A message from our Chairman of the Board

Friends of the Philomont Volunteer Fire Department:

Happy New Year and welcome to a new decade. For sixty years the PVFD has served the growing emergency needs of the community supported by a robust and active contingent of both operational (fire & rescue members) and administrative (admin members) volunteers. Many community volunteers also contributed to the Ladies Auxiliary which supported the fire house with fundraising events.

During the last decade the PVFD has experienced a steady decline in the number of volunteers willing, and able, to serve the Fire and Rescue needs of our community. The absence of enough operational volunteers trained to respond to the growing volume of Fire and Rescue calls resulted in the addition of Loudon County Fire and Rescue (LCFR) paid staff to support the needs of our community. This started with just a few paid staff and resulted some 10 years later in a full contingent of paid staff covering all shifts.

During this time we have also seen the steady decline of attendance to our Philomont annual barbecue and the number of PVFD fund raising activities resulting in the retirement of the PVFD Ladies Auxiliary. The Fire Department board of Directors and company executives anticipated these changes back in 2015 and formally requested that Loudon County plan for the eventual takeover of the Fire and Rescue needs of our community. The County responded by adding a budget placeholder in the Loudoun County CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) to fund the construction of a new county owned Fire and Rescue facility somewhere in Philomont. During recent years, Loudoun County Fire and Rescue has been stepping in to replace the once volunteer manned and outdated stations in other locations. The development and construction of new stations is not new to the county by any means.

With new standards and ever-increasing demands for training and staff, PVFD has been challenged to meet the minimum county full time use facility standards for the next decade. While we the volunteers and the board of directors have made many improvements to the fire station to make it usable to the County staff, the fire station facilities were never meant to house full time staff on a 24/7 basis.

For reasons too numerous to list, our facility cannot be reconfigured to meet the latest County standards. Thus, in about five or six years, we will see the construction of a new Loudon County Fire and Rescue facility to meet the anticipated future needs of our ever growing community. We anticipate the new facility will include space for a Philomont-based ambulance services, something that will benefit all of us. This addition of an ambulance stationed in Philomont remains at the discretion of LCFR.

Loudoun County Fire and Rescue has determined that the new station is to be in the Philomont area and is evaluating potential sites for the new station; one potential site being the PVFD horse show grounds offered by the PVFD. The horse show grounds have served the needs of the fire company by generating revenue through its annual horse show. A once active and great revenue generator for the company has been declining in popularity and volunteer support in recent years. (Please see Christy McMann’s announcement about the Horse Show on Page 2.)

We are offering the County a building site on the old 7 acre horse show gronds at no cost. We are also tentatively reserving a couple of acres on the showgrounds property for future use by the community. The Philomont Fire Department intends to repurpose the existing fire station facilities to benefit the community as well. The details of this re-purposing are currently unexplored but Loudoun County Parks and Rec have expressed interest in acquiring or perhaps leasing the building for an expanded County mission. There are many possible uses for the facility that could serve the needs of the community such as a Senior Center, Community Recreation Center, or an expanded day care center.

Here is where you can help! We welcome your suggestions and input on possible future uses of the facilities and we plan to reach out to all community members for feedback in the coming years. Remember a new facility will not be completed before about 2026. In the meantime, the existing fire house must continue to host the county staff as best we can.

Doug Frost,

Board of Directors' Chairman