realloudoun

Under the previous Board of Supervisors, Loudoun obtained from  VDOT the authority to enforce the longstanding state law banning the placement of signs in rights of way. Because some 100 volunteers signed up to carry out the job of cleaning up this trash from our roadways, the cost to the county was negligible.

Last year as one of its first official acts, the new all-Republican Board abolished the volunteer sign cleanup program without warning. (Supervisor “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) added to the civility of debate by calling these hard-working volunteers “Sign Nazis.”) The blight that has ensued with the end of the program is out there for all to see. Every weekend especially the county’s roadways are littered with crappy real estate, furniture liquidators, mattress discounters, and other advertising signs. The abolition of the cleanup program of course was a big fat political payoff to the developer industry that bankrolled the Loudoun GOP’s election campaign.

All sorts of bogus excuses have come from the Board and the Loudoun Republican machine about why Loudoun can’t enforce the law against littering the roadways. Interesting that Fairfax County is now moving to enforce the law and to do so at considerable expense using county staff resources (estimated at $150,000 a year). One Republican Fairfax supervisor said it well in explaining why this trashing of the roadways has to end:

“It’s a safety issue. It’s a blight issue. It is a pride in the community issue.”

Maybe our esteemed elected representatives might show a little pride in their community, too?

Loudoun Supervisor Eugene Delgaudo (R-Sterling) still of course holds the crown when it comes to turning local elected office into a full-time campaign fundraising operation, but some of his new GOP colleagues have shown that they find his example inspiring and worthy of emulation.

According to the folks at VPAP who track campaign contributions, Supervisor Suzanne Volpe (R-Algonkian) has already raised $27,816 for the 2015 election during the 12 months since she took office, Continue reading →

Loudoun Supervisor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) wants his constituents to be assured he is a real red-blooded baseball fan. In his latest “news”letter he writes:

Free Loudoun Hounds Bumper Stickers

Loudoun County will soon be the home of the Loudoun Hounds, a minor league sports franchise. If you, like me, think it will be great to have a local ball club to root for, contact my office for a free Loudoun Hounds bumper sticker. They look just like the image below, scaled to around four inches across.

(Love the signature, Geary!) Actually, whether Loudoun will or will not be the home of the Hounds depends entirely on a highly controversial rezoning request that the Board has yet to vote on — a little point Geary just might have mentioned. Continue reading →

As we all know, such frivolous programs as the Loudoun drug court, arts and cultural funding, the master gardeners and urban extension program, and other such frivolities axed by the all-Republican Board of Supervisors last year, are not “core functions of government.” That was the mantra the supervisors kept repeating in explaining their showy display of fiscal rectitude.

However, providing repeated free vacation trips for the Board’s chairman, Scott York (R-At  Large, until they find him) is apparently a very core function.

Last year our well-traveled chairman took no fewer than five official foreign trips. Pretty good for a little-old county official.

York’s frequent flier program began in April, Continue reading →

Once again, the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors has shown it can provide excellent constituent service . . . as long as the constituents happen to belong to the commercial development industry.

As reported earlier this month, the developers of the “Loudoun Station” development had an urgent need to violate Loudoun’s longstanding zoning ordinances governing the erection of advertising signs by plunking down along the Greenway a 27-foot high freestanding sign for their development.

That’s the height of a three-story house. Continue reading →