A man wanted in connection with a reported abduction and assault and battery is now in custody.

Paul Parker Gordon, 64, of 19142 Potomac Crest Drive in Triangle, was arrested on Thursday, July 23. Police had been searching for him since Monday, July 21, after he was charged following an assault on a woman at a home in the 4700 block of Kilbane Road in Dale City.

The victim told police that Gordon had followed her to her car and grabbed her by the arm, preventing her from leaving. The two managed to separate and Gordon fled the scene before police arrived.

The victim suffered minor injuries.

Gordon is charged with abduction along with assault and battery, with a pending court date and an unavailable bond, said police.

In an unrelated incident that occurred in the 9100 block of Yorkshire Lane near Manassas on Sunday, July 26, police were called at 7:45 p.m. to a home where an argument between two people was taking place.

Police said they saw a man shove a 50-year-old family member. Police then pursued to handcuff the suspect, which he refused and bit an officer, police said.

Police managed to handcuff him and take him to jail. Police found that the suspect had hit another family member, a 13-year-old boy before police arrived.

No injuries were reported on the boy, but minor injuries were found on the 50-year-old woman and a police officer. Police identified the suspect as Antonio Soriano Moran, 45, of the 9100 block of Yorkshire Lane near Manassas.

Moran was charged with assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, domestic assault and battery, obstruction of justice, public intoxication. His court date is set for September 16, 2020, and he is being held without bond.

Mason Neck State Park, located in Lorton, V.A., is closed until further notice after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus.

While the employee is currently at home being quarantined, closing the park was necessary to protect the health of park visitors and employees, according to Julie Buchanan, senior public relations and marketing specialist.

This decision follows protocol from Virginia State Parks, based on guidance from the Virginia Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC, Buchanan states.

Park facilities will be deep cleaned and sanitized. Facilities will only reopen if the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the agency that manages the state parks, has determined the risk of community spread has been reduced, according to Buchanan.

Buchanan says decisions to close a state park are made on a case-by-case basis. Any state park closures related to the coronavirus pandemic will be listed on DCR’s website at dcr.virginia.gov.

Several lane and shoulder closures are planned for July 27 to July 31 for the Route 1 widening project.

The project aims to widen Route 1 to six lanes, between Mary’s Way and the Occoquan River.

Here are the dates and time frames of these closures, according to an update from Woodbridge Supervisor Angela Franklin:

• Gordon Boulevard will be extending its roadway from July 27 to July 30, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Lane/shoulder closures will be in the northbound and/or southbound lanes.
• Gordon Boulevard will also be extended July 31, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Lane/shoulder closures are the same.
• Annapolis Way will be extending its roadway from July 27 to July 30 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Lane/shoulder closures will be the northbound and/or southbound lanes.
• Annapolis Way will also be extending their roadway on July 31, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Lane/shoulder closures are the same.
• Occoquan Road will be doing grading and concrete work from July 27 to July 30, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Lane/shoulder closures will be the westbound and/or eastbound lanes.
• Occoquan Road will also be doing concrete and grading work on July 31, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Lane/shoulder closures are the same.
• Route 1 will be extending their roadway from July 27 to July 30, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lane/shoulder closures will be northbound and/or southbound lanes.
• Route 1 will also be extending their roadway on July 31, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Lane/shoulder closures will be the same.
• For more information, please call 703-792-4646 to learn more.

The $165 million project includes a new bridge over the Maurumsco Creek and is expected to be complete this fall.

The Prince William Parks and Recreation department has announced its plan to reopen fitness centers in phases, starting with phase one on Aug. 1.

The Chinn and Sharron Baucom Dale City Aquatic/Fitness Centers will reopen to members on Aug.1, according to Seth Hendler-Voss, director of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.

The original plan for re-opening to members was on August 24, but Parks and Recreation moved it up because summer camp attendance has been down, according to Hendler-Voss.

Parks and Recreation will open both facilities in phases:

• Phase 1: Self-directed fitness areas only starting August 1.
• Phase 2: Lap swimming
• Phase 3: Group fitness classes
• Phase 4: General pool use

The start dates for phases two, three, and four have yet to be announced because it depends on filling staff vacancies/instructor availability, completing in-service training, and the coronavirus case trend.

Members will be able to register online for 90-minute time slots, and Parks and Recreation will limit facility capacity to conform with the VA Forward Blueprint Guidelines. Non-member drop-in use will not be permitted at this juncture.

“About 90% of our members maintained their memberships, but we froze their bank drafts and extended their membership period,” said Hendler-Voss.

Facilities will close in the middle of the day for deep cleaning.

Everyone entering will have their temperature taken and be verbally screened similar to what facilities are currently doing for summer campers. Masks will be required when not exercising, according to Hendler-Voss.

Parks and Recreation has announced that it is planning to utilize lifeguards who are already certified, whereas outdoor pools would have required a massive, close contact training effort to certify new guards.

The department is currently developing fall program options for these centers as well as other sites that are responsive to the changing needs of the community, according to Hendler-Voss.

Parks and Recreation is engaging various stakeholders in this process and will be sharing these options with the County Executive in the near future.

A Secret Service member and several other citizens noticed a 21-year-old man nearly drowning at Falmouth Beach and was able to revive him before emergency personnel arrived.

