The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts is decked out for Christmas, and its Christmas show reminds us what it means to be kind this holiday season.
The performance house is celebrating its 25 years in 2023 and is showing “Miracle on 34th Street” for its annual Christmas show. “Miracle on 34th Street” gets everyone in the holiday spirit.
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Christmas is about to arrive at ARTFactory in Manassas, as Rooftop Productions presents “White Christmas.”
Set just after World War II, the light-hearted musical love story centers around the romantic relationship of the four main characters traveling to perform at a Vermont inn.
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The Stafford County School Board, on November 14, voted to move forward by introducing three specialty schools at county high schools.
The specialty schools are the Community Health and Medical Professions (CHAMP) Center, located at Broke Point High School, The Leadership, Education, and Public Service (LEAPS) Center at Mountain View High School, and The Engineering Professions and Industries of Construction (EPIC) Center at Stafford High School.
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In a marathon meeting that lasted more than 20 hours at the county government center in Woodbridge, the commission recommended denying two companies — QTS Data Centers and Compass Data Centers — the ability to build 23 million square feet of data center space in what’s become known as the Prince William Digital Gateway.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors will have the final say on the project at a meeting on December 12, 2023. A majority of Democrats on the board support the measure.
During hours of public comment, residents voiced concerns that. The massive data center corridor would bring increased electricity rates and taxes.
Residents were also not convinced that the data centers would bring in the higher tax revenues for the county, all of which had been promised by the companies. Most were not against the concept of data centers, but their impact on the climate crisis, strain on infrastructure, and cost to the residents were all problems that were repeatedly spoken about.
Earlier this month, the Prince William County planning staff also recommended denying the companies the ability to build on the land. County planners have spent the better part of a year reviewing the plans.
Following the denial, QTS and Compass submitted last-minute changes to the plans.
Coles District Planning Commissioner Joseph Fontanella, Jr. said elected leaders who support the data center project pressured planners to recommend approval of the plans.
In his comments during the meeting, Fontanella the integrity of the staff needs to be protected, and pressure should not be applied to staff by impossible deadlines. It is also unfair to the applicant whose application does not get a thorough review, which could ultimately end in denial.
Many who live on the land on which data centers could be built stand to make millions by selling their properties to data center firms. Occoquan District Commissioner Raheel Sheikh was moved by comments made by the Davis family trying to sell their land. Sheik voiced concern that they were not being given the right to sell their land as they chose without having hurdles put in their way.
Sheik also expressed his approval of the diversity of citizens who attended and made comments in the public hearing.
If the Board of County Supervisors approves the development next month, it will clear the way for data centers on 2,e00 acres of land next to the Manassas National Battlefield, an area about 15 times larger than Potomac Mill mall in Woodbridge, to construct new server farms that power the internet.
Never having visited the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts before, I was unsure what to expect. Theaters always conjure images of damp, dark, old, and slightly threadbare interiors, with their glory days a dim and distant past.
However, this is not the case for the Riverside Center. Its bright interior conveyed none of that, and the welcome by the staff added to the warmth of the atmosphere. In keeping with the play's setting in the Deep South, the three-course menu complimented southern cuisine and culminated with a generous portion of fennel cake, which would not have been out of place in any county fair.
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The Rose, the first gaming resort in Northern Virginia, will open later than anticipated.
Colonial Downs, the firm that operates Rosie's Gaming Emporium in Dumfries, will manage the gaming, hotel, and conference center when it opens in Dumfries sometime in the middle of 2024. The firm had originally planned to open the center at the end of 2023.
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With three new proposed bus routes, OmniRide aims to continue its push into Stafford County and the Fredericksburg region.
The following new routes are proposed to begin in mid-December 2023:
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The county Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission will hold a joint public hearing on October 17, 2023, to discuss new rules on where the server farms that power the internet should be located in the county. Data centers are built on large campuses that take up acres of land and use excessive amounts of electricity to power the servers, and water to cool them.
The county has seen three major applications for new data center complexes -- one by Stafford Hospital, one near the county landfill on Eskimo Hill Road, and another in Falmouth. The county Planning Commission, along with data center operators like Amazon Web Services and Stack Infrastructure, spent three months examining where data centers should go.
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Updated 7:40 p.m. -- The Stafford County School Board is setting its budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2025.
The School Board will begin working earnestly on the coming year's budget in October. The budget timeline has been moved a couple of weeks earlier than the previous year to better align with the county Board of Supervisors' budget development timeline -- the governing body that funds the school division.
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Graham Park Road in Dumfries will go on a road diet.
Two of the four lanes on the street will soon be used for pull-off lanes for OmniRide buses. A new bus shelter will also be erected on the road. The town council unanimously approved the change on August 8, 2023.
![Bridges of Madison County [Photo: Riverside Theater for the Performing Arts]](https://www.potomaclocal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/riverside-dt-bridges-of-madison-county-1-1260x840.jpg){kind=link}
![Bridges of Madison County [Photo: Riverside Theater for the Performing Arts]](https://www.potomaclocal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/riverside-dt-bridges-of-madison-county-1260x840.jpg){kind=link}