PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — The proposed Prince William County budget would significantly increase spending for the Office of Elections by nearly $800,000, targeting issues that led to voter complaints in 2018 just in time for the 2020 presidential primary.

County Executive Christopher Martino presented his budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 to the Board of County Supervisors, telling board members the increased funding includes about $300,000 for the March 2020 presidential primary plus another $400,000 for Election Day equipment.

Problems during the Nov. 6, 2018, mid-term election led Prince William to experience the second highest rate of voter complaints in the state. Those issues generally stemmed from inadequate staffing and equipment at polling places, and the budget proposal would address those issues. As the county’s population continues to grow, so do the number of voters — and the need for more staff and equipment to conduct elections.

“It’s a significant investment in the community and our democratic process,” said Dave Sinclair, director the county’s Office of Management and Budget.

Money Targets Critical Needs

The county currently spends $2.64 million for the Office of Elections, which amounts to 3.14 percent of its general expenditures. That money pays for voter registration, conducting elections and maintaining voter records as wells as staff salaries and training.

In the budget proposal, two election-related items are listed as “must do” items with the greatest sense of urgency — adding electronic poll books and preparing for the 2020 presidential primary. Two other items were listed as “critical needs” — adding an assistant registrar and purchasing optical scan readers.

The proposed budget would raise spending by $778,475 from the fiscal year 2019 level of $1.86 million to $2.63 million. That 42 percent increase is one of the largest for any agency in this budget cycle, Sinclair said.

It would address three specific areas:

• Presidential Primary. The additional $300,000 in funding would cover the cost of conducting the election, set for “Super Tuesday,” March 3, 2020. That includes voting machine programming and testing, paper ballot printing, staffing, supplies, and Election Officer compensation. The cost would be split, with $135,000 from county revenue and $165,000 from state revenue.

• Additional Staffing. It would add one fulltime position to the current staff of 14, an assistant registrar at a cost of $56,771, to help with updating voter registration information.

• Election Day Equipment. The budget includes funding for essential equipment needed to conduct and certify elections, including:

• The “must do” purchase of electronic poll books for $114,371, which is a recurring yearly expense. The equipment is mandated by the state and vendors are approved by the state, but the cost is borne by each local jurisdiction.
• The “critical need” for 46 additional ballot scanners for $288,734. The one-time expenditure would mean 51 of the county’s 94 precincts would have two scanners available.

Reduce Election Day Lines

These items would address the issue that led to Prince William tallying the second highest number of voter complaints — 69 — in the state following the November 2018 election. About half of those complaints — 49 percent — stemmed from long lines at polling places, while another 23 percent involved voting equipment.

A report by the State Board of Elections found that “Prince William County’s staffing at polling places seems to be outside the norm.” The county used fewer election officers than other localities with a similar number of registered voters. “Inadequate staffing at polling locations can, and in November 2018, did contribute to long lines,” the report concluded.

In addition, the Board of Elections report noted that an insufficient number of voting machines and electronic poll books also can lead to complaints about equipment and long lines. In November, that created a domino effect, leaving voters waiting first to check in to vote, then to scan their ballots after they’d voted.

“Having only one voting machine/scanner in each polling location (as Prince William County did) combined with a high voter turnout created a situation where voters were waiting to cast their ballots after having marked them,” the Board of Elections report said. “The wait at the scanner resulted in a wait at voter check-in, thus resulting in long lines.”

The new Election Day equipment would help alleviate those long lines, Sinclair said. “This would help eliminate a choke point,” he said, when voters wait to feed their ballots into the scanner.

Increased Voter Registration Reflects Population Growth

Meanwhile, the county has taken other steps to address these problems by adding two new voting precincts by splitting the two largest precincts in the county. State law requires polling places to serve no fewer than 500 and no more than 5,000 registered voters. The two split precincts are:

• Bristow Run in the Brentsville Magisterial District, which had 4,879 registered voters.
• Potomac Precinct in the Potomac Magisterial District, which had 4,785 registered voters.

A September 2018 internal audit of the Office of Elections showed Prince William’s average number of voters per precinct falls in the middle of neighboring jurisdictions at 3,061 voters. Ten precincts currently serve more 3,900 voters — including the two that already have been split — but because of redistricting issues, no additional precincts can be added before the 2020 elections.

That same audit found Prince William has experienced a marked increase in voter registrations, in large part due to the 15 percent increase in population over the past 10 years, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Among neighboring jurisdictions, Prince William registered the highest number of voters — 2,550 — from April to June 2018.

The new assistant registrar would help with the increased workload stemming from the growing population. The budget proposal indicates there has been a 10 percent increase in registered voters since fiscal year 2014, the last time new elections staff was added, as well as a 454 percent increase in absentee votes cast.

“This position is to help meet those workload increases,” Sinclair said. In addition, the five-year budget proposal calls for adding one additional staff member in each fiscal year 2021 and 2022 — one of whom would be on staff before the 2020 presidential election.

Martino released the budget proposal Feb. 19 in a presentation to the Board of County Supervisors.

County officials will hold a series of public workshops on the 2020 budget, culminating with a recap and public hearing April 9. The board is expected to approve a final version of the budget later in April, and it will take effect on July 1.

