The coronavirus pandemic continues to hurt the hotel industry in Prince William County.
The county's hotel occupancy spiked a bit in October but has fallen into a slump, exasperated by the lack of traveling this holiday season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Prince William County Economic Development Authority, hotel stays increased slightly in October 2020 as occupancy rates averaged 54.3%, up from 53% in the previous month. Over the holidays, however, hotel traffic slowed down. According to the same report from the Economic Development office, transient occupancy tax collections -- a tax paid by hotel guests -- are down nearly $300,000 in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the last quarter.
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The Prince William Board of County Supervisors sold a key piece of Real Estate to developers who will develop Innovation Town Center, a mixed-use developments leaders hope will become a new destination.
This town center will consist of office, 80,000 square feet of retail space, 750 homes, 250 hotel rooms, and 333,000 square feet of office space.
The county hopes this purchase will continue to spur development at Innovation Park, an area just outside Manassas that's home to the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus, the FBI, and the Prince William Science Accelerator that includes nine commercial wet lab spaces, serving an as an incubator for small life-sciences start-up firms.
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The Prince William Chamber of Commerce started in the summer of 2010 to a world that saw President Barack Obama in office, craft breweries on the rise, and the price of gas at about $2.73 a gallon (it averages $1.96 in Virginia today).
During the past 10 years, the chamber has experienced ebbs and flows with growth, continuing to be an asset for businesses in the area adapting to population growth, express lanes on the area highways, and the transition of the county's smaller community hospitals into larger regional medical centers.
“We have been constantly growing these past several years and are heading in a great direction and continue to provide for the needs of our membership,” said Ross Snare, the chamber’s director of government relations.
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A group of Betta Sigma Phi sorority sisters in Woodbridge has started their own investment club.
When this group talks about Starbucks, they aren’t discussing the newest latte or their favorite muffin, they talk about their stock in the coffee giant. Their share of stock in Starbucks has risen from $29.28 a share when they first got it in September of 2007, to the current value of about $75 a share.
“It’s done fine,” said Joan Lam, president of the Virginia Commonwealth Investors’ Club of Woodbridge.
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Fairfax County officials just launched a tourism plan that could impact commerce in Prince William County in an indirect way, solidifying the global economics theory on a smaller scale.
While there is a river boundary between the two counties, the main elements in Fairfax County’s plan are within easy access to key river crossings, making it an easy trip if taken during the right time of day.
Fairfax County’s plan was launched in late February when Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck created the Tourism Task Force at the National Museum of the U.S. Army.
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Hear ye, hear ye, after 40 years Gary West is hanging up his bell and revolutionary war outfit and retiring at the Dumfries town crier.
No more ringing the bell, marching in the Christmas Parade and being the man with the voice around the Town of Dumfries. He’s a long-time resident of the town, and after turning 80, it was time for someone else to take on the duty.
“I thought it was time to give it up,” he said.
His wife Nancy West was the interim Mayor of Dumfries back in 2011 so they have a certain dedication to the town that fit in with his town crier curriculum.
“I love Dumfries, I’m loyal to Dumfries, I love Virginia and I honor the flag, and I love this country,” West said.
He’s done everything from riding in the sheriff’s boat out into the river to greet another boat to recognizing the Potomac Senior High School basketball team when they won the championship.
“I read the proclamation, it was quite a to do,” he said. “I’ve had a varied experience,” he said.
That varied experience is going to be missed by the town, said Keith Rogers, Dumfries town manager.
“He was well known in the community and had an enthusiasm for doing it,” Rogers said.
It all started in the 1970s when he went to the annual parade in Dumfries and noticed there was something missing. He was a school teacher at the time and felt it needed a historical element, so the town crier idea came to mind.
“I volunteered to be the town crier and it stuck with me,” he said.
West got parts of his outfit from another old-timer in Dumfries years ago and then got out a school bell he already had from his days as a teacher. In the past, he taught grade school in the Fairfax County Public School System at Woodlawn and Gunston Elementary Schools, and then Fort Belvoir Elementary School before retiring, and going on to a job with the Fairfax Federation of Teachers.
