Plans for a new Loudoun County Sheriff’s substation in Round Hill will move forward, but the Board of Supervisors scaled down the cost and scope of the project during its meeting Feb. 14.
Following lengthy debate between the supervisors, a motion from Janet Clarke (R-Blue Ridge) to squash the proposed western station, then a substitute motion from Suzanne Volpe (R-Algonkian) to proceed building the station using only the amount of bonded funds already issued, the majority of the board deemed “doing nothing” would ultimately be an irresponsible decision.
The vote was split 6-2, with Clarke and Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) opposing. Ken Reid (R-Leesburg) was absent from Tuesday’s meeting due to illness.
Original funding of $8.3 million for the substation was approved in a 2005 bond referendum by voters. As recently as January, construction was slated to begin in March. Annual operating costs for the proposed station, which is to be built on 14 acres at 47 W. Loudoun Street in Round Hill, are projected to be $2 million.
Clarke, who’s been firmly opposed to a full-scale new station in western Loudoun, received praise from her colleagues for halting the project when she first came onto the board last month. Without the concerns she raised, Supervisor Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles) said, plans for a more cost-effective station likely would’ve never surfaced, and the county would’ve wasted taxpayer dollars.
Through Volpe’s proposal, it’s anticipated Loudoun County will save approximately $2.6 million on the station. Of the $8.3 million approved in a 2007 bond referendum, $5.7 million of the debt has been issued.
The Sheriff’s Office has been operating out of the 1,650 square foot leased second floor space of the Town of Round Hill’s offices since 1995. The current Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Capital Facility Standards provided for an 18,000 square foot Sheriff substation to provide for the Sheriff’s Office’s decentralized policing strategy.
Newly-elected Sheriff Mike Chapman will have the final say in what gets scrapped from the western station. During his campaign last fall, Chapman opposed the discussed station, but after beginning his duties and gathering new information, he said, he’s changed his stance.
The Western Loudoun Sheriff substation was originally proposed as a joint fire and rescue-sheriff station in the fiscal years 1999-2004 capital improvement program (CIP), which was adopted in fiscal year 2000. In 2005, the board approved construction of a new fire and rescue station in the Town of Purcellville to replace Purcellville Volunteer Rescue Squad Station 14 and the Purcellville Volunteer Fire Company Station 2 in western Loudoun.
Meanwhile, the Board reduced the original scope of the previously adopted joint fire and rescue and Sheriff’s Office facility to an 18,000-square-foot, stand-alone Sheriff’s substation. These Board actions were adopted in the amended fiscal years 2005-2010 CIP.
The Western Loudoun Sheriff’s station is a project within the county’s CIP with land acquisition funding tied to a 2006 bond referendum. The design and construction is tied to a 2007 bond referendum. Design began in May 2009 and, through the design process, the Sheriff’s Office, at the request of the Board of Supervisors has made program modifications to reduce the size of the building to 16,780 square feet, deferring the remaining program areas and additional parking for a future phase of construction.
The project is currently 95 percent complete in design, with permits pending and construction bid documents pending, according to county staff.
A presentation from the sheriff during the Feb. 14 meeting stated the current location is “inadequate” and it’s “almost unidentifiable as a Sheriff’s station.”
Arguing the need for a new station, the presentation states a new station in Round Hill will reduce the number of trips citizens in western Loudoun will have to make to Leesburg, since the new station will offer many of public services; provide a venue to hold community events, something the current station isn’t capable of; will enhance technology infrastructure for deputies in western Loudoun; and will allow deputies more time to patrol and respond to calls since they too won’t have to make as many trips to Leesburg for certain services.
The current western station “has only very rudimentary space” to process and store evident – space that also functions as a locker room and weapons cleaning station, according to the staff presentation.
Supervisor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) said the board is making the best of a bad situation, one that perhaps wouldn’t have arisen . He noted that his colleagues and he were essentially handcuffed by previous board’s decisions.
Someone must have told Deputy Whiner to shut up. What no blog on the PUGAMP decision in Purcellville? Nothing more about Rail? some fiscal conservative, supporting the Round Hill Deputy Resort, Garage mahal with 200 parking spaces, gym, lounge…
ANy reason why the LCSO won’t announce who was promoted recently? Any other time its announced in the paper. Seems pretty odd to me especially since promotions are usually good things. I think they may be trying to hide something.
Citizens in Hillsboro and fiscal conservatives across the county are mad over this decision by the new Board. These are not the votes that were promised and people will not forget this during the next election cycle.
Things are a mess within the department. the PR gal is a joke. It’s like a Nazi state. Lots of unhappy people at all levels. The new commanders are clueless. It will all leak out soon. Morale is as low as it’s ever been. Can’t wait to get out of here.
Happy in Round Hill is Deputy Whiner Insider. He is still enjoying the campaign scorched earth tactics and fighting a fight that doesn’t exist. The grossly overpaid PR Gal texts him and he posts what she tells him to.