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — The longtime head of the Flory Small Business Center is retiring Dec. 31, leaving Prince William County residents without small business development services for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Linda Decker, the center’s CEO and president, is stepping down after deep disagreements with Prince William County officials about the future of the small business center she has headed since it opened in 1991.

The Flory Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that is not part of the county government structure, although it has historically worked closely with economic development officials. The center has a regional focus and serves clients in Manassas and Manassas Park as well as Prince William County.

The Flory Center receives funding from both taxpayer and non-taxpayer sources from those jurisdictions. It assists existing small businesses and start-up entrepreneurs gain access to the resources they need to expand operations, increase sales, and create and retain jobs.

A review of internal documents obtained by Potomac Local indicates Prince William County officials wanted Flory Center officials to increase their services without providing additional funding, and to focus on services within the county — particularly the eastern end — despite its regional structure.

Decker acknowledged the need for services on the eastern side of the county, but said her staff already routinely volunteers their time for Saturday workshops that attract clients from across the region, at no cost to the participants. “You can’t spread us so thin that we can’t even serve what’s here,” she said.

The center doesn’t track where clients come from, Decker said, “because if you’re regional, it shouldn’t matter where you live or where you work. We’re spilling over into each other all the time” — with businesses and their employees living and working in the various neighboring localities that provide the center’s funding.

The county’s Economic Development Department works primarily to attract business in targeted industries, often with a focus on larger companies. While they’re seeking to reestablish the services that have been provided by the Flory Center, county officials are months away from finding a replacement.

“We’re looking at how do we provide the small business assistance and what are the opportunities for doing that,” said Jason Grant, Prince William County communications director. “There’s lots of other ways to do that, so we’re going to look at that, but we don’t have any specific plan right now.”

Helping Businesses Take Flight

The Flory Center has a long relationship with Prince William County. It was created by the Prince William County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) in 1991, during a time period when a recession was leading to rising job losses and unemployment.

The IDA, created by the Board of County Supervisors in 1973, issues private activity bonds as an alternative financing method for qualifying development projects in the county. Its funding comes from fees it collects as part of the bond issuance process, not from taxpayer sources.

The Flory Center is among several economic development projects the IDA supports. The largest percentage of the Flory Center’s budget comes from the IDA.

The center, a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration, focuses on both existing small businesses and start-ups. It offers one-on-one counseling plus workshops and conferences detailing how to plan, launch, manage and grow a business, including information about obtaining the necessary financing and working as a federal contractor.

“If you grow a small business here, they don’t move,” Decker said. “They’ve hired the next door neighbors, their children, whomever. They support your little league. They literally are the backbone of the economy.”

The center has worked with dozens of businesses in the Prince William County area, including Potomac Local, whose publisher, Uriah Kiser, received business counseling and attended entrepreneurial workshops, and American Military University, which was valued at $1.3 billion at its public offering.

The center also advised Aurora Flight Sciences, helping what was then a fledgling aerospace company chose Manassas for its corporate headquarters, located at the Manassas Regional Airport.

“We looked at a number of other possible locations, including other states, before deciding to locate here,” according to John S. Langford, Aurora’s chairman, and CEO. Founded in 1989, the company’s 10 employees worked from a garage in Alexandria in the early days.

Aurora was acquired by Boeing in 2017 and currently has more than 550 employees with operations in six U.S. states and Switzerland. In July, Aurora announced plans to invest more than $13.75 million to expand its Manassas operations, creating 135 new jobs with an average salary of $105,000 per employee by 2022.

“I don’t think we would be where we are today as a company if it wasn’t for Linda Decker,” Langford told Potomac Local in July. 

In 2016, both houses of the Virginia General Assembly commended the Flory Center for its commitment to the region’s existing small businesses and start-up entrepreneurs “as an expression of the General Assembly’s respect and admiration for the center’s dedication to the small business community and economic development in the Commonwealth.”

Funding Reflects Regional Mission

The Flory Center receives about half of its funding from the Prince William County IDA. The rest is primarily comprised of taxpayer dollars from the governments of the areas the center serves — Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park.

The Flory Center was granted tax-exempt status because it lessens the burdens of government. According to its most recent publicly available tax filing, for 2016, it had total revenues of $537,142 and total expenses of $521,465.

The largest percentage of those expenses — 73 percent, or $382,811 — went to salaries, compensation, and benefits. Decker’s compensation totaled $98,402.

To maintain tax-exempt status, the IRS defines reasonable compensation as the value that would ordinarily be paid for like services by like enterprises under like circumstances: “Reasonableness is determined based on all the facts and circumstances.”

In Prince William County, the median household income is $101,059, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. According to compensation comparisons from Salary.com, a top nonprofit program executive in Manassas, Va., could expect to earn between $116,000 and $193,000 — or an average of $147,800.

Marcus Owens, a nationally recognized expert on tax-exempt organizations and former top IRS official, said the Flory Center’s tax filings on its form 990s “did not seem out of line to me at all.”

When it comes to salaries, Owens said, it’s important to put them into the context of what the organization does and where it’s located. In this case, much of the Flory Center’s work involves advising and counseling, he said, so it’s not surprising there would be higher personnel costs.

