Home Care In Purcellville, VA

While brothers Casey and Sam Chapman work to find common ground with the Purcellville Town Council on the Vineyard Square project that would bring condos and retail space to 21^st Street, a new business is opening in one of the long-vacant buildings along the street for short term lease.

Jackpot Pinball Arcade is being opened by another set of brothers, Eric and David Basile.

Eric owns Hit N Run Sports Cards on East Main Street, although he’s moving the business to 21^st Street to work in coordination with the arcade room, which means he’s familiar with running a business in a small town.

Eric and David grew up in New Jersey and said they have memories of riding their bikes to a swim club not far from their house, where their love of pinball games was born.

“We would play them as kids just messing around and stuff,” David said, adding that it wasn’t until recently that he became interested in them as an adult.

“I actually bought my first machine in May,” he said. “And it just got addictive and I just kept buying more.”

Even before he knew he would be opening an arcade, David acquired 13 pinball machines. Eric was also buying machines and setting them up in the card shop for people to play.

“And if people liked them, we would sell them to them,” Eric said, adding that eventually he just decided to open the arcade.

Now, David and Eric scour the web and Facebook for pinball machines for sale and David makes frequent trips from New Jersey to drop off the ones that he’s purchased at the shop.

Both brothers agree that the business venture has brought them closer together.

“We’re talking all the time. We’re planning things out. We see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. It’s great,” David said.

David said pinball arcades and tournaments are very social and allow competitors to make new friends.

He said he and his wife joined a club in April and now they both compete in tournaments for recreation and as a social activity.

“I’ve met so many friends just playing pinball. You see the same people over and over and you play a game together. And now we’re texting and going out and doing different things. … It’s just a good community atmosphere and everybody in the community is just so nice,” David said.

Eric said the games don’t tend to draw as many teens and young adults as it does 35- to 50-year-olds and he and David are trying to incorporate that into the shop so kids have something to do while the adults play.

“Parents that love to do this, they use the kids as an excuse to get out of the house and when they get there, the kids are like, ‘I’m bored.’” Eric said.

He said they are hoping to have a game console, tabletop games, and maybe even iPads for kids to play.

Eric said he was surprised at how quickly things were coming together, after only deciding to open about two months ago and he credits the Chapmans with a lot of that.

“I can’t give them any more praise for how good they are,” Eric said. “[Sam’s] been so good to us.”

Eric said they envision charging a $15 “play all day” fee and will likely offer a monthly membership.

He’s also working with Purcellville Eats owner Kevin Bednarz to have QR codes linking to the restaurant’s DoorDash menu and food delivered on top of every hour. The restaurant will also offer a few items only available at the arcade, Eric said.

They’re also hoping to host tournaments for both kids and adults once the shop gets up and running.

Eric and David said they are hoping for an early February opening and are looking forward to welcoming visitors soon.

“We just hope people will come out and give us a try and see how much fun it can be. It’s addictive.” David said.

The Purcellville Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to authorize the purchase of a $183,000 water filtration system as drought conditions continue to persist in the region.

The town initiated a drought watch Aug. 28 and upgraded to a drought warning Nov. 8.

Director of Public Works Jason Didawick gave the council an in-depth presentation on the state of the town’s water supply and how the water filtration system will help keep the town from needing to implement more drastic water restriction measures.

Didawick said the town’s reservoir levels were approaching emergency lows and said staff had implemented measures to limit strain on the supply including turning on two additional town wells, the Jeffries and Hirst wells.

“Town staff has increased the well times at all other wells to their maximum safe yield,” he said. “As a result, the average daily withdrawal from the reservoir has decreased from approximately 242,000 gallons per day to approximately 185,000 gallons per day.”

The town’s wells usually run 15 to 18 hours a day, according to Purcellville Senior Hydrologist Stacie Alter.

Didawick said the next step would be to turn on the third currently unused Aberdeen well. The town last took this step in 2008 during drought conditions, he said.

The groundwater treatment unit is necessary to treat the water from the Aberdeen well and remove iron and manganese.

“We’ll run this 24 hours a day. An estimated 80,000 gallons per day will be brought online. We’ll convey the water from the temporary treatment unit to the finished water line and into our 1 million gallon tank to serve our residents,” Didawick said.

Alter said over the summer staff had been repairing the well and replacing parts so it would be ready to use if needed.

She said it would take 30 days to get the equipment and go through the necessary steps of treating the water and having it approved by the Virginia Department of Health.

“We’ll have to check some boxes for water quality, at a minimum we’ll have to go sample for nitrate and bacteriological sampling before they’ll let us bring that well on,” she said.

Didawick said the sooner the town could purchase the system, the better because there is only a limited number available.

“We’re not the only one in this area that is experiencing this,” he said.

Mayor Stanley Milan said he was concerned about what the cost to maintain the system would be.

Didawick said the filtration system came with a 24/7 on-call warranty and a 12-month warranty on the entire system.

Director of Engineering, Planning and Development Dale Lehnig added that the groundwater treatment system was a temporary solution to carry the town through the drought.

