Originals

A new Public Safety Facility currently being built in Manassas is currently on schedule by its completion date of September 2022.

A video posted on Twitter by Manassas City Police Chief Douglass Keen updated the new $49.1 million facilities located at 9608 Grant Avenue. In the short video, Keen is standing on what will become the facility's fourth floor while describing what will be the new home of the city's police department. 

The new 68,000 square foot facility will be the new home of the Manassas police and consolidate all of the city's public safety departments. This would include the 911 and Emergency Operations Center, the Fire and Rescue Administration offices, and its Information Technology Department.

The new, four-story facility will replace the current police station at 9518 Fairview Avenue.

In 2016, Manassas paid $3.2 million for the site on which the new facility would be constructed on which had been the site of a Safeway grocery store and later on as a flea market. 

The price tag of this project has expanded over the years. In 2017, estimates showed that it would cost the city $19 million. When ground was broken in 2020, the estimated project costs were said to be $40 million.

"This building will add to the south side of the city," said Mayor Hall Parrish II during the facility's groundbreaking ceremony in 2020. During the same ceremony, then-Mayor Parrish recalled the memory of the late former city councilman Steven Randolph. "The south side, as he called it, is something he championed."

The new facility will replace the current police station at Fairview Avenue and Signal Hill Road, built in 1990. During the City Council meetings, one suggestion was that the city's school system could use the old police station after the police department had vacated it.

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Prince William

Prince William County real estate taxes for the first half of 2021 are due on July 15, 2021.

There are several convenient ways property owners may make payments, including by electronic check or credit card online at tax.pwcgov.org; by phone at 1-888-272-9829, jurisdiction code 1036; or by mail to PO BOX 1600, Merrifield, VA 22116. Payments must be postmarked by July 15, to avoid a late fee.


News

On Friday, July 16, members of the Virginia State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant in the 8600 block of Devonshire Court, a home daycare facility.

Through its investigation, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force arrested Filomon Ventura Fernandez, who is charged with reproduction, distribution, solicitation, and facilitation of child sexual abuse material.


News

Yesli Vega made history when she was the first Latina to be elected to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in 2019.

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Obituaries

Joan Warthen Hall Herndon, 81, of Nokesville, VA, passed away on July 15, 2021.

Joan Herndon was born in Occoquan, Virginia to Warthen and Barbara (Selecman) Hall, December 8, 1939.  She attended Occoquan Elementary and Gar-Field High School.  She married Stanley R. Herndon on April 16, 1956 in Chesterfield, South Carolina.  She served on the Occoquan Town Council from 1978-1982 and was instrumental in launching the first Occoquan ‘craft shows’. She later worked as travel agent for Carlson Wagonlit Travel for 20 years.  Joan was involved in the Occoquan Historical Society and was an active member of the Gar-Field High School Reunion group for the graduating classes 1954-1957.