<sh>Auxiliary To Expand
<bt>The Sheriff's Office will soon get some extra help from the community by expanding its auxiliary unit. The auxiliaries — a small group of trained and uniformed volunteers — assist with such tasks as directing traffic, passing out fliers of wanted suspects and helping with crowd control at community festivals. This frees up salaried deputies for more dangerous tasks. Currently, the unit is capped at 25, with a waiting list of a year or more to become an auxiliary. At a joint meeting of the Public Safety and Finance/Government Services committees, the county supervisors gave the Sheriff's Office permission to alter the auxiliary unit charter to allow the changes. Lt. Rick Frye said, the changes will probably not go into effect until the end of the summer.
<sh>Traffic Stop Yields Drug Bust
<bt>A routine traffic stop conducted by a Loudoun Sheriff's Deputy turned into a drug arrest June 9. Wesley Andre Trammel, 22, of Leesburg, was arrested for possession with intent to distribute a Schedule 1 narcotic after the deputy allegedly discovered 13 individually wrapped pieces of crack cocaine in his vehicle. The crack cocaine has a street value of approximately $650. The deputy, who is assigned to the Sterling Park community, initially stopped Trammel for a defective taillight shortly after 11 p.m. at the corner of East Maple Street and Sterling Boulevard. After the deputy observed indications of drug use in the vehicle, a canine unit was brought in and gave signals of possible narcotics. The crack cocaine was discovered in the trunk during a search of the vehicle. Trammel was being held on a $5,000 secured bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.
<sh>TEA Grants Available
<bt>Loudoun County is now accepting requests for Fiscal Year 2005 funding from federal Transportation Equity Act in 21st Century (TEA-21) program funds. To be eligible for TEA-21 funding, proposed projects must be directly related to transportation and fall under one or more of the following categories:
* Provision of facilities for bicycles and pedestrians;
* Provision of safety and educational activities for pedestrians and bicyclists;
* Acquisition of scenic easements and scenic or historic sites; scenic or historic highway programs;
* Landscaping and other scenic beautification;
* Historic preservation;
* Rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation buildings, structures or facilities, including historic railroad facilities and canals;
* Preservation of abandoned railway corridors including the conversion and use of the corridors for pedestrian and bicycle trails;
* Control and removal of outdoor advertising; archeological planning and research;
* Environmental mitigation to address water pollution due to highway runoff or reduce vehicle-caused wildlife mortality while maintaining habitat connectivity; and
* Establishment of transportation museums.
County staff will review requests for TEA-21 funds during September. Staff expects to hold a public hearing on project submissions on Sept. 14, followed by the Board of Supervisors' endorsement of recommended projects on Oct. 5. The county will submit the final grant applications to the Commonwealth Transportation Board by Nov. 1.
Anyone interested in submitting a request for TEA-21 funds must complete an application form, which may be obtained from Paul Brown in the Department of Management Services at 703-777-0539. The requests for funding should be sent to Paul Brown, Loudoun County Department of Management Services, P.O. Box 7000, 1 Harrison St., S.E., Leesburg, VA 20177. The deadline for submissions is July 30.