Middleburg's Community Newspaper
Middleburg Town Council Report

$300,000 and a Promise

· By Jay Hubbard
The Middleburg Charitable Foundation makes its case to Council, December 14, 2023. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)
The Middleburg Charitable Foundation makes its case to Council, December 14, 2023. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)

Council's only December meeting ran four hours. It said goodbye to a County Supervisor, a Council member and a friend; heard nine speakers ask it to fund the new Middleburg Charitable Foundation; and then gave the Foundation $300,000, on a promise that it would never ask again. The Town also got a clean audit, lost a grant, and learned that the sewer pipes at the Residences at Salamander may be sagging.

Council met December 14 with all members present, Councilmember Chris Bernard arriving at 7 p.m.; the second December meeting was canceled. Mayor Bridge Littleton votes only to break a tie.

$300,000 and a Promise

A month after Council told the Foundation "just apply," it did ▶ video. Chair Erik Scheps and Vice Chair Howard Armfield asked for $300,000. The Foundation had received 13 grant requests, the most in the history of the old Health Center Fund, and cut a third of the money asked for, but even the rest would mean spending more than 5 percent of its endowment, the benchmark big donors look for. A one-time gift from the Town, they said, would let it fund this year's grants, show donors a sound balance sheet, and stand on its own.

Public comment had already made the case. Representatives of LAWS, Seven Loaves, the Middleburg Library Advisory Board, the Windy Hill Foundation, Middleburg FISH, Artists in Middleburg and Tree of Life Ministries, and two Foundation board members, all asked Council to say yes ▶ video.

Vice Mayor Peter Leonard-Morgan supported a gift but not that one. "We're stewards of the Town's taxpayers," he said, and $300,000 was "well over 25%, really of the surplus we had last year and nearly 10% of the general fund." Councilmember Bud Jacobs said he "also choked a little bit when I saw the $300,000 figure," but the Foundation had "brought a high degree of rigor to the process," and donors care about the spending rate. Councilmember Darlene Kirk, one of the Council's two members on the Foundation board, said she had opposed asking at first and been won over. Bernard, who arrived for the debate, said it felt rushed.

Littleton wanted it understood. "This is $300,000 and we've had the packet for four days," he said. If the Foundation wouldn't be back, Council should say this was "a once in a lifetime, very unique circumstance," because "this is creating a public, potentially creating a public expectation" that other charities would come asking for hundreds of thousands. He asked whether the Foundation would ever return. "We're never coming back," Armfield said. Council then argued over whether "never" was wise, since the Town will always have two seats on the Foundation's board and a market crash could change everything, and agreed to leave the door open for an emergency.

Littleton suggested splitting the gift over two fiscal years, since Council plans to talk about cutting real estate taxes and utility rates in the spring. Armfield said the concerns wouldn't change in six months. Councilmember Philip Miller said the audit would show an unrestricted fund balance of about $9 million. Council voted 7-0 to give $300,000 from this year's contingency, and agreed that future requests for charitable donations will go to the Foundation, not the Town (Loudoun Now, December 19).

Remembering DeeDee Hubbard

Council adopted a resolution in memory of DeeDee Hubbard, 6-0 with Bernard not yet arrived ▶ video. Littleton said nobody in the room didn't know "her passion, dedication, friendliness and community spirit to everything she did and everyone she helped in Middleburg." When the Middleburg Business & Professional Association "was struggling and basically dying, DeeDee jumped in, both feet, both hands," and brought it back. "She never held back in telling you what she thought," he said, "but always did it in a thoughtful, dignified, and respectful manner."

He told a story from his first Council meeting: she stopped him on the way out to say the Em Sharp Christmas signs were falling apart and the Town had to help The Hill School alumni fix them. "DeeDee, I you know, I've literally had one council meeting," he told her. "I don't care. You went to Hill." Within a month or two, he said, the Town appropriated money for the repairs.

The resolution recorded that she and her son ran the Eccentric for more than 17 years, often giving news space and advertising to local businesses and nonprofits at little or no charge; that she was the paper's editor-in-chief, served on the Loudoun Laurels advisory committee, and was president of the MBPA for many years; that she took over Christmas in Middleburg when its organizers stepped down; and that she helped create the Middleburg Bucks program. Leonard-Morgan remembered "a very dry sense of humor." Chief Shaun Jones then retired Press Vest No. 1, the one she wore at every Christmas parade, and presented it to the family.

DeeDee Hubbard was the mother of the author of this report, who accepted the resolution and the vest on the family's behalf.

Two Goodbyes on the Dais

Supervisor Tony Buffington, who represented Middleburg on the Board of Supervisors for eight years, received a resolution of thanks, 6-0 ▶ video. He said the Town always asked for something "that makes sense and it's reasonable, and you give me enough time to work on it." Laura TeKrony takes his seat in January.

Miller, at his last meeting after eight years, was thanked 5-0 and given a signed photograph of the Council and an engraved humidor ▶ video. He asked Council to "always think of the citizens and do the best thing for them, even if it's uncomfortable and hard at times, because God knows it is and it will be." Pam Curran takes his seat.

