FINNERTY’S BORDER CROSSING: After seven successful years at Liberty, Sean Finnerty is leaving for Patriot. Sports, Page 13
December 19, 2018
Our 201st year | Vol. 201, No. 51 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50
New sports complex adds 11 new fields By Robin Earl
Times Staff Writer
market, they were sold and the two friends split the proceeds. But Sugar was different. She was so tiny (20 pounds at birth instead of the typical 50) that Carroll Settle kept her warm and cozy in his basement for several days. He and his two grandaughters, who live right next door, bottle-fed her colostrum, the first form of milk produced by the mammary glands of mammals immediately following delivery.
After almost 20 years of discussion and planning, the Central District Sports Complex is on track to provide local teams with 11 new sports fields, as a result of action by the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors last week. Six rectangular fields and five diamond fields will be built along with parking, an entrance road and other infrastructure. The board of supervisors voted Thursday, Dec. 13, to cover costs for the fields but not restrooms or irrigation. The facility will be located on 74 acres at the corner of Meetze Road and Old Auburn Road outside Warrenton. Construction is estimated to take place in phases, and last roughly 16 months, with some fields to be completed next summer. Fauquier County Parks and Recreation Director Larry Miller presented the plan to supervisors and explained that a $1.3 million grant from Virginia’s Land and Conservation Fund for the project would be forfeited unless fields were “playable” before Aug. 31, 2019. S.W. Rodgers Company, Inc. submitted the lowest bid for the field construction at $10,352,225. Whitman, Requardt, and Associates, LLP earned the contract for construction engineering and inspections in the amount of $774,296. Board of Supervisors Chairman Christopher Butler (Lee) was advised by county attorney Kevin Burke not to participate in the discussion, since he is employed by S.W. Rodgers.
See SUGAR, Page 4
See COMPLEX, Page 4
Brooke Settle holds her 15-month-old son Landon Settle, atop Sugar while her dau , ghte Kirsten, 10, looks on. Kirsten Settle, righ r t, with Makenzie Settle, left, and Sugar.
Home Sweet Home
How a judge and two Fauquier elves reunited a calf named Sugar with its family By Leonard Shapiro Contributing Writer
Christmas came a few weeks early for Kiersten Settle, 10, and her sister, Makenzie, 8. A sweet calf named Sugar is back in their lives, thanks in large part to a judge and a few good Samaritans with the Fauquier SPCA. The two youngsters had helped raise the once-tiny premature calf almost from birth when local cattle farmer Levi Atkins left her with their grandfather, Carroll Settle, as INSIDE Business.............................................11 Classified............................................36 Communities......................................29 Faith...................................................27
he’d often done before with problem animals. The problem with Sugar: she was so small and frail, she couldn’t reach her mother’s udders. Carroll Settle and Atkins, who both live in Amissville, had an arrangement in such cases going back more than 30 years. Atkins owns a cattle farm two miles away and would often leave calves with Settle, who would try to save them. He usually succeeded, and when the healthy calves were ready to go to Libraries.............................................26 Lifestyle..............................................21 Looking Back......................................19 Opinion.................................................8
Obituaries...........................................33 Puzzles...............................................10 Real Estate..........................................28 Sports.................................................13
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NEWS
Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | December 19, 2018
Chuck Kuhn named 2018 Heritage Hero
PHOTO BY DOUGLAS LEES
Childs Burden presents the 2018 Heritage Hero Award to Chuck Kuhn.
Holiday spirit fills the AfroAmerican Historical Association The Afro-American Historical Association hosted an open house and Holiday Extravaganza on Dec. 15 at the museum on Loudoun Avenue in the Plains. A program of readings, poems and holiday music ushered in the season. The men’s choir of the St. John Baptist Church in Hurleytown, led by the Rev. Barnabus Sewell, had the crowd on its feet.
The men’s choir of the St. John Baptist Church in Hurleytown, performed at an AAHA open house on Saturday, Dec. 15.
Entrepreneur and conservationist Chuck Kuhn was honored by the Mosby Heritage Area Association with the 2018 Heritage Hero Award Tuesday, Dec. 4. The award was presented by Childs Burden, chairman emeritus and a founding member of the group, at the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg. Burden said Kuhn and his wife, Stacy, “have done much to protect our cherished sense of place” and are “a truly positive force” in the area. The Heritage Hero award is presented to those who have demonstrated stewardship and preservation responsibility over many years in the sprawling
Northern Virginia Piedmont and lower Shenandoah Valley of the Mosby Heritage Area founded in 1995. The expanse stretches across Fauquier, Loudoun, Clarke, Warren and western Prince William counties. Kuhn, 53, a licensed helicopter pilot, began his highly successful J.K. Moving Services at age 16. It’s now recognized as the largest independent moving company in North America. The Kuhns are parents of nine children ranging in age from teenagers to 31. At this time, Kuhn has more than 4,455 acres protected in Loudoun, Fauquier and Frederick Counties. This includes his 942-acre home, Loudoun Coun-
ty’s Egypt Farm near Lincoln. In Fauquier, Kuhn has conserved the historic 788-acre Spring Hill Farm near Warrenton. In late May 2017, Kuhn purchased the 150-acre, circa-1956 Middleburg Training Track property in Loudoun for $1.5 million from the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. He immediately set about restoring the facility, which includes 11 barns with a 7/8-mile race track and 22 paddocks. The estimated $2 million renovation has transformed the property and Kuhn clearly has kept his commitment to “do everything we can to restore it as a first-class facility.”
