STAFFORD — Amidst a storm of information regarding Superintendent Scott Kizner’s newly proposed transgender policy, the name of one organization keeps recurring: Equality Stafford.
The group was formed two years ago by Amy Saunders, Stafford resident and mother of a transgender student. It is a community of both adult allies and students who seek to establish LGBT+ policies in Stafford.
AIRLIE — Stafford County leaders pumped the brakes on a possible tax increase to fund county road improvements.
County Administrator Thomas Foley told the county Board of Supervisors on Saturday that the government would need to increase the county budget 10-fold to pay for $190 million in needed road improvements in the county.
STAFFORD — Faced with redistricting all of Stafford County’s 17 elementary schools, the administration has decided to rely heavily on the contractor they hired to do the job.
The School Board met Tuesday evening to discuss possible solutions for the school system’s eight-month-long elementary school redistricting process which began with the School Board’s request to purchase the old Fredericksburg Christian School to house the county’s Northstar campus in June and will conclude in late February.
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — A bill in the Virginia House of Delegates, co-sponsored by multiple Prince William County legislators, that would allow a woman to receive an abortion up until the time of delivery died this week.
Delegate Kathy Tran (42-D, Lorton, West Springfield) sponsored HB 2491 which would have changed a requirement for women to obtain approval from three doctors to receive an abortion in the third and final trimester of pregnancy to one. Tran’s bill died Monday in a House Courts Subcommittee where she told a panel of lawmakers that a child could an aborted at the time a mother was dilating on the delivery table.
STAFFORD — County teachers on are on tap for a five percent raise in this year’s budget instead of the two percent originally planned.
Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner unveiled his planned budget for FY 2020 that would begin on July 1. The requested budget will be around $328.5 million which is a 13 percent increase from the FY 2018 budget.
WOODBRIDGE — Before the Interstate 95 Express Lanes could be expanded to Fredericksburg, there was this little thing known affectionately as a “compensation event.”
That’s the term coined by state officials and Transurban, operators of the E-ZPass Express Lanes on I-95, 395, and 495, when they signed an agreement to build and maintain the lanes under former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
MANASSAS — Manassas leaders Monday night passed a resolution in support of ratification by the Commonwealth of Virginia of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution.
A similar last fall in Prince William County failed despite heavy lobbying from Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly.
FREDERICKSBURG — Funding for a handful of transportation projects that began last year will carry over into 2019.
At its January 22 meeting, the Fredericksburg City Council approved a motion to continue funding four projects.
WOODBRIDGE — In 1983, things in the Washington, D.C region were about equal.
Just 36 years ago, the economies of Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington were all growing at the same pace. Overall, it was a company town with the Federal Government leading growth.
WOODBRIDGE — Gov. Ralph Northam today announced multiple major transportation improvements in the region.
The first and most debated will the extension of the Interstate 95 southbound fourth lane from Route 123 at Occoquan to Prince William Parkway. Dubbed an auxiliary lane, the project will move south a bottleneck that occurs when the I-95 south travel lanes merge from four to three as drivers cross the Occoquan River from Fairfax into Prince William County.
