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News
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The Stafford County Board of Supervisors approved the implementation of a $5 fee to pay for the implementation of a new electronic summons system.
According to information from Stafford County, the system will save time by allowing sheriff's deputies by logging information into the system from the field and generating a court summons on the spot, freeing up the time of data entry employees that work back at the office.
This fee will also allow the county's sheriff's office department to fund and maintain the system, as well as fund any extras that go with the system, such as printers and scanners, according to Stafford Sheriff's Captain Lee Peters.
Anyone whose been charged with a crime, from a speeding violation to homicide, must pay.
Peters, after being asked by George Washington District Supervisor Tom Coen, confirmed that the sheriff's office doesn't consider the fee to be a tax. Those who accessed the system would be the only ones paying the fee. Virginia law allows the fee. The Virginia State Police already have such a program and fee in place, similar to what Stafford County will use.
The system would also be convenient to decrease the time it takes to settle a charge, officials said.
The information will also be uploaded to the Virginia State Police's new Community Policing Data Collection which collects and displays data on traffic stops on the state’s Open Data Portal. The collection is a result of the passage of the Community Policing Act which was passed in 2020 and became effective on July 1.
The act mandated that all law enforcement agencies that participate in traffic stops must upload information on stops to this site. The information currently on file on the site was collected from July 2020 to June 30, 2020, and will continue to be updated with current information and reviewed to make sure the available data is not out of date.
Hospitals in our area are adapting to life after the pandemic, and at least one has resumed its normal visitation policy.
Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge says it’s ready to welcome once again the visitors who wish to visit patients inside the hospital. Sentara will resume standard visitation policies for all Sentara hospitals and outpatient facilities.
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Fire ripped through a house in the Aquia Harbour neighborhood just after midnight, leaving four people displaced from their homes.
Stafford County Fire and Rescue were dispatched for a structure fire in the 1000 block of Potomac Drive in the Aquia Harbour neighborhood. Crews reported the heavy fire had spread to all three levels of the home.
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The effort to extend the runway at Stafford Regional Airport got a major boost from the Federal Government.
Senator Tim Kaine announced the airport would get $5.5 million in federal funding. The airport is currently working to extend the airport’s runway by 1,000 feet to attract more planes to the region.
Stafford County
FRAUD
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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.
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Vandals targeted a trail at Jennie Dean Park, spray painting “BLM” and “FTP.”
The acronyms represent Black Lives Matter and a phrase showing disrespect to police officers, respectively. Those two markings, as well as a third, “I can’t breathe,” the last words from George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who was killed at the hands of a police officer last year, were found on two of the utility boxes on a trail inside the park.
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The ball is in motion to transform the heart of Stafford County into a livable, walkable downtown.
The Board of Supervisors approved its own request to rezone six acres of land next to the county’s iconic courthouse, clearing the way for 306 new apartments, as well as commercial space for retail stores and restaurants. In a rare move, the Board of Supervisors initiated the rezoning request, which, now that it is approved, allows developers to construct a more densely packed urban development than the original plan of building multiple one-level office buildings.
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The Manassas City Council will create a new commission to help it keep a closer eye on legislators in Richmond.
A new Legislative Committee will develop an agenda to showcase the city’s wants and needs and present it to elected members of the General Assembly. The committee will also monitor legislation for review and recommend revisions for existing legislation. The committee will consist of three members of the City Council appointed through the Council’s rules of procedure.