Meet the four candidates seeking three seats for Dumfries Town Council

Issues ranging from recreation to commercial and residential development and taxes are all part of this year’s campaign for Town Council in Dumfries.

Four candidates are running for three open seats on the governing body in Virginia’s oldest town.

Councilmen Shaun R. Peet and Brian K. Fields seek reelection, and two others, Russell A. Young and Ebony E. Lofton, also are running. The top three vote-getters will be elected to four-year terms.

Councilman Tyrone A. Brown is not seeking reelection in the Nov. 5 contest in which candidates run without political-party affiliation.

Shaun R. Peet

Peet is serving in his first term on the council. He is the former chairman of the town’s erstwhile Parks and Recreation Commission, which he said handled matters now tackled by the Recreation and Civic Engagement Department.

One of Peet’s priorities, if reelected, is to continue work to turn the former site of the Dumfries-Triangle Rescue Squad on Graham Park Road into a recreational center. The idea is to demolish the current building and put up a new one.

Churchill Downs, which is set to open The Rose Gaming Resort in Dumfries later this year, has pledged $2 million to support the design of a new center. It would be named for the late Clyde N. Washington Jr., the longest-serving member of the Town Council, Peet said.

Town residents shouldn’t have to travel to entertainment venues such as Jiffy Lube Live or Wolf Trap, Peet said. There should be opportunities for amenities close to home.

“Let’s bring events, music festivities and attractions to the town of Dumfries so our citizens and the surrounding communities can enjoy the town’s entertainment,” he said.

Brian K. Fields

Fields is running for a third term, and he said he wants to see some of the town’s major projects completed.

One of those is The Rose, on the town’s southwest edge, bordered by Va. 234 and Interstate 95 on the site of a former construction-debris landfill.

The $460 million project is expected to create 500 jobs and generate $35.5 million in annual tax revenue.

It would feature amenities including a 175,000-square-foot-plus gaming facility and eight bars and restaurants.

The town of about 6,000 residents also looks to redevelop Main Street. To do this, a $200 million effort would realign U.S. 1, which now splits into separate northbound and southbound sections.

The work would convert the northbound portion from a two-lane undivided roadway into a divided six-lane path with both northbound and southbound traffic following the current northbound alignment.

New housing options are planned in Dumfries, too, as is a Wawa convenience store that would replace a vacant building near the intersection of U.S. 1 and Possum Point Road.

“Let’s keep Dumfries moving forward,” Fields said, repeating a slogan from his campaign signs.

Russell A. Young

Young, a member of the town’s Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals, also works in Arlington County as a housing inspector supervisor, so he’s familiar with public service and has tried to help marginalized parts of the population, he said.

He said that he wanted to get involved with the community when he moved to Dumfries and that he seeks to be a bridge between the younger and older segments of the population.

Young said he wants to see better community engagement in town and see where he can bring fresh ideas and new viewpoints on government matters. Sometimes a small element is all that needs to be added to a project.

“I look forward to a brighter and better town of Dumfries where everyone can work together,” he said.

Young said Brown has endorsed his candidacy.

Ebony E. Lofton

Lofton is seeking election for a third time. She ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate for Town Council in 2020, and then, two years later, as a candidate for mayor.

She said she was opposed to The Rose, but now that it’s been approved, she hopes tax revenue gained from the facility can eliminate the need for the town’s real-estate and meals taxes.

Lofton said that economic development is important to Dumfries, and that there should be a more formal approach to it. Her campaign website says she would support “new and existing businesses in the town through grant funding, partnerships with other stakeholder entities and with dollars not spent elsewhere.”

She also would like to see more activities for youngsters and seniors and beautification efforts in town, as well as a larger history museum.

Lofton was president of the South Cove Homeowners Association for almost five years, and she said she wants to bring transparency and integrity to the council.

“I think it should be about the people,” she said.

All-Black council

Dumfries has Virginia’s only all-Black Town Council, and that will continue no matter which trio of candidates prevails next month.

“Dumfries Grant Park was a plantation, and so Dumfries was established on a huge tobacco plantation ... to go from this all being a plantation to now have a governing body that’s all Black or African descent, that gets into a major turn,” town Mayor Derrick Wood told InsideNoVa earlier this year. “It talks about how far we’ve come as far as representation and diversity.”