“The salaries don’t seem very high in comparison to what other people are making in the same geographic area,” he said. “And that’s exactly the data point that the IRS would use to evaluate whether the compensation paid in the charity was reasonable or not.”

Seeking a New Agreement

Since its beginning, the Flory Center has maintained offices in the caretaker’s house on the grounds of the Ben Lomond Historic Site, on Sudley Manor Drive in Manassas, leasing the space for $1 a month from the county.

The Board of County Supervisors voted to approve a total of $400,000 in funding to construct a new building for the Flory Center, across the street from its current location, provided center officials would raise matching funding. But the project stalled for several years, and the county money was never appropriated, although the center spent about $26,000 for initial engineering work.

Earlier this year, county officials sought to designate the Flory Center as a community partner, which are nonprofits that provide community services. That would have required reaching an agreement to update the “memorandum of understanding” specifying its relationship with the county, which was last signed in 1999. As part of that process, county officials wanted the center to add regular counseling sessions and workshops on the eastern side of the county.

In a separate move, county economic development officials announced in October — without agreement from Flory officials — that the center would be providing services at the new Brickyard co-working facility slated to open next year in Woodbridge.

Decker said she and the Flory Center’s board members did not agree to the county’s new requirements. Her staff of about a half-dozen full-time and part-time employees, who currently hold regular events on Saturdays at the Manassas office, could not take on the additional duties without additional funding to support them.

As a result, Decker submitted her resignation in September, and the center’s board voted to suspend its operations. That resignation is effective Dec. 31, 2018.

Because confidentiality and non-disclosures are part of the center’s standard arrangement, Decker notified her past and current clients of her impending resignation — and told them she would be shredding any confidential documents related to their business.

Disagreement between organizations is not unusual, particularly in a rapidly changing location like Prince William County, said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. Different organizations can have different priorities, want to focus on different jurisdictions and want to assert control over how taxpayer funds are spent.

When it comes to economic development in Northern Virginia, Farnsworth said, “the sky is the limit,” and jurisdictions are seeking different industries than they did 10 or 20 years ago.

“There are always tensions between political figures and economic development organizations,” he said. “They might have different priorities; they might see different industries as more valuable to the future of the county.”

No Timetable to Replace Small Business Services

In Manassas, the city’s Economic Development Authority approved a plan for the
Mason Small Business Development Center — part of the George Mason University–Mason Enterprise Center in Fairfax — to hold weekly office hours at the downtown co-working space CenterFuse, beginning in January.

But Prince William County officials have just begun looking for a replacement for the Flory Center, Grant said. They are seeking proposals, which could be part of the upcoming annual budgeting process this spring, to determine the specific needs for small businesses, what services already exist, and what new services the county could offer.

In the FY 2019 budget, adopted earlier this year, the Board of County Supervisors earmarked $398,000 for a small business program to help business owners navigate the process of planning, permitting and inspections. In addition, officials allocated $169,000 specifically for development efforts on the eastern side of the county.

Grant emphasized that while the officials want to continue supporting small business growth, there is no definitive timetable for replacing the Flory Center’s services. It’s possible these proposals could be part of the FY 2020 budget, which will be adopted in April.

“It’s too early to say this is exactly what we’re looking for, or here are the people who could do that,” Grant said. “If we’re going to the market, doing a different way of supporting our small business, let’s make sure we have what the need is clearly articulated first.”

MANASSAS PARK — The somber message from everyone involved with the drug epidemic resonated clearly: Opioid addiction continues to be a growing problem in the Prince William County area that cuts across all demographic distinctions, costing lives and wreaking havoc in its wake.

More than 80 people gathered Nov. 17 at the Manassas Park Community Center to assess the scope of the current opioid crisis as well as ways to combat it. They heard from law enforcement officers, health care professionals, elected officials and people whose lives have been devastated by opioid drugs.

All agreed: The crisis is increasing, it will take a concerted effort to stop it, and people need to learn the signs of drug abuse so they can intercede when it happens.

“We have to get this out of the shadows; we have to get this out in the open,” said state Rep. John Bell, a Democrat who represents Loudon County. “Our futures depend on it.”

Bell speaks from experience. His son, Josh Bell, is a recovering opioid addict. After a car accident, the younger Bell came home with a painkiller and five refills — and by the time he finished the prescription, he was addicted. That led to a seven-year odyssey that has included heroin use and multiple stints in rehabilitation.

“It’s a tough journey,” said Bell, a retired Air Force officer. “It continues to be a struggle today.”

Grim Statistics

Nationwide, opioid overdoses led to more than 42,000 deaths in 2016, more than any previous year on record, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And about 40 percent of those overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid.

On average, the Centers for Disease Control estimate that 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.

In Virginia, more people die from drug overdoses than car crashes. In 2017, there were 1,445 opioid-related overdose deaths from all sources, according to the Governor’s Task Force on Prescription Drug and Heroin Abuse. There were more than 10,000 emergency room visits for opioid and heroin overdoses.

The situation is so dire that former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) declared the opioid crisis a statewide emergency in 2016. The federal government followed suit, declaring it a public health emergency in 2017.

