Etro Ends Term as Architect of Community

By JOHN HEYNER
Member, Town Council
A “real” architect by profession, over the last 18 years Round Hill Mayor Frank Etro has focused his public service efforts on building community.
As a member of the Planning Commission and Town Council, and ultimately as mayor, Etro took the lead on projects, initiatives and events intended to unite the Town with its surrounding neighborhoods to form the “community of Round Hill.”
A strong believer that citizen participation is critical to community building, Etro consistently encouraged the formation of committees to seek creative solutions to specific challenges.
The resulting accomplishments include the build-out of the Town Park and the creation and organization of the annual Hometown Festival, both of which continue to be instrumental in fostering a family-friendly community.
Mayor Etro also united citizen groups with a common purpose in the battle to keep schools within the community and an effort to get the best possible results for the County’s planned Aquatic Center at Woodgrove Park.
Convinced that pedestrian networks are circulatory systems that bring life to communities, Etro worked diligently for a well-connected Round Hill.
He organized and led a series of charrette processes that established community-centric design guidelines for commercial areas and new neighborhoods and developed the pedestrian-focused Round Hill Streetscape Master Plan. Two current projects, the Franklin Park Trail and the Main Street Enhancement, rely on this plan.
Mayor Etro has decided not to seek another term, bringing to an end (for now at least) his service as an elected official.
No matter where one looks around the Round Hill area, however, the positive influences of Etro’s community vision are unmistakable. So, when you see soon-to-be “Citizen Frank” out and about in the community that he was instrumental in architecting, please be sure to say “thank you.”
(John Heyner has served on the Planning Commission and Town Council for eight of the last 10 years.)