Op-Ed
By Lloyd Harting In March of 2025, the Town of Purcellville awarded a $12,000 service contract to perform a comprehensive organizational assessment of the Purcellville Police Department. What the town received instead was a six-page report, and one of those pages was the consultant’s biography. This so-called “organizational assessment” was performed by Major Consulting and…
By Charlie Houston Dictionaries define “bonehead” as a dumb or foolish person. My definition is broader and includes people or organizations which have done things that turn out to be glaringly wrong, such as athletes, actors, politicians, governments and others. Athletes Shaquille O’Neill on visiting the Parthenon in Greece said, “I really can’t remember all…
By Larry Campbell, Vice President on behalf of Friends of Paxson-Airmont, a 501(c)(3) Charitable organization Western Loudoun County—including the Paxson-Airmont community—is one of Virginia’s most valued rural landscapes. It is defined by open pastures, historic farmsteads, stone walls, and a way of life shaped by conservation and responsible land stewardship. That character is now at…
By John P. Flannery, II Multi Gigawatt Data Centers in Loudoun County exist in large numbers, operate at high speeds, full time all the time; they’ve altered forever the residential, farmland and small business community that defined the Loudoun we once enjoyed. From 1997 to July 2024, the expansion in square feet for the County’s…
By John Ellis Those who use political buzz words and those who are listening may have widely different interpretations of what the words actually mean. Take the word “revitalization.” As one of many who hopes Purcellville will maintain its charming small town character, I was taken aback when the Mayor objected to the following proposed…
By Charles Houston Kudos Phyllis Randall, Chair of the Board of Supervisors, gets kudos for her attentiveness and engagement with a large delegation of citizens protesting the ill-conceived proposal to link Waterford and Paeonian Springs with 2.5 miles of new water and sewer lines along Clarkes Gap Road. (If this is new to you, check…
By Lloyd Harting, a former federal and local law enforcement officer who lives in Purcellville On April 4, 2025, a Purcellville Police Department police officer was terminated from employment by Purcellville Police Department Acting Chief of Police Sara Lombrana, citing alleged “unsuitability” for continued service. Simultaneously, Acting Chief Lombrana reported an unproven allegation—that the police…
By Charles Houston A handful of homes in Waterford have weak wells. A handful of houses in Paeonian Springs have problems with wastewater. These historic villages’ needs were each addressed by the County in 2022 and 2019, respectively. In the years since, nothing happened. Then last year, County bureaucrats had a eureka moment and said,…
By Delegate Geary Higgins For the better part of the past year, I have been working hard to turn Oak Hill, President James Monroe’s home in Aldie, into a State Park. Unfortunately, earlier this month, House Democrats killed what was the final shot at making Oak Hill a state park this year, and maybe ever.…
By Charles Houston I seem to vacuum random facts, which my brain manufactures into various ideas and opinions. A basic topic is protecting Loudoun County. Some of my ideas can be expressed in short paragraphs, or even in a sentence or two. Here goes … National Ideas Securitize and sell roughly $1.6 trillion in SBA…