Exit 98 (Doswell) to Exit 104 (Carmel Church)
Monday - Tuesday, 9 p.m. - 5 a.m. Bridge inspection at mile marker 103, just south of the Carmel Church interchange. Northbound and southbound lane and shoulder closures.
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The agenda for the Stafford County Board of Supervisors is posted, and, as promised, supervisors will hear from the public about a plan to hike Real Estate taxes by 38% in the coming year.
The tax rate hike, accompanied by a host of other fee increases outlined in the agenda link above, like water and sewer, would mean the owners of average single-family homes could see their tax bills increase from about $3,000 to about $5,000. The additional $947 million budget would be used for pay raises for county staff and teachers, to build new schools, and other projects outlined in this report.
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The ACTS Crisis Helpline will cease operation on June 30, 2023.
The Dumfries-based non-profit announced the closure of the 41-year-old telephone helpline on Thursday, March 30. During its time, staffers at the helpline took 500,000 calls from Prince William County residents and calls from across the U.S. as part of the National Suicide Hotline Network, said ACTS Interim CEO David Strand.
Last year, the helpline fielded more than 11,800 calls. With the launch of the National 988 services and the Virginia Regional Crisis Center, the ACTS crisis line duplicated services already offered by others, said Strand.
More in a press release:
Surveillance photos show multiple people broke into an auto dealership in Woodbridge, located the keys to several cars, and drove them off the lot.
Prince William police report:
Commercial Burglary – On March 28 at 11:07AM, officers responded to Woodbridge Auto Sales located at 13611 Richmond Hwy. in Woodbridge (22191) to investigate a burglary. Upon arriving at the business that morning, employees observed damage to a side door and contacted the police.
Video surveillance revealed an unknown individual kicked in the side door and then made entry into the business with two additional individuals. While inside the business the individuals take numerous sets of keys before going to the business parking lot where they attempt to enter several different vehicles.
Eventually, the suspects make entry into a 2008 Grey Acura MDX and a 2015 Grey Jeep Grand Cherokee and drive them from the lot. No additional property was reported missing. The investigation continues. The suspects are described as three black males with face coverings.
During a Manassas City Council meeting on Monday, March 27, we learned Councilman Tom Osina pulled his proposal to fund the city schools categorically.
Osina issued the proposal, threatening to withhold funding from the city's public schools if it did not come forward with plans to rebuild the 60-year-old elementary school, at 9061 Dean Lane, by July 2024.
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Occoquan is partnering with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network to install two water quality monitoring stations in the Occoquan River.
More in an email from Mayor Earnie Porta:
To operate, the program requires a network of volunteers who are willing to collect the scientific data from the monitoring stations on Wednesday mornings and bring the data to the PRKN’s floating lab, Sea Dog, where it is analyzed and released weekly on the SwimGuide app and PKRN’s social media pages. The more volunteers, of course, the less frequently any one individual has to collect and deliver the data.
Free training to be a Community Science Water Quality Monitor can be completed in two ways. For those who are interested in a live training session, one will be held on Wednesday, April 19, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at National Harbor Marina. To sign up contact Morgan Bench at [email protected]. Additionally, training may be completed by watching three training videos online and then successfully completing a Water Quality Monitoring Certification Exam. For more information on the latter go to potomacriverkeepernetwork.org/volunteer and scroll down to the section on “Community Science Water Quality Monitors.”
This is a great way to become involved in citizen science endeavors and support the health of our namesake river.
A volunteer basketball coach at Brooke Point High School was arrested earlier this month after a juvenile victim reported an incident to law enforcement.
More in a press release from the Stafford County Sheriff's Office:
A juvenile victim reported she was on a Stafford County school bus travelling for an away basketball game last month when an assistant basketball coach sat next to her on the bus seat.
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The Prince William County Solid Waste Division will host a Compost Awareness Day event on Saturday, May 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with its partners Freestate Farms, Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Volunteers, and Keep Prince William Beautiful. The event will be held at the Balls Ford Road Compost Facility, 13000 Balls Ford Road, Manassas.
Attendees can learn about backyard composting, ask questions, and find out about the composting process at the County’s state-of-the-art facility.
Event includes:
- Free compost samples (bring your own 5 gallon bucket)Compost bin sales
Compost and gardening information - Community beautification information
- Compost facility tours at 10:30 a.m. and noon
- Food scraps collection
Volunteers from the VA Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners program will be present to share materials on the benefits of composting and its use and information on yard waste and food composting at home.
Keep Prince William Beautiful volunteers will share community beautification ideas and opportunities. In addition, attendees can take home a free compost sample in their own bucket, compliments of Freestate Farms. Residents can also drop off food scraps to be composted. Backyard compost bins will also be available for purchase. Compost facility walking tours will begin at 10:30 a.m. and 12 noon.
This Prince William County event supports International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), the compost industry’s largest and most comprehensive education initiative. ICAW promotes composting efforts in the backyard and, at large scale, commercial composting facilities, like the County’s Balls Ford Road Compost Facility, operated by Freestate Farms.
This year’s theme, “For Healthier Soil, Healthier Food…Compost!” According to the Compost Research & Education Foundation, the theme was chosen based on a serious world-wide issue that every nation, unfortunately, experiences: hunger.” The 2023 theme best reflects the goal of focusing on how compost can have a role in helping feed the world by making our soil healthier, which produces healthier food. By recycling organics into compost and using it on our farmlands, we create healthy soils that produce healthier food and higher yields. It also reduces the need for fertilizer and pesticides, improves water quality, conserves water, and stores carbon in soil – helping to reduce climate change. Compost not only helps the environment but also helps to decrease food shortages experienced around the world.
In October 2021, Prince William County implemented a yard waste collection program to better manage this organic resource, which is 13% of the waste stream. Local trash and recycling haulers now collect yard waste separately from other trash and recycling for composting at the Balls Ford Road Compost Facility versus landfilling.
Residents can also bring yard waste such as leaves, brush, garden, and hedge trimmings to the Balls Ford Road facility or the County Landfill to be processed. The resulting compost and mulch products can be purchased at either Solid Waste facilities.
Attend Compost Awareness Day on May 6 and learn more about composting. Visit pwcva.gov/trashandrecycling for more information about yard waste collection regulations and other Solid Waste services.
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors will hold a joint meeting with its Planning Commission tonight at 6 o'clock to discuss data centers and their potential impact on the county.
The public meeting is at the Courthouse Community Center, 29 Stafford Avenue.
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One hundred Georgetown South residents will get a third parking permit from the city and won't have to pay a dime.
The Manassas City Council approved the measure at its Monday, March 27, 2023, meeting. Councilman Tom Osina, who lives in Georgetown South, a neighborhood of townhomes in Downtown Manassas, motioned to approve the measure.
