The middle school girls cross country season concludes Friday with a race at Crockett Park. Photos, page 20
May 16, 2018
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County plan aims to place armed guards in Fauquier schools By James Ivancic and Jill Palermo Times Staff Writer
Fauquier County school officials and Sheriff Bob Mosier are moving ahead with plans to eventually place armed security guards — either sworn law-enforcement officers or “school security specialists” — in each of Fauquier’s 20 public schools. The county board of supervisors approved a plan May 10 to fund an additional 15 school-security-related positions, including three additional school resource officers and 12 “school security specialists,” guards who would be hired, armed and trained by the sheriff’s department to work in local schools. In March, the supervisors approved a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 that includes
$766,229 to fund the additional positions. The action followed a request from Fauquier Superintendent David Jeck to hire more security in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, school shootings in February. That’s when the school division hired three security specialists — who are not sworn officers and are not armed. One was assigned to each of the county’s three high schools. In April, Jeck, County Administrator Paul McCulla and Mosier discussed converting two of the planned school security positions to school resource officers and transferring those three specialist positions to the sheriff’s office. The move allows the three specialists hired in February to transition to armed guards. The two new school-resource officers will be
sworn officers employed by the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office, just as the existing eight SROs already are. Each of the county’s three high schools and five middle schools already had SROs on their campuses prior to the Florida school shootings. The new SROs will be assigned to the Southeastern Alternative School and two elementary schools located furthest from the sheriff’s office headquarters in Warrenton: Claude Thompson Elementary School, in Marshall, and Mary Walter Elementary School in Bealeton. The placement is based on the time it would take deputies to reach the school buildings in an emergency, Jeck said Monday.
See GUARDS, page 5
Council votes to sell Mosby house Two teachers, three kids and a dog hope to make Brentmoor home By Leland Schwartz Times Staff Writer
From left, Robin, Annalise, Eli, Kirk and Jonah Goolsby, with their dog Sawyer outside the John Singleton Mosby House.
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/ LELAND SCHWARTZ
Farmstays becoming a mainstay in rural Virginia. Business, page 19 INSIDE Business.............................................11 Classified............................................35 Communities......................................30 Faith.....................................................4
Six new towers planned to boost cell, broadband. News, page 8
Family Time........................................15 Library................................................33 Lifestyle..............................................25 Opinion.................................................6
“I have to admit when I saw Brentmoor up for sale I was stunned,” Kirk Goolsby, the probable new owner of the John Singleton Mosby House told the Warrenton Town Council last week just before it voted to sell the historic home to him and his wife, Robin. “I thought ‘Oh my goodness!’ the place will be closed. Forever,” Goolsby said excitedly. “It will become a Fort Knox for whomever the owner is. I won’t be able to come walk my dog up here anymore. I won’t be able to stick my head in the window and imagine what it was like for somebody to live here 150 years ago.”
See MOSBY, page 3
Ballet honoring Marine son’s sacrifice takes stage in Manassas. Lifestyle, page 33
Obituaries.............................................9 Puzzles...............................................34 Real Estate..........................................29 Sports.................................................19
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Mint condition musical harmonist
Picture a couple of young men, friends in college and on break visiting Washington, D.C. They stumble upon a barbershop quartet performing on a barge on the Potomac near the capitol. Perhaps it was the melodious tones that captured their imagination or perhaps it was the thought of having a musical gig that could put you on the water. That first harmonious exposure set in motion for Glenn Williamson an eventual path to Fauquier County and a 54-year relationship with the Barbershop Harmony Society headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Glenn joined in 1964. He has not only sung and served as an officer with various chapters, but also currently directs two groups – The Blue Ridge Barbershoppers in Warrenton and The Blue Run Troubadours in Manassas. Both groups are active in their respective communities, always open to engagements
Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | May 16, 2018 whether they be private parties, assisted living homes or larger venues. Glenn’s minor in music has led to a lifetime of involvement in barbershop harmony, a unique style of unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note. The melody is consistently sung by the lead(second tenor), with the tenor (first tenor) harmonizing above the melody, the bass singing the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completing the chord. Perhaps the most familiarity with barbershop groups is a quartet, but they also sing in larger chorale groups. The Bull Run Troubadours is an example, with dozens of men donned in bright red vests and the traditional white shirts and black armbands. Glenn exudes energy and excitement about his years of fellowship and music. His hope is that future generations will continue the Classified Sales Consultants Jeanne Cobert, 540-878-2491 jcobert@fauquier.com Evelyn Cobert, 540-878-2492 ecobert@fauquier.com
