After a stint on Middleburg’s Town Council for less than two years, Bridge Littleton, 43, has made the decision to run for mayor.
His decision comes two years after Mayor Betsy Davis announced that she would not seek re-election this year. Littleton isn’t alone, however. His name will be on the ballot along with Councilman Mark Snyder and Vincent Bataoel, chairman of the town’s Economic Development Advisory Committee—currently making the Middleburg mayoral race the county’s most contested municipal race in May. Littleton’s campaign is now focused mainly on improving roads, the utilities system, and the town’s economic and business development.
“To me it’s being focused, being detailed, really understanding the deep nature of what the issues are,” he said. “The job is never done.”
The eighth generation Middleburg resident and son of a long-time Town Councilman said one of his motivations to run was concern surrounding Envision Loudoun, the county’s work in rewriting its comprehensive plan. As Littleton, a member of that project’s 26-member steering committee, is opposed to the increased growth and land development the rewrite includes, plans to
help preserve the rural area around Middleburg by building relationships and increasing the town’s influence in these areas through meeting with the Board of Supervisors and the Virginia General Assembly.
In the more immediate future, Littleton said a project to replace corroded water lines in the northwestern section of town needs to be completed before VDOT begins repaving town roads.
He also wants to focus heavily on the town’s economic and business development, which he said are two very different concepts. In addition to finding new ways to attract new businesses, he also wants to create a town-based cooperative marketing strategy to help current businesses attract more visitors through the use of social media and other platforms.
“We need to make it not scary and so it’s easy for them to do,” he said. “We want to make sure the businesses we have here in town, we support them in a way they’ll be successful.”
Littleton said he wants to understand how to fix the incongruity between town residents’ relatively low average annual household income and the town’s high home prices, which he said makes it more difficult for young people to live in town. “There’s something that can be done there,” he said.
Littleton is serving in his first term on town council and is the president and co-founder of HELLEN Systems, a company that implements public-private partnerships with the federal government to develop GPS backup systems. He is a graduate of the town’s Hill School, Radford University and the University of Richmond School of Law. His father also previously served on the town council for 34 years.
“I’ve been fortunate to call Middleburg my home essentially all my life,” he said. “Middleburg is who I am—this is my home.”
pszabo@loudounnow.com
Complete article on LoudounNow
