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

Mom, baby return to thank Dumfries rescue crews who delivered child

By Uriah Kiser
Jeany Paz, Kasey Smith holding daughter Journee, Lt. Coco Francois, and Lt. Robert Moreau.

DUMFRIES — With her daughter in a passenger seat about to give birth, Jena Smith drove her truck the wrong way up Route 1.

She had one hand on the wheel and the other holding a cell phone. She was on the phone with Prince William County’s 911 center, where a dispatcher told her to do anything she could to get around the stalled traffic.

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Features

Exclusive: Woman gives birth on floor of Dumfries fire station

By Uriah Kiser

DUMFRIES — Stafford County’s newest resident was born on the floor of a fire station in Dumfries.

Kasey Lynnett Smith, 28, went into labor on Thursday, April 18. She was in a car with her mother, who was driving her to Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge to deliver the child. Senatra, she said, is “where my doctors are.”

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News

New sponsor: Embrey Mill Berry and Wine Festival

By Uriah Kiser

Embrey Mill hasn’t just become one of the biggest neighborhoods in Stafford County, it’s also got a cool wine thing happening.

This year, Potomac Local welcomes the Embrey Mill Berry and Wine Festival as a sponsor to the site. The second-annual event offers wine tastings from county favorites like Potomac Point, and Hartwood wineries, as well as A. Smith Bowman Distillery in Fredericksburg.

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Originals

Tie vote kills Prince William data center tax hike proposal

By Uriah Kiser

WOODBRIDGE — An effort to hike taxes on data centers in Prince William County failed at a special meeting Wednesday night.

A 4-4 tie vote killed a proposal touted by Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart At-large that would have increased taxes on the current seven data centers in the county, as well as future data centers to be built, from $1.25 to doubling it over five years to $2.50 per $100 of assessed value.

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Originals

Prince William data center tax hike would benefit schools, Fredericksburg region

By Uriah Kiser

WOODBRIDGE — Prince William County leaders are aiming to hike taxes on data centers, hoping the new funds will help the county shed its bedroom community reputation and become a destination to live, work, and play.

Board of County Supervisors Chairman At-large Corey Stewart, a Republican who recently ran a failed U.S. Senate campaign against Democrat Tim Kaine, proposes raising the current tax rate on data centers from $1.25 to $2, netting an additional $9.6 million annually.

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Business

Drive-through Starbucks at The Garrison wins Planning Commission approval

By Uriah Kiser

NORTH STAFFORD — A drive-through lane was the central concern of a new Starbucks planned for The Garrison, a long-awaited development in North Stafford which promises a new movie theater, shops, and housing.

The Stafford County Planning Commission recommended approval of a conditional use permit which would allow the future Starbucks to operate a drive-through, in addition to serving customers who get out of their cars and walk inside to order food and drinks.

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Politics

Commonwealth Attorney candidate Amy Ashworth gets Surovell endorsement

By Uriah Kiser
Ashworth

MANASSAS — Amy Ashworth picked up the endorsement of Virginia State Senator Scott Surrovell.

The Democrat is running for the job of Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney, the top prosecutor for cases in the county and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

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