Middleburg Shows Up

October 31, 2024 · By Jay Hubbard

Police Chief Shaun Jones swears in the Middleburg Community Charter School safety patrol, October 30, 2024. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)

On October 10 the Mayor warned that the County's plan for Mickie Gordon Park was in trouble and asked the town to turn out one more time. Six days later the Board of Supervisors voted to put the baseball field back. Council spent the rest of the month on its police force, settling on a new pay plan and a trial run of take-home cruisers, and quietly adopted the five-room bed and breakfast rule that residents had opposed in August, this time with no one speaking against it.

Council met October 10 and Wednesday, October 30, its second meeting moved from the usual Thursday, with all members present; Councilmember Darlene Kirk took part in the first meeting remotely because of illness and arrived late to the second. Mayor Bridge Littleton votes only to break a tie.

Middleburg Shows Up

The County Finance Committee's meeting on Mickie Gordon had gone badly, Littleton reported on October 10 ▶ video. "I would say if they had to vote on it tomorrow, it would fail." The sticking points were money and the cricket field. Board Chair Phyllis Randall had called him that day and, he said, told him "Middleburg needs to show up like Middleburg did before." He gave residents three things to say at the Board's October 16 meeting: restore the park; do it without leaving the County's cricket players with nowhere to play; and remember it was "the first non-segregated baseball field." And he asked them to leave the lights out of it for now: "let's win the park getting restored."

They did. On October 16 the Board approved the modest Concept A, 7-2, and voted 5-4 to turn the cricket pitch back into a baseball field by spring, with staff told to find new cricket pitches on school land (Loudoun Now, October 17, 2024). The full story is in our feature, Pop Gordon Field Plays Ball Again. On October 30 Legion Commander Gary Nickelson thanked the Board, Randall and Supervisor Laura TeKrony; watching the Finance Committee, he said, "I didn't think that bill would pass." It is not a perfect plan, he said, but baseball is coming back ▶ video.

Pay Steps and Take-Home Cars

On October 10 Council adopted the police pay plan, 7-0: a step scale tied to years of service, with 2.5 percent between steps, two new ranks for officers who want to advance without supervising, and incentives for education and training, about $33,000 a year ▶ video. Chief Shaun Jones had already made a verbal offer to a recruit, contingent on that vote. The take-home cars were held back, over one question: how far.

Councilmember Kevin Daly wanted 60 miles; Haymarket, "one of our biggest competitors," allows 50. Littleton wanted the number most departments use, not one written around a current officer: "I'm not comfortable with 60." Councilmember Peter Leonard-Morgan noted that Middleburg's officers can't afford to live nearby. On October 30 Jones brought a chart of nearby departments, which ranged from 30 to 50 air miles ▶ video. Littleton held for 30, the most common limit. Councilmember Bud Jacobs was ready for 50. Daly split it: "you came up with 37 miles. Let's do the six-month pilot with 40 miles." Council approved a six-month pilot at 40 air miles, 7-0, with a formal review in April 2025. Officers who live farther will leave their cars at an approved spot such as a fire station; the cars will get GPS tracking.

Five Rooms, No Objections

In August, nearly every speaker at public comment opposed letting bed and breakfasts grow from three rooms to five. On October 30 the public hearing on the amendment drew no one, and Council adopted it, 7-0 ▶ video. Deputy Town Manager Will Moore had told Council on October 10 that he wouldn't object if the five-room part went away, and that it had nothing to do with the three-room manager-run B&B planned on East Washington Street ▶ video. The ordinance also lets a manager rather than the owner live on site, limits B&Bs to the C-1 district (elsewhere they apply as short-term rentals), allows a single-family house by right in the commercial districts, bans rooming and boarding houses, and rewrites the definition of "family."

