virginia-Maryland Negro league, spoke first. Mickie Gordon's daughter, Debra Gordon Schleith, said that if the baseball field goes, she wants the family's plaque and sign removed too. Torpy took responsibility: "obviously I missed the mark on this one," he said, and promised to come back with "something that is a win-win" (Loudoun Now, June 30).

Fifteen Months for a Check

Treasurer Tina Staples reported on June 8 that the $2 million federal grant for Town Hall should arrive within days. Littleton did the math: "that appropriation was passed on March 19th of 2022, and it is now June 8th, 2023. And we just got the money." On June 22 he asked whether any of the Town's pandemic-relief (ARPA) money could be clawed back; Staples said every dollar is committed to a project, and she is pushing to spend it before the deadline.

Milky Water and a Torn Curtain

Residents noticed cloudy, bubbly water and dark sediment in early June ▶ video. Moore traced the sediment to manganese loosened when the Well 3 pump and pipe were replaced, and the hydrants were flushed. Well 4 is almost back: a contractor is cutting hatches into its filters, and Leonard-Morgan reported that clearing debris worked. The bids for the Well 4 clear well and the septic conversion project go out within a week.

The Marshall Street water tower is wrapped for repainting, the same white, but Pearson spotted "nice sized holes" in the curtain meant to contain the sandblasting, and the wind keeps blowing it around. Moore said the schedule holds, with weekly meetings until the job is done. Pedestrians should stay off the block between Chinn Lane and Liberty Street.

Also This Month

  • A cleaning contract: J.V. Cleaning Services won the custodial contract for the new Town Hall and the Liberty Street restrooms at $19,800 a year, the lowest of nine bids, approved 6-0 ▶ video. Council worried the price was too low; Moore said the Town must take the lowest responsive bid, and the contract can be ended for poor work. Littleton predicted the public "would let the Town know" about the restrooms.
  • Town Hall: the sod and most of the plantings are in, the interior lights are going up, and the move-in date is now after July 4. The site superintendent who pushed the job along, Raymond Pullen, has left the general contractor, Cooper Building Services. The fast charger waits in storage until Cooper turns the site over.
  • Budget transfers: Council approved the year-end FY '23 transfers from contingency, 6-0, after a hearing at which no one spoke.
  • The Board of Zoning Appeals heard its first case since 2008, and Littleton, Pearson and Town Attorney Martin Crim praised how it was run.
  • The election: the filing deadline for November's Town election was June 20.
  • The American Legion reported 120 percent membership growth, named George Ron Embry Legionnaire of the Year, and wants to develop the lot behind its building; it offered to host the November election if Town Hall isn't ready. Troop 2950 inducted four new Eagle Scouts.
  • Business news: a new restaurant is seeking permits for the old Red Bar Sushi space at 16 East Washington Street, name withheld for now. The Community Center postponed its events because of smoke from the Canadian wildfires.
  • Closed sessions on the Town Hall contract, a possible property purchase, and the Town Manager's performance review.

Public Comment

June 8 ▶ video

  • Megan Gallagher, East Marshall Street, asked Council to formally oppose the County's cricket complex at Mickie Gordon Park.
  • Kristin Noggle, Stonewall Court, who walks her dogs at the park every day, said the lights already burn until 9 p.m. and turn lanes on Route 50 are a non-starter.
  • Kathyjo Shea, Foxcroft Road, agreed with Ms. Gallagher.
  • Chris Gore, Piedmont Drive, spoke for Mr. Curtis of East Marshall Street, who wants to know where people will play ball.
  • Jilann Brunett, Foxcroft Road, agreed, and asked that the Town's dark sky ordinance be part of the discussion.
  • Joan Ramsey, Chinn Lane, opposed all of it and said children should be able to play at the park.

June 22 ▶ video

  • Gary Nickelson, re-elected Commander of American Legion Post 295, reported 120 percent membership growth, named George Ron Embry Legionnaire of the Year, offered the Legion for November's election, and announced the County's June 29 Mickie Gordon meeting at the Legion.
  • Public hearing on the FY '23 budget transfers ▶ video: no one spoke.

Tips & Wags (opinion)

Tip of the Hat to everyone who showed up for Mickie Gordon, and to Parks Director Steve Torpy, who said in public that he got it wrong. That doesn't happen often.

Tip of the Hat to Cindy Pearson, who looked up at the water tower and saw the holes.

Wag of the Finger to Washington, for 15 months between appropriating $2 million for Town Hall and actually sending it.

Wag of the Finger to Loudoun County Parks, Recreation and Community Services, for drawing three tournament cricket fields on a park whose designer, residents were told, had never been there, and telling the County its ballfield wasn't used because nobody had to reserve it.

Coming Up

  • June 29: County community meeting on Mickie Gordon Park, American Legion (held; see above).
  • June 30: Open Late's first concert and the Hunt Country Music Festival.
  • July 4: the Town's Fourth of July celebration at the Charter School.
  • July: water tower painting; bids due on the Well 4 clear well and septic conversion; South Madison Street survey results.
  • September: earliest date for the County Planning Commission to take up the Mickie Gordon application, if the County doesn't withdraw it.

Sources: the meeting videos (June 8, June 22), the Town's minutes (pending approval) and the transcripts attached to them. Quotes from Council meetings come from the Town contractor's transcripts; quotes from the June 29 County meeting are from Loudoun Now. Each ▶ link opens the video at the start of that agenda item.

Other sources cited: