This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Thanks for Making Tough Decisions

Sometimes our local officials get it right and deserve to be thanked for their efforts.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I will take a break from post-election analysis and express my thanks that I live in a representative democracy, with elected leaders who are willing to take on tough issues.

Residents of Leesburg are served by members of the Leesburg Town Council and Loudoun County , who receive a relatively small amount of compensation in return for the long hours most put in.

Individually, they don’t have much power, either. Each Town Council member, even the Mayor, represents only one vote out of seven. On the Board of Supervisors, each member’s influence is proportionally even less – one vote out of nine, even for the chairman.

Find out what's happening in Leesburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Glory? Not really. There’s not much glory in deciding what property to purchase for a new school, whether to extend public water to a subdivision, or which government programs to reduce or eliminate, sometimes putting people out of their jobs.

So it seems appropriate this week to highlight three cases where, in my opinion, our elected officials deserve kudos.

Find out what's happening in Leesburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Dulles Metrorail

Board Chairman Scott York deserves a lot of credit for the his work leading to the recent on Phase II of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, which will extend Metrorail to Dulles Airport and into Loudoun County.

The Metrorail is for many different reasons, and York has long been a supporter of the project. But when faced with a funding plan that would have placed an undue burden on Loudoun County taxpayers and Dulles Toll Road users, York threatened to withdraw Loudoun’s support for the project, which would probably have killed it.

It was a risky strategy, but Loudoun County didn’t have a lot of cards to play. Fortunately, the objections raised by Loudoun and other funding partners paid off. The Obama administration got involved, the state agreed to kick in more money, a less costly plan for the terminal at Dulles Airport was approved, and the decision was made to seek private funding options for parking garages.

With the costs reduced to a more acceptable level, York was able to win support for the MOA from all the Loudoun supervisors except Jim Burton and Eugene Delgaudio.

In my opinion, it was a good outcome for the county, and York deserves credit for his role in the difficult negotiations that led to the agreement.

Catoctin Circle Barricade

My former boss, longtime County Administrator Kirby Bowers, often said that in local government, there is no self-evident, correct answer. If there were, we wouldn’t need to elect boards or councils. Instead, we could simply hire a manager to make the obvious decision and carry it out.

The issue of whether to remove the barricade on Catoctin Circle in northeastern Leesburg is a good example of an issue with no answer that was clearly the correct one. I observed several council meetings in which residents lined up on each side of the issue, and the council patiently listened to hours of public comment. There seemed to be a relatively even split of opinion among neighbors who would be affected by the decision.

Throughout the debate, I felt that the Mayor and council showed great patience and consideration toward the residents, knowing that they would eventually have to make a decision that would make some residents happy, and others very unhappy.

In the end, . While I appreciate the safety concerns raised by those who wanted to keep the barricade in place, I generally don’t think it is a good idea to barricade usable streets while diverting traffic onto others. I thought the council made the right decision.

Battlefield Parkway Speed Limit

The council also between Kincaid Boulevard and Route 7 from 35 to 40. , I commented that the speed limit along this stretch of the parkway seemed much too low. When the speed limit is set unrealistically low, people tend to ignore it, and when the low speed limit is enforced, it seems like an unfair speed trap.

The council also voted to keep the speed limit at 35 between Sycolin Road and the Dulles Greenway. Neither decision was clearcut; both were made on 4 to 3 votes. I think the council got it right both times.

So, in counting my blessings this Thanksgiving, I will include the local elected officials who are willing to tackle tough issues and make difficult decisions. Thank you.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?