The Mark Davis, Verne Dickerson, Ron Speakman and Steve Simpson campaigns are still in effect I see. Losers.
I am happy this is coming to our town.
A boondoggle, just like the Garage Mahal that Purcellville built for their “fire & rescue” gang. Why not put the deputy station in part of that oversized monstrosity?
Pretty disgusting that the Sheriff’s office is playing politics with this, this has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with personal vendettas and power.
The point is, putting a substation way out in Round Hill is not making Middleburg safer (40 minutes away) or Lovettsville safer (30 minutes away) or Lucketts safer (45 minutes away) or Waterford safer (30 minutes away)... you get the idea.
The area to be served is large, and ONE giant lavish substation is not the answer to make us safer. AS someone said, you might as well put it in West Virginia. We have a central facility already in Leesburg, which is closer to many of these areas.
It is not fair to put one giant Deputy resort and pretend this is making 2/3 of the County safer. Western Loudoun has a rural population and needs a different strategy from Eastern Loudoun. Western Loudoun would be better served with little offices in each of the towns, which people are saying have ALL offered to co locate or give space…
$8M is a boondoggle, not related to public safety. Way too expensive, just nothing good about it…
Seems Like Janel Clarke had enough donations and friends to get elected. Campaign promises and campaign platform are different? She’s not Obama and she’s going to fulfill her promises. Isn’t that what she is supposed to do noLaugh? 5.7 million issued just so the 2.6 million does not go into a slush fund for other projects deemed worthy by the council.
sore losere still crying is Deputy Insider again, waging a one man war against something he knows nothing about except the talking points that are fed to him from the LCSO. Talk about whining! He is Loudoun’s number one whiner, he should be named Deputy Whiner.
Lots of places have been suggested that would be better… the old Hamilton Fire Station on Colonial Highway… for example… perfect.. hardly anything to do to make it work… safe enough for fire trucks?
$5M buys a lot of real estate and renovation.
You could buy hundreds of acres and an amazing estate for $5M.
There is a beautiful farm about 60 acres on Silcott Springs Road close to Pville, beautiful stone barn, big newly renovated stone house, blue stone riding ring, parking area… very secure—completely fenced, metal gate at entrance that locks… for sale for $1.8M.
Wouldn’t that be good enough for roll call, files and a shower here and there when one of the deputies falls in the mud chasing a suspect (rationale presented to the board for showers?)
Why do we need to spend $8 Million?
The only people not shutting up here are the incessant whiners who still can’t get over Chapman beating their guy and those trying to sell or lease the now empty Purcellville Town Hall to LCSO. They make a bad decision and expect Loudoun County to bail them out. Sorry, you Purcellville crooks.
Tim Hemstreet has confirmed that the Sheriff exaggerated the number of “warrants” issued for each of the last three years… more like 200, not 400—and he is asking the new Sheriff to tell the board how serious these “incidents” were….
Everyone in Western Loudoun knows that these warrants are just speeding tickets… and even so, that would only mean about ten speeding tickets in Round Hill. We need an $8M facility because we have ten speeders in Round Hill?
Ridiculous. Let’s have the truth here, and nothing but the full truth… tired of fancy staff hiding the facts and outright lying to us… whoever put this misinformation in the Board packet or presentation should be fired.
sore losers = Deputy Insider from the mouthy blog TC, he never shuts up.
The sore losers who lost to Chapman just can’t help themselves. We all win with good public safety planning. Too bad Janet Clarke is more interested in trying to steer lease options to her friends.
Tax Pig is calling this the Sheriff’s Round HIll Resort on Lb2day comments!
Making up statistics to fool the BoS. There are only 45,000 people in the western Loudoun area to be served by this, and they want us to believe they need a jail (holding cells) there because they issue 400 warrants to this population each year… what a joke. What they mean to say is they issue 400 speeding tickets and actually have to physically arrest nearly no one because crime (other than speeding) is very low in western Loudoun.
THe area to be served does not meet the standard county requirements for a substation (ie minimum population of 75,000) but they are building the most lavish and largest facility in the County.
They say it will save about 300 deputy hours… that is one deputy full time for 2 months… so we spend 8 million $$s to “save” 300 deputy hours? Why not hire a full time deputy and get 10 months for “free?”
Unreal. These folks will NOT be re-elected if they disrespect their base like this, ignoring their pledges to tell us the truth and to be fiscally responsible.
WE got enough lies for a lifetime with the CBPO. WE really thought this group was different….
The local bloggers should be in a tizzy. Sheriff Chapman lies and the budget flies and they aren’t here to defend him.
Chapman is the only one that changed his mind, not Clarke. Many Blue Ridge residents feel used, and they were. Of course Chapman is whistling a different tune now, anything that can pad his budget and give him more authority is good for his kingdom. Trading Sheriffs made no difference.
