Originals

FREDERICKSBURG — A historic slave auction block at the corner of Charles and William Street is being relocated to the Fredericksburg Area Museum, after more than two years of an intensive dialogue between city councilmembers and citizens on the block’s future.

At the July 9 city council meeting, councilmembers and representatives of the Fredericksburg Area Museum agreed that the block would be moved to the museum, contingent on the city and the museum coming to a mutually satisfying plan for the block’s funding and future.

MANASSAS — Two people are now being treated after exposure to rabies in Manassas.

Dr. Alison Ansher at the Prince William Health District office says they called the office after we reported a group of people who appeared to be in their early 20s was seen handling a bat they picked up from a sidewalk in Downtown Manassas.

Nearly 2,500 work orders have been put into the Virginia Department of Transportation area headquarters in Stafford County since the start of the year. Of those work orders, only about 50% have been addressed and closed. 

Resident complaints have funneled their way to the Board of Supervisors with groups like Changing Stafford Roads, a student-run organization formed after 17-year-old Helen Wang died attempting a blind turn on Kellogg Mill Road at Abel Lake, making noise about poor road conditions in Stafford. 

STAFFORD — Fourteen years ago the Board of Supervisors set aside two percent of the Transient Occupancy Tax to help finance a Stafford County Museum and Cultural Center. While the tax was diverted to the General Fund in 2010, nearly one million dollars remain for the museum to use. 

Now the Museum Foundation, which separated from the county government and became a 501C-(3) in 2010, has requested and received $250,000 of it’s reserved funds after Board approval. 

STAFFORD — The Board of Supervisors is considering expanding upon the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program to encourage development in targeted growth areas. 

A TDR is when development rights in more rural areas (sending areas) are transferred to more urban and growing areas in the county (receiving areas). This acts as a conservation method for landowners while boosting urban growth. 

MANASSAS — Manassas residents packed the Boys and Girls Club, eager to learn about the city’s Comprehensive Plan and offer their input on sticky notes that were provided for their feedback. 

“It’s hard to get people out on a weeknight – except in Manassas, where we’re actually quite good at it,” planning commissioner Russell Harrison.