Goodbye to the Old Town Office
October was a month of endings. The County pulled its cricket plan for Mickie Gordon Park. Council held its last meeting in the old Town Office and moved next door. Two short meetings, both over by a little after 7 p.m., said goodbye to a building, and to a friend.
Council met October 12 with all members present, Councilmember Philip Miller attending remotely because he was ill, and October 26 without Mayor Bridge Littleton; Vice Mayor Peter Leonard-Morgan presided. The Mayor votes only to break a tie.
Mickie Gordon: Withdrawn
"You guys heard about Mickie Gordon Park?" Littleton asked on October 12. "The special exception application was pulled today by the county." The room applauded ▶ video. Parks Director Steve Torpy called him around noon. "He kept to his word," Littleton said. The parks department will now turn the ideas from its two workshops into plans and bring them back to the community, which Littleton expects to take "a month or two" to start and a couple of years to finish. He praised how residents had argued their case: "thoughtful, respectful, polite, intelligent and diligent and cooperative."
It isn't quite over. A woman in the audience asked when the cricket games under the lights would stop: "Still every night at 11:00 p.m." Littleton, who had driven past at 10:45 himself, said he would ask Torpy about lights off by 9.
On October 26 Megan Gallagher came to the lectern to call it "the glorious news that we won this stage of the Mickie Gordon fight," and to credit Council, Littleton's petition, and the neighbors who organized. Then she brought the next one.
The Next Fight: Transmission Lines
Gallagher had just been to Buchanan Hall in Upperville, where nearly 200 people heard about new high-voltage transmission lines planned to carry power from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland to data centers in Loudoun and Prince William ▶ video. One proposed route, she said, would put "a 200 foot right away with a 250-foot series of towers" down Route 50, "Everything we've protected in 50 years of route 50 rural preservation." It is not a zoning question or a state law; it will be decided by the State Corporation Commission and federal regulators, which leaves residents "still waiting to know where the push points are." Council will be hearing about it.
Goodbye to the Old Town Office
The October 26 meeting was the last in the old Council chambers at 10 West Marshall Street. The staff and police moved into the new Town Hall, at the same address, that week, and the building opened to the public October 30 (Loudoun Now, October 26). Town Manager Danny Davis thanked the staff and Council members who carried boxes, and singled out Town Clerk Rhonda North for her work on the project.
Bundles Murdock, who served on the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Planning Commission and Council over "30 plus plus years," came to say goodbye to the old room. The new building is "outstanding," she said, and if anyone criticizes the cost, "send them to me." Then she remembered the old one: "We had a lot of deaths, and we had a lot of fun," including the night she took down a fence at a staff party, "not a drop of drink." The building "has a lot of problems, and it needs to go. But I will be very sad so I will miss it."
Councilmember Kevin Daly, speaking as a resident, offered "Not a sermon, just a thought": "No one likes change," but Middleburg is "a community of neighbors," and "I hope that that spirit of community in Middleburg will never change."
Remembering DeeDee Hubbard
Before public comment on October 26, Leonard-Morgan asked Council to remember "one dear member of the community who recently passed Dee Dee Hubbard. Fantastic lady did so much for the town" ▶ video.
Councilmember Darlene Kirk said the Middleburg Eccentric covered "things that actually took place in the town," and "I applaud her and her son for doing that for us for so long. I wish it was still here." Councilmember Chris Bernard said the paper was how he got to know Middleburg, and "Dee Dee was the first person that I met in Middleburg when I came to interview for a job here," when she showed him an apartment. "I think her legacy will go on." Councilmember Cindy Pearson remembered her work on Christmas in Middleburg: "every time you turned around; she was popping up somewhere. ... she had a very, I think, a wonderful life here in town. And she will be missed."
DeeDee Hubbard edited the Middleburg Eccentric. She was the mother of the author of this report.
Also This Month
- The Charitable Foundation, again: a Council subcommittee proposed splitting the Town's grant policy into four, including a schedule of donations to the Middleburg Charitable Foundation of $100,000 this year, $50,000 next year and $25,000 a year after that, if the money is in the budget ▶ video. Kirk asked to wait until the Foundation's board meets, and both the policies and the Foundation's funding request moved to November.
- R-2 rules: more than 60 residents spent October 16 at the American Legion telling The Berkley Group what they like and don't like about new houses in the old neighborhoods (Loudoun Now, October 17). A joint Council and Planning Commission work session will follow the consultant's report, probably after Christmas in Middleburg.
- A museum and two apartments: the Museum of Hounds & Hunting wants a second home in the Duffy House at 11 West Washington Street, open weekends 10 to 4 with free admission, art sales and a shop ▶ video. Council, which reserves the main street for retail, wanted assurance it would draw people. Will Driskill wants to turn two upper-floor offices at 5 East Federal Street, empty for two years at below-market rent, into a studio and a one-bedroom ▶ video. Both, and a change to how zoning hearings are advertised, go to public hearing November 9.
- The Mille Miglia returns November 2 to 4 with 25 cars and 35 to 40 volunteers.
- Police: "We just don't have a lot of people applying," Chief Shaun Jones said; every department in Virginia has the same problem. He has lined up help from other agencies for Christmas in Middleburg, and Council wants the organizers in November to go over logistics.
- Water: the replacement filter media for Well 4 has been ordered, and the clear well and septic conversion contractors should be on site within a month.
- Housekeeping: the second meetings in November and December are canceled. The staff holiday lunch returns to Hunters Head Tavern, with $100 gift certificates to employees and $50 to committee volunteers, good at Middleburg businesses. Southern Living is working on a story about Middleburg. A pilot will try porous paving around a big tree at 18 East Washington Street to stop roots lifting the sidewalk. The Town Clean-Up is October 28.
- The election: early voting is open; Middleburg votes November 7 in the new Town Hall. All four Town seats are uncontested: Littleton for Mayor, and Bernard, Daly and Pam Curran for Council. Miller is not running again (Loudoun Now, October 5).
Public Comment
October 12 ▶ video
- Gary Nickelson, Commander of American Legion Post 295, said five or six Hometown Hero banners of local veterans should be up by Veterans Day, invited everyone to the Legion's Oktoberfest on October 14, and reported that the Legion has applied for a Charitable Foundation grant.
- A resident in the audience asked when the late-night cricket at Mickie Gordon Park would stop.
October 26 ▶ video
- Bundles Murdock, Blue Ridge Avenue, praised the new Town Hall and said farewell to the old Town Office, where she served for more than 30 years.
- Megan Gallagher, East Marshall Street, thanked Council for its leadership on Mickie Gordon Park and warned of the proposed transmission lines along Route 50.
- Councilmember Kevin Daly, North Jay Street, speaking as a resident, marked the last meeting in the old chambers and said Middleburg's spirit will not change.
Tips & Wags (opinion)
Tip of the Hat to Steve Torpy, who promised in June to start over at Mickie Gordon, and did. And to every neighbor who filled the Legion, the Community Center and a petition to make sure of it.
Tip of the Hat to Rhonda North, who carried the Town Hall project, punch list and all, to the day the doors opened.
Wag of the Finger to the cricket lights still burning at 11 p.m. The plan is withdrawn. The lights can be too.
Coming Up
- October 28: Town Clean-Up, from the Community Center and the Levis Hill House.
- October 30: the new Town Hall opens to the public.
- November 2–4: the 1000 Miglia in Middleburg.
- November 7: Election Day, voting at the new Town Hall.
- November 9: Council's first meeting in the new chambers. Public hearings on the museum, the Federal Street apartments and the hearing-notice ordinance; the Charitable Foundation's request and the new grant policies.
- Later: County parks department returns with ideas for Mickie Gordon Park. Joint Council–Planning Commission work session on R-2.
Sources: the meeting videos (October 12, October 26), the Town's minutes (pending approval) and the transcripts attached to them, both read by OCR. Quotes come from the Town contractor's transcripts; each ▶ link opens the video at the start of that agenda item.
Other sources cited:
- Loudoun Now, October 5, 2023: "On the Ballot: Town Races Feature Full Candidate Slate, One Contest"
- Loudoun Now, October 17, 2023: "Middleburg Leaders Seek Resident Input on Redevelopment Rules"
- Loudoun Now, October 26, 2023: "Middleburg Town Hall Move-In Underway"