A New Guy On an Old Block

A former Marine Corps captain and information technology consultant, Brown is tall and exceedingly polite, a devout Christian and a father of six. At 35, he is also a quarter-century younger than anyone else on the council.

Given his background, it was something of a surprise when Brown appeared to unleash the furies this month, less than two hours into his political career, at his first council meeting. A prospective home buyer who had come to Quantico to see a house Brown was selling had withdrawn his interest without explanation; Brown later asked the man for his candid impressions of the town.

Quantico, the man wrote, looked "old and tired." Its houses needed "TLC and paint," he added, and its streets lacked "the spit and polish" one would expect from a place whose identity is so closely linked to the Marine Corps.

Brown read the man's e-mail aloud to the crowded room, then looked up. "I think this is part of our problem as a town," he said. "We have a lot of things we need to work on. And it's going to require change."

At that point, Mayor Iris Tharp said she was "insulted" by the e-mail. Others bristled and scowled.

Brown has other ideas for Quantico that seem headed for conflict, too. He wants to start a blog to improve Quantico's presence online and provide transcripts or audio recordings of council proceedings. He would also like to toughen code enforcement and crack down on derelict landlords, hoping to boost Quantico's property values. Then there is the always-touchy issue of the police department, which consumes more than half of Quantico's $286,000 annual budget with 10 officers (three full-time) and two patrol cars.

Although Gasser and others welcome the "youthful exuberance" Brown brings to the town, he cautioned the newcomer to remain flexible in dealing with the town's quirks. "He seems like a black-and-white person," Gasser said. "We're more of a gray town. We try to handle every problem as best we can."

In a place where the town's five part-time council seats and mayoral job are often filled through a kind of musical-chairs system among a small pool of longtime residents, Brown's fresh face is an especially welcome sight to fellow council member Russell "Rusty" Kuhns, 64, who called this month's contentious town meeting "the best in 10 years."

"We need to encourage young people with families to move here," said Kuhns (pronounced koons), who is working to re-designate a swampy area along the edge of town in hopes of conquering new territory for Quantico that could accommodate another residential street.

Kuhns also cheered Brown's idea to chronicle Quantico's public affairs on a blog, explaining that his mother, Betty Sears, who lives across the street from him, used to post town news and factoids, not all of them flattering, in a shop window along Potomac Avenue. She once reported that there were 80 convicted felons living in town, for instance, to the dismay of many.

But as Tharp sees it, the last thing Quantico needs is more detractors. She views the town as a "little community that's gone to sleep for a while" but is "trying to revitalize."

"I love Quantico," said Tharp, 62, who was born in a hospital on the Marine Corps base, grew up in town and raised her children there. "Negative remarks about what somebody from the outside has to say about us is heartbreaking to me," she said, adding that she also disapproves of Brown's loose usage of the term "Q Town," which, in her view, "reduces us to a mere letter."