Spare the Willow Oak

January 31, 2025 · By Jay Hubbard

Streetscape Committee Chair Punkin Lee asks Council to spare a tree on South Madison Street, January 9, 2025. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)

Council opened 2025 by deciding what the Asbury Church will be: a place to tell its own story, with room for small groups and no kitchen. It sent two South Madison Street trees to the chipper and saved a third. On January 23 came less welcome news. One of the Town's backup wells tested positive for PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, and Richmond had bills in play that could take away the Town's meals tax.

Council met January 9 and January 23 with all members present on the 9th; Councilmember Darlene Kirk was absent on the 23rd and left the first meeting before its closed session. Mayor Bridge Littleton votes only to break a tie.

Asbury Church: Small, and Ours

On January 9 Council chose the church's future use: an interpretive site telling the story of the church and Middleburg's African American community, plus a small gathering and assembly space ▶ video. Littleton saw no real difference between the consultant's "small gathering" and "small assembly" options and folded them together. Council also accepted the Asbury committee's recommendations:

keep the church essentially as it was, with changes only for an accessible first floor and restrooms;
restore the pulpit to its original size;
keep the pews in the center and make them movable if that can be done safely;
leave the side aisles open for exhibits;
close the second floor to the public and use it for displays visible from below.

Then came the wedding question. Councilmember Bud Jacobs asked whether the Town could ban weddings outright. "We can't say we ban weddings, we can't do that," Littleton said. Town Attorney Martin Crim agreed: the Town can limit how many people come, if public safety supports the limit, but not which lawful uses qualify. A four-person ceremony would be fine, Littleton said, but "I don't want 100 people showing up with cakes and receptions." Town Clerk Rhonda North noted there will be no kitchen, only a bathroom sink. She proposed cleaning fines for groups that leave a mess: $100, then $250, then $500, then a ban. Littleton reminded Council that two years ago, when no one else would take the building on, the Town agreed it would own and run it.

Staff will now write the request for an architect and engineer. North is watching a $75,000 National Trust planning grant. The top-ranked oral-history firm was asked to expand its proposal to 15 interviews, and a contract comes in February. Jacobs passed along a suggestion from John Ross to look for links between the church and the Black baseball team that played at Mickie Gordon Park.

Spare the Willow Oak

Punkin Lee, chair of the Streetscape Committee, opened public comment on January 9. The two trees on the east side of South Madison Street, where the sidewalk is narrow, were "a definite safety hazard," she said. But an arborist believed the tree on the west side, by the Thomas & Talbott building, could have two or three more years, and taking every tree would leave the street looking stark ▶ video.

Staff had recommended removing all three ▶ video. Council took the two east-side trees and kept the third, a willow oak, with its dead limbs trimmed and treatment that Deputy Town Manager Will Moore put at under $2,000. Councilmember Cindy Pearson recalled the years and money the Town spent trying to save the elm by the Methodist Church before it came down anyway. The interim fix passed 7-0. Capitol Flexi-Pave will put porous paving around the remaining roots and where the trees come out, and brick goes back where it will stay flat. The money comes from the South Madison project fund, and the goal is to finish before spring events. The stepping-stone offer is still being negotiated. The brick sidewalk in front of the Red Fox Inn was relaid the week before January 23.

PFAS in Well 3

On January 23 Town Manager Danny Davis reported that the Town's first PFAS tests came back, "and well, three did come back with some positive results. Not all of the tests, but some of them did." ▶ video Well 3 is an emergency backup, so the Virginia Department of Health does not require treatment for now. But it is the Town's fallback if Well 4 fails again, as it did for years. Davis's options run from treating Well 3 where it stands, to treating its water somewhere else, to finding another source. Littleton noted the Town has little land and may need to buy some for a new well. The Town's on-call engineer will spend four to six months on a long-range water plan.

The state still has the area under a drought warning, and Davis and North are rewriting the all-or-nothing water restriction ordinance into stepped levels tied to measurable triggers. Owners of irrigation systems, pools, yard hydrants or water softeners will get letters requiring annual backflow-preventer inspections by May 1.

