Loudoun County residents are prepared to complain about a host of local problems such as community aesthetics and overcrowded houses at Tuesday’s community outreach meeting, with one supervisor promising to stay until the witching hour to listen to citizens.
Though the meeting is scheduled to take place from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, R-Sterling, said he would stay as late as midnight to talk to Loudoun residents.
“I’m fanning the flames and telling people to arrive,” he said. “It is their destiny — it is not my destiny. We shall not be run over — we shall not be bulldozed.”
The meeting, to be held at Park View High School in Sterling, is part of the Potomac/Sterling Community Outreach Project, which allows county staff to make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors and receive public input from citizens on community-related issues.
The county introduced a community survey in May to further engage the public. It has since received 551 responses and about 3,000 comments from citizens, said Miguel Salinas of the Department of Planning. He said the top five issues were the deteriorating appearances of houses and neighborhoods, gang activity, road congestion, changing community demographics and overcrowding.
Jim Kiser, a Sterling Park resident and retired firefighter, said he planned to attend the meeting and said neighborhood children have repeatedly thrown trash in his yard. Kiser also said one neighbor backed his car onto his lawn recently.
“I’m tired of having people using my property as they please,” he said. “I’m tired of being nice, because I’m tired of being stepped on. I’d like to see the board enforce the law.
“For some reason, there seems to be a blinders attitude in state and local government: ‘If I can’t see it, it can’t be a crime,’ ” he continued.
Barbara Nichols of Sterling Park said she was planning to start a new online forum for residents to discuss grievances, in response to some Web sites she felt were “too negative.”
“People have to offer up solutions to a problem, not just complain,” she said. “And there are solutions.”
