Purcellville Safety Center
Leesburg Today has a story about Saturday's opening of the Purcellville Safety Center. The new 23,000-square-foot building has been in the works for quite awhile.

Loudoun's Medical Needs
Blogger Ric James over at HoodaThunk? has an examination of Loudoun's need for another hospital. "The situation now is, frankly, dire," he wrote. "In searching further you’ll find that the ratio between hospital beds and residents in Fairfax County - where they have 4 hospitals - is 1 per 675 residents. Loudoun’s is 1 per 1500 residents, almost 3 times worse. By any measure and under any scenario, that’s bad and it’s getting worse as our population continues to grow."

Housing Assessments
If you're interested in a look at the 2008 housing assessments, bloggers Danilo and Tony recommend searching the county assessor's Web site. "The assessed value of my townhouse in the Broadlands was decreased 6.4% versus last year," they wrote. "At first glance the number looks reasonable."

Board of Supervisors Meeting
The Loudoun Times-Mirror has a preview of tomorrow's Board of Supervisors meeting. On the agenda is a final report on where to put a new high school in the western part of the county.

Thoughts on Loudoun Schools
School board member and blogger John Stevens has posted his responses to some questions he received via e-mail, including: whether Loudoun is/should be competing with Fairfax for teachers; areas of the administration that could be made more efficient; enrollment projections and technology. "The fact is that we have a major challenge finding several hundred new teachers every summer, and most of them are coming right out of school and are looking partly for quality of life (and quality of career) but largely at the bottom line," he wrote.

Douglass School Gets Historical Marker
Douglass High School now has a marker indicating its historical significance, according to the Historical Marker Database. "In the late 1930s a group called Parents of Loudoun County was organized and initiated an effort to establish a high school for black students in Loudoun County," Craig Swain, a Leesburg resident who submitted the marker, wrote. "…Douglass High School served the black community in Loudoun County until the desegregation of the schools in 1968-1969."

Ice Storm Photos
Blogger Barbara over at Mommy Life has posted some photos of Friday's ice storm. Read more about Friday's weather in this story from LoudounExtra.com.