Today’s Take Me-Home-Tuesday pets post comes from the Prince William County Animal Service Center at 14807 Bristow Road, Manassas.

• Theo – Male cat between 1 – 3 years old, very friendly
• Ace – Male Pit Bull Terrier mix 1 year old. Love bug.

If you want to apply or learn about either animal, go to the Prince William County Animal Shelter page at the top of this post. You can also call 703-792-6465, or email [email protected]

We accept write-ups and photos of animals for adoption across the region. Please send them to [email protected].

Greetings, Prince William – Mark your calendars!  City of Manassas Park Community Services is holding a Community Day on April 22, 10 am-2 pm at Manassas Park City Hall, 100 Park Central Plaza, Manassas Park!  They need lots of volunteers aged 18+ beginning at 8 am.  Duties include set up, welcome table, water table, support various vendor tables, parking, children’s activities and clean up.  While bilingual skills in Spanish are not required, they are welcome and helpful in supporting this event.  The event will be held rain or shine (moved to Manassas Park High School in case of rain).  This promises to be a fun-filled day, and you’ll feel great as you share the resources and services Manassas Park offers its residents!  Please email [email protected] for more information.

You can help cut the risk of injuries or death from home fires!  American Red Cross needs volunteers to support the Sound the Alarm rally in Triangle on April 29, 9 am-3 pm.  Partnering with the Prince William County Fire Department, volunteers will visit homes to install free smoke alarms and share home fire safety education materials.  Families and friends welcome! Training will be provided on-site so previous experience is not needed.  It promises to be a fun day of preparing families against home fires and making the community safer.  Supplies such as smoke alarms, a drill, educational materials, and a map of your route for the day will be provided.  You’ll feel great knowing you’re providing a valuable service to your community and helping to save lives!  Please visit https://rdcrss.org/3U83BN6 for more information.

Brain Injury Services is looking for a PALS volunteer (Providing a Link for Survivors) to be a friend to a young woman living in Arlington, recovering from a brain injury. This would be a once-a-month commitment to accompany the client on outings.  Please email [email protected] or call 703.451.8881, ext.232, for more information.

You can help our senior citizens!  Prince William Area Agency on Aging is looking for Home Delivered Meals Drivers age 18+ to deliver noontime meals to homebound seniors Monday-Friday, 10 am-12 pm.  Routes take about 1.5 hours to complete; schedules are flexible.  The program operates out of the two senior centers in Manassas and Woodbridge.  Volunteers must have dependable transportation, a valid driver’s license, a safe driving record, and proof of insurance.  Volunteers must also pass a criminal background check, paid by Prince William County.  You’ll get the warm fuzzies as you deliver both a smile to seniors’ faces and a hot, nutritious meal!  Please contact Tracy at 703.792.4583 or visit http://bit.ly/3IPKVfJ for more information.

If you love admin work, the folks at CFH (formerly Catholics for Housing) want to meet you!  They need a volunteer bilingual Office Assistant who can keep the day-to-day office operations going and assist callers and clients.  Duties include answering phones, helping visitors, help with the website and program applications. Flexible schedule, 2-3 days a week, 4-6 hours each shift.  Bilingual skills in Spanish required.  You’ll feel great as you help this agency make affordable housing possible for their clients!  Please email [email protected] for more information.

Attention Feline Fans!  Last Chance Animal Rescue needs cat-loving volunteers to help with cat and kitten care and adoptions in the Manassas PetSmart, 10834 Sudley Manor Drive.  Volunteers age 14+ welcome; volunteers between ages 14-17 must volunteer with a responsible adult.  Duties include loving on the kitties, playing with and socializing them, feeding, and light cleaning, including litter box scooping.  Volunteers would also help with greeting potential adopters, introducing them to the kitty guests, and processing adoptions.  Training and orientation are provided.  Be prepared to commit to one or more shifts (AM or PM) per week; hours are available on weekdays and weekends.  You’ll purr with delight knowing that you’re helping to care for cats from high-kill shelters and place them in loving homes!  Please visit http://bit.ly/3JxbyH0 to fill out and sign a Volunteer Agreement; please email [email protected] to learn more.

