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JULY 23, 2015
NUMBER 4
Educa t io n
VOLUME 9
Courthouse Expansion ‘Standoff’
Vote, Supervisors Eye Ashburn Office Complex Sports
Town Council Delays Demolition
Jonathan Hunley & Mike Stancik
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Ashburn Today
L if e s t yle s
oudoun’s Board of Supervisors last week agreed to consider moving the county government center out of downtown Leesburg if plans for a new General District courthouse aren’t approved. The action came hours after the Leesburg Town Council delayed its vote on whether to grant permits to demolish four buildings on Edwards Ferry Road to make room for a new District Court building. The supervisors voted 7-2 to direct the county staff to look at moving the government center to the Moorefield Station development in Ashburn or to a site on Sycolin Road should the $57 million court expansion stall. The county-owned buildings are in the historic district, but their historical importance has been questioned and supervisors have pushed forward with plans to take them down. However, Leesburg’s Board of Architectural Review voted in May to allow the county to demolish only portions of the buildings, additions that were deemed non-historic. Loudoun’s government appealed that decision to the Town Council, which discussed the matter at length last Tuesday, but ultimately postponed a vote until July 28. The council has until Aug. 25 to
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Ashburn Today/Danielle Nadler
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w ww.as hbur n to d a y.co m • Thursda y, July 2 3 , 2 0 15
County employees make their way into work Tuesday. Downtown merchants are concerned about losing the business of the 523 employees who work at the government center if it’s moved out of town.
Support Builds For Memorial To Loudoun Slaves
Permit #78 Springfield, VA
and others were on the battlefield fighting against the battle-tested, hardened Confederate soldiers at the Battle of Milliken’s Bend on June 7, 1863,” Grigsby said. “Yet, many like Alexander would die on the battlefield having experienced freedom for just a few short weeks. But they died in the name of freedom—a freedom they didn’t experience for very long, but a freedom they prayed millions of Continued on Page 54
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bout 100 people gathered around the county courthouse Saturday as the Loudoun County branch of the NAACP held a rally to call attention to freed and runaway slaves who
Umstattd, historian Kevin Grigsby shared stories about the black soldiers and slaves who fought in the war. “Men like Washington Alexander who were snatched away from their loved ones and sold over 1,000 miles away enlisted in the Union Army right after the Union Army came and liberated the slaves on his plantation,” Grigsby said. “Within only a few short weeks of freedom, he
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fought in the Civil War 150 years ago. The event served as a petition to county leaders to place a marker on the courthouse grounds in their honor, as well as denote the property’s role in the Underground Railroad that helped countless slaves escape to freedom. After opening remarks from NAACP Loudoun branch President Phillip E. Thompson and welcoming remarks from Leesburg Mayor Kristen
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