LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
LoudounNow
[ Vol. 4, No. 36 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[ July 25, 2019 ]
LoudounNow
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Police Chief Files $16M Lawsuit Against Purcellville BY RENSS GREENE
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
There continues to be disagreement on how to address rush-hour congestion and traffic safety concerns on Rt. 15 north of Leesburg, but the county board is backing a plan to widen the road to four lanes between Leesburg and Lucketts.
Loudoun Board Advances 4-Lane Expansion for Rt. 15 BY NORMAN K. STYER The Board of Supervisors last week voted to move ahead with planning for an expanded widening of Rt. 15 north of Leesburg, one that would create a four-lane, median-divided road from the Leesburg Bypass to the north side of Lucketts. The endorsement of the $217.3 million program came over the objections of the county’s two western supervisors, who warned that the measure would be ineffective in solving the corridor’s rush-hour congestion troubles and would threaten the survival of numerous small rural businesses lining the road. After nearly three years of study, the board was presented with two options. Concept A called for a two-lane median-divided roadway between Montresor
Road and St. Clair Lane, a two-lane bypass around the western edge of the Lucketts village core, a single-lane roundabout at the Spinks Ferry Road/realigned Newvalley Church Road intersection, a single-lane roundabout at Stumptown Road, widened shoulders to the Maryland state line, and a traffic light at Lovettsville Road. Concept B included a four-lane median-divided roadway between Montresor Road and a two-lane roundabout along the Lucketts bypass and Stumptown Road intersection, a western Lucketts bypass as a four-lane and two-lane median-divided roadway, a two-lane median-divided roadway between a two-lane roundabout along the Lucketts bypass and Stumptown Road intersection to St. Clair Lane, traffic calming improvements in the village of Lucketts, a two-lane roundabout at the
Spinks Ferry Road/realigned Newvalley Church Road intersection, additional shoulder widening from St. Clair Lane north to the Maryland state line, and a traffic signal and northbound left-turn lane at the Lovettsville Road intersection. Both options call for 8-foot-wide paved shoulders on each side, along with a shared use path between Montresor Road and the Lucketts village core. Supervisors already have planned to spend $110.7 million for improvements between Montresor Road and the Point of Rocks Bridge, but either option will require substantially more money—$58 million for Concept A and $106.4 million for Concept B—by the time construction begins in 2024. The planning level estiRT. 15 >> 35
Purcellville Police Chief Cynthia McAlister on Monday filed a $16 million lawsuit against the Town of Purcellville, as well as former Acting Town Manager Alex Vanegas, former human resources consultant Georgia Nuckolls, and six officers of the Purcellville Police Department, including former acting chief Joseph Schroeck. The lawsuit stems from the scandal that rocked Purcellville starting in October 2017, when Vanegas put McAlister on administrative leave and installed Schroek as acting chief. Vanegas, the former Public Works director whom the Town Council had decided to appoint over Assistant Town Manager Danny Davis as acting town manager that May, then hired Nuckolls as a consultant to conduct an investigation into McAlister’s conduct. The investigation ended with a confidential report and a unanimous vote of no confidence in McAlister by the Purcellville Town Council on Nov. 1, 2017. Vanegas fired her the next day. Only a few weeks later, Vanegas found himself on administrative leave as the town investigated its own investigation. It had been discovered that Nuckolls “had a relationship with an employee involved with the investigation,” in addition to more than a dozen previous convictions, including felony convictions such as for credit card fraud. Vanegas at the time denied that the relationship was with him. An external audit of the investigation into McAlister cleared her and found serious flaws in the original investigation. Vanegas was fired and McAlister was reinstated. The town had spent nearly $800,000 on the various investigations. Retired Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo and the law MCALISTER >> 35
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