DUMFRIES — Both candidates for running for mayor in Dumfries say the biggest issue facing the town is the need to improve Route 1, realign it, and widen it to six lanes.
That they say will eradicate a chronic traffic bottleneck through the town and spur economic development.
The town received $7 million in 2016 from the Virginia Transportation Authority preliminary engineering for the $82 million project that would widen the northbound portion of the road (Frayley Boulevard) between Brady’s Hill Road and Dumfries Road (Route 234).
When complete, all traffic on Route 1 would run along this stretch, leaving Main Street (the current southbound side of the road that fronts town hall) open to street front redevelopment.
“Until everybody stops and looks and sees that Route 1 is the priority, we’re not going to be able to get anything done,” said Charles C. “Cliff” Brewer, a town councilman who is seeking a four-year term as Mayor when voters head to the polls May 1.
Route 1 was already widened to six lanes just south of Dumfries at Triangle, and north of town between the Neabsco Creek and Featherstone Road in Woodbridge. There are two other projects underway to widen the road, between Featherstone Road and the Occoquan River.
Dumfries, it seems, has been left behind.
Despite that, Brewer says there is two important economic development project in the works, and details on both are under wraps as town officials hammer out the details with prospective developers. The mixed-use development projects include retail and residential units.
This sort of economic development is just what the town needs more of, said Derrick R. Wood, who is also seeking the Mayor’s seat in the May 1 election. A bright future for the town hinges on a Route 1 fix.
“We’re a culdesac community,” said Wood. “The only way in and out of the town is Route 1, and lots of drivers who don’t want to pay to use the toll lanes on I-95 are using Route 1, creating congestion in the town.”
Town elections in Prince William County, like the school board, are nonpartisan so they don’t run on a traditional Democratic or Republican ticket.
The two mayoral candidates have served on the town council for years. Brewer and Wood were elected in 2012 and reelected in 2016. Whoever wins the May 1 election will replace Jerry Foreman whose been town mayor since 2012 and did not seek re-election this year.
“The town has been going through some tough times, and Foreman helped to right the ship,” said Brewer.
Those tough times came after former Prince William police officer and Town Manager Daniel Taber resigned, and Foreman stepped in to be both interim town manager and mayor. It’s something that is usual for the town’s council-manager form of government where the town manager is responsible for the management of town employees, not the mayor.
At the same time, the police department say major changes when the council, led by Foreman, moved to reclassify the responsibilities of the police chief and lowering her annual salary to make room in the budget for more police officers to provide 24-hour patrols to the town.
The move would have meant the town would have relied less on Prince William County police to fill in the overnight patrol gaps.
What it did, however, was trigger the resignation of multiple officers leading to the resignation of the police chief, the hiring of a new one, and the needed rebuild and subsequent retraining of the town’s police force.
Wood credited him as being the perfect “policy guy” who was a stickler for the town’s by laws. He also said Foreman overstepped his role as mayor when Foreman decided to double as town manager, barring an independent consultant from doing the job on a temporary basis.
Both candidates are also talking about the town’s parks and recreation offerings. Wood’s staple issue after being elected to the council was the formation of a parks and recreation board that would be responsible for programming at the town’s three parks — Merchant Park outside the Weems-Botts House, Garrison Park behind town hall, and Ginn Park on Graham Park Road next to the Dumfries Rescue Squad, which opened to much fanfare in 2013.
Wood’s parks and rec commission was later defunded and disbanded after the council saw low turnout numbers at events, and felt the town was not getting a return on its investment.
Now there are questions about what to do with Ginn Park. Brewer hinted the possibility of seeing the property to a developer. He wlll not support a reformation of a parks and rec commission.
Wood said he thinks the town should have recreational options, but in recent years he’s learned that economic development and improved infrastructure is more important.
Brewer works as an inspector at Cavalier Fire Protection while Wood owns a barbecue catering company.
Dumfries voters will head to the polls to select a new mayor and candidate for three open council seats.
May 1 elections are also being held for local offices in Prince William County’s three other towns: Occoquan, Haymarket, and Quantico.
