Author: Uriah Kiser

I'm the Founder and Publisher of Potomac Local News. Raised in Woodbridge, I'm now raising my family in Northern Virginia and care deeply about our community. If you're not getting our FREE email newsletter, you are missing out. Subscribe Now!

Originals

Wexton on gun control: ‘The time has finally come to do something about it’

By Uriah Kiser

Taking action on guns is a top priority for Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-10, Loudoun, Prince William).

“The time has finally come to do something about it,” said Wexton, Wednesday at the Prince William Chamber of Commerce. Her comments come after a recent string of mass shootings in Texas, California, Ohio, and Virginia Beach.

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Business

Stafford says no to Fredericksburg Chamber ribbon-cuttings

By Uriah Kiser

County leaders on Tuesday didn’t like the idea of outsourcing the job of organizing ribbon-cutting events for new businesses.

Stafford Economic Development and Tourism (ED&T) Director John Holden briefed Board of Supervisors members on details of a plan we first reported over the weekend, to let the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce organize ribbon-cutting events for new county businesses.

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News

Stafford leaders slow to decide future of old Moncure Elem School

By Uriah Kiser
Old Moncure Elementary School, at 75 Moncure Lane in North Stafford.

Since 2012, it’s been the intention that after a new Anne E. Moncure Elementary School was built and opened (it did last month) the old school and the property on which it sits would be conveyed from the school division to the county government.

Now it has, but that deal was inked in an era when retail and commercial development around the now-abandoned school on Route 610 was booming. Today, when questions swirl over whether or not a new movie theater will ever be built at The Garrison, that boom time seems so long ago.

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Originals

P-Nats play ‘potentially the final home game’ at Pfiztner

By Uriah Kiser
Fans gather on August 31, 2019 to watch the last home game for the Potomac Nationals before the team moved to Fredericksburg. [Uriah Kiser/Potomac Local News]

The only thing spectacular about the final game at Pfitzner Stadium was the Potomac Nationals 5-1 win over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

The team scored a three-run homer in the fifth, which was the game-winning hit. Other than that, there was no on-field good-bye, or firework show. That had been done the weekend before.

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Schools

Jenkins Elementary evacuated twice before it ever officially opened

By Uriah Kiser

Those evacuations took place once on the mornings of Thursday, August 22 and Friday, August 23, when county officials stopped a kindergarten orientation with students in the building, and during a teacher orientation session, respectively, show emails obtained by Potomac Local.

“I am concerned that school staff continued to place teachers and students in harm’s way. People’s lives were being endangered by ignoring the life safety issues identified by the county building officials and county fire officials,” penned Prince William County Executive Christopher Martino in a letter to school officials.  He went on to call the actions of the school division “egregious.”

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Originals

Kindergartners enter Jenkins Elementary despite fire safety concerns, no permit

By Uriah Kiser
John D. Jenkins Elementary School.

County officials are fuming after children, teachers, and staff of the new John D. Jenkins Elementary School entered the building before Prince William County inspectors issued a full occupancy permit, and despite concerns about a fire suppression system that may not work properly.

Kindergarten students were allowed inside the building for orientation at 10 a.m. Thursday, August 22. A the same time, County Building Official Eric Mays was concerned that the hangers used to secure pipes for the fire suppression system were not strong enough to “support the weight of the pipe, the water, plus an additional 250-pound load,” according to emails obtained by Potomac Local.

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Originals

Lillie Jessie: No aviation classes for Stonewall Jackson High School

By Uriah Kiser
Lillie Jessie gives her acceptance speech after the Prince William Democratic Party declared her the next Occoquan District School Board member. (Mary Davidson/PotomacLocal.com)

Lillie Jessie, the Occoquan District School representative on the Prince William County School Board, is fighting to keep an aviation mechanics program solely at Woodbridge Senior High School, in her district.

Last year, the county school division announced plans to add the after-school, extracurricular classes to Stonewall Jackson High School on the other end of the county, outside Manassas.

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