The wonderful staff at Leopold’s Preserve is busy, busy and has upcoming volunteer needs for those of you who love to be in the outdoors:

Earth Day Tree Planting event on April 22, 9 am-12 pm on their grounds, 16290 Thoroughfare Road, Broad Run 20137.  Volunteers of all ages are welcome; be prepared to dig holes for the trees, plant them and give them their first drink of water.  This family-friendly event will help the agency develop a rare Piedmont savanna habitat on their facility.  Please visit www.leopoldspreserve.com/events-1/earth-day-volunteer-tree-planting/form to sign up, email [email protected] for more information.

Leopold’s Preserve also needs bird-loving volunteers to help monitor bluebird, purple martin or wood duck boxes.  Monitors regularly check the boxes to support data collection – how many birds use their nest boxes and how many babies are born.  They have lots of boxes and can’t monitor all of them without your help!  Please email [email protected] to learn more.

If you enjoy coaching sports, Martin K. Alloy Boys & Girls Club of Manassas wants to meet you!  They need Volunteer Coaches aged 18+ to coach basketball and volleyball to youth, boys and girls.  Practices are held during the week; games are normally played on weekends.  Volunteers must be vaccinated (2 doses) and successfully complete a BGCGW background check.  You’ll feel great as you work with youth and teens and watch them develop and improve their skills and performance!  Perk:  BGCGW will comp up to 2 children to play volleyball and/or basketball for FREE!  Must pay for annual membership:  $50 (ages 5-12) and $25 (ages 13-18).  Please email [email protected] for more information.

If you are looking for other opportunities, please don’t forget to call our wonderful team at Volunteer Prince William at 703.369.5292.  You can also visit our website at www.volunteerprincewilliam.org.  Thanks so much for all you do in our community.

Tomorrow, April 18, 2023, is decision day for the Stafford County Board of Supervisors.

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Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, we’ll see what Prince William County Supervisors leave in and what they cut out.

Elected leaders will hold a public meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the county government complex, 1 County Complex Court in Woodbridge, for budget markup. During a series of back-and-forth discussions and straw polls, supervisors will decide what programs to fund in the upcoming Fiscal 2024 budget, which takes effect July 1, 2024. You can watch the meeting online here.

A few residents spoke about the proposed budget during a public hearing on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. Some wanted more investments into the public schools for robotics programs, while others cried rising taxes are displacing seniors on fixed incomes from their homes. Others said they want more police after the county’s violent crime rate increased by 70% since the current Board of Supervisors was elected in 2019.

According to the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting, no public comment time is scheduled.

Supervisors are mulling the budget that would increase the average homeowner’s Real Estate tax bill to $4,905 Real Estate tax bill, up $72 from last year.

County Executive Christopher Shorter dropped the proposed tax rate by one cent, to .966 cents on every $100 of assessed home value, from when he first proposed his 2024 budget on February 28. While the proposed rate is lower than the current $1.03 rate, increased property values mean homeowners will pay more.

One of the budget drivers is a new crisis receiving center, which will take in mental patients when it opens in what was a Gander Mountain store next to Potomac Mills mall in Woodbridge. It’ll cost about $3.8 million a year to operate, with $2.1 million coming from the state.

Other budget priorities supervisors told Shorter they would like to see in the budget is $500,000 for landscaping projects across the county. There’s another half-million dollars to fund a new community events department to continue to help organize events like a Christmastime lights show at the Neabsco Boardwalk in Woodbridge and a series of Friday evening community parties at the government center.

The boardwalk lights event began last year and was funded with $150,000 in coronavirus relief funding given to the county by the state government, said county parks and recreation director Seth Handler Voss.

The county schools will benefit from the higher tax bills, adding about $13.4 million to its $1.5 billion annual budget. Prince William is one of at least two jurisdictions in the state that automatically gives more than half of its local government budget to its public schools.

