Uriah Kiser, Author at Potomac Local News

Amid shortage, Manassas Park wants lifeguard pay hike to restore swimming hours

Published September 15, 2019 at 3:20PM | Updated March 31, 2020 at 2:14PM

Open swimming hours at the city’s community center’s indoor pool were slashed on September 9 due to a lack of lifeguards.

The city points to a national shortage of swimming pool lifeguards [as reported by our indie cousin Shawnee Mission Post] as the reason the hours modifying, cutting out midway swims from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

News

Study finds ‘mistrust’ in Stafford, Fxbg tourism partnership, seeks changes, more funding

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 13, 2019 at 3:48PM

That partnership, between Fredericksburg City, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties, is meant to pool the resources of each jurisdiction, to get more people to travel to the region, and bring their business events to hotels and the convention center.

In place since 1994, each jurisdiction spends $117,000 a year on the regional tourism effort. But the partnership expires on June 30, 2020, and that has local leaders in Stafford asking if they should go it alone when trying to lure tourists to breweries, wineries, and Ferry Farm, George Washington’s boyhood home on the Rappahannock River.

Prince William

Using taxpayer money to buy Rural Crescent land would be the last viable option

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 12, 2019 at 10:19PM

A sign warning drivers of a horse crossing is posted along busy Va. 234 inside Manassas National Battlefield Park. [Uriah Kiser / Potomac Local News]

It’s called a Purchase of Development Rights Program (PDR) where the government buys a farmer’s land, then leaves it in the hands of the farmer who can continue to use it for agriculture, but can never build on it, or sell it to anyone else.

A newly proposed resolution from Prince William County School Board members Alyson Satterwhite and Willie Deutsch rules out four of six viable alternatives to developing the Rural Crescent, the last remaining, largely rural, crescent-shaped tract of land from Quantico Marine Corps Base to Manassas National Battlefield Park.

Originals

Prince William leaders don’t want county employees using drones to spy on people

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 12, 2019 at 6:45PM

On Tuesday, the Board of County Supervisors ordered a new policy meant to govern the use of small aircraft, commonly used for photography, to be reworked.

Board Chairman At-large Corey Stewart and others feared that a county employee using a drone could inadvertently capture footage of a zoning violation, submit the video to the zoning department for review, and land the property owner in hot water.

Publisher's Post

We believe election information should be free, easily accessed

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 12, 2019 at 9:48AM

Kiser

That’s why we’re continuing our efforts this year to bring you our Project:Election candidate surveys.

You saw them posted to our site prior to the June Primary Election, and our reporter Kimberley Scharfenberger will make sure you’ll see them again for candidates running in the Nov. 5, 2019, election.

Originals

Mike May says there’s been a lot of talk about selective prosecution

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 11, 2019 at 10:39PM | Updated September 12, 2019 at 6:46PM

That’s the term commonly used to refer to local prosecutors deciding whether or not to pursue cases of people charged minor infractions like littering, or trespassing, or possession of small amounts of marijuana.

“You’re not electing a king or queen who gets to decide what to prosecute. You follow the law,” said May, a Republican whose making his second run to be Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney.

Originals

Babur Lateef used the School Board Chairman candidate forum to name drop

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 11, 2019 at 9:37PM | Updated September 12, 2019 at 6:46PM

Lateef, the Prince William County School Board Chairman, At-large was not shy of saying the names of fellow Democrats also running for the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, the taxing authority that provides funding for the schools. He’s led the School Board overseeing Virginia’s second-largest school system in Prince William County for the past 16 months.

“We need more funding from the Board of County Supervisors and we’re not getting it due to Jeanine Lawson (sitting Brentsville District rep) and Ruth Anderson (sitting Occoquan District rep) who are not committed to our classrooms,” he said at Wednesday night’s Prince William Committee of 100 / League of Women Voters voter forum in Manassas.

Originals

Nearly half of Prince William County Government employees are in line to get a raise

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 10, 2019 at 5:59PM

The Board of County Supervisors for the first time Tuesday heard a proposal to give about 1,000 full-time employees a 4% raise. Another 627 part-time employees who work for the parks and rec department will also get a raise.

It’s going to cost about $5 million to carry out, and the pay raises would be phased in over two years.

Originals

The next phase of the OmniRide re-branding plan is the new bus stop signs

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 10, 2019 at 4:58PM | Updated September 10, 2019 at 6:00PM

The signs erected at — you guessed it — bus stops, will be placed at stops across the county, and at stops in Arlington and Washington, D.C.

The featured photo in this post shows an example of a new bus stop sign that’s sitting in an OmniRide office. The new signs are expected to make their debut first in western Prince William County in January.

News

For Mathis Ave redevelopment, a Manassas bypass isn’t a dirty word

By Uriah Kiser

Published September 10, 2019 at 11:12AM | Updated September 10, 2019 at 6:00PM

If the Mathis Avenue corridor is going to change, so may traffic patterns need to change on Route 28.

Manassas officials are have dusted off the more than a decade old Mathis Avenue Sector Plan and are starting to make streetscape improvements in the neighborhood that mirror similar efforts in the city’s downtown.