LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 42 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[ Aug. 31 – Sept. 6, 2017 ]
Young voice energizes Loudoun Chorale
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Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Students at one of the county’s newly consolidated bus stops line up for bus 371 in Lovettsville. School leaders say they’re working for more efficient routes and shorter rides, but parents and bus drivers say it’s meant overfilled buses and crowded stops.
Frustrations Rise Over First Week Bus Blunders BY DANIELLE NADLER ust as numerous and colorful as the first-day-of-school photos on Loudoun County Facebook pages in the past week were the complaints about overfilled buses, late drop-offs, and crowded stops. After a rocky start to last school year because of a severe bus driver shortage, school system leaders said this year would be different. In May, the Transportation Department told the School Board that big changes were coming. They had been working with consulting firm Edulog Logistics Inc. and a new software system to consolidate bus routes, reduce lengthy rides, and maximize bus space— all with the goal of improving the level of service to Loudoun students. That same month, the board agreed to push start times at four middle schools and every high school back 15 minutes to give the transportation staff more flexibility in planning bus routes. Transportation leaders told the School Board that, by consolidating bus stops, the county’s 394 bus routes could be re-
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duced to as few as 349. That would make it so the average run time for each route could be decreased from 23 to 17 minutes. Buses were not being fully used; they found that the average head count on buses could be increased from 38 to 52. The new plan is also estimated to save $1.5 and $2.9 million annually. “All the routes this year will be dif-
ferent,” Assistant Superintendent Kevin Lewis told School Board members at a committee meeting Aug. 3. “We want you to get fewer calls on that first day.” But parents and drivers reported that the first week of school has been fraught with problems. The consolidated bus stops mean fewer pick up points in neighborhoods.
Families said they were given no heads up that their children would be asked to walk further—in some cases as far as a mile—or that parents are expected to deliver their children to their stops. “The whole county’s up in arms about this,” said Susan Ackman, who lives in the BUS BLUNDERS >> 26
Floating Islands Clean the Waters at Broadlands BY RENSS GREENE
A previously unremarkable stormwater pond at the end of a Broadlands cul-de-sac is slowly turning into a lush, shaded pool, and a microcosm of nature surrounded by development. In the middle of Burnt Hickory pond are islands with nothing below the surface but dangling roots and cables to hold them in place. With the help of those floating islands, natural growth at the banks of the pond, and hardworking volunteers, the pond’s water is being
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cleaned with the same natural processes that would have cleaned a pond on that spot before homes and shopping centers sprouted up. Stormwater ponds have been a part of managing rainfall and preventing flooding for years, but the ponds dug to collect that water can become polluted and unhealthy. Water carrying fertilizer, pesticides, and other runoff from driveways, roads and grassy yards collects and is concentrated in these ponds. They often lack the natural ecologies that would filter that water before it finds its way into
the streams, rivers, and bays, and grassy yards do very little to absorb water or clean it. But the Broadland Homeowners Association, with help from volunteers, the Piedmont Environmental Council, the county government, and a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, is changing that at Burnt Hickory pond. The roots of the plants on the floating island reach down into the water, getting all the sustenance they need from the nuFLOATING ISLANDS >> 25
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