“The operating cost for this would be initially some additional overtime for an extra person or two over and above their normal duties to keep an eye on and maintain this new system until it becomes part of their everyday routine. The costs would be absorbed in standard operating costs for how we manage other wells,” Town Manager Rick Bremseth said.

Milan said the town had overlooked a lot of problems by not having a strategic plan and that the current council had been left “a half empty cupboard.”

“With the situation we’re in now, it’s not too bleak now, or gloomy, but it can be if we don’t take the proper steps to mitigate what could happen if we don’t do anything,” he said.

Members of the Purcellville Town Council on Tuesday signaled a willingness to consider an annexation request as part of a proposal to develop a 7-acre hospitality center along Rt. 287 just north of town.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the council heard from Aaron McCleary, Casey Chapman and Sam Chapman, partners in the CaseCo construction company, regarding their plans to build a hotel, a farm-to-fork restaurant, a gas station, and a multi-purpose welcome center on land bordered by Berlin Turnpike, Rt. 7, and St. Francis Court.

“We know the importance of this corner,” McCleary said. “It’s the entry into our town. We very much value what this town is and how it looks, and we know that this could be the welcome of this town.”

McCleary said the group had not spent a lot of time on the specific design of the buildings because they wanted to work with the town from the early planning stages to achieve an aesthetic that both they and the town were happy with.

“We really are excited about this opportunity and the opportunity to work with the town from the early stages to develop this property, from design aspects, from look, size, scale and obviously uses as well,” he said.

McCleary said the hotel would provide a place for tourists to stay in town rather than losing their business to places like Leesburg or Winchester. He said it would likely include a restaurant, an event space that could host about 200 people, and a pool.

“We catch [tourists] on a Friday but then we don’t have them Saturday and Sunday,” Casey Chapman said. “We lose it. We lose those dollars. With this, the idea is we capture them Friday, now we have them Saturday and they’re exploring other shops and areas in town and restaurants. They go out, they stay, we got them Sunday. It’s creating that repeat, that secondary pathway to get that tax base to go up.”

McCleary said the property would be set back from the road to allow for a buffer.

“[The Virginia Department of Transportation] maintains about a 100-foot buffer from [Rt.] 287 to the edge of the property line already,” he said. “We’re proposing an additional 25-foot buffer before the parking lots even start, and then the closest building is actually about 200 feet off of [Rt.] 287.”

Council members said they were pleased with the concept as long as the developer could keep with the rural aesthetic shown in sample renderings.

Council member Rayner said she liked the idea of a hotel in part because it gave parents of Patrick Henry College students a place to stay in town and provided a place to house guests attending local weddings.

Mayor Stanley J. Milan said he also liked the preliminary concept.

“It’s been on my mind for a while of what we can do to bring tourists to our community after hearing the Visit Loudoun presentation that said there is three billion dollars of tourism in Loudoun County and we’re not getting any of it …” he said. “The location, I think, is ideal meaning that it is right off of highway seven.”

“I like this, if it can look like what you’ve presented, if it can have the rustic look like a Cracker Barrel,” Milan said.

Council members also expressed some concerns over the impact on St. Francis Church and what signage would look like.

Vice Mayor Bertaut asked if the plan required annexation by the town.

“I believe the pathway forward without annexation would require us to do additional things on our part to make that happen,” Casey Chapman said. “So, is it possible? I believe there is a pathway forward, but it would be a multiple phase path for us to get there.”

“What Purcellville has, the advantage over Lucketts or Hillsboro is that we sit at the epicenter of the tourism in western Loudoun,” Sam Chapman said. “This is the first exit when you get to western Loudoun to get off. So, people coming out here by the hundreds of thousands every year to start their day at wineries and breweries and wherever else. I see this as a first stop, somewhat of a welcome center.”

Council members voted via straw poll to proceed with the next steps of working with the developers and learn more about annexing the property.

It was the second possible annexation request presented to the council, coming just a month after a similar request was made by JK Land Holdings for another parcel north of town limits.

During the Purcellville Town Council’s first 2024 regularly scheduled meeting Jan. 9, in addition to working through the year’s first meeting regularities such as appointing a vice mayor and making committee assignments, the council is holding a public hearing on the controversial Rt. 7/Rt.690 interchange.

The council voted in November to schedule the public hearing while simultaneously drafting a letter the Virginia Department of Transportation voicing opposition to and concerns about the interchange. The council has not voted on whether to send that letter.

Over the past year, members of the Catoctin Meadows neighborhood have expressed concerns about the effect the interchange—and specifically the eastbound Rt. 7 exit ramp—would have on a floodplain that covers 14 acres of Catoctin Meadows HOA-owned land. Floodplain easements are in place with the HOA, Loudoun County, and Town of Purcellville as parties to them.

The Jan. 9 public hearing covers whether the town should vacate those easements. Without the vacation, the county would likely move forward with building the interchange with three ramps, leaving off the eastbound ramp.

