Members of the Lincoln Elementary School community in Loudoun County have become familiar with this routine over the years: When searching for ways to bridge constant funding gaps during budget season, the Loudoun School Board often considers closing one or more of the county’s oldest and smallest elementary schools.

In the past, emphatic feedback from parents and other community members has prevented those closures from going forward, despite the cost of maintaining the aging facilities.

During a budget discussion last week, the School Board once again broached the possibility of shuttering Lincoln Elementary, a national blue-ribbon school that serves about 130 students. The issue will be a prime topic at a public hearing Tuesday night in the Loudoun County School Administration Building in Ashburn.

Faced with mounting costs to repair and maintain the building – over $300,000 would be required to fund upgrades to the school’s fire alarm system, electrical system and the replacement of several HVAC units, according to LCPS staff – Chairman Eric Hornberger (Ashburn) asked Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III to report back to the board with more details on what would be involved in closing the school.

Vultures on a tree behind Mayfair Drive in Leesburg, before the fireworks started. Literally. The USDA said the vultures’ excrement had stripped that tree bare. More than you wanted to know? (Tom Jackman - The Washington Post) Lately they’ve been overheard in Mayfair.

— Warren Zevon, “Werewolves of London”

Oh no they haven’t.

The committee of about 200 vultures that anointed the Mayfair neighborhood of Leesburg as their winter roost has relocated. Five days of small bottle rocket-type scaring devices, and more likely the actual effigy of one of their brethren hanging in the trees, have compelled the New World black vultures to beat it out of town.

But Leesburg long-timers say vultures have been haunting the town for years with their spooky skulking and acidic pooping. They’ll likely be back, though no one knows why this particular part of suburban Loudoun is the preferred hang. And it’s worth noting that they perform a valuable task, removal and disposal of dead animals, that none of us wants to do.

Carol Bannerman of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that after one week of anti-vulturing, “it appears they’re not coming back to Leesburg.” Town police Lt. Jeffrey Dube, whose headquarters is just down the street from the Mayfair Drive vulture roost, said he had seen “a vulture or two but nothing like what we had.” They are monitoring and will call on the USDA again if needed.

And the effigy of the dead vulture, which apparently was deceased in compliance with all federal rules and regulations protecting vultures, will remain, Dube said.

Cyclists use the bike lane along New Hampshire Avenue in Washington. A law there, and in 46 states, requires car drivers and passengers to use caution when opening their door around traffic. A proposal to enact a similar law in Virginia has drawn some blind scorn. ((Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)) As traffic has worsened in Northern Virginia, many of us are turning to bicycles to commute/get around town/live. But there are no laws in Virginia barring drivers from opening their doors into the path of cyclists, as there are in D.C., Maryland and 45 other states. The lack of such a law often prevents injured cyclists from recovering medical costs after a “dooring” incident, not to mention eliminate the legal (if not moral) motivation for motorists to avoid such incidents and preserve the health of cyclists.

A state legislator from Fairfax, Sen. Chap Petersen (D), has a bill pending to remedy this oversight. For this he was roundly trashed Sunday by Virginian-Pilot columnist Kerry Dougherty, who in her annual high-larious roundup of pending legislation attacked Reston last year for seeking its own license plate. She doesn’t look like a cranky 85-year-old man, but she sure writes like one. “Get off my laws you darn kids!”

It’s “the one bill that epitomizes all that’s wrong with Richmond,” Daugherty intones. It’s an “asinine measure” and “Sen. Petersen, this bill is embarrassing. It ought to be withdrawn.”

Petersen’s five-sentence bill does not explain “dooring,” or the health and financial risks to cyclists who are suddenly intercepted by a car door, and Daugherty does not mention any of that. She did read the title, “Opening and closing motor vehicle doors,” and decided, “The title alone justifies a ‘no’ vote.” Wouldn’t want to delve any further than that, being a “journalist” and all.

It’s actually hard to see why anyone would oppose a law which provides for a $100 civil, not criminal, penalty for opening a door into traffic; reminds drivers to share the road with cyclists; and removes an excuse for insurance companies to deny medical coverage to injured cyclists. Unless you’re scraping for another reason to bash Northern Virginia. The current setup encourages lawsuits because injured cyclists have little other recourse. Feel free to explain why this bill is a bad (or good) idea in the comments, and I presume you’ll have more insight than the cranky Norfolk columnist. Here again is the bill itself.

Kyle Lambdin of Leesburg, aka Kylerok, performs during his episode of Kidz Star USA, a national talent competition for kids. Lambdin has reached the final eight. (Kidz Star USA) At 13, Kyle Lambdin is working extremely hard for his shot at fame. In addition to singing and playing the guitar, the Leesburg youth -- stage name Kylerok — is all over Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and his own website on KidzBop.com. Now, he is one of eight finalists selected from 50,000 applicants nationwide for a KidzBop-sponsored talent search and reality show that will land the winner a record contract with RCA Records.

The finalists, all between the ages of 11 and 15, square off in head-to-head singing matchups, judged by singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw and RCA executive Lindsey Cook. One kid moves on, one goes home. The first episode with Kylerok, taped in Los Angeles in October, debuts online on Wednesday. He would not tell me what happened. The semifinals are next week, and the final episode is Jan. 30.

Lambdin is the second of three children of John and Cheryl Lambdin, and is in the eighth grade at Smarts Mill Middle School. When we spoke the other day, he was about to go into his rehearsal for “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” in which he is Mr. Wonka, of course.

Here at the State of NoVa, we first saw Kylerok in 2011, when he wowed the New York tennis crowd at the U.S. Open. But he’s been impressing people since he was four years old, when he and his older brother were walking around Kings Dominion and came across a talent competition. Lambdin sang “America the Beautiful” and won, defeating a bunch of teenagers, though a four-year-old singing pretty much anything is going to be cuter than pretty much anything you can name.

The first issue of Prince William Today rolled off the presses last week. (Kari Pugh - Prince William Today) The demise of the Manassas News & Messenger may well result in improved news coverage of Prince William County. The folks behind Leesburg Today picked up the InsideNoVA.com website and launched the weekly Prince William Today print edition.

And the folks who publish the Loudoun Times-Mirror also quickly dived in and launched both a website and a print edition of the Prince William Times. The print editions of both papers published their inaugural editions last week, and we’ll see if both can thrive and compete in Prince William, as they appear to be doing in Loudoun County.

The Prince William Times published its first issue and wasted no time declaring a Citizen of the Year. (Prince William Times)