2018 Washington-area’s wettest on record As of 6:26 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, the current year became the wettest on record for the Washington, D.C. area since 1889. The National Weather Service announced the annual rainfall total at Ronald Reagan Airport had reached 61.34 inches that morning, breaking the previous record of 61.33 inches of rain, which was set 130 years ago.
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More rain continued to fall over the weekend, leaving Fauquier County with about 2.3 inches of rain as of Sunday evening, as measured at the Warrenton Airport, according to the National Weather Service. The prolonged wet weather led to widespread ponding as well as flooding on some roads, particularly in the southern parts of the county.
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Sumerduck Road was closed in Remington on Sunday, Dec. 15, because of flooding.
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NEWS
Fauquier Times | www.fauquier.com | December 19, 2018
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Free clinic to treat patients eligible for Medicaid By Karen Chaffraix Times Staff Writer
Fauquier Free Clinic Executive Director Rob Marino and his all-volunteer board of directors had to regroup when Virginia broadened eligibility for Medicaid this year. For the past 25 years, the clinic, which takes up several floors of a redbrick building at Walker Drive and Blackwell Road in Warrenton, treated only those with no health insurance. Beginning Jan. 1, however, more than 60 percent of its 2,150 patients could be eligible for Medicaid, which would disqualify them from treatment at the free clinic under its previous rules. About 6,000 people in Fauquier and Rappahannock counties are covered by Medicaid, and another 1,700 or 1,800 more are estimated to become eligible under the expanded income limits, Marino said. The free clinic serves as a primary-care element for its patients and refers them to hospitals and specialists who provide free services under an agreement with the clinic. The clinic also provides dental care, mental health care and prescriptions. What’s more, given the area’s scarcity of providers who accept Medicaid, newly eligible patients will likely not easily find providers nearby, if at all. Considering all of this, the clinic decided it needed to know its options. If it wanted to continue caring for its patients, it had to make changes. A PATH grant helped the clinic hire business consultant Ann Stevens from the State Association of Free Clinics to help them decide what to do, Marino said last week. The clinic learned it had seven options. Among them: it could close, stay the same (treat only the uninsured), adopt a “hybrid model,” or apply to become a federally-qualified clinic. They chose the hybrid model, Marino said, which allows them to continue treating all their patients, even those eligible for Medicaid. The clinic’s recently implemented electronic medical-record system would assist a more complicated patient load. They’d need to hire someone to process Medicaid billing and payments received. Their “tele-medicine,” system of mental health counseling by non-local providers via internet could help meet higher demand, Martino said. Applying to be a federally-qualified health center remains on the table, however, he added. “We have not ruled out exploring that option again sometime in the future, but it is a very extensive application process and would change the nature of our clinic too dramatically at this time. It would probably take months to even make the application,” Marino said. According the Health Resources and Services Administration, a FQHC receives federal funding, may receive enhanced Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, serves an underserved population, offers sliding fees and provides comprehensive services that include transportation,
preventative health, hospital services and substance abuse treatment. “One of our great strengths is the grassroots, volunteer-oriented care that we provide,” Marino said, explaining why they chose the hybrid model. “In the end, we chose a middle path that will let us stay who we are and also allow our patients to continue with us.” Fauquier Free Clinic is one of 60 free clinics in Virginia. Funded by a combination of local donations, business partners, grants and state money that covers “less than a fifth of our budget,” the clinic is staffed by some 250 volunteers, Marino said. It employs one part-time staff physician, one physician’s assistant, four part-time dentists and support staff. Some 25 volunteer primary care physicians see patients, as do mental health providers conducting sessions over the internet. Its annual budget is $1.4 million. “What we want people to know is that they can continue to come here for their medical, dental, mental health treatments and prescriptions,” Marino said, “even if their status changes from no insurance to Medicaid-insured. We, in fact, help them apply for Medicaid.” Patients must live in Fauquier or Rappahannock counties and be low-income and uninsured or Medicaid insured. For more information, visit fauquierfreeclinic.org or call 540-347-0394.
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/KAREN CHAFFRAIX
Fauquier Free Clinic Executive Director Rob Marino
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