During the Nov. 28 meeting, Council member Erin Rayner told the council that the project would result in two infrastructure improvements that would benefit the town.

“The county will pay for boxed culverts to be built that would improve the water flow of the creek and prevent any flooding or overtopping of 21^st Street,” she said. “This would be in the tune of $6 million dollars. The county would also pay for the update to the floodplain study and would go through the letter of map revision … which would be a cost around $233,000.”

The town has been working with the county since 2005 to have the interchange built, she said.

The Catoctin Homeowners Association on Jan. 2 sent a letter via email to the Town Council urging the members to consider whether that is a “good trade.”

“We believe the interchange will be built, so the discussion is not whether or not we want/need an interchange. The discussion is really about how the interchange gets financed through other people’s money … the issue for Jan 9th is assessing the value of the trade (three-box culvert for vacation of easement),” according to the email.

The letter said it was unclear exactly how a three-boxed culvert would improve flood control and asked the council not to vacate the easements, “until it objectively knows exactly (with data) what we’re getting with a three-box culvert.”

If the council votes to approve the vacation easement, the county must still obtain land use rights from the HOA, Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure Director Nancy Boyd said. However, the state of Virginia has processes in place that allow the county to obtain those rights through eminent domain if necessary.

“In Virginia, we don’t have a process [to use eminent domain] for a town,” Boyd said.

The Jan. 9 public hearing will take place at the Town Hall at 6 p.m.

The Purcellville Town Council on Tuesday voted to begin the process of selling a property owned by the town, known as the Pullen House, located next to Bush Tabernacle and Fireman’s Field.

The town purchased the 0.49-acre property in 2010 because of its location as a neighbor to Bush Tabernacle. However, the building on the property has been deteriorating since the town purchased it and is on its way to becoming a safety hazard according to a staff memo dated May 23, 2023.

Town staff presented the council with three options to avoid that. The first involved demolishing the house at a cost of $77,803, budgeted from the Parks and Recreation Fund. The second option would have the council directing staff to solicit proposals for sealed bids to sell the property. The third would have the council directing staff to procure a real estate firm to sell the property.

The council voted to hire a real estate firm 4-1-1-1, with council member Erin Rayner opposed, Mayor Stanley J. Milan abstaining and Mary Jane Williams absent.

Prior to the vote, the council weighed the benefits of keeping the property versus selling it.

Milan said paying to demolish the property would result in a loss of funds, whereas selling the property would bring in revenue. He asked Asset Management Coordinator Joshua Goff if there was an option to use it for something useful for the town.

“We’ve talked internally about utilizing it for a park, a pavilion, a tot lot,” Goff said. “We’ve had plenty of ideas that we’ve discussed internally to use the property for.”

He said the space could also be used for the town’s farmers market, which was discontinued this year, but Goff said they are in discussions with a vendor to bring it back.

Milan said he would like to see a skate park built in the town and proposed the space could work for that.

Director of Administration Hooper McCann said building a pavilion on the lot to be used for farmers markets and other events would provide a greater source of revenue for the town than a skate park.

“Having the amenity of a covered facility where a farmers market could operate from, it is a potential for greater revenue because they wouldn’t have the need necessarily to set up tents and things like that,” she said.

“From my own experience with the farmers market, moving to the parking lot by Bush Tabernacle was the end, because it wasn’t visible,” council member Carol Luke said. “And I don’t think Pullen House will be any improvement on that. What the farmer’s market did well at was when it was on Main Street, because everybody drove by it.”

Rayner said the Pullen House property provides value because of its proximity to Bush Tabernacle, Fireman’s Field and Dillon’s Woods.

“I think we could do something really great with that property, even if we don’t do it tomorrow … I think it would be a great loss to us to sell the actual property, but the house does need to go,” she said.

Residents also voiced support for and opposition against selling the property during the citizen comment portion of the meeting.

“We have been delaying this project since 2017,” Christa Kermode said. “My opinion is we move forward with selling the property via bid as there will be no additional outside costs to town residents.”

“For $75,000 we can keep the property for our future needs because, like the old town office, there’s no going back,” Beverly Chiasson said. “Looking back, most every time we have sold real estate, we have regretted it. There’s no urgent need to sell this one. We have the means to keep it. Let’s do it.” Chiasson served on the Town Council for 12 years and ran for mayor in 2020.

The council has tried to sell the property before. In 2021 the council received three bids to purchase the property, but only one was determined to be a qualified response. According to the town staff, the highest bid, $303,000, was submitted before the council issued a bid amendment requiring the preservation of a large oak tree on the property, and the bidder subsequently withdrew the offer. The second highest bid came in at $233,950, but lacked the required deposit and was deemed unqualified. That left a bid of $101,000, which the council and the staff deemed insufficient.

In 2017 the Town Council and then-Mayor Kwasi Fraser had the property appraised and requested public input on ideas for the lot.

According to a town staff report, the town initially purchased the property for future use as overflow parking, development of a pocket park, a storage location for special events equipment, or other income-generating opportunities.