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tradition. “We do a lot with youth outreach,” says Glenn, “we want to help young people discover the joys and fun of singing together.” The qualifications of joining a barbershop group are pretty simple. There are no auditions. If you are a male and like to sing and are willing to commit to a schedule, that’s pretty much it…but then there are those competitions which can take your performance to another level. Barbershop quartets can go international on the stage of competition. And there are groups from countries like Japan and Sweden who compete. Trick is they have to sing in perfect English pronunciation. Glenn smiled as he talked about the Musical Island Boys, the 2014 International Barbershop Harmony Society Quartet Champions. They hail from Wellington, New Zealand, and Melbourne, Australia. This polished and elegant a capella quartet continues to garner award after award while staying true to their Pacific roots. And the women aren’t left out. Traditionally, the word “barbershop” has been used to encompass both men’s and women’s singing in the barbershop style – in quartets and choruses. Sweet Adelines International and Harmony, Inc. are two women’s barbershop singing organizations. Glenn’s love of music was balanced by his decades of work for the U.S. Mint Department, specifically the commemorative coin program. Since the modern commemorative coin program began in 1982, the U.S. Mint has raised more than $500 million to help build new museums, maintain national monuments like the Vietnam War Memorial, preserve historical sites like George Washington’s home, support various Olympic programs, and much more. Glenn was instrumental in the Eisenhower Dollar Mintages. Eisenhower Dollars were struck for circulation at the Philadelphia and Denver mints from 1971 to 1978. The highest mintage occurred in 1976, when more than 200 million coins were struck with the Bicentennial reverse design. At 82, and retired for several years, Glenn
Glenn Williamson spends his days on the golf course, singing or organizing some upcoming event either in Warrenton or Manassas. But there’s more. On a trip to Scotland with his family, they looked out over the fields of purple hue and it was love at first sight. Family owned and operated in Catlett, Glenn’s wife Eddie and daughter Debbie run Seven Oaks Lavender Farm where you can pick your own lavender, breathe in its aromatic wonderfulness, brew it in tea, add it to your shortbread cookie recipe or stick a sashay in your linen drawer. “You need to come in June,” says Glenn. “That’s the best month when it’s in bloom.” And, like the Marines, the barbershop groups are always looking for a few, or more, good men. If you’d like to join the Blue Ridge Barbershoppers, contact Worth Kirkman at 540-3476079 or visit www.blueridgebarbershoppers. wordpress.com. To learn more about the Bull Run Troubadours, visit www.brtva.org. Love lavender? Visit www.sevenoakslavenderfarm. com
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Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | May 16, 2018
Council votes to sell Mosby house
MOSBY from page 1
But then, he told a packed and rapt council chamber, “We started examining and realized ‘Wow!’, we could do this. … One of my very first thoughts was, what can we do to make sure it doesn’t get closed off?” Goolsby said his family won’t let that happen. Instead, they’ve agreed to open the Mosby house to the public twice a year. It’s “the least of what we agreed to do,” Goolsby said. What’s more, he added: “One of the things that I am absolutely 100 percent clear on is there are going to be people [who] knock on the door, and they’re going to ask, ‘Is this the Mosby Museum?’ And I know my response is going to be, ‘No there is not a Mosby Museum, but come on in and let me show you around.’”
Council rejects 11th hour bid
During its May 8 meeting, the council rejected a last-minute bid from a group hoping to return Mosby’s home back into a museum to instead follow through on plans to sell the property to the Goolsbys. The couple, who live in Warrenton, hope to convert it to a private residence for their three children and dog, Sawyer. Not only did the council agree the family would be good stewards of the one-time home of the “Gray Ghost” who led “Mosby’s Rangers,” but also that it would reflect badly on the town to abandon a deal negotiated in good faith over a period of months. Also central to the council’s decision, which was approved in a 6 to 1 vote, was that people would actually live in the home, bringing a young family and new life to Main Street. Speaking to that, Kirk Goolsby joked that no one need worry about whether the grass would be cut, pointing to his 14-year-old son, Jonah, who was sitting next to his brother Eli, 11, and sister, Annalise,
8. The comment drew laughter from the room. Many who spoke at the hearing before the vote expressed concern that the 157-year-old home didn’t work out as a museum when it opened in 2013. Therefore, they said, allowing it to reopen as a tourist attraction would not make sense. So, unless the Goolsbys hit a snag with one of several remaining contract contingencies, the sale will put to rest one of the town’s most contentious issues in recent years. The sales price will be $170,000 less than the Goolsbys’ original bid, which matched the town’s $595,000 asking price. The reduction was due to several repairs found to be necessary during the inspection. Councilman Alec Burnett (Ward 2), cast the only dissenting vote. Burnett said he felt the town was obligated to study any legitimate offer, including that of the Brentmoor group that offered a last-minute $450,000 bid to buy the home to return it to a cultural center. “Whether you believe or not in the last-minute offer … it was certainly within the legal right … and I feel it is our responsibility to give the same due diligence and awareness that we’ve given to one offer to the other,” Burnett said. Burnett, along with Councilman Sean Polster (at large) lost a 5-2 vote to table the sale for 30 days. In preparing the council for the hearing, Town Manager Brannon Godfrey said the Goolsbys had gotten approval for $600,000 in financing, and that selling Brentmoor to them would save the town from current and future repair costs. In addition, he said the town would have to pay conversion costs to put the property to another use, such as office space. Also, the sale would not only recover most of the town’s initial investment, Godfrey
CORRECTIONS The May 9 Fauquier Times included an incomplete caption below the feature photo of Gold Cup winners on page 1A. The caption should have said: Celebrating after winning the May 5 Virginia Gold Cup feature race are jockey Kieran Norris, hoisting the challenge cup, far left, with trainer Neil Morris alongside. Winning horse Zanclus’s owner-breeders Sara and Bruce Collette next, with their daughter Sheila Bell in the dark glasses behind them. The perpetual Gold Cup is presented by Sophia Vella.
