In the next four years, Maureen Caddigan says she will finish what she started in Triangle.
The $65 million effort to widen Route 1 in Triangle to six lanes was completed in 2012, and it took with it many of the roadside businesses that once lined the busy thoroughfare – fast food joints, used car dealerships, and a Greyhound Bus station. Bringing new economic development to the area to coincide with the National Museum of the Marine Corps will be her full-time focus.
After the businesses were gone, it brought disapproval from some of her toughest critics.
“Things are happening in this neighborhood, but not everything happens overnight,” said Caddigan. “We thought that when we widened the road everyone was going to want to be here, and things would develop more quickly, and then we had the economic downturn.”
The Republican is currently running unopposed to keep her seat on the Prince William Count Board of Supervisors.
Caddigan sits at the Potomac District Supervisor and serves Montclair, Triangle, and the towns of Dumfries and Quantico. She’s campaigning on three top priorities: transportation, education, and public safety.
Caddigan was a catalyst for the addition of a $15 million public library in Montclair. She has also fought for the construction of Fuller Heights Park on Old Triangle Road outside Quantico. She’s also been the catalyst for bringing new ball fields for children in the Triangle area. A ribbon cutting for the new fields will take place in April, she said.
Caddigan has also worked to enlarge a commuter parking lot at Routes 1 and 234 in Dumfries, and she credits herself, in part, to helping to bring John Paul the Great Catholic High School to Prince William County.
Some of the items she’s still working on is the development of a town center adjacent to where Route 1 was widened, along Old Triangle Road. Caddigan had once envisioned an Occoquan-like setting to be built along the road linking Graham Park and Fuller Heights roads. She pushed developers to get on board with the project, but the effort stalled when county officials learned they would have to purchase multiple private properties to make the vision of the town center a reality.
“We took out voter-approved bond monies to widen Route 1 and that isn’t something we were able to do again,” said Caddigan.
Caddigan has served on the Board of Supervisors, formerly as the Dumfries District Supervisor before the district’s name was changed to Potomac, since 1991. Prior to that, she served on the Prince William County School Board for seven years. She left that role after her daughter got a job at a gym teacher at Hylton High School in Woodbridge, to avoid any conflicts of interest.
The two Democrats who both have their eye on the seat will face off in a Primary Election later this year – one-term Dumfries Councilman Derrick Wood and newcomer Andrea Bailey. The winner of the primary will face Caddigan in the fall.
