THE LIST IS OUT: The Fauquier Times names its Top 20 sports stories of 2018. Sports, Page 11
January 2, 2019
Our 202nd year | Vol. 202, No. 1 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50
A look back at a stormy 2018 By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Stormy weather and stormier politics dominated the headlines in Fauquier County in 2018. Local residents endured the rainiest year since 1889 and coped with not one but two federal government shutdowns (the latest of which was at 10 days and counting as of press time).
Voters went to the polls three times in 2018: for the May 1 town elections, the June 12 primaries and for the Nov. 6 general election that saw the Democrats take over the House of Representatives for the first time since 2011. Rep. Tom Garrett, R-5th, announced on Memorial Day he would not seek re-election in order to battle an addiction to alcohol. He’ll be replaced this month
by Denver Riggleman, a Republican who owns a whiskey distillery outside Charlottesville. The Air Force veteran beat Democrat Leslie Cockburn, an investigative journalist, in the Nov. 6 election with 53 percent of the vote. In Warrenton, the May elections ushered in a new mayor During the March 1 windstorm, two large pine trees fell and one new town councilman. in the front of Debbie Ogden’s home on Beverleys Mill Road in Broad Run. One came down on her carport, demolishing the structure and crushing her Dodge.
See STORMY, Page 5
Three local CrossFit ‘boxes’ offer challenging workouts and a community of believers By Robin Earl
Times Staff Writer
CrossFit is about ‘functional fitness’ PHOTO BY CARSON MCRAE
Michelle Winner pushes herself while Sherry Sprague cheers her on at Virginia 15-29 CrossFit. INSIDE Business...............................................9 Classified............................................28 Communities......................................22 Faith...................................................20
Family Time........................................15 Lifestyle..............................................17 Libraries.............................................23 Obituaries...........................................25
CrossFit athletes have a reputation for being tough. Have you seen people running uphill on Second Street with sandbags over their shoulders or sprinting along the Warrenton Greenway as twilight settles? They are “CrossFitters.” In gyms throughout Fauquier, they are lifting heavy weights, climbing ropes like Marine recruits and otherwise challenging themselves to new levels of physical fitness. CrossFit is a form of “functional exercise.” Rather than relying on exercise machines or a narrow series of repetitive movements, CrossFit makes use of a variety of modalities. Barbells, pull-up bars, gymnastic rings, rowing machines, kettlebells – all and more may be employed in a CrossFit workout. Besides being hard-core about their workout methods, CrossFit enthusiasts are difficult to stereotype. Men and women are about equally represented. College athletes share the gym with grandmas, and even kids as young as 4 are into the act. The first CrossFit gym opened in 1996 in Santa Cruz, California. Today there are more than 13,000 locations in 120 countries. Many athletic hopefuls will head to gyms this January, hoping to keep their resolutions going at least until March. In CrossFit gyms, known as “boxes,” athletes will insist their friends try a class or two, hoping they get hooked for good – just like they did. See CROSSFIT, Page 4
Opinion.................................................7 Puzzle Page..........................................8 Real Estate..........................................21 Sports.................................................11
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Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | January 2, 2019
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Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | January 2, 2019
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Remington mom, FEMA manager enters Lee District school board race By Karen Chaffraix Times Staff Writer
Stephanie Litter-Reber, a Remington mother of two, says she’s running for the Fauquier County School Board to address high teacher-turnover and classroom funding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency information systems manager was working at home on a recent Thursday as an “essential employee” whose scheduled days off evaporated with the government shutdown. “You learn to go with the flow,” she said jovially. The 15-year Remington resident would bring to the elected post decades of experience in the federal government along with active-duty service in the Navy, where she was trained in advanced electronics. She grew up in New York, graduated from high school in Ohio, and earned an associate degree in computer science from University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in information technology management from American Intercontinental University. Litter-Reber spent six years in the Navy doing crypto-tech maintenance and nine years in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard prior to her work with FEMA. She met her husband, then in the Air Force, in Germany where both were stationed. They have two children in Fauquier schools: Harrison, 12, a student at Cedar Lee Middle; and Benjamin, 10, who goes to Margaret M. Pierce Elementary. “Both of the boys are in Cub Scouts and take
karate classes. I take it with them,” Litter-Reber said. Her eldest is involved with robotics these days, and the youngest “is more into sports.” Litter-Reber described three areas of concern she would like to address if elected: teacher retention, classroom funding and stronger representation of southern Fauquier needs at the school-board level. “One of my biggest issues is the teacher turnover here in Fauquier County,” Litter-Reber said. “Only two teachers remain at Pierce who were there when my son attended the school in the last six years. And the ratio of students to teachers at Pierce, at 17:1, is the highest in the county.” Litter-Reber is concerned about the county’s special education student-teacher ratio as well. “Since 2017, Fauquier County has seen a 33-percent increase in special education students. A 19:1 student to teacher ratio in the SPED hub school, Greenville, is also very concerning and deserves scrutinization,” she said. “Getting money into the classrooms and to teacher pay are both critical,” Litter-Reber said. “At the beginning of the school year, we get a list of supplies each teacher needs, and we get reminders throughout the year when things run out. When there are no donations, those teachers are paying for supplies out of pocket. And most of our teachers aren’t making a living wage as it is.” Lastly, Litter-Reber would like to see more of southern Fauquier’s needs met through a better flow of information between the community, the teachers, the board of supervisors and the school board. “The southern end of the county doesn’t always have
New app tracks school buses in real time By Karen Chaffraix Times Staff Writer
Fauquier students may suffer fewer frigid digits waiting for the school bus this winter. When school resumes after winter break on Monday, Jan. 7, parents will have access to a free cellphone app that will allow them to see the location of their child’s school bus in real time. The app will also show when each school bus arrives at each stop and at their final destinations, according to a Fauquier County school division press release. While the Indiana-based Synovia Solutions is making the app available to the county, it is already serving some 300,000 users daily across North America, the school division said. Fauquier County Public Schools has had a contract with the company in service of its 157 buses. In October, the county set up a pilot study using the app at Bradley Elementary School and it is ongoing, said school division spokeswoman Tara Helkowski.
