Water Water Every Where, but…

I think it was former Leesburg Mayor Kenneth B. Rollins who said, “Control the toilets and you control growth.” I know Kenny, who died in 1988, is looking down on us today with a big grin. Kenny was a first rate politician. He served 14 years (1963-1973 and 1978-1982) as Mayor of Leesburg. He was also a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for many years. He sat on the State Water Control Board. Ah, the fun he is missing. The Town of Leesburg and Loudoun County are locked in a battle royal over who has the right to provide water and sewer service to certain parts of the County adjoining the Town.

The show begins with four of the Town Council members and a cadre of staff showing up at Home Owner Association (HOA) board meetings, whining of unfair treatment by the County. Often their allotted 15 minutes stretches on to well over half-an-hour with HOA board members checking their watches knowing that issues on swimming pool throw-up, trash can containment, and dog poop are still on the agenda and are the priority concerns of their constituents. Not sewer service to some foreign land.

Where’s the beef? Call it Crosstrail, Phil Bolen Park, and Riverside Park. Crosstrail is in the Town’s swat team’s cross hairs as the County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors are soon to vote on this rezoning. The Town gets no vote and no revenue from Crosstrail. Why not? Simple, not so many years ago a former Town Council urged on by today’s Mayor Umstattd refused to annex any more land into the Town. Land you don’t own you can not tax or rezone. Now that a source of major tax revenue appears, the Town Council wants to bring The Peterson Company’s land into the town.

Understandably Peterson has said, “No thank you”. Why start the rezoning process all over again with the Town and wait two years for a decision? As for water and sewer? Town water delivered to the County costs twice as much as Town water delivered to property within the Town. Go figure, but better yet go to Loudoun Citizens for Fair Water Rates. The folks from The Peterson Companies have, and they don’t like what they read. So will anyone else owning land along the Town boundaries.