The higher rate will also create a $10.4 million budget surplus. Meanwhile, the county is flush with cash after introducing a new meals tax last year that generated about $35 million, about $11 million more than anticipated.

County Budget Director Michelle Atreed said overall tax revenues are up $34 million, with a 19% increase in industrial tax revenue and a 15% data center tax revenue increase. However, most of the increases came from personal property taxes, as used cars appreciated in value over the last year — a stark change from when used cars typically lost value.

If the budget is approved without significant changes, it’ll be the third year in a row Real Estate tax bills have increased for county residents.

The principal at Bull Run Middle School near Gainesville, the site of an open house for a proposed data center next to Manassas National Park tomorrow, April 18, 2023, canceled the event. We first reported the event on Saturday, April 15, 2023.

Instead, the school will host an open house for parents of rising sixth-grade students. “I am not sure of the mix-up, but it is corrected,” states school principal Matthew Phythian in an email.

The data center would sit on some of the more than 800 acres earmarked by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, approved last year, for Prince William Digital Gateway.

Residents opposed to more data centers in Prince William County, on track to eclipse neighboring Loudoun County for the most in the world, were planning a press conference to oppose the project “The attitude of Prince William County residents, and our message to QTS, is simple and concise: go away.  We are not buying their insincere overtures to placate us while they concurrently plot to destroy us,” they noted in a press release.

QTS already operates at least one data center in Prince William County, next to the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus near Manassas.

In November 2022, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors amended its comprehensive plan to allow 27 million square feet of data center space next to the national battlefield park, the site of two major Civil War battles, a national tourism destination.

A Manassas woman faces charges after a fatal hit-and-run crash near Manassas Mall on Saturday, April 15, 2023.

Fatal Crash Investigation – On April 15 at 10:19PM, investigators with the Crash Investigation Unit responded to the area of Sudley Rd. near Portsmouth Rd. in Manassas (20109) to investigate a hit and run crash involving a pedestrian. The investigation revealed the driver of a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 was traveling eastbound on Sudley Rd., near Portsmouth Rd. when the driver struck a pedestrian who was attempting to cross Sudley Rd. After the initial impact, the driver of the vehicle fled the scene. Rescue personnel responded to the scene where the pedestrian was pronounced dead. The pedestrian was not crossing within the crosswalk at the time of the collision and wearing dark clothing. The identity of the deceased will be released once next-of-kin has been notified. While investigating, police located the vehicle and then identified the driver of the vehicle. Investigators determined that speed, alcohol, and drugs are not factors for the driver. Following the investigation, the driver of the vehicle, identified as Norma Rosas BUSTOS, was arrested.
Arrested on April 16:
Norma Rosas BUSTOS, 53, of 10340 Launch Cl. in Manassas
Charged with felony hit and run
Court Date: Pending | Bond: $50,000 Secured

The deceased pedestrian was identified as Alvaro Rene DE LEON ALVAREZ, 50, of no fixed address

— Prince William police

There were 11 pedestrian crashes in 2022 in Prince William County, a 10-year-high. In each case, police blamed the pedestrians for not using proper sidewalks and street crossings.

On April 16, 2023, Stafford Sheriff's animal control deputies were called for a report of two butterballs in the street.

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Someone drove into the Occoquan town post office today, at 202 Mill Street, spelling trouble for town residents who must come to the post office to pick up their mail.

No one was injured.

Town Mayor Earnie Porta says:

Our understanding is that someone pulling in to get their mail accidentally stepped on the gas instead of the brake and thus ran into the wall. As a result, the retail operations (i.e. counter service) in the post office is closed until further notice. Box owners can still pick up mail, but we do not currently know how USPS will be processing the mail. They have told us that they can no longer accept or receive packages for the time being.

Two boys, one 15 and the other 17, face charges after a brazen armed robbery and abduction attempt on Route 1 at Wayside Drive, near a Walmart outside Dumfries.

Police found the suspects at nearby Potomac Mills mall in Woodbridge.
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On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the Major League Baseball color line.

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