Historic cemetery to be dug up for new Coles fire station

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A historic cemetery will be disinterred to build a new fire station at Independent Hill.

Following a unanimous vote from the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, after a public hearing at the McCoart Building on September 8, the graves will be moved to a different area on the property, in order to make way for the new Coles District Fire Station.

The current Coles fire station, on 13712 Dumfries Road, is now past it’s intended use date, and needed to be replaced, according to Prince William Fire and Rescue Chief Kevin McGee.

The public hearing was originally scheduled for earlier that afternoon, but was pushed to the 7:30 p.m. meeting by Chairman Corey Stewart.

McGee presented four options to the board of supervisors, supporting ‘Option A’ – which would involve moving the graves. The other three options did not require the cemetery to be moved, according to county documents.

Increased response times

According to McGee, moving the cemetery to build the fire station is necessary in order to complete the project on budget – $10.7 million – and to keep response times down.

“When I convened a task force of the Fire and Rescue Association to develop station design guidelines, the key objective of that design guideline project was to identify how we can reduce what is referred to as ‘action time’. That’s the time from dispatch to units moving out of the station…We need every second we can possibly save, in getting our firefighters and EMTs to their apparatus, and then safely on to their response route,” said McGee.

Bill Olson, a member of the Prince William Historical Commission challenged McGee’s statements on increased response time.

“The last six [fire and rescue] buildings built in Prince William County are two-story firehouses. The next planned fire house – Bacon Race fire house – is a two story building,” said Olson.

Following the vote, Olson resigned from his position on the Prince William Historical Commission and the Cemetery Committee.

Residents spoke up at the public hearing

Several residents came to the public hearing to express their thoughts about the county moving forward with moving the cemetery.

“It should not be as a last resort, and the descendants should approve of it…that’s where their family intended them to be buried,” said Fairfax County Cemetery Preservation Association member Mary Lipsey.

Dennis Van Derlaske, another member of the Prince William Historical Commission, stated it was the county’s duty to protect the cemetery as part of their ownership of the property.

“With any right or privilege, comes responsibility, including the privilege of land ownership. And that responsibility, if you happen to be the owner of a cemetery, is the proper custodianship of that plot of land,” said Van Derlaske.

Nohe to ‘lose sleep’, Candland blames the county

Prior to the unanimous vote to move the cemetery, and adopting ‘Option A’ as the construction plan for the new fire station, several supervisors commented on their feelings about the decision.

“No one wants to move a cemetery…the challenge I’m faced with on this issue is this – as a member of the board of supervisors, there are a lot of responsibilities that we are charged with, and we cannot ignore any of them…from my perspective, my responsibility as supervisor is first and foremost has to be the public safety of the people…I’m going to lose a lot of sleep tonight…knowing the board has been put in the position to have to make this decision…moving the cemetery isn’t something I believe is the ideal thing to do. But I do feel that the most important thing that this board always has to consider is how our decisions affect the safety of the community,” said Supervisor Martin Nohe.

According to Supervisor Peter Candland, the county is at fault for not looking at other options to build the fire station without disturbing the graves.

“I just think we missed out on opportunities to research other options. I think the county dropped the ball…I hate this decision – we are to blame here…and I think this is a sad day with this vote,” said Candland.