The opioids behind the current crisis breakdown into two categories:

• Prescription pain relievers, such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin) and codeine.
• Illegal opioids, including heroin, which is made from morphine, as well as fentanyl, a synthetic drug that can be made illegally and mixed with heroin.

While an addiction may begin with a prescription, as in the case of Bell’s son, it can lead to illegal drug use. It’s often a matter of economics, law enforcement officials said, because it’s cheaper and easier to get heroin than prescription opioids.

Opioids prevalent in Prince William

In Prince William County, the problem is “huge,” said 1^st Sgt. Kenneth Hulsey of the Prince William County Police Department.

“You can buy heroin and opioids on the streets as much as you can buy marijuana. It’s pretty prevalent,” Hulsey said. He spoke at the event sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Prince William Area, Prince William County Community Services and the Lifelong Learning Institute of Manassas.

What Hulsey and other officials have seen locally follows the pattern of the epidemic nationwide. It began in the 1990s, when opioid prescriptions increased after pharmaceutical companies said the drugs were not addictive. Since then, overdose deaths involving those prescriptions have continued to rise, according to the CDC.

Then the illegal drugs began to factor into the situation. Beginning in 2010, heroin-related deaths increased. That was followed, beginning in 2013, with significant increases in overdose deaths from synthetic opioids – particularly those involving illegally manufactured fentanyl.

What may have started with a medical prescription can spiral out of control into addiction, said Katrina King, a Prince William resident whose personal story of opioid addiction was featured in the FBI’s “Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict” documentary.

“It can happen to anyone — because it has happened to everyone,” said King, who lost her daughter to an opioid overdose and who spent time in jail because of her own addiction. She now dedicates her time to helping others through the organization she founded, Recovered Purpose.

King and others who spoke at the event said it would take a two-pronged effort to combat the opioid epidemic: helping those who are already addicted while simultaneously preventing others from becoming addicted in the first place. That will require the combined efforts of the law enforcement officials and health care providers on the front lines, but also the support of everyone from parents who need to recognize the warning signs of drug abuse to elected officials who can enact policies to help alleviate the problem.

“We cannot arrest our way out of this,” said Bell. “This is a disease, and it’s everywhere.”

Addiction resources and upcoming Narcan training

There are dozens of community organizations throughout Virginia offering assistance to anyone suffering from addiction, which can be located at https://hardesthitva.com/resources/.

In Prince William County, contact:

• Prince William County Community Service Board provides emergency services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In Manassas, call (703) 792-7800, or in Woodbridge, call (703) 792-4900.
• Families Anonymous at 8201 Ashton Avenue in Manassas, (703) 928-9385.

In addition, Virginia offers an education program called “REVIVE!” that trains people to be prepared for, recognize and respond to an opioid overdose emergency by administering naloxone — in the form of the Narcan nasal spray — an antidote that can reverse an opioid overdose. In 2017, Narcan was administered 4,533 times across the state.

There are several upcoming REVIVE trainings in Prince William County. Two will be held at the McCoart Building, 1 County Complex Court, Woodbridge, VA 22192:

• Nov. 28, 7-8:30 p.m.
• Dec. 12, 7-8:30 p.m.

A third training will be held at the Ferlazzo Building, 15941 Donald Curtis Drive, Suite 180, Woodbridge, VA 22191:

• Dec. 6, 7-8:30 p.m.For more information about any of the local REVIVE trainings, contact Heather Martinsen at 703-792-7739 or [email protected].

Northern Virginia elections officials are seeing a significant increase in the number of voters casting absentee ballots, a trend they expect to continue as the Nov. 6 midterm election draws closer.

Officials in Prince William and Stafford counties, along with Manassas city, will have extended hours for absentee voting in the final two weeks before next month’s local and federal election.

With less than two weeks until Election Day, deadlines are quickly approaching. In all Virginia jurisdictions:

• The final day to request an absentee ballot by mail is Tuesday, Oct. 30, by 5 p.m. That can be done via the Virginia Department of Elections website.
• The final day for in-person absentee voting is Saturday, Nov. 3. To vote in person, you don’t need to request a ballot in advance. Simply appear at the voting location with photo identification.

Officials expect the number of absentee votes to continue at the above-average pace they’ve seen so far.

“It is like a presidential year, and I know it’s true across the commonwealth,” said Leslie O. Kostelecky, elections administrative specialist in the Prince William County elections office. Most days, more than 500 county voters have been casting absentee ballots.

In Stafford County, Registrar Greg Riddlemoser said absentee voting is “definitely up,” adding that “it’s nowhere near a presidential year, but it’s more than a gubernatorial year.”

As of Oct. 24, more than 126,000 people had cast absentee ballots statewide since voting began Sept. 15, according to an analysis of voting data by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project. That’s an increase of more than 115 percent from the same point in the 2017 election, which included the governor’s race.

In Stafford County, the increase is 185 percent compared to last year, while in Prince William County it’s 135 percent.

The Virginia absentee numbers reflect the trend nationwide, where the number of people voting before Election Day is up considerably this year, according to a report in The New York Times.