Off and on, he substituted at a few Prince William County Schools.
As the town crier, he read a proclamation when the Marine Corps museum opened in Quantico, at the Boys and Girls Club dedication in 1997, and again at the Sean Connaughton Plaza ribbon cutting at the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge.
He’s also done some things with the Weems Botts Museum in Dumfries and “I’ve done several things with the with the historical society,” he said.
The town knows what level of dedication he provided, and honored him on January 7 with an official proclamation that read:
PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING GARY WEST FOR HIS SERVICE AS TOWN CRIER FOR THE TOWN OF DUMFRIES
WHEREAS, Gary West is a long-time resident of the Town of Dumfries; and
WHEREAS, Mr. West served as the Town Crier for the Dumfries Annual Christmas Parade since 1978; and
WHEREAS, in 2019, after 40 years of distinguished service, Mr. West relinquished the role of Town Crier; and
WHEREAS, the Town of Dumfries desires to honor and commemorate Mr. West for his years of service to the community as Town Crier; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town of Dumfries hereby recognizes Gary West for his dedicated years of service to the Town.
The Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol stopped for flowers and to fix the balloons at Dillingham Square on Monday before swooping down on the home of Joan Geringer, a Lake Ridge resident who is now the recipient of $2,500 a week for the rest of her life.
“This is amazing,” said Geringer, after she answered the door. It was a complete surprise. There were contractors at her house redoing her bathroom, so Joan couldn’t hesitate. “I can now pay you,” she said, joking with the construction crew, and they told her now she needs to do the kitchen too.
The prize award team of Danielle Lam and Howie Guja were manned with the oversized check, flowers, balloons, and champagne. They smiled, offered congratulations, and took selfies to capture the moment.
Since it was the day before New Year’s Eve, “we’re going to have a big party tomorrow night,” Geringer added.
It was all part of the job for Lam and Guja, who do this all year round in different locations all around the country. They talked of a prize giveaway in Pennsylvania at a nuclear power plant where there were guards with guns, events in California, Texas and Jackson, Mississippi. “We’re on the road every week,” Lam said.
With all this traveling and money at stake, it would seem like a phone call ahead of time would be part of their agenda. But that’s not the way it works.
“Nothing’s staged. This is real reality television,” Lam said.
Everyone’s seen the prize patrol throughout the years on television, but few have experienced it first hand.
At the Dillingham Square shopping center off Old Bridge Road, there were lots of stares and inside Michael’s Flowers, the manager Chris Polychrones “didn’t even know why she was showing up,” he said.
One of their customers was taking in the scene. “I see you guys, I didn’t even know you were real,” he said.
There were also two cameramen there to capture the surprise moment. Everyone got in their cars and headed out like a caravan to the Geringer’s house.
When they arrived, they made sure to pull up past the house, stopping around the corner to sign the oversized check and get all the pre-event video done. Then it was up to the door for the surprise.
Geringer signed up for the sweepstakes online and had just done it again within the last few days. Her husband was all smiles too. “He retires next year, this will come in handy,” she said.
Ben Benita, who a contractor Wedge Construction working at Geringer’s house that day, was out front when the team arrived. “What are the odds of that?” he asked.
Everyone was taking pictures with cell phones, which included Lam for use on their website.
Publishers Clearing House was founded in 1953 by Harold and LuEsther Mertz as a multi-magazine subscription agency. No purchase is necessary to win the prizes, and the prizes are funded by company revenues.
The winner selection is random and unbiased, the company states, and there is an outside certified public accounting firm keeping an eye on the process. In 1989, they went from having winners notified by telephone to being visited by the prize patrol, and the late Ed McMahon was never part of it – that’s another company.
If the winner is not home, which Lam and Guja have experienced, they use all available methods to contact them, including neighbors and relatives. One time, they said, the winner was on the road and turned around and came all the way home to get the prize. This was a six-hour wait for the team, who went out and had dinner, returned and still had to wait several hours.
Teachers take pride in their classrooms. Cleaning, dusting and decorating to provide the prime learning atmosphere for the students.
Andrew Miller, the turf management teacher at Brentsville District High School, took that effort to the next step when he and his students cut an award-winning design on the Brentsville football and soccer field.