There has been massive opposition to this location from the time it was identified.
And there has been massive opposition to the spending, when the details were known… staff has manipulated the “statistics” and numbers to justify what they have done, and it is a real travesty. Only Mrs. Clarke and Mr. Delgaudio were interested in the truth… the others, just shoving this on western Loudoun for the sheriff..
Other better sites were ignored, and we paid probably three times what we should have for this 14 acres… why does Loudoun always seem to pay three and four times fair market value for land they buy? and double and triple for “consultants?”
Guaranteed the private sector or the community could have accomplished this for less than 2 M, total.
When the bond was floated, there was no location. They did not choose the site until later, and no one in Round Hill wants it there. No one in Western Loudoun can believe this. We tell you we don’t want you to spend 8 million on us, but you force us to have a substation near the western border of the County, not a good location, and now you try to tell us it will save a couple hundred hours a year in deputies time? Soin it with mis truth to build an empire, waste our money… nothing has changed…
The only person who testified for this was one Democrat, Malcolm Baldwin, who was defeated.
Chapman campaigned with the promise that he did not want the Round Hill substation… so did Clarke. It is NOT wanted.
A majority of Janet’s constituents voted for the Sheriff substation bond, including big margins at Round Hill. So who isn’t listening?
If Janet doesn’t continue to support her constituents, I agree, she’ll be gone. Same for Geary Higgins and the rest of them. They either become fiscal conservatives or they get the boot.
I’m still not Janet, you moron.
Right, Janet Clarke, oh, I mean SuzieQ. Anyway. Always interesting when someone comes into public office with the goal of “helping” all her “friends” or should I say campaign contributors, while stiffing the public. After four years of this, I have little doubt the winner of that district will come from the eastern Loudoun portion, and very few of the western portion will be voting for Ms. Clarke.
I just wonder who the developer is? Hmmmm thats an interesting trail to follow!
Laugh, You are the one who isn’t fooling anyone. Get back to your silly blogging. I am not Janet Clarke but like her I know a waste of money when I see it.
So how much of the bonded funds have been issued 5.7 million? Would Letourneau do something besides watching the sign volunteers!
Wow, Janet Clarke. You move fast. It must be hard for you to come up with SuzieQue, Blue Ridge Voter and Cream Puff with so little time. BUT, really, Ms. Clarke. You are not fooling anyone with this ploy. Shame on you.
Janet Clarke is fulfilling plenty of promises to developers. That and the rest of her petty actions will get her booted from office in four years. If only the election were sooner we could be rid of this horrible supervisor. People are seeing her for what she really is now that the election is over. She isn’t as nice as everyone thought she was, is she?
Suzanne Volpe, Geary Higgins and the rest should worry that if they do not help Janet Clarke to fulfill her campaign promises—that got her elected, then Suzanne Volpe and the others will end up with a Democrat representing Blue Ridge instead…
Such disfunction and disrespect for Mrs. Clarke on the Board!
Why in the world would Suzanne Volpe try to pretend she knows anything about the needs of Blue Ridge? Round Hill? Yes, the substation was very needed in Sterling, but it is not needed way out in Round Hill… which is not near the communities it is supposed to serve—Leesburg is a lot closer…
Western Loudoun does not want it and thinks it is a waste of money, simply empire building by another career bureaucrat from the federal govt (our new Sheriff.)
Some tax cutting BoS? no respect for fiscal conservatism at all, no respect for what the citizens want? citizens beg to cut millions from the budget, but this Board knows best… stories about crime in other areas of the county to justify putting the substation in Round Hill? could not have picked a worse location for true crime fighting effect… might as well have put it in west virginia…
Why not use the money to pay down our debt? or pay for something else we are building?
In an unrelated matter, guess the former Sheriff Simpson could not sell his Nine Iron when he did not have the power of the Sheriff’s position behind him. http://rasmus.com/auction_detail.php?id=176146
Janet Clarke opposed the substation. She does not think that the a town of 590 people needs a 16,000 square foot substation. She’s right. Her voters in western Loudoun think it’s a waste of money. So did Chapman when Simpson wanted it. Chapman was against it when he ran for office. Once elected he changed his mind real quick. Janet never changed her position. It’s not needed. Ask anyone in Round HIll or the rest of western Loudoun. There’s no reason to throw good money after bad on this unneeded project.
Wow. Multiple comments. Of course, Ken “Traffic Ticket King” Reid would skip a vote on law enforcement projects. He probably was in line paying another traffic ticket fine. BUT, what’s up with Janet Clarke. I guess she feels that western Loudoun has “special” needs for law enforcement protection. I wonder if there is a “diclosure” due from Mr. Clarke on this one. Or not. Look at Tom “The Accountant” Dunn. Where’s his explanation on how someone who claimed to have to hold down four jobs just to put food on the table found $2,000.00 in cash to loan himself in his failed run for Leesburg mayor.
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