“If these patterns persist, we could see a turnout rate at least equaling the turnout rate in 1966, which was 48 percent, and if we beat that then you have to go all the way back to 1914, when the turnout rate was 51 percent,” Michael McDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida who studies elections, told The Times. “We could be looking at a turnout rate that virtually no one has ever experienced.”

Virginia does not permit early voting, but voters who can’t make it to the polls on Election Day can qualify to vote absentee for a variety of reasons. Those include: commuting to work or being out of town on Election Day, attending college away from home, being a first responder or active military member, being pregnant, being ill or caring for someone who is ill.

A complete list of the qualifications for voting absentee can be found on the Virginia Department of Elections website.

What’s on the Ballot

This year is a midterm election, meaning it’s not a presidential election year. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the 100 U.S. senators are up for election.

This year, that includes a Virginia statewide U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine, the former governor, who is facing Republican Corey Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, and Libertarian Matt J. Waters, a Northern Virginia political fundraiser.

In addition, there are three congressional races in Prince William, Stafford, and Manassas:

• 1st District: Republican Robert J. “Rob” Wittman vs. Democrat Vangie A. Williams.
• 10th District: Republican Barbara J. Comstock vs. Democrat Jennifer T. Wexton.
• 11th District: Republican Jeff A. Dove Jr. vs. Democrat Gerald Edward Connolly vs. Libertarian Stevan M. Porter.

There are several ways to find out which congressional district you’re in, including:

• Check your voter registration online, which lists your congressional district, via the Virginia Department of Elections.
• Check via the U.S. House of Representatives website.

You can find sample ballots for your specific locality — including two constitutional amendments plus local races — via the Virginia Department of Elections website.

Absentee Voting in Prince William County

Voters in Prince William County can cast absentee ballots in person at three vote center locations:

• Main Office of Elections
  at 9250 Lee Avenue, Suite 1, in Manassas.
• DMV Office of Elections
  at 2731 Caton Hill Road in Woodbridge.
• Haymarket Gainesville Community Library at 14870 Lightner Road in Haymarket.

All vote centers will be open Monday through Friday, until Nov. 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In addition, they will be open the two Saturdays before Election Day — Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 — from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Complete voting information can be found at the Prince William County Office of Elections website.

Absentee Voting in Stafford County

Voters in Stafford County can cast absentee ballots in person at the elections office at 1300 Courthouse Road in Stafford.

The office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In addition, the office will be open the two Saturdays before Election Day — Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 — from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More information can be found at the Stafford County Voter Registration website.

Absentee Voting in Manassas

Voters in the city of Manassas can cast absentee ballots in person at the elections office at 9025 Center Street in Manassas.

The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be extended evening hours Oct. 24-26 and Nov. 1-2, with voting available those days from 8:30 a.m. until 9 p.m.

In addition, the elections office will be open the two Saturdays before Election Day — Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 — from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More information can be found at the Manassas Voter Registration and Elections website.

Absentee Voting in Manassas Park

Voters in Manassas Park can cast absentee ballots in person at the elections office at City Hall, One Park Center Court, in Manassas Park.

The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In addition, the elections office will be open the two Saturdays before Election Day — Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 — from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More information can be found at the Manassas Park Voter Registration website.

Absentee Voting by Mail

You also can vote absentee from home by having a ballot mailed to you. To get a ballot mailed, voters must submit an application, which can be found at the Virginia Department of Elections website .

The deadline for requesting to have an absentee ballot mailed is Tuesday, Oct. 30, by 5 p.m. Those completed ballots must then be returned to the elections office in your locality by the time the polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted.

Three Things to Know Before You Go

• Whether you’re voting absentee or on Election Day, make sure your voter registration is up to date. You can verify that online via the Virginia Department of Elections.

• On Election Day, you need to know where your polling place is. You also can find that information online via the Virginia Department of Elections.

• No matter which method you vote, you’ll need to bring photo identification with you. There are several forms you can use — including a Virginia driver’s license or DMV-issued photo ID, a U.S. passport, and an employer or student ID. You can find a complete list of the acceptable forms of valid identification online via the Virginia Department of Elections.

MANASSAS — Four 1,200-horsepower radial engines slowly revved up, spewing clouds of gray smoke when the propellers began to rotate, as the massive B-17 bomber prepared for takeoff Thursday at the Manassas Regional Airport.

The whooshing of those nearly 12-foot propellers grew into the unmistakable roar of a World War II airplane. That sound meant the Aluminum Overcast was ready to soar.

One of only about a dozen B-17s still flying, the Aluminum Overcast will be at the Manassas airport through Sunday, Oct. 21, offering the chance to fly or tour one of the iconic “flying fortresses” that symbolized the U.S. and Allied war effort, helping to turn the tide of battle in World War II.

“When we talk about the greatest generation,” said Jeremy Kinney, an aeronautics division curator for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, “this is what they flew.”

Although he’s devoted his career to aeronautics, Kinney had never flown in a B-17 — until Thursday. Going up in the restored aircraft, strapping in with a military-style buckle and peering out the windows equipped with machine guns was a bit like time-traveling back in history.

“People can see it,” he said. “They can hear it. They can get an idea of what it was like at the time for the men who flew on these planes.”