He is the winner of the “Mowing Patterns Contest” award by the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) in Lawrence, Kansas.
The theme this year was “Nation’s Largest Classroom,” and Miller confirmed that the stadium at Brentsville District High School “is our largest classroom,” Miller said. “We took different ideas from different kids,” he said. “It’s really for the students…[it] lets them be creative.”
His classes created a design on the field that looks like a cross between the Greek alphabet letter “Phi,” and a Star Wars fighter jet. That design is placed in the middle, and the rest of the field features diagonal stripes and curves that adhere to the surrounding track.
Miller is in his third year of teaching turf management. He was previously awarded when they “painted the end zones patriotic,” he said.
The turf management program at Brentsville, where they teach the ins and outs of maintaining the perfect field, has gone from 70 students a few years ago to over 200 students this year. It’s the only school in Prince William County that offers the turf management classes, a schools spokesperson said.
Miller was selected via a Facebook voting contest for his “intricate design at Donald Lambert Field, home to the Brentsville High School Tigers.”
Earlier in the year, Miller also won STMA’s annual “Stars and Stripes” contest with his “Friday Nights in Small Town USA” field design. This pride in the field resonates down to the players too, he thinks.
“I always say we’re the home team advantage,” he added.
The STMA holds this national contest every year to allow the turf management programs to “showcase their field,” said Nate Rubinstein of STMA. “It gives the teachers “an ability to be creative with their work,” Rubinstein said.
“We’re constantly impressed by the imaginative and aesthetically pleasing designs our members create while maintaining safe playing surfaces,” says Kim Heck, STMA’s chief executive. “This contest offers an opportunity to showcase some of these incredible works of art.”
“Andrew and his students had an extraordinary 2019 winning Stars and Stripes and now the Mowing Patterns Contest. As the Program Advisor, he continues to increase awareness within the community and the sports field industry with his profound designs,” said Heck continued. “His creativity sets a tremendous example for the young up-and-coming sports field managers in the Brentsville program.”
Miller has also been with pro sports teams. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in turfgrass management from Virginia Tech, he worked on the school’s grounds crew before moving on to the New York Mets.
Following his stint in New York, Miller spent time in Pittsburgh at PNC Park with the Pirates before transitioning to Heinz Field to work for the Steelers. He then earned his Masters in Agricultural Education from Virginia Tech and has been shaping leading students in the Brentsville program since.
“That shows them the opportunity for growth,” Miller said.
Miller will be included in a future issue of SportsTurf, STMA’s official monthly publication. His design will also have a custom poster featured at the 2020 STMA Conference & Exhibition, January 13-16, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
As for the lawn outside his house in Virginia? The creativity stays at the school apparently. “It’s fine, not an incredible lawn,” Miller said.
Last year’s winner was Kyle Calhoon, Head Groundskeeper for the Hartford Yard Goats at Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford, Conn. Before the Yard Goats, Calhoon had stints with the San Francisco 49ers and New York Yankees, among others.
WOODBRIDGE -- Virginia is one of the states that has yet to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, but a group in Prince William County is trying to change that.
It kicked off their effort on Women’s Equality Day, Sunda, Aug. 26, at the Ferlazzo Building in Woodbridge where they watched Iron Jawed Angels and shared the microphone with ERA champ and television star Alyssa Milano.
“I think it’s important to realize how far we’ve come,” Milano said, referring back to the movie which featured the plight of the original Suffragists led by Alice Paul. “I promise you I am on your side,” she said.
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WOODBRIDGE -- Beginning this month, motorists in the Woodbridge area may start to see the dreaded orange traffic cones slowing things down as construction crews begin to relocate utilities for the widening of Route 1 from Mary’s Way to Featherstone Road.
This 1.3-mile section of Route 1 will go from being a four-lane undivided highway to a six-lane divided highway. Â Work will include the construction of a 1 0-foot-wide multi-modal trail and a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the sides of the route.
At the Prince William County Board of Supervisors meeting on August 7, the county awarded a $14.5 million construction contract to Sagres Construction Corporation for Phase I of this project.
