PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Hazardous construction from the “Transform I-66” project has citizens frustrated, but the Virginia Department of Transportation is working to fix unsafe conditions, according to a quarterly mobility report presented to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors meeting on January 8.

Windshields broken by debris, poorly painted lines and other road issues on I-66 are plaguing drivers, Jeanine Lawson of Brentsville District said during the meeting.

Constituents “feel frustrated that things are falling on deaf ears” and “we’ve received many emails, phone calls, Facebook messages,” Lawson shared. “I’ve learned from constituents of broken windshields… There are a lot of complaints regarding lines that were poorly painted. It can be very dangerous.”

“At this point, folks don’t care who’s responsible. They just are frustrated that the roads they’ve paid for are not safe,” said Lawson.

Ricardo Canizales, transportation director for the County, told board members that “it’s a continual effort” and that VDOT is aware of the situation.

“The lines are being redacted and taken away, leaving scars on the pavement and that causes a lot of issues,” Canizales said. “VDOT continually works on repairing… [and] they do have a crew out there on a continual basis trying to fix those kinds of issues.”

Poor weather conditions from frequent rain and the fact that much of the construction must be done during the night were cited as reasons for the road issues.

“We’ll continue to monitor to make sure that we get better results and are able to get to those challenges and issues on 66 quicker than what they do now,” said Canizales.

The construction is part of a larger VDOT initiative called Transform 66 to ease traffic congestion and provide more travel options by adding toll lanes to the highway, between Haymarket and Dunn Loring in Fairfax County. Construction activities are ongoing, including completion of lane shifts, setting barriers, and clearing and grubbing. Traffic impacts and lane closures are available to the public at transform66.org.

Canizales reported that completed county road projects in 2018 include Minnieville Road widening, a pedestrian footbridge at Powell’s Creek, and intersection lighting improvements for Sudley Manor Drive at Bethlehem Road.

Route 28 remains a major focus in 2019

Several projects are underway in 2019 to improve commuter support. VDOT started construction on a 230-space lot for Park & Ride Haymarket (Gainesville), with anticipated completion for spring 2019. OmniRide announced new commuter express service in Haymarket, which began December 17, 2018. The bus service has also applied for additional funding to bring enhanced services to the western end of the County.

Canizales reported that VDOT would not evaluate a Route 28 expansion project this year for funding. “The state has let us know officially that they will not consider this… because we have multiple alternatives and we did not have a preferred alternative as part of our environmental document,” he said.

Route 28 is a persistent issue for commuters, with some of the worst traffic congestion in Northern Virginia.

“We are still looking at the widening of 28. If we cannot get the permits, we can still move forward” with other alternatives, Canizales explained. “We are moving forward with additional monies that the NVTA [Northern Virginia Transportation Authority] has given us.”

Marty Nohe of Coles District chimed in to clarify that improving 28 is still a priority, and that the County has more than $100 million of Northern Virginia Transportation Authority funding that can be allocated to Route 28.

“This decision on the VDOT’s part doesn’t actually slow down this project at all,” said Nohe. “We can get through the design phase and get into the right of way phase using the money we have right now on this project.”

“It is continuing to be a top priority for Prince William County,” Nohe assured. “We’ve got enough money to get us through the next several years of this project and I believe this continues to be our top priority for major congestion.”

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Areas in Prince William County — including the area near Manassas, Dale City, Woodbridge, and Dumfries — are implicated as having a lower life expectancy in the metropolitan Washington region, according to a new report produced for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).

The report, “Uneven Opportunity: How conditions for wellness vary across the metropolitan Washington region,” was conducted by the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Center on Society and Health.

“The residents of the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. are among the most affluent in the United States,” the report noted. Despite this, life expectancy in the region can vary by as much as 27 years in some areas.

“[C]loser examination reveals clusters of census tracts where residents live in more difficult conditions,” and in many cases, these adverse areas are “separated by only a few miles or blocks” from more affluent ones.

“The health status of the local population is not uniform across the region,” according to the report.

Census tracts are small subdivisions of counties defined for the purpose of gathering information about the members of a given population. The metropolitan Washington region has 1,223 census tracts. By examining these, the study found “striking geographic differences in… health measures such as infant mortality, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.”

Two prior studies by the VCU Center on Society and Health have documented Northern Virginia’s “uneven opportunity landscape” and identified 15 “islands of disadvantage,” which are “clusters of census tracts with adverse living conditions.”

Included in those 15 “islands” were Bull Run-Manassas, Dale City-Woodbridge, Dumfries and Centreville.

What is causing the disparity? VCU researchers developed a Healthy Places Index (HPI) to find out more details. The HPI was created using census tract data, indicators and life expectancy computation, and used to rate communities on health conditions.

The HPI provides a score, ranging from zero (lowest opportunity for health) to 100 (most opportunity for health), and researchers used it to rank all census tracts in the metropolitan Washington area. Included in that overall score is six “domain” scores: air quality, education, economic/other household resources, health care access, housing, and transportation.

A higher HPI placement often correlates with a higher life expectancy.

Distant suburbs of Northern Virginia, including areas of Woodbridge and Dumfries, “where life expectancy was as low as 75-79 years,” scored the lowest in the HPI. Contrastingly, areas of Washington, D.C. with high HPI score have an average life expectancy of 87 years.

Ultimately, the HPI found that individual health — often interpreted as a personal choice — is shaped by a variety of factors. These include, but are not limited to, economic resources, housing and transportation. Simply having access to quality health care nearby is not enough to raise an area’s HPI score.

