LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
LoudounNow
[ Vol. 5, No. 1 ]
■ PUBLIC AND LEGAL NOTICES - PAGE 26 ■ NOW HIRING LOUDOUN PAGE 40
■ RESOURCE DIRECTORY [November 21, 2019 ] PAGE 429
[ loudounnow.com ]
Hillsboro To Award $14M Rt. 9 Contract BY PATRICK SZABO
dent of the Loudoun Wineries Association, said she has seen her own operation double in growth since she and her husband bought the winery in 2012. They had been looking at buying land in California or Oregon to start their winery, she said, but realized the land of opportunity was right in their own backyard when they moved to Loudoun 13 years ago. “There’s a transformation happening in Loudoun County and Virginia in regards to wine, and we wanted to be a part of it,” she said. Now the head of an organization advocating for Loudoun’s 45 wineries, Henkle described association members as “a small family that works well together and really thrives together, too.” While there is competition for sure, Henkle said winery owners see the growth of the local agritourism industry as a benefit to all. Jonathan Staples, one of the founders
After years of planning and months of reworking schematics, the Town of Hillsboro on Tuesday announced that it had selected the Archer Western Corp. to carry out its Rt. 9 traffic calming project. Archer, a part of the Walsh Group construction firm, was the lowest of three bidders on the project. The formal contract award is contingent on a Town Council vote of approval scheduled for this Wednesday night. Mayor Roger Vance said the town would officially award Archer the $14.33 million contract next week. “We’re really excited,” Vance said. “It’s a great feeling to be ready to go—we are now in the mode of execution.” The contract award will kick off a year-long construction project that will require local and regional traffic detours during 2020—detours that many residents still oppose. Under the traffic plan, local westbound Rt. 9 traffic will be directed to take Stony Point Road south to Woodgrove Road, south to Allder School Road, east to Hillsboro Road, north back to Rt. 9 to on the east side of town. West Virginia traffic will be directed to take Rt. 340 south to Rt. 7 east. But many residents who attended a community update meeting last Thursday expressed concern that much of the out-of-state traffic wouldn’t take Rt. 340, but instead would head toward town and use the local detour or Cider Mill Road—winding, rural roads they said aren’t equipped to handle additional traffic. In response to a resident’s question about who decided that Stony Point Road would be safer option than Cider Mill Road, VDOT’s Transportation and Land Use Director for Loudoun Farid Bigdeli said it was the town’s consultant that recommended the route to VDOT for review. “There was no other option except that one,” he said. The resident asked how Stony Point Road was considered a safe detour route, considering its single-lane intersection
AGRITOURISM >> 47
ROAD PROJECT >> 47
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
The wineries and breweries that dot Loudoun’s countryside—including Doukénie Winery near Hillsboro—are prime contributors to the county’s $413 million agritourism industry.
Agritourism Abundance Industry Nets Loudoun More Than $400M BY KARA C. RODRIGUEZ It’s not just data centers that are bringing prosperity to Loudoun County. In fact, the county’s humble beginnings as a thriving rural economy, rich with farms, is paying dividends—even in 2019. A recent analysis commissioned by Visit Loudoun found that the growth of Loudoun’s agritourism industry generated an economic impact of more than $413 million last year. The economic impact study conducted by the Institute for Service Research reported that in 2018, Loudoun’s agritourism businesses hosted 1.2 million people who generated a total economic impact of $413.6 million. About 40 percent of those people traveled from outside the region, the report showed. The study defines agritourism as any activity on a farm that allows members of the public to enjoy rural activities, including farming, wineries and breweries,
cultural, and harvest-your-own events. The industry supports more than 4,000 full-time jobs in Loudoun. It’s a sector of Loudoun’s economy that has been on the rise. Long a winery mecca, the craft brewery industry in the county has seen its own emergence in the past few years. Now some wineries and breweries have even dipped their toes into both waters, offering visitors their choice of beer, wine and more. Those types of agritourism businesses seem to be the ones driving the train, according to the data. An additional survey by the Loudoun Wineries Association, the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development and Visit Loudoun found that surveyed wineries and farm breweries hosted almost 800,000 of those visitors during 2018 and collected an estimated $30.7 million in revenue. Aimee Henkle, owner of Lost Creek Winery near Lucketts and current presi-
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