As The Silver Line Turns: For LoCo, the Final Countdown

As Loudoun County girds itself for a decision on joining the 21st century Phase 2 of the Metro Silver Line project next week, it appears that things could still go either way.

"It is absolutely crunch time," Ashburn Supervisor Ralph Buona (R) said. "We have got to finalize financing by Friday night. There will be more public input on Monday, and we will vote first thing Tuesday.

"I am cautiously optimistic," he said. "I would say we are 4-3 so far with two in play. We are doing everything we can to bring them over the finish line."

Earlier, three members of the LoCo Board had asked for an extension on the deadline for making a decision on participating in Phase 2, but the airports authority was all like, "naw, ain't gonna happen," so July 4 it is. These are the same three board members that gave the airports authority a reasonable list of 21 demands "considerations" they wanted in exchange for their support of the project; no word on whether "less talk, more rock" and "I'm not going to pay a lot for this muffler" were among the considerations.

Meanwhile, Gov. Bob McDonnell came to Loudoun to walk back his earlier opposition to the project say he's "completely supportive." But the state's transportation secretary sounds more like a regular at a 12-step meeting, except maybe for the part about making amends for calling pro-Metro lawmakers "idiots."

Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton said he is literally taking it one day at a time.

"We've got to look at this in stages," he said. "It has been a multiyear effort to get us to this point. We've got to get past the Loudoun County vote. Before the project can move forward, there has to be confidence in the government, we have to do everything we can to lower the tolls to the lowest amount possible. It is going to be difficult to get additional money out of Richmond until we do that."

Hey, at least someone's talking about the tolls.

So next week is going to be ... interesting! But at least it gives us an excuse to post this:


AWESOME.