Also This Month

Speed: the 20 mph signs are up. Littleton thanked staff, the officers, and Scott Kasprowicz of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, and said Middleburg is the first town to use the new state authority. John Pittman reported drivers doing 50 in the early morning and suggested a $200 fine; Littleton said the Town will look into one, which needs 30 days of data and a VDOT request.
Sidewalk signs: businesses have until November 22 to comply with the new sandwich-board rules; after that, nonconforming signs and signs left out overnight will be removed. Littleton asked that the one-sign limit be enforced now.
Ridgeview: two more houses will be built under the old rules; one already had a permit and the other a complete application before the new rules passed.
Asbury Church: Steve Simons of Veritas Contracting donated the stabilization work, valued at $2,755, accepted 7-0. Oral-history proposals were due October 31; the consultant's report on future uses comes in December.
Charter school: Council commended the Middleburg Community Charter School on its 10th anniversary, 7-0, and Chief Jones swore in its safety patrol. Littleton, who serves on the school's board, noted Middleburg has had an elementary school since 1887; Vice Mayor Chris Bernard has a first grader there.
Christmas in Middleburg: Michelle and Doug Myers reported that parking will be at Mickie Gordon Park and Lost Barrel (the Cidery barn lot is unavailable), with a second ornament, a paper map, an accessible viewing area at Washington and South Pendleton Streets, and PenFed as presenting sponsor.
Sustainability: Chair Lynne Kaye and Vice Chair Cristina Tonda asked Council for a bigger role, including disaster preparedness after Asheville. Jacobs said the cleanups do more for the town than the committee credits.
Money and water: first-quarter meals and lodging taxes beat projections. Council renewed its $40,000 Visit Loudoun agreement on a two-year cycle and bought a new drum screen for the sewer plant, where one of two is dead and the other works intermittently; both 7-0. No lead service lines were found in town. A salty taste in the water may trace to a since-fixed problem at the Well 4 plant.
Oak Hill: Council sent a letter, 7-0, supporting The Conservation Fund's plan to buy James Monroe's Oak Hill, about 1,200 acres, for a state park.
Other business: John Ross offered to donate a weather station for Town Hall and urged resilience planning. Council kept the 30-minute public-comment limit, which it can waive, and will ask committees to interview every applicant for a vacancy. The second meetings in November and December are canceled. Council met in closed session about a suit filed by Cooper Building Services against the Town. Tom Beckbe opened in the Noble House. The Mille Miglia Warm-Up drew praise from Littleton and residents alike.

Public Comment

October 10 ▶ video

John Moliere of American Legion Post 295 presented Chief Jones with a print of the plaque the Legion placed in 2020 honoring a Middleburg officer killed in the line of duty.
John Pittman, Piedmont Drive, thanked Council for the 20 mph signs and suggested more officers, a $200 fine or rumble strips.
Gary Nickelson, Commander of Post 295, reported on Boys and Girls State, the baseball program, eight new Hometown Heroes banners, and the last Veterans Day breakfast for Boy Scout Troop 295, which is folding.
John Ross, Orange Drive, offered to donate a weather station and help start resilience planning.

October 30 ▶ video

Gary Nickelson thanked the Board of Supervisors for approving Concept A and announced the November 9 Remembrance Ceremony and Veterans Breakfast.
Jilann Brunett, Foxcroft Road, thanked the Town for the Mille Miglia Warm-Up.
Kevin Daly, North Jay Street, a Councilmember speaking from the lectern as a veteran, asked people to honor those who never came home by voting.

Public hearing, October 30 (bed and breakfasts and related changes): no one spoke.

Tips & Wags (opinion)

Tip of the Hat to everyone who went to Leesburg on October 16. The Mayor said show up, and Middleburg did.

Tip of the Hat to Steve Simons, who was hired to shore up the Asbury Church and then decided not to send a bill.

Wag of the Finger to the empty lectern at the five-room hearing. Opposition in August doesn't count in October; the hearing is where it goes on the record.

Coming Up

November 9: Legion Remembrance Ceremony, 11 a.m., in front of the United Methodist Church, with breakfast after.
November 11: Veterans Day.
November 12: draft audit to the Strategic Finance Committee.
November 14: Council's only November meeting.
November 22: sidewalk-sign compliance deadline.
November 25: Planning Commission hearing on private-bank and professional-office definitions.
December: the audit and the Asbury Church use report come to Council; Christmas in Middleburg.

Sources: the meeting videos (October 10, October 30), the Town's minutes (pending approval) and the transcripts attached to them, and Loudoun Now for the Board of Supervisors' vote. Quotes come from the Town contractor's transcripts; each ▶ link opens the video at the start of that agenda item.