Richmond Wants a Word

Davis walked Council through the bills it is fighting ▶ video:

HB 2004 would cap combined county and town meals taxes. If Loudoun ever adopted a meals tax at the cap, Middleburg's would go away. "We get nothing," Davis said.
Accessory dwelling units: bills that would require them by right could double density in single-family neighborhoods. The Senate version would still let the Town's floor-area limits apply.
SB 876 would bar councils from acting on anything added to an agenda after publication. On January 9 Crim called it "a solution in search of a problem" that "just needs to be killed."
SB 975, which would have let a state board overturn local rezoning denials, already died in committee.

Also This Month

- Money: second-quarter meals and lodging revenue ran 9 to 11 percent ahead of last year ▶ video. The County's first estimate puts real estate values up 7.79 percent overall. Existing single-family homes and townhouses are up 11.5 percent, and the average Middleburg single-family house is now worth more than $1 million ▶ video. The budget arrives February 27. Littleton asked for short-term-rental lodging tax to be broken out, so Council can see how often the rentals are actually used. Crim said the booking platforms are resisting giving out that data. - Car tax: Loudoun dropped its $25 vehicle license fee for residents outside the towns and offered towns a one-year reimbursement to do the same. Council agreed to set Middleburg's to $0, about $15,000 a year, rather than repeal it outright ▶ video. - Police: after months of no applicants, Chief Shaun Jones has three. He credited the new pay scale, education incentives and take-home cars, which he will hand out to all officers at once. "A lot of bigger agencies, I would say are kind of watching what we're doing here in Middleburg now." - Zoning: private banks are now treated as professional offices, 7-0, after Carter Wiley of Piedmont Properties said it would open his building to new tenants ▶ video. - Other business: - Vision Technology Group won the Town's first competitively bid IT contract, 7-0, from 25 bidders. - Bundles Murdock was recommended for another Board of Zoning Appeals term. - The Citizens Academy filled its ten seats. - Town Hall opened as a warming center during the Dominion outage. - Dev Roszel gave the Planning Commission's annual report; the Comprehensive Plan review starts this year. - The County's Route 50 safety study meets February 3 at Willard Middle School. Davis said some of its ideas, dual-lane roundabouts and four lanes, make little sense next to parkland. Littleton wants the old Route 50 traffic-calming agreement, which promised no shoulders, found and circulated. - Littleton noted the death of Carol Lee and attended her funeral. - Council's strategic planning retreat is January 30.

Public Comment

January 9 ▶ video

Punkin Lee, chair of the Streetscape Committee, asked Council to remove the two east-side trees on South Madison Street but keep the one on the west side.
Annie Nickelson, for American Legion Post 295, announced that Gary Nickelson will step down as commander this summer, to be succeeded by Kevin McCarthy. She invited Council to his party in May and to a Legion Spy Night with Middleburg Books.

Public hearing, January 9 (private banking): Carter Wiley, owner of Piedmont Properties, spoke in favor.

January 23 ▶ video

Megan Gallagher, East Marshall Street, thanked Council for its South Madison and Asbury decisions. She asked the Town to clear the main sidewalks after snow as well as it clears the streets, and praised IES for a quick repair of a water line break.

Tips & Wags (opinion)

Tip of the Hat to Punkin Lee and her arborist. A tree saved for $2,000 and a few years is a fair trade on a street that would otherwise lose all its shade at once.

Tip of the Hat to Gary Nickelson on his coming retirement as Legion commander. Pop Gordon Field is getting its baseball back on his watch.

Wag of the Finger to HB 2004. A town that runs on meals tax shouldn't lose it because the county next door changes its mind.

Coming Up

January 30: Council strategic planning retreat, 2 to 8 p.m.; Supervisor Laura TeKrony's office hours at Town Hall.
February 3: Route 50 safety study public meeting, Willard Middle School, Aldie.
February 12: County Administrator's budget, with the County's answer on South Madison money.
February 27: the Town Manager's proposed budget.
February: the oral-history contract, the committee-term ordinances, the $0 car fee and sidewalk snow clearing.
March 12: the first Citizens Academy.
May 1: backflow inspection reports due.

Sources: the meeting videos (January 9, January 23), the Town's minutes (pending approval) and the transcripts attached to them. Quotes come from the Town contractor's transcripts; each ▶ link opens the video at the start of that agenda item.