The event happened on Tuesday, July 21, at 5:41 p.m. when officers along with Fire and Rescue arrived at Falmouth Beach on an emergency report person in distress in the river. Stafford County Sheriff's Office stated in a press release that when they arrived, the 21- year old was revived by beachgoers.

This article is FREE to read. Please Sign In or Create a FREE Account. Thank you.

Prince William County Police Department will host a webinar called “Neighborhood Watch” to help residents learn how to keep their community safe, connected, and informed.

This event will start at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29, for citizens who want to learn how to improve the safety of their community. According to Prince William County Police Department’s “Join Virtual Neighborhood Watch Webinar” page, those interested in joining the webinar through their computer can do so by:

Joining this Webex link and the link will take you to a page that will ask for your name and email address. The next page will then ask you to enter the session password: VNW2020 which participants will then click “Join Now” after inputting the password.

Follow any directions that then appear on your screen to participate and enter the webinar meeting. For those who would rather join in on the meeting through phone, they may call 1-415-655-001 and enter, when prompted, the session number: 160 607 6223, to participate in the meeting.

Prince William County is working on distributing funds that it hopes will help bring businesses back to life post-pandemic with safety and health guidelines in practice.

The coronavirus pandemic forced a number of businesses in the county to close or be impacted, particularly in the restaurant, retail, and travel sectors. In April, the Prince William County Department of Economic Development created the Economic Recovery Task Force to help staff develop recommendations to aid the county’s post-pandemic recovery

According to a Prince William County press release, county supervisors voted to appropriate $5 million from the CARES Act, and $1 million from the county’s Economic Development Opportunity Fund to institute the recommendations. Christina Winn, the executive director of the Department of Economic Development, told the board in a recent presentation that the Economic Opportunity Fund money will give incentives to opening small businesses and encourage existing businesses to make improvements, according to the press release.

A total of $500,000 from the Economic Development Fund would be used to reduce or eliminate development fees and provide expedited processing to help restaurants, retail and mixed-use development to repurpose workplaces to accommodate business in the coronavirus era. The remaining $500,000 will provide grants to the targeted sectors of information communication technology, federal government contracting, and more to stimulate the economy.

The Department of Economic Development will work with the Industrial Development Authority of Prince William County to determine which businesses would receive grants of up to $30,000. The grants could be used for operating, recruiting and capital investment, according to the Prince William press release.

Some money from the CARES Act will go toward Infrastructure and Innovation Grants of up to $200,000 each to service-oriented businesses, such as restaurants and hotels, to make safety improvements to their facilities. Those improvements could include improving curbside pickup operations or ventilation system upgrades to improve air quality.

Other funding from the CARES Act will go towards Workforce Reskilling and Transition Grants, which could help roughly 16,100 unemployed people in the county who are unlikely to return to work by the end of 2020, according to Prince William press release.

Up to $1.5 million will be used to create “virtual hubs” that could connect people who are unemployed or underemployed with training opportunities for new jobs. Funding will also be used to contract with education partners to provide vouchers for training.

The press release states that with the $150,000 to $200,000 from the CARES Act, the Small Business Technical Assistance Program will hire up to five business consultants through the Mason Small Business Development Center. This will provide free counseling and training services to small businesses in Prince William, Arlington, and Fairfax counties, the cities of Manassas and Richmond.

The consultants will work with small businesses to provide business recovery and other technical expertise which would not normally be available to many small businesses, including women and minority-owned businesses, according to a press release.

Economic Development’s Be Safe, Work Safe, Shop Safe program will receive $250,000 to $500,000 from the CARES Act funding to establish training and education programs for business owners and their employees. Vouchers will be made available to employers to provide training to businesses and their employees on how to operate in accordance with guidelines set forth by the CDC, OSHA, and VDH, according to the press release.

The training will provide instruction on how to properly wear a mask, clean and sanitize, and how to practice social distancing to keep them and their customers safe. The training will also provide an additional level of consumer confidence as reopening continues.

Lastly, the Prince William press release states the economic development department’s Ambassador program will use $50,000 to $250,000 to temporarily assign county staff to lead a team of volunteers to help distribute information on the safety guidelines established by OSHA, the CDC, and the VDH. The volunteers and staff will make “house calls” to area businesses to remove the information.

More information about assistance for local small businesses is available at princewilliamcounty.biz.

Are you in the mood to celebrate the end of the week with some tequila? Come down to Sedona Taphouse today!

Sedona Taphouse posted on its Twitter about trying the Prickly Pear Margarita to celebrate National Tequila Day in style. The taphouse recommends trying its handcrafted guacamole on the side for a perfect pairing.

This article is FREE to read. Please Sign In or Create a FREE Account. Thank you.

Charlie Davis III, 28, of Dumfries was stabbed to death outside of a Woodbridge night club early this morning.

Police were called to the Babylon Cafe at 3081 Golanski Boulevard at 2:13 a.m. for a report of a stabbing. They found the victim suffering stab wounds and then called for an ambulance to take him to a local hospital where he later died, police said.

Davis III was stabbed during a fight that broke out in the parking lot after the club had closed. Those involved in the fight fled the scene after Davis III was stabbed, police said.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information regarding this homicide is asked to contact the Prince William County Police Department tipline at 703-792-7000 or submit a webtip to: pwcgov.org/policetip