Author: Rick Horner

The Stafford Board of Supervisors has voted to use funds that were received through the American Rescue Plan Act.

A total of $15 million in funding was received from the Federal Government in May as part of the latest coronavirus bailout and will be used for a number of projects ranging from public utilities to providing broadband internet access.

The biggest project on the list will provide fiber broadband for all county facilities to improve network security and resilience for the county’s system. Stafford also plans to set aside some of the newly installed fiber for commercial broadband providers to serve unserved residents and businesses to encourage economic development in the area.

The county will spend over $6 million on broadband, using $3 million from the form of a prior ARPA payment, as well as $2 million from the second installment to help fund the project.

Plans are also in the works for improvements in utilities and road work for the local Patawomeck Tribe. Stafford will install 2,100 feet of new water and sewer lines in order to improve water quality conditions. The tribe, headquartered at the Duff McDuff Green Memorial Park, at 75 James Ashby Parkway, just of Route 3 in Falmouth, is currently using an alternative septic system at the Duff House which would limit any growth and development of the land.

Stafford also plans to provide a new access drive and parking area that will run from James Ashby Parkway to a cul-de-sac near the Duff House. The tribe leases the house and the surrounding land for their developing museum and tribal center. The combined total of the utilities and new path and parking lot will come to $1.5 million in funding provided by ARPA.

Stafford will also invest $1.7 million for new sewer improvements for the first phase of improvements near Cedar Lane and Courthouse Road, west of Interstate 95. The project is slated to develop over two million square feet for commercial and industrial use.

One project, the Merritt at Austin Run, is expected to break ground in that area taking up 400,000 square feet of commercial space. The project is expected to be done by 2022 and provide 400 jobs as well as generate $650,000 per year in real estate tax revenue.

A second phase is expected to be built upon the first phase that would help residents along Cedar Lane who has issues with failing drain fields and poor water quality. The County estimates that this could help 14 homes in that area. Stafford estimates that $1.5 million in funding would be needed for this second phase of utility development.

Finally, Stafford plans to give funding totaling $300,000 to the United Way in order to help Stafford residents with rent and mortgage assistance who have been hindered by the pandemic.

The county is expected to receive the second installment of funding totaling another $15 million later this year.

The Manassas City Council will create a new commission to help it keep a closer eye on legislators in Richmond.

The Stafford County Planning Commission has deferred until July a decision to approve the expansion in the Vulcan Quarry in North Stafford.

The Planning Commission held a public hearing Wednesday about Vulcan Stafford Quarry's intentions to not only expand operations at its North Stafford facility, off Route 610, in an area between the east and west pits of the quarry but to also build a new concrete manufacturing plant.

The overall project includes a request to rezone 23 acres land of, moving it from agricultural use to heavy industrial use while amending proffers on 558 acres that are already zoned as heavy industrial.

Vulcan is also asking for a special use permit for its proposed concrete plant. The new concrete plant would replace an existing plant about seven miles away on Wyche Road, near a newly constructed interchange at Interstate 95 and Courthouse Road.

Neighbors who live in the Eastern View neighborhood, next to the mining operation, which began in 1976,  expressed opposition to the expansion citing air quality and dust issues, increased noise, and increased truck traffic.

They said their homes have stained damage from vibrations due to blasting at the quarry.

Should the rezoning be approved and new proffers added, the life of the quarry would be extended from its original closure date of 2085, up to 2135. Stafford County Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Barton Randall expressed concern that the extension could interfere with plans the county had to turn the rock pits into a water reservoir for the growing county.

During Wednesday's public hearing, Vulcan attorney Clark Leming, who is also one of multiple property owners who sold his land to Vulcan in order for the quarry to expand, disputed claims that vibrations from blasting damaged nearby residents' homes. He cited seismograph and monitor readings taken by Deep Earth Logic and Swedish consulting firm Polysonic, both hired by the quarry to measure the power of the blasts.

However, members of the committee weren’t satisfied with the reports since they were not yet completed.

There were calls from many in attendance including Hartwood District Representative Darrell English to set monitors in residents' homes to measure the strength of vibrations, towards the end of the meeting the commission had received one volunteer via email.

Due to the previous sessions, many updates were made to Vulcan’s application ranging from operation hours, security fencing, air quality issues, truck traffic, maintenance of buffer and berms, among the 23 new additions to the application.

The Planning Commission will revisit the Vulcan expansion application at their meeting on Wednesday, July 28.