Supervisor Elaine McConnell (R-Springfield) first ran for office in 1983. Now, after 20 years of service to Fairfax County and her constituents, she's hitting the campaign trail again in her bid for re-election.
"She's been great for the Springfield District," said campaign manager Bob Dively of Little Rocky Run. "She's a common-sense conservative who's done her best to make sure that the school system and county services have been top-notch."
Noting that McConnell's voted consistently to cut real-estate taxes or keep them from increasing, he said, "That shows fiscal responsibility. And she's a nice person — people love her. But she's also an iron lady of principle — our Margaret Thatcher of Fairfax County."
Reflecting on her two decades in office, McConnell's achievements are many and significant. Probably her biggest one, she said, was starting the VRE (Virginia Railway Express) in 1984. Said McConnell: "I wrote to both Norfolk Southern and RF&P, and I rode the RF&P back from Richmond with its vice president. It now carries 15,000 people a day, and I was the only one that believed in it, at the start."
She also got involved — and still is — in road project after road project. For example, she's largely responsible for the construction of Union Mill Road. "It was never planned," she said. "But I knew [Centreville] High School was going in, so I got with developer Til Hazel and got Union Mill Road built. I got to cut the ribbon when the road was opened, and that was a big thrill."
It was quite a job, too, said Springfield District Planning Commissioner Pete Murphy: "Union Mill had to be completely redesigned and reconstructed to connect smoothly with Route 28 and New Braddock Road and Union Mill Road Extended going to Route 29."
Another huge accomplishment, in the mid- to late 1980s, was McConnell's work in preventing the proposed Ridgefield Road from coming in and cutting Clifton in half. "That was all rural area, and the [expected] traffic would have gone nowhere through there," she explained. "Traffic was [actually] going out Route 28 and I-95 to the work centers, not through the center of the county," so Ridgefield Road wasn't really needed.
HOWEVER, SHE HELPED PLAN for future development where it was needed. "The first three times I was in office, I got 12 new schools built," she said. "The new plan had just been adopted for how Centreville would be built. Over 50,000 people were supposed to come in there, in the next 10 years, and I was involved in all that development."
But half the schools were not planned, so McConnell brought school-system representatives and county planners together and showed the school system the extent of the development it would soon be facing. Shortly afterward, school officials began looking for land for new schools.
She was also among those who "started the ball rolling" for the Sully District Police Station that will open this spring in Chantilly. It was 15 years ago, but she realized this area would eventually need more police support. And since her district stretched out to Centreville, she knew she'd need an office here, too (besides one in Springfield). So in 1985, she rented the Centreville office space that later became Supervisor Michael R. Frey's (R-Sully) office.
Also that year, McConnell started the group that's now the West Fairfax County Citizens Association (WFCCA) Land-Use Committee. And she got the bypass through Bull Run Regional Park put onto the master plan.
She also planned ahead for local motorists. Knowing all the traffic that would pass through the Routes 28/29 intersection, she asked commercial developers in the four local quadrants there to put service stations in their land bays "so people out here would have some gas stations."
McConnell also helped create the Route 28 Tax District to finance road projects in that area, as well as the Route 28 Task Force. This group developed a plan amendment to put businesses along the Route 28 Corridor, near Dulles Airport, to increase the county tax base.
And she was involved in the first part of the Route 28 widening, from two to four lanes, from the Prince William County line to the Route 28/29 intersection. Said McConnell: "In 1983, they were acquiring the land for it."
But she didn't let progress rob Centreville's oldest resident, Mattie Brown, of her home along Route 28. "People came to me, upset that their properties were being taken; VDOT was hard to deal with then," said McConnell. "Mattie Brown wanted to stay there, and I worked hard to save her house."
IN 1984-'85, SHE STARTED the Centreville Road Fund so that developers there would be asked to donate so much money per home or commercial square foot to help defray the cost of the Route 28/29 interchange's design and construction.
And in 1989, she prevented the county from moving Centreville's fire station 17 from Old Centreville Road to Stone Road. She also worked toward getting the Centreville and Chantilly regional libraries established.
In addition, McConnell helped several churches get their land on which to build and the necessary zoning. They include St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Timothy Catholic Church, Centreville Baptist and Centreville United Methodist. Calling places of worship "the center of our community," she was the liaison between them and the county.
"I was on the BZA [Board of Zoning Appeals] for six years, and there has never been a better friend of the community churches, temples and synagogues than her," said Dively. "She's always been there to help them."
Overall, said McConnell, "It's been a wonderful experience" being Springfield District supervisor. "It's been a great joy to see schools in the neighborhoods and the roads improved," she said. But her work's far from over, and she relishes the tasks ahead.
The contract to widen the last piece of Route 123 from Davis Road to the Occoquan Bridge was awarded Friday. It's been a 17-year project, and she wants to see it through to completion.
Burke Lake and Rolling roads still aren't finished, and McConnell wants to get Route 29 six-laned. Portions of Stringfellow Road still need improvement, and Centreville Road from Braddock to Route 29 has yet to be four-laned.
But the most important project McConnell's working on involves homeland security. "The state is selling us property at West Ox Road and the [Fairfax County] Parkway to build a communications center," she said. "Since we're in a major target area, this would have the county, state troopers, VDOT, fire and rescue, police and a forensics center all together."
SHE'S ALSO EAGER TO SEE construction of a new, south county high school in Lorton, a fire station off Legato Road and one in Crosspointe and a new elementary school in the DixCenGato tract, off Route 29 in Fairfax Center. And she's involved in the development of county land next to the Government Center.
McConnell believes she's best qualified as Springfield supervisor because "it takes a long time for people to form connections within VDOT, the school system, county and state government and the fire and police departments." And she knows she can get all the new projects done because she's done it before and she knows where to go to make things happen.
"I have the experience and have tried to be a good supervisor and give good service," she said. "I look at it like a business and see the big picture."
Calling her institutional memory "irreplaceable," Dively said McConnell's "more statesperson than politician" and always speaks her mind. Clifton Mayor Jim Chesley is also staunchly in McConnell's corner.
"She's been a steadfast champion of town issues, the Occoquan Watershed and keeping traffic out of the Clifton area," he said. "She even helped us get a policeman. She's never said 'no' to any reasonable request and has supported everything we stand for."
Chesley said McConnell works well with both political parties and is just a "good person — she's been a pillar of the district, and she has the moral values I'd like all our children to have."