Middleburg’s Communit Community Newspaper Middleburg’s y Newspaper Volume 18 Issue 1
B E L O CA L BUY LOCAL
OP ITY AND SH R COMMUN SUPPORT OU
LOCALLY
Printed using recycled fiber
Angel biscuits
mbecc.com
Page 22
April 29 ~ May 27, 2021
Spring is Here
M i d d l e b u r g S ta r t s t o r e o p e n Vice Mayor’s reflections on a new Town Hall
Arbor Day Celebration Photos Page 16
I
Hall Philip Miller
POSTAL CUSTOMER
facebo ok .c om/MiddleburgEc cen tric
Continued page 14
Request in homes by Thursday 4-29-21
Page 3
PRST STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID DULLES, VA PERMIT NO 723
Change in Municipal Election Date
n 1965 Middleburg’s current Town Office opened its doors to serve the public. At that time, the Town employed six people full-time and one person part-time, and the population was roughly the same as it is today. The Town budget for that year was $678,000. In 2021 we find ourselves in a very different position. The Town employs 15 people fulltime and three part-time with an annual budget of over $5M. Today Middleburg is poised to build a new Town Hall after 56 years. For me, at least, it’s an opportunity to build more than an office building; it’s an opportunity to build a community gathering place. Take a moment and imagine running into a friend or neighbor in a park in Middleburg. I love that idea, and I look forward to that reality. I welcome the day when we can host concerts and farmers’ markets on the town green. To think of community members gathering in a park and
enjoying Middleburg in this way has me particularly jazzed. Surely that excitement is colored by our current pandemic circumstances, but that’s not the only reason I’m excited. We should all be excited about Middleburg’s new Town Hall project. This undertaking isn’t about space needs studies and what wall is placed where or whose office is which. In fact this project isn’t about walls at all (ok maybe it’s a little bit about walls). My point is this project is about our community. The Town Hall is about a lot more than office space. It’s about who we are and what we value. From one perspective, it’s about uniting your office staff with your Police in one centralized and easily accessible location. I posit, the objective of this project can only be understood in its aggregate. The sum is greater than the parts. The whole enterprise is aimed at serving you better now and in the future. It’s a project that will reflect the values of the community it serves. Each time the