Preview: July 15 Manassas City Council Work Session

Happy Friday, Manassas!

Welcome to another City Council preview, this time for the July 15 work session. Missed the July 8 meeting? Here’s my preview of the important issues, and one of the decisions that will be sure to impact you.

This week’s meeting will be held at the Public Safety Facility at 9608 Grant Ave. in the second-floor policy room at 5:30 p.m.

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Important links

• Meeting agenda
• Meeting agenda packet
• Where to watch

Key agenda items

Capital project updates on transportation

Matt Arcieri, an assistant city manager and director of Planning & Community Development, will be presenting a capital improvement program update on the various ongoing and scheduled transportation projects in Manassas.

Arcieri is expected to discuss the Grant Avenue, Sudley Road third lane, Sudley/Centerville roundabout, Mathis Avenue and Liberia Avenue projects. These projects are all in various stages of the construction process: some are currently under construction, while others are still in the design process, but are close to completion.

There will also be bike and pedestrian project updates, which are all in various stages of the process. Imminent projects are the Wellington Road shared-use path gap, a sidewalk along Dumfries Road and a sidewalk on Longstreet Drive.

Fire & Rescue department update

Fire & Rescue Chief Edward Mills will be giving a presentation on staffing the Engine 501 — a 750-gallon fire engine that’s been in service since May 2014.

According to the presentation to be given at the meeting, the engine went unstaffed nearly 60% of the time in June 2023. The engine has been better staffed since reaching its unstaffed peak last June, but inched back up to nearly 30% in April 2024.

The presentation stated Engine 501 goes unstaffed when no one from the Manassas Volunteer Fire Department is working and no one from the city’s Fire & Rescue staff is available for overtime.

“The issue has been continuous for quite some time. It has always been, and will always be, best practice to take the safety of our citizens very seriously. We are at a point where we cannot continue down the same path; we need to look at [the] best options,” the presentation said.