ISSN 1050-7655, USPS 188280 Published every Wednesday by Piedmont Media LLC How to reach us ADDRESS: 41 Culpeper Street Warrenton, Virginia 20186 PHONE: 540-347-4222 FAX: 540-349-8676 HOURS: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 24-hour answering service Publisher Catherine M. Nelson, 540-347-4222 cnelson@fauquier.com NEWSROOM Managing Editor Jill Palermo, 540-351-0431 jpalermo@fauquier.com Web/Copy Editor Amanda Heincer, 540-878-2418 aheincer@fauquier.com
“The cost to add the app was part of our contract renewal with Synovia Solutions,” she added. “They have a suite of tools that we we’re already using, including time and attendance, fleet-tracking and comparative analysis.” Synovia Solutions’ website says the app was launched in 2014. The start of the 2018-19 school year saw a spike in the number of downloads, which now total “more than a million, resulting in a top 50 position among education-related apps on the iTunes app store.” The app also has an average rating of 4.6 stars and 23,000 reviews. Fauquier County Schools said the app promises to take the stress out of parents’ mornings and helps keep students protected from harsh winter weather. “[The app] has made mornings less stressful because we know exactly when we have to walk out the door to catch the bus,” said Amber Kiffney, a Fauquier parent involved in the pilot study. “I work from home, so being able to track the bus on its way to our stop
Community Editor Anita Sherman, 540-351-1635 asherman@fauquier.com Associate Editor John Toler, 540-351-0487 jtoler@fauquier.com Staff Writers Karen Chaffraix, kchaffraix@fauquier.com James Ivancic, 540-878-2414 jivancic@fauquier.com Sports Editor Peter Brewington, 540-351-1169 pbrewington@fauquier.com Sports Staff Writer Jeff Malmgren, 540-874-2250 jmalmgren@fauquier.com ADVERTISING Ad Manager Kathy Mills Godfrey 540-351-1162 kgodfrey@fauquier.com Classified Sales Consultant Jeanne Cobert, 540-878-2491 jcobert@fauquier.com
Chairman Emeritus George R. Thompson To place Classified and Employment ads: Call 540351-1664 or fax 540-3498676, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday — Friday or email fauquierclassifieds@fauquier. com SUBSCRIPTIONS Call 540-347-4222 Help with your subscription? Call 540-878-2413 or email CirculationFT@fauquier.com Missed your paper? Call 540-347-4222, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays Subscription: $69.68 per year within the United States. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Fauquier Times, 41 Culpeper St., Warrenton, VA 20186. Periodicals postage paid at Warrenton, Va. and at additional mailing offices
its needs met with the same urgency as Warrenton and northern Fauquier,” she said. “This area gets left behind. The relevant parties are not communicating with each other. Teachers’ needs are not getting conveyed to the superintendent.” While Litter-Reber says Stephanie she has no issues with curLitter-Reber rent Lee District School Board member Don Mason, she adds: “I have kids in the school system and I’d like to see improvements, and to ensure that Fauquier County has a viable system to provide a quality education and to keep our teachers.” Mason has said he intends to seek re-election. Litter-Reber said she will talk to teachers, administrators and parents in the Lee District leading up to the election “to find out what the issues are inside the schools; what parents expect out of the schools, issues they would like to see resolved; and to review the budget to see where and how are tax dollars are being spent within the school system.” “I have always worked in the federal sector, both as a federal employee and a federal contractor,” the candidate said. “You get used to dealing with budgets that don’t contain enough money. You learn how to prioritize your needs over your wants in order to spend your funding effectively.” Reach Karen Chaffraix at kchaffraix@fauquier.com
gives me a few extra minutes every day to wrap up whatever I’m working on.” County buses have target arrival times for each stop, but weather, traffic and substitute drivers can cause arrival deviations. The app should help alleviate phone calls to the bus hub and will
send push notifications and alerts when necessary, the school division said. To read more and download the app, search for “Here Comes the Bus” at www.fcps1.org/hctb. The app can be downloaded onto smartphones or tablets from the App Store or Google Play.
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