The B-17 heavy bombers represented both an engineering and a military achievement, Kinney said. “It was one of the greatest moments in American history.”

The B-17s were used primarily in Europe, participating in long-range, strategic bombing missions from bases in England. That was the experience of Kraig Butrum’s father, Clarence. A B-17 pilot stationed in England, he regularly flew bombing runs into Germany — until he was shot down on his 23^rd mission.

As he prepared for his first flight on a B-17, Butrum said he could “feel the spirit of my Dad,” whom he’d accompanied to reunions as well as visits to the World War II memorial.

Each of the B-17s carried a 10-person crew. Ernest “Merle” Hancock of Manassas served as a gunner on B-17s, until his plane was shot down over Germany in July 1944. On Thursday, he took to the skies again, this time as a passenger aboard the Aluminum Overcast.

Between 1935 and May 1945, there were 12,732 B-17 airplanes produced. Of those, 4,735 were lost during combat missions. Currently, fewer than 100 of the original B-17 airframes exist, including the Aluminum Overcast.

The Experimental Aircraft Association sponsors tours of the Aluminum Overcast. The vintage airplane will be at the Manassas Regional Airport, 10600 Harry J. Parrish Boulevard in Manassas, from Friday through Sunday, Oct. 19-21.

Weather permitting, the plane will fly each morning and open for ground tours when flight operations cease. The first flight of the day is usually at 10 a.m., and ground tours typically begin by 2 p.m.

Once the aircraft is in the air for the 24-minute flight, passengers can move around to visit various areas of the plane, including the cockpit, the nose, the bomb bay, and the navigation section.

Tickets can be booked online for EAA members for $409 or non-members for $449

Tickets also can be purchased at the airport for EAA members for $435 or non-members for $475. For information, contact the tour coordinator at (920) 371-2244.

For those who want to tour the plane without flying, tickets cost $10 for an individual or $20 for an entire immediate family. Ground tours are free for veterans and active duty military, and for kids under 8 with a paid adult or a vet.

The Manassas EAA Chapter will be serving food and drinks. And the Freedom Museum in the airport terminal will be open with free admission.

The tours not only help educate the public, they fund the actual restoration efforts for the Aluminum Overcast and other historic planes, said Crew Chief Tim Bourgoine.

“The only way it keeps flying is to have people come out and fly during these tours,” he said. “Otherwise, it would be sitting in a museum.”

The purpose, Bourgoine said, is to focus on an era of selflessness in the nation’s history.

“We hope people will experience what Americans did in that time so we could live in the country we do,” he said. “If that hadn’t happened, our lives would be very different.”

Kaiser Permanente is continuing its regional expansion efforts with plans to open two new state-of-the-art medical office buildings in Stafford and Prince William counties.

But the future of a potential $200 million “hub” in Woodbridge appears to be uncertain. Company officials could not confirm the status of the proposed 335,000-square-foot Kaiser South Northern Virginia hub campus on Minnieville Road, east of Caton Hill Road.

“We can’t provide any additional information on that item at this point,” Kaiser spokesman Scott Lusk said in an email about the Woodbridge facility.

Kaiser conducted a traffic study in July 2017 to assess the impact of the proposed medical campus in the Caton’s Crossing development.

In addition, an application filed with Prince William County indicated plans for a five-and-a-half story medical center on 15 acres the company already owns at 13285 Minnieville Road, according to the Washington Business Journal. It would be the health system’s sixth hub in the mid-Atlantic region, offering urgent and specialty care.

The healthcare provider already operates a clinic at 14139 Potomac Mills Road in Woodbridge.

Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States currently has 42 facilities in the region that includes Virginia, Maryland, and Washington. The regional affiliate of the health-care consortium has been on an aggressive real estate push in the past few years.

Stafford to open in summer 2019

In Stafford, plans call for a 38,375 square-foot Kaiser Permanente Medical Office Building located on the Stafford Hospital campus. It will provide primary care and rotating specialty care.

It also will offer behavioral health, optometry, urgent care, pharmacy, physical therapy, laboratory and imaging services on site. It’s scheduled to open in summer 2019.

Haymarket to open in late 2019

In Haymarket, plans call for a 36,423-square-foot medical office building with access to nearby I-66. It will offer adult primary care, ob-gyn, clinical laboratory, pharmacy, optometry and behavioral health services.

The new facility also will provide imaging services, such as general radiology, mammography, and bone density scanning. It’s expected to open in late 2019.

“These two new locations will make it easy for members to take care of a wide range of healthcare needs under one roof, without having to travel to multiple locations.” Kim Horn, president of Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States, said in a statement.

The projects in Prince William and Stafford counties are the latest expansion efforts by Kaiser in Northern Virginia.

In 2017, Kaiser announced plans for the 40,000-square-foot Alexandria Medical Office in the Potomac Yard area, which is slated to open in spring 2019. In addition, the company plans to double the size of its Ashburn Medical Center. Construction is set to begin next year.

The tech start-up must locate its headquarters in the county or repay $100,000 from funding that’s helped other local companies

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Prince William County officials recently gave education software company Scriyb, LLC, an additional 15 months to relocate its headquarters within the county or face the prospect of repaying its $100,000 economic development grant.

