Familiar Faces, Uncertain Future

Town's Growth a Point of Contention

When Richard H. Efthim left the Lovettsville Town Council in 2004, after 10 years, he said it was time to give someone else a chance to serve.

So why, two years later, is Efthim back on the ballot, again pursuing a seat on the council?

"A lot of people were asking me to come back," Efthim explained. "They felt like I listened to and respected people's ideas."

Efthim is the only declared challenger to a slate of incumbents running for reelection in Loudoun County's third-largest town.

Lovettsville's ballot offers plenty of experience: The other candidates are Mayor Elaine D. Walker, running unopposed for a ninth term, and council members Richard Timothy Greene, going for his fifth term; Paul E. Miller, in his first term; and Robert J. Zoldos II, pursuing a third term.

But Efthim said that in a town where voters are accustomed to grass-roots activism, his being approached to run against a field of incumbents "suggests people are thinking that things are not going well."

Once regarded as the centerpiece of Lovettsville's desire for managed growth, the town center has become a particular lightning rod. The grocery store that everyone in town seemed to want from the project now appears unattainable, while townhouses -- which no one seemed to want -- are prominent in the developer's latest plans.

"I think there's a need for reassessment," said Efthim, 50, the program director of the Smithsonian Institution Naturalist Center. He was on the council when it approved the original town center proposal in 2002.

"It behooves the town to be open and creative in searching for solutions, to provide people what they're asking for," he said.

Miller, who was elected as a write-in candidate in 2002, agreed that the town center has been the topic of much debate, but he sees that debate as symptomatic of a larger issue: uncertainty about how the town is going to handle growth.

"We're still in the infancy of learning what it takes to run a town growing like this," said Miller, 46, an engineer for Northrop Grumman IT TASC.

Miller points to two areas of particular concern: ensuring that Lovettsville's comprehensive plan provides both for development and maintaining a small-town feel; and there being too few executive officers to oversee projects.

"Lovettsville is flush with cash because we haven't had adequate staffing in the town office and because the town hasn't done anything" in capital improvements, Miller said.

Walker, who has been part of Lovettsville's government since she was elected to the Town Council in 1980, said she was pleased to see the town continue on the path toward what she called in 2002 "orderly and quality" development.

"If a town does not grow, it dies," she said. "The growth we are experiencing here is quality. The town center and [project developer] Elm Street are quality."

Lovettsville's population has surpassed 1,100, up from 749 residents in 1990, but Walker, 67, dismisses fears that the town is growing too quickly.

"Ten years from now we are still going to be considered a small town, even though we might be doubling or even tripling in population," she said.

Zoldos, a 36-year-old firefighter, and Greene, 57, could not be reached for comment on their campaigns.