In a Lifestyles story “Take your mom to tea,” published May 9 included the British Pantry in Aldie. The British Pantry is no longer in business. The Times regrets the errors.
said, but return the property to a taxable status. “On the down side,” he said, “the town would lose control of an asset. It would lose control of potentially some economic benefit from the house as a tourist attraction,” exactly the point the Brentmoor Trust group has been trying to make for the past few years. In making that argument for his group, Birge Watkins said they proposed to not only a museum but a cultural and historical educational center. “This is not really a house museum. It’s more of a museum in a house,” he said of the group’s vision.
Offer included park
Watkins apologized for the last-minute submission, but said the group thought the public hearing on the sale would be next month. He said their offer was not only $25,000 higher than the Goolsbys’ but came with no contingencies, even waiving an appraisal or inspection. In addition, the offer would give the town the side yard because, “We support the idea of a town park,” Watkins said. The group’s offer was to be largely financed by Mosby’s nephew, John Mosby Russell, who told the council he believed the Brentmoor group would succeed. Councilman Jerry Wood (Ward 1), who last year voted against selling the house and said he sympathized with what the Brentmoor group was trying to accomplish, nonetheless made the motion to sell the home to the Goolsbys, citing the “spirit of fairness, honesty and thought.” Mayor Powell Duggan could not vote but told the council, “I am torn by this.” Duggan said that while “there could not be better stewards of the property than the Goolsbys,” this is “a decision about what’s best for the Town of Warrenton.” Duggan also told his colleagues, “People have tried over the years to make this work. I don’t know if this is going to work as a house museum. I don’t know if that’s possible.” In the end, the council agreed and sided with the Goolsbys and Jim Lawrence, a neighbor who has known the family for close to a decade and echoed what several people came to say: “If you dreamt up the perfect family to take over the Mosby house, you couldn’t have dreamt up a better family than the Goolsbys.” Reach Leland Schwartz at lschwartz@fauquier.com
FROM PAGE 1 Col. John S. Mosby’s brief return to Warrenton
Unlike other Confederate commanders, Col. John S. Mosby (1833-1916) did not surrender his Partisan Rangers when the war ended on April 4, 1865, at Appomattox. Instead, Mosby simply gathered his men near Marshall on April 21, 1865, and officially disbanded the unit. Many of the Rangers, including Mosby, sought and were granted paroles shortly afterward. Returning to Warrenton that spring, Mosby resumed his law practice, living with his wife Pauline (1837-1876) and their family at Road Island, the Jeffries property north of Warrenton just off present-day U.S. 17 near Bethel. Two years later, Mosby moved to Washington, D.C. to practice law, and it was during this time he became friends with his former enemy, Gen. (and by then President) Ulysses S. Grant. Mosby openly campaigned for Grant during the campaign for his re-election in 1872. Returning to Warrenton, the Mosbys lived for a time in a house on Horner Street before purchasing Brentmoor on Main Street, built between 1859-61 for Judge Edward M. Spilman. In 1875, Mosby purchased the property from James Keith, who had acquired Brentmoor in the early 1870s. Sale price was $8,000. It was a large, comfortable house, in easy walking distance to his law office, but Mosby’s time there was filled with sadness. Pauline did not recover after giving birth to their son, Alfred McLaurine, in March 1876, and died May 10 in an upstairs bedroom at Brentmoor. Baby Alfred died June 30, 1876. Soon after returning to Warrenton, Mosby’s close relationship with Grant alienated him from many of his former comrades and friends. In 1877, after disembarking from the train at the Warrenton Depot after returning from a trip to Washington D.C., someone took a potshot at him. Wishing to leave the heartache and discord behind him, Mosby sold Brentmoor to Gen. Eppa Hunton later that year – again for $8,000 – and returned to Washington, D.C, where President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him to the U.S. consulship in Hong Kong, a tour that lasted six years. He later worked as an attorney for the Southern Pacific Railroad, followed by federal service with the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice. In his later years, Mosby wrote about his Civil War exploits, but he was clearly critical the causes of the conflict, “… blaming the lack of public education for the South’s long tolerance of slavery.” Mosby only attended one of the several reunions of his own troops, mostly held in Warrenton, because he felt such gatherings only made the wounds of war harder to heal,” according to “250 Years in Fauquier County, a Virginia Story” (2009). — John Toler
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