NEW PARK: ‘Michele McQuigg deserves even more than a park named after her’

LAKE RIDGE — Ruth Anderson is standing behind her call to name a new park after the late Michele McQuigg, a longtime public servant who came under fire when she opposed same-sex marriage.

The Prince William County Park Commission last month decided to go back the drawing board when it comes to naming the 15-acre park at the corner of Old Bridge Road and Oakwood Drive in Lake Ridge. It was asked to make a recommendation on whether or not McQuigg’s name should be used for the park.

Anderson, the Prince William County Occoquan District Supervisor, suggested the name.

Commission Chair Jane Beyer, who once worked for McQuigg when she was Occoquan District Supervisor on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in the early to mid-1990s, suggested the commission make no recommendation and let the Prince Board of County Supervisors sort it out.

However, the majority of the Commissioners decided to form a new naming committee that includes all members of the Parks Commission, in addition to county parks and recreation chief Seth Handler Voss, and residents from the Occoquan District, where the park will be located.

In a Potomac Local Live interview, Anderson said:

“I think it’s very unfortunate that we couldn’t get a definitive vote on this name. For someone who’s served our community so well. You know, we name public buildings… schools… and the library is named Chinn Library… we have so many different names on public facilities. And actually, Michele McQuigg deserves even more than a park named after her.

Anderson said she recommended naming the new park for McQuigg because she worked to preserve the land for parks when she served as the Occoquan District Supervisor. Per the county’s Parks and Recreation Department’s policy, the committee is only asked to evaluate the suggested name and cannot suggest alternative names for a park or facility inside an existing park, like a ball field or picnic pavilion.

At last month’s Park Commission meeting, all speakers who spoke during citizens time urged the commissioners to recommend to the Board of County Supervisors that the park be named for McQuigg.

“So it is very unfortunate that after 30 people showed up at the commission meeting… and I think it was over a dozen people who spoke in favor of the naming…some were known Democrats who spoke in favor of Michele McQuigg.”

During her time as Prince William County Circuit Court Clerk — the job she had at the time of her death in 2017 — she barred same-sex marriages from being performed at by a celebrant who works for the county courthouse.

In 2014, She added Prince William County to a list of other Virginia jurisdictions that mounted legal challenge heard by a federal court. They argued that while same-sex marriage had been legalized on a national level, Virginia’s constitution hadn’t yet been amended to allow the practice.

The court ruled against the plaintiffs. McQuigg then ordered all celebrants who performed marriages for the courthouse to also perform same-sex marriages, or to resign.

Of the 11 celebrants who worked for the courthouse at the time, only one submitted his resignation.

The Prince William County Park Commission is in recess this month but will reconvene in September.

The new park in Lake Ridge is slated to be the trailhead for the Occoquan Greenway, a series of trails connecting the Prince William County Government Center to the Town of Occoquan on the Occoquan River. In addition, the park will have a gazebo, picnic area, and a small number of parking spaces.

Anderson added:

“[McQuigg showed] just unbelievable dedicated service. She is remembered by so many residents as the lady that walked up to their door with a hat and tennis shoes. She did door-to-door, and unlike most politicians, she did door-to-door almost every year, even when it wasn’t election time just to find out what the constituents needed. And I still hear stories about how Michele McQuigg helped this constituent that constituent went with road issues and water sand issues and social services issues. She is still warmly remembered by a majority of people that live here in the Occoquan District and her service is to be commended.”