Scriyb is one of at least five companies that have received $400,000 in county funds since 2016 aimed at generating economic development, but it’s the only one facing the prospect of repaying its grant. The company so far has been unable to find a suitable location for its operations.

As part of its grant, Scriyb also received matching funds from the state’s Center for Innovative Technology GAP Funds. The tech start-up, founded in 2015, is headed by Chief Executive Officer Christopher Etesse, who previously worked with several other educational technology companies.

The Board of County Supervisors voted during its June 26 meeting to extend the deadline for Scriyb to meet the terms of its agreement from Dec. 31, 2017, to March 29, 2019 — more than a year of extra time.

Supervisors, who had deferred the vote from a previous meeting, discussed it during closed session. When they returned to public session, they voted without comment to approve the extension. Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At Large, was absent for the vote, and Supervisor Pete Candland (Gainesville) abstained.

Scriyb is one of at least five companies that have received taxpayer-funded grants from the Prince William County Economic Development Opportunity Fund (EDOF). The grants are designed to help attract and retain targeted industries. They’re recommended by the Department of Economic Development, which oversees them, but must be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

The money can be used for such things as infrastructure improvements, site preparation, workforce services and capital equipment purchases. Recipients are required to sign a “memorandum of understanding” with the county, and they must provide a financial match.

Other EDOF grants have been awarded to:

 

• The United States Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic Section, which received $100,000 in February toward building a new headquarters and tennis facility at Innovation Park, a 1,500-acre corporate park situated around George Mason University’s Prince William campus. Officials said the planned $15 million tennis facility, which is expected to be complete by 2023, would ultimately employ more than 40 people and attract thousands of annual visitors. The county Department of Parks and Recreation estimates it will contribute $12.1 million annually in economic impact.
• Dulles Glass and Mirror, which received $100,000 in January 2017 toward the cost of moving its corporate headquarters and other operations to the county, bringing 96 existing employees and pledging to create 40 new jobs with a $7.5 million investment.
• Caerus Discovery, LLC, which received $50,000 in February 2017 to work with George Mason University on Zika virus research. The biotechnology company located in Innovation Park agreed to invest $200,000.
• Ceres Nanosciences, which received $50,000 to assist in the expansion of its facilities in Innovation Park. The biotechnology company, which focuses on improving diagnostic testing, has expanded rapidly since its beginning in 2008, including garnering funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Scriyb received its funding in December 2016 when the Board of Supervisors okayed a performance agreement between the fledgling company and the county’s Industrial Development Authority.

The software company aims to pioneer a cloud-based, live-streaming teaching platform that allows students to access lectures on any internet-connected device. It allows one instructor to teach multiple classrooms. Students can engage with classmates and instructors through chat groups, and the software facilitates peer-to-peer learning. Lectures are archived, so course content is always available to users.

Scriyb is based at GMU’s Virginia Serious Game Institute. Under terms of its agreement with the county, the company was required to maintain five full-time staff positions and relocate to commercial space within the county, while adding 13 full-time employees and $25,000 in equipment, by the end of December 2017.

In a letter to board members outlining the company’s situation, Jeffrey Kaczmarek, executive director of the Department of Economic Development, said Scriyb closed $278,000 in sales in 2017. The company has another 83 deals in the pipeline, worth about $4.8 million in sales. It currently has about 16 employees.

According to the resolution approved by the Board of Supervisors, Scriyb has purchased $16,000 in computer equipment plus cloud computing services, which meet the total required by the agreement. It also has committed to purchasing another $9,000 in computer equipment before the extension deadline of March 29, 2019.

If the company has not relocated to commercial space by the new deadline, it must repay the full $100,000 grant. If the company relocates outside of Prince William County, it will have to repay a portion of the grant, depending on when the relocation occurs.

Kaczmarek explained that Scriyb has been unable to find “suitable space in the immediate vicinity” of its current location near GMU’s Prince William campus.

The county is working with a private developer to create workspace adjacent to the GMU campus for “graduates” of the Virginia Serious Game Institute, such as Scriyb, and other tech companies, Kaczmarek said. That space is expected to be ready in early 2019.

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — If you’re looking for a job in the computer industry, you’re in the right area.

Although this region has the nation’s third-largest digital technology workforce, there are currently 43,200 vacant tech jobs waiting for workers in the DMV — the metropolitan area that includes the District of Columbia, parts of Maryland and all of Northern Virginia.

And two-thirds of those job openings are here in Northern Virginia.

“It’s a serious situation, one which is on the verge of having economic impact on our communities,” said Liza Wilson Durant, an associate dean in the George Mason Volgenau School of Engineering. “We simply can’t graduate enough cyber-ready students.”

But it’s not just an issue for colleges, Durant added. It’s an issue that reaches all the way back to elementary schools to develop a pipeline for students who are interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — the STEM fields.

That’s what brought together a cross-section of more than 200 leaders from the business, academic and veterans’ arenas plus representatives from local, state and federal government jurisdictions. They were on hand June 26 for the Cyber Training and Education Conference, held on the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus just outside Manassas.

