Leesburg city manager’s contract renewed

LEESBURG — Leesburg City Manager Bob Alexander took a moment to reflect on his career highlights as he looked forward to a fifth year as the city’s top executive.

The Leesburg City Council voted Tuesday to renew Alexander’s annual contract and to give him a 3.5 percent cost-of-living raise.

Alexander said he believes a lot has been accomplished during his time in the city manager’s office. Specifically, he said the opening of the North Bypass into the city and the groundbreaking of the train depot were among the community’s greatest accomplishments during his tenure.

“There have been several (accomplishments),” he said. “When Gov. Deal attended the bypass groundbreaking and when Sanford Bishop came for the groundbreaking of the train depot — those events stand out. Another one was when we raised the 500-gallon water tank on state road 32. That was real interesting.”

Alexander said Thursday he’s looking forward to another year in which he hopes to see many infrastructure projects, including traffic studies, road improvements and the renovation of the train depot, completed.

“The train depot is our biggest project for the upcoming year,” he said. “It will be finished by January or February. It will house our chamber of commerce headquarters. It will also be our visitor center and will be used for small community gatherings. That will be exciting.”

Leesburg also recently qualified for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant that Alexander said will be used to improve the city’s sewer system.