Also This Month

  • A clean audit: the new auditors, Robinson, Farmer, Cox & Associates, gave the Town "an unmodified opinion on the town's financial statements which is the cleanest opinion an auditor can give," with no internal control problems and clean federal grant compliance, said David Foley ▶ video. It arrived in time to meet the state's year-end deadline.
  • No grant for South Madison Street: VDOT turned down the Safe Routes to School application. Staff will focus on the block between Washington and Federal Streets, as Council first intended, and look for other money. Littleton asked Council to confirm that the Asbury Church comes first; Town Manager Danny Davis said the two need not compete.
  • Salamander bonds: Council cut the developer's bonds for private and public improvements at the Residences at Salamander, but kept the full sewer bond after inspections found sections of line that "appear to be sagging a little bit and holding some water," Deputy Town Manager Will Moore said.
  • Well 4: the new sand and nozzles are in; the manufacturer comes the first week of January to condition the media and restart the plant. Wastewater flows fell with the drought even as water use held steady, a sign of groundwater leaking into the sewers (Loudoun Now, December 20).
  • Plantings: $18,250, 7-0, to the Middleburg Beautification Committee for half a year's care of new streetscape plantings; Council will decide on yearly funding at budget time.
  • Town Hall phase two: the old Town Office is gone, the grading and curbs are done, and paving comes next, with completion in January or February. The surplus furniture from the old police offices went largely to the new Museum of Hounds & Hunting.
  • Coming to Council: a request from the Hershes to vacate an unbuilt stretch of East Marshall Street right-of-way, with a hearing in late January; a small commercial building with an apartment on South Pendleton Street; and the R-2 report from The Berkley Group in January. Town committees will resume annual reports to Council, one a month.
  • Appointments: Don Woodruff and Mimi Dale Stein to the Planning Commission; Tim Clites, Bill Anderson, Virginia Jenkins and Margaret Littleton to the Historic District Review Committee; Jim Herbert, Stephanie Burget and Laurie Salama to the Cultural & Community Events Committee; Sid Abrams and Will Heron to the Strategic Finance Committee. Rhonda North won an MBPA award for the Town Hall project.

Public Comment

December 14 ▶ video

  • Suhas Subramanyam, state Senator-elect for eastern Loudoun, introduced himself, said he expects to serve on the Local Government Committee, and said he plans to run for Congress in Middleburg's district next year.
  • Deborah Gilmore, CEO of LAWS, which serves more than 1,100 survivors of domestic and sexual violence a year, asked Council to fund the Foundation.
  • Carolyn Nash Helmly, president of Seven Loaves, said the pantry serves 100 town residents and thanked the police for more than 1,300 pounds of food from Stuff the Cruiser.
  • Gene LeCourtier of the Middleburg Library Advisory Board described the Foundation-funded Middleburg Reads website and programs.
  • Eloise Repeczky, executive director of the Windy Hill Foundation, said it couldn't serve the town's most vulnerable residents without the Foundation's help.
  • Martha Cotter, president of Middleburg FISH, described the poverty behind the requests for help it receives.
  • Sandy Danielson of Artists in Middleburg said its Foundation grant will pay for art programs at the Charter School and Banneker Elementary.
  • Matty Cockrell of Tree of Life Ministries said it delivers food to 150 people in Middleburg.
  • Pam Curran, Council member-elect and Foundation board member, and Ray Morales, a board member, explained the Foundation's 5 percent spending rule; Curran read a statement from board member Jan Neuharth.

Tips & Wags (opinion)

Tip of the Hat to Chief Shaun Jones and the Middleburg Police, for 1,300 pounds of food for Seven Loaves, and for retiring a press vest.

Tip of the Hat to Philip Miller, for eight years, and for the parting advice: do the right thing for the citizens "even if it's uncomfortable."

Wag of the Finger to the calendar: a $300,000 decision deserved more than four days with the packet. Council said so itself.

Devil's Advocate (opinion): The Vice Mayor's arithmetic deserved a better hearing. A quarter of last year's surplus went to one charity in one vote, on four days' notice, while Council plans to talk about cutting residents' taxes. The Foundation's case is sound, and the nonprofits that spoke do real good. But "we're never coming back" was softened before the vote, and the Mayor himself warned that this sets an expectation. The next request, from the Foundation or anyone else, should come with more than a weekend's notice.

Coming Up

  • January 1: Laura TeKrony takes office as Little River Supervisor; Pam Curran joins Council.
  • First week of January: Well 4 media conditioning and restart.
  • January: joint Council–Planning Commission review of The Berkley Group's R-2 report; Council strategic planning retreat; the remaining grant policies; public hearing on the East Marshall Street right-of-way.
  • January–February: Town Hall phase two complete.
  • Spring: budget season, with talk of cutting real estate taxes and utility rates.

Sources: the meeting video (December 14), the Town's minutes (pending approval) and the transcript attached to them, read by OCR. Quotes come from the Town contractor's transcript; each ▶ link opens the video at the start of that agenda item.

Other sources cited: