Op-Ed
By Purcellville Council Member Susan Khalil Virginia’s leaders have a message for their citizens: conserve water. Take shorter showers. Delay watering the lawn. Be mindful of every gallon. The Commonwealth is facing drought conditions, and we are all being asked to do our part. Fair enough. Water is precious. Conservation is prudent. Responsible stewardship of…
By Ken Falke At the entrance of every military base, there are signs, statues, and symbols honoring sacrifice. We rightly celebrate those who raised their right hand and volunteered to serve our nation in uniform. But there is another group of volunteers in this country that rarely receives recognition. They don’t wear medals. They don’t…
By Mayor Chris Bertaut My opponent wrote that “water rates should never be political.” On that, we agree. Reliable water and sewer service is essential. Infrastructure must be maintained, reserves protected, and long-term plans honored. We agree on those duties. We disagree that the only responsible path is to load increasing costs onto our citizens…
By Charlie Houston A friend bemoaned the general ugliness of new County buildings. What set him off was a rendering of the zillion-dollar Western Loudoun Recreation Center. (Leesburg’s government buildings visually reference colonial architecture, though they are modern. Therefore, they look and fit better than Loudoun’s.) His comment made me think comprehensively about local architecture.…
By Charlie Houston Nope, that’s not the cost of three new Loudoun County high schools (which would be more than that.) It’s not County spending for six weeks. Nope, IT’s MINE. Yep, it’s all mine. Thank you, Mega Millions. Charlie Houston won! While the prize was broadcast at $1.5 billion, that’s not how it works. …
By David Verhey, President, Friends of Paxson-Airmont Supervisor Caleb Kershner (Catoctin) is advancing a proposal to remove key limits on so-called “agri-business” uses in rural Loudoun, allowing effectively unlimited event activity with real consequences for nearby residents and family farms. Kershner’s industry-favored concept reflects a broader push to commercialize rural Loudoun at the expense of…
By Ken Falke When I first became a coach with USA Hockey, I thought I was signing up to teach kids how to skate faster, pass better, and score more goals. What I didn’t realize was that I was stepping into a laboratory for life. Ice rinks are cold, loud, and unforgiving. They are also one…
By Charlie Houston The Drudgery of Research Back in the pre-Google and pre-artificial intelligence times, research could be torment. Some questions could be answered through encyclopedias; others required hours in libraries, poring through tome after tome. Either way, information had to be gathered, sorted, edited, and finally shaped into something readable. It was time-consuming, sometimes…
By Madeline Skinner The Philomont Horse Show Grounds have been demolished. Only the cook shack remains—for now. For more than 60 years, this space served as a gathering place for the community and as the home of one of the area’s oldest horse shows. Today, it has been permanently erased. Trees have been cleared for…
By Ken Falke I grew up in the 1960s and ’70s—a time of big cars, long summer nights, and childhoods spent outdoors. We played until the streetlights came on. We scraped our knees, argued with friends, lost games, and learned from failure. Confidence wasn’t handed to us—it was earned. Look at kids today and the…