The attendees had a common goal: Tackle this critical issue facing the region by preparing more people to fill those cyber jobs and creating a “talent pipeline.”

But the focus wasn’t only on students. There’s also an effort underway to encourage veterans who are transitioning out of their military careers to consider tech positions, either to fill them directly or to become teachers.

Keynote speaker Scott Ralls, president of Northern Virginia Community College, shared statistics that underscore the situation, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity jobs:

• In this region, 47 percent of information technology jobs remain unfilled.
• Ten years ago, cybersecurity was not included in government threat assessments, but for the past four years, it’s been the No. 1 threat, even ahead of terrorism.
• Government spending on cybersecurity has gone from $7.5 billion in 2007 to $28 billion in 2016.
• Cybersecurity job postings increased by 73 percent from 2007 to 2012.

“This is ground zero for cybersecurity workforce demand in the United States,” Ralls said, adding that “we sit in the middle of, by far, the greatest concentration of job demand and the greatest job need in the United States.”

That’s why, he said, employers feel a “sense of urgency” — and in some cases, even a sense of crisis or panic — to fill those jobs.

One key to achieving that, Ralls said, will be to broaden the scope of potential recruits to include more women and minorities. He noted that surveys indicate women comprise 11 percent and minorities comprise 12 percent of the tech workforce.

“We will never, ever, ever fill these gaps unless we can figure out how to broaden the scope of opportunity in the cyber workforce,” he said.

Several speakers noted that the Greater Washington Partnership recently launched a similar effort to position the region as a global hub for technology innovation, including ramping up education efforts, through a project called Capital CoLAB (Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business).

A key part of the project would be creating unique regional credentials, which would be in addition to other educational degrees or certifications. The idea is that they would boost differentiation for those seeking jobs.

“Our region has enormous potential to become a leader in the global economy for years to come, but only if we work together to leverage our strengths across sectors and disciplines,” said Jason Miller, the partnership’s chief executive officer

The conference offered two tracks that represented the efforts needed to prepare more regional tech workers:

• One focused on educators — those who are interested in developing curriculum for K-12 students as well as those offering programs at area colleges.
• The other focused on veterans — to encourage them to transfer the skills learned in the military into the technology field, either through direct employment or teaching.

Workforce development is a “team sport,” said Supervisor Penny Gross of Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

While the curriculum has been adopted, “cyber training at the high school level needs qualified and certified teachers … and that takes time,” she said. In addition, “There are many military veterans who would like to remain in this area and have some of the training and certifications, but they also need to be connected to the civilian job arena.”

The key now will be to create and support the education and training programs required to meet the growing needs for a cyber workforce in the region, Gross said: “We know that’s the future.”

MANASSAS — Workers who’ve been on strike for three weeks against Didlake Inc., including several with disabilities, took their grievances to the company’s Manassas headquarters Thursday morning with the support of local elected officials.

The workers voted in April to form a union, culminating a yearlong effort aimed at improving their pay and health-care benefits. But Didlake has refused to recognize those efforts while awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board, stemming from the company’s appeal of a decision that favored the workers.

The workers walked off their jobs May 25 at the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Arlington, where they clean the buildings under a federal contract. The workers previously protested outside the facility.

This week, a group of about 20 people gathered outside the corporate office of Didlake, a nonprofit agency that provides training and rehabilitative services for people with developmental and other disabilities in Virginia, Maryland and Washington. They wanted to talk with the company’s CEO, Donna Hollis.

“All you are asking for is respect,” said Virginia Diamond, president of the Northern Virginia chapter of the AFL-CIO.

“And this is how they treat us,” replied Samantha Ulloa, one of the striking workers who have been seeking union representation since 2015. “We should at least be able to talk to them.”

They were joined by local labor supporters as well as with a pair of elected officials — state Delegates Elizabeth Guzman Lee Carter, both Democrats who represent portions of Prince William County and Manassas.

The issue centers around the question of whether workers who are disabled — and whose jobs therefore are considered “rehabilitative” — are entitled to the same labor protections as nondisabled workers.

Didlake issued a statement citing previous NLRB decisions that found “collective bargaining could constitute a harmful intrusion on the rehabilitative purpose” of programs like theirs.

The current stalemate originated with an October 2016 NLRB ruling that Didlake’s program at the Arlington facility is essentially commercial rather than rehabilitative, so it doesn’t meet the standards of those previous decisions. That ruling allowed the union election to proceed. Didlake appealed, and the outcome is pending.

“Didlake is not anti-union,” Hollis said in a written statement. “We support the rights of people with disabilities to organize and join a union. We are highly concerned that unionization for people with disabilities participating in the AbilityOne program will threaten the rehabilitative services afforded to them under the program.”

The federal AbilityOne program is aimed at providing employment for people with disabilities.

The workers believe Didlake’s appeal to the NLRB amounts to a delay tactic because it could be weeks or months before the federal board, which has been mired in infighting and budget constraints, issues a ruling in the case. They pressed company officials to schedule a meeting where they could talk about their concerns.

“We’ve got right on our side, and we’ve got the law on our side,” said Carter. “The company is trying to delay, hoping the people will give up.”