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New fines imposed for failing to register car, show license plates

By Potomac Local News

Prince William County wants its money.

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Features

Zorba’s Grill, a new Greek restaurant opens in Occoquan

By Potomac Local News

There’s a new restaurant in town in Occoquan.

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Originals

Stafford will consider new fees to fund its FOGs program

By Rick Horner
Stafford County is posting photos like these, of grease-clogged water pipes, to social media in hopes residents won't pour hot grease down the kitchen drain.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing to adopt a program to deal with fats, oils, and greases in the county.

According to county documents, if the Board of Supervisors approves a mitigation program, it would collect fees to fund the inspections of commercial kitchens that have the highest potential for releasing fats, oils, and grease (affectionately referred to by county public works crews as FOGs) into the county sewer pipes.

Stafford County has had a long history of trying to deal with FOGs and the issues it causes for its infrastructure. The county estimates that 50 percent of sanitary overflows and backups are caused by the substances settling in the county's sewer system, as well as other related issues which cost Stafford $1.5 million annually to treat.

County leaders could charge $100 for an annual permit, and a re-inspection fee of $50. The Board would be able to set these fees to fund the set-up and operation of the program as long as they are considered reasonable under Virginia State Law.

County documents also estimate that Stafford will have to spend $66,178 in the fiscal year 2022 to fund the program. Stafford estimates that the costs of field staff and administrative costs would total $86,178, the county does expect to offset some of that spending with revenues taken in from the program which it estimates to be $20,000 during FY2022.

Stafford has dealt with the FOG issue in the past. In November 2019, the county created the #canyourgrease campaign which was launched across social media platforms in order to convince Staddord residents to can their FOGs instead of dumping them down the sink drain.

This was in response to the previous FOG issues the County experienced in 2018 when it had to deal with 13 sanitary sewer overflows and 191 sewer main backups.

The Board will hold the public hearing at its August 17 meeting, if the program is approved then it would go into effect on Jan.1, 2022.


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Originals

3 women make history as first-ever female slate of GOP candidates in Manassas

By Uriah Kiser
Phillips, Jennings, Forkell Greene, Coates Ellis [Submitted photo]

Manassas is known for its place in history, and something historic is happening again in the city when it comes to the General Election this fall.

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News

Chatham Bridge, a key link to Fredericksburg, expected to reopen by October

By Rick Horner
VDOT crews walk across a the deck atop the Chatham Bridge over the Rappahannock River, linking Fredericksburg with Stafford County. [Photo: Rick Horner]

The Chatham Bridge will reopen a key entrance to Fredericksburg later this year, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced Monday.

One year ago, the Virginia Department of Transportation closed the 80-year-old bridge to demolish it, to make a new and improved structure. The new bridge carries drivers over the Rappahannock River, linking the city with Stafford County.

Potomac Local News on Monday toured the new bridge, which is in the later stages of construction. 

The bridge has been one of the major throughways into downtown Fredericksburg from Stafford County from Route 3 since it first opened in 1941 and carried around 16,000 vehicles a day. Several improvements are underway to the bridge, which includes expanding it from a two-lane into a four-lane bridge and sturdier construction that will be able to hold larger trucks. Because of this, there will be no vehicle weight posting on the bridge.

Other additions made to the bridge will be new pedestrian and bicycle paths separated from vehicle traffic by installed barriers. The paths will also link to Stafford County's Belmont-Ferry Farm Trail and other sidewalks in downtown Fredericksburg.

While the bridge will be open for traffic by October, completion of work on the bridge will be done by April 2022. According to VDOT Engineer Robert Ridgell, final adjustments to the bridge and clean-up, such as removal of the stone embankments placed in the river alongside the bridge, allow heavy machinery to perform its construction tasks.

The total cost of the bridge has been estimated at $23.4 million and is being funded through state transportation funds from the State of Good Repair program. The building contract for the bridge was awarded to Pittsburgh-based Joseph B. Fay; the company included in their bid a guarantee to have the bridge ready for traffic in 16 months instead of the 38 months that the project was expected to be done in.

In the days leading up to its closure, there was much concern about how that lack of the bridge would affect businesses in the downtown area. That effect, however, was eclipsed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and made it difficult to say which had more of an impact on local businesses.





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Features

EPIQ Food Hall a grand experience with global culinary fare

By Jacob Mosser
Photo: Jacob Mosser

There are new several new places to chow down in Woodbridge — all under one roof.

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Originals

Weary Prince William residents fear another powerline fight looms 

By Uriah Kiser

Dominion Energy, the state’s largest utility, has no idea yet how much electricity a new data center to be built near Haymarket will need.

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Still no redistricting communications plan in Stafford County

By Rick Horner

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors has once again kicked the can down the road on a communications plan to inform the public about the county's redistricting, a process that will happen this year. The county has been stymied in their progress on redistricting which happens every 10 years due to the census data which was taken in 2020 being unavailable.

Like all other localities, Stafford County uses that census data in order to inform their decisions in redrawing district lines.

Stafford had planned to replace a series of planned stakeholder meetings that were to be used to disseminate information about redistricting with community information meetings. The county had hoped to reach a wider audience with these new meetings thus having more transparency on the redistricting efforts.

Residents spoke at the board's previous meeting on June 1 objecting to these new meetings citing their belief that these meetings actually made the process more opaque.

As a result, Stafford will continue to use the stakeholder model but will work on establishing some criteria for stakeholders since some of the groups listed as stakeholders are not residents of the county and are for-profit groups which came as a suggestion from Hartwood District Supervisor Gary Snellings.

Stafford County established its redistricting committee on March 3 to analyze population data and recommend adjustments to election district lines and polling locations. The delayed release of the U.S.Census data taken in 2020 has delayed the redistricting process.

The county will be responsible for redrawing the lines of its seven magisterial districts, while politicians in Richmond will redraw political boundaries for General Assembly and Congressional Districts. 

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News

Town hall to focus on future of OmniRide

By Uriah Kiser
Samuel Johnson, of My City cleaning services, polishes one of six new OmniRide commuter buses.

Commuters will get an earful on the future of OmniRide, the transportation agency that provides bus service in Prince William and Stafford counties and the cities of Manassas Park.

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Prince William

DMV Select office to open in Haymarket

By Uriah Kiser

Residents of Haymarket won’t need to drive toward Manassas to visit the DMV.

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