2025 in Review: Counting Every Gallon

December 30, 2025 · By Jay Hubbard

In 2025 Middleburg learned to count its water. The year opened with forever chemicals in a backup well and the driest start in Loudoun's records, and by fall the Mayor was warning that one of the Town's main wells could no longer keep up. In between, Council wrote a law to ration water if it ever has to, watched the tourism money stop climbing, chose a future for the Asbury Church, finally filled its police force, and said goodbye to two members who had served nearly a decade apiece.

This is the year as the Middleburg Town Council Report covered it, month by month. Each section links to the full report.

Counting Every Gallon

The trouble started in January, when the Town's first tests for PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, came back positive at Well 3, the emergency backup (January). On Presidents Day a water main at the Residences at Salamander blew its cap and drained about 300,000 gallons from the Town's tanks (February). The first four months of the year were the driest start in Loudoun in 131 years of records.

In May the Mayor and Town Manager held a community meeting to explain why the Town wanted the power to ration. Western Loudoun had added thousands of private wells in a decade. "Every new well is a new straw in that cup of water draining from the same pool," Mayor Bridge Littleton said. Two days later Councilmember Bud Jacobs put the stakes plainly: in an extreme emergency, "this is not a consumer issue. This becomes a safety and a health issue" (May). The rain came in June, and Well 4's pump went down to 503 feet (June). On July 24 Council adopted the rationing law, 7-0: three levels, from voluntary to a household cap, with the biggest commercial users cutting 10 percent (July).

Six weeks later it had to use it. Well 4, freshly rebuilt and deepened, began dropping as much as 220 feet while it pumped, and the Town asked everyone to conserve (September). In October the Town had to ease off Well 4 because it couldn't keep up with normal demand. "This is the first time we've seen this stress like this," Littleton said (October). In November a former County hydrologist told the county's mayors there are now about 18,000 private wells in western Loudoun, most of them too close together, and Littleton said it was time to push the County (November). In December Middleburg's delegate-elect, John McAuliff, told Council he wants "a state level study of what's going on with our water table here" (December).

The Gravy Train Slows

For three years meals and lodging taxes had climbed. In February Littleton warned that "the days of the big gravy train are, are over." In March, after adding up the Asbury Church, South Madison Street and the water projects against the Town's reserve, he described the moment at a finance meeting when he turned to the Vice Mayor: "I'm like, we're broke." The Town wasn't broke, he added, but its cushion was spoken for (February, March).

Then meals tax receipts fell 14 percent in February and 6 percent in March. "We are headed for rocky roads," Littleton said. The Town Manager withdrew his own request for two more police officers, and Council adopted a leaner budget, 7-0, with the real estate tax rate cut again, to 12 cents (April, June). The year still closed well: a general fund surplus of about $928,000 and another clean audit (December).

The Asbury Church Takes Shape

In January Council decided what the church will be: a place to tell its own story and that of Middleburg's African American community, with room for small gatherings and no kitchen (January). Over the spring a film crew recorded oral histories of former congregants and neighbors. In August Council hired the architect and construction manager, with a warning from the Mayor: "This is a great to have it's not a got to have" (August). By October tests had found asbestos and lead paint, which will be removed as part of the restoration, and in December the project committee was reviewing the schematic design (October, December).

A Full Police Force

After two years of trying, the police department reached full strength in March. Chief Shaun Jones credited the new pay scale and the take-home cars. "They're watching what we're doing here," he said of other departments. Council then spent a long evening on whether it needed two more officers. By the Town Manager's count, Middleburg had gone without an officer on duty about 15 minutes a week over two years, coverage 99.98 percent of the time (March). The two positions were dropped from the budget in April. By October the take-home cars had a good report and credit for the last two hires (April, October).

Smaller Things That Mattered

The farmers market got one more season in February, by a 4-3 vote and $40,000, and a better one: a new layout and as many as 400 shoppers a Saturday. Whether there will be another was still open at year's end (February, November).
The Mille Miglia warm-up didn't return, and a new car event, Rallye Middleburg, took its place in October, after its organizers learned there is no checklist for holding an event in town. "So, we don't have a checklist," Littleton told them (July, September).
South Madison Street lost two of its trees and kept a willow oak, and Mark Ohrstrom offered to take away the old stepping stones and lay brick in their place (January, July).
Ridgeview's new rules held. "The tear downs have stopped," Littleton said at his State of the Town address in November (November).

Goodbyes

Hilleary Bogley handed Scruffy's Ice Cream Parlor, which she opened in 1988, to new owners (July). Bill Nugent retired as a part-time officer after 56 years in law enforcement (August). The town lost Carol Lee and the Reverend Swann, one of the four friends who, with James "Smitty" Smith, ended segregation in Middleburg in 1961 (January, November).

In November voters re-elected Littleton and chose Dr. Chris Hersh and Deborah Gallagher for Council. In December Councilmembers Peter Leonard-Morgan and Bud Jacobs left after nearly a decade apiece. Leonard-Morgan had led the Town's "Go Green" work and its Utilities Committee; Jacobs had started on the wellhead protection committee and now moves to the Planning Commission. Councilmember Kevin Daly summed up the Council they were leaving: "we take the task seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously" (December).

What 2025 Left for 2026

The year ended with a drought that hadn't broken, a backup well that needs treatment, the Asbury Church's final design and the premiere of its oral-history film, a lawsuit from Salamander Farms still alive, and a monthly celebration planned for America's 250th birthday.

Sources: the twelve 2025 Middleburg Town Council Reports, each built from the Town's meeting videos, minutes and transcripts, and the Loudoun Now coverage cited in them.