“Health is about more than health care,” the report reads. “Doctors cannot solve the socioeconomic challenges or improve neighborhood conditions. Impacted areas have large populations that lack health insurance and localized areas have an inadequate number of primary care physicians, mental health professionals, and other clinical services.”

The report also found a great disparity in the racial population. “[P]eople of color and immigrants were more likely to live in neighborhoods with fewer resources,” or islands of disadvantage, “which lack the conditions for good health.”

In tracts with the highest HPI scores, 64 percent of the population was white and the proportion of black and Hispanic residents was 6 percent and 10 percent, respectively. In tracts with the lowest HPI scores, 63 percent of residents were black, 13 percent were Hispanic, and 19 percent were white.

“Black-white health disparities persist even after adjusting for other factors that affect health such as education, household resources, and housing,” the report said.

Jennifer Schitter, a principal health planner for COG, told Potomac Local that the COG Health Officials Committee “will be engaging various sectors to champion this report in 2019. Sectors may include housing, education, planning directors, and county and city governments.”

“It is important to be aware of where the neighborhoods with fewer resources are in their respective jurisdictions,” said Schitter. “Once identified, elected officials could work with these communities to identify holistic solutions to addressing each community’s unique needs.”

In addition to COG, organizations who funded the report include Kaiser Permanente, Healthcare Initiative Foundation, Northern Virginia Health Foundation, and the Potomac Health Foundation.

“[C]reating healthy communities and closing the region’s 27-year gap in life expectancy require more fundamental social and economic solutions beyond the world of health care,” the report suggested.

“Real solutions require targeted investments in marginalized neighborhoods to improve access to affordable, healthy housing as well as affordable transportation, child care, and health care.

Manassas needs a new Jennie Dean Elementary School; City Council and School Board at odds on funding it

MANASSAS — Jennie Dean Elementary School is 82 years old and not getting any younger.

With aging infrastructure requiring frequent repairs and a rapidly increasing student body, Manassas’ City Council and School Board are struggling to reach a funding agreement for a new school.

The cost of tearing down the old school at the intersection of Wellington Road and Prince William Street in Manassas and constructing a new, expanded building on the land requires roughly $30 million — a tall order for a city with one of the highest tax rates in the state.

“The building is old, children deserve a better building than that,” School Board member Tim Demeria told Potomac Local.

Several studies have concluded that the building’s age and limited capacity would make renovation ineffective in the long term, according to Almeta Radford, director of public communications for Manassas City Public Schools. The school “is past its useful life and should be replaced,” she said.

In 2015 the School Board hired Citigate GIS, a consulting firm, to determine the needs of the school division through 2030 and they found that replacing Dean Elementary with a “Dean Intermediate School” of approximately 140,000 feet would yield the best results.

Radford said that waiting will only compound the situation.

“The cost to replace Jennie Dean will never be cheaper than right now,” she said. “The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be and the more costly the repairs will be to maintain an outdated Dean.”

The other pressing issue is the size of the student body, which has followed a consistent trend of yearly increase.

“Manassas City Public Schools student enrollment has continued to increase at a rate of approximately 1.5% annually and is projected to do so for the foreseeable future,” Radford noted. “Student enrollment growth is primarily in the elementary grade levels.”

If that population trend continues, students will need to be placed in trailer classrooms. Demeria sees that happening within the next two to three years.

“But we don’t want to do that,” Demeria added. “Trailers become an added expense of their own. Would we rather spend money on trailers or on a new building?”

In addition to the expense, trailers come with a host of other issues that impact student life. They typically do not include bathrooms, and they take up space on school grounds otherwise used for practice areas and extracurricular activities Security procedures to get students back and forth from the main building to trailers are also an issue, officials say.

The City Council and School Board Finance Committees have been meeting since May 2018 to establish a new funding agreement for the School Board, covering the replacement of Dean Elementary.

December 10th’s school funding proposal — which would have continued an annual 2.56 percent funding increase yearly over the next three years — was struck down in a 4 to 2 vote.

As of now, the City is still working on a funding agreement with the School Board, but if the Council comes back with a number the School Board deems insufficient, they will not be able to move forward.

In addition to the school situation, the Council must also think about funds for things like fire and rescue services and street upkeep. Manassas’ increasing tax rate is also a source of concern for some councilmembers.

Some proposals have included stipulations on where the money goes to, but Demeria said these are frustrating to the School Board.

In one of the previous funding drafts, funds were compartmentalized to go to other areas, such as debt service. “I had a problem with that,” he said. “The City Council needs to allocate a lump sum and allow the elected School Board to do our job.”

“We are both elected officials,” Demeria said. “We’re elected to run the schools, they’re elected to fund the schools. They need to do their job and allow us to do our job.”

Demeria said that the School Board has been very fiscally responsible over the years, despite challenges. “When I started on the Board twelve years ago, we received more money from the City per student than we do today,” he noted.

The Board has had an average increase of one and a half percent per year, and with that increase, “we’ve built Mayfield [Intermediate School], built Baldwin [Elementary and Intermediate schools], added on to Haydon [Elementary school], built Gillum Fields, maintained all of our schools and buses, brought our teacher salaries up to par with Prince William County — all on a percent and a half per year.” “We’ve been very fiscally responsible and we should be treated that way and allowed to make the decisions that are in the best interests of our children,” he said.

The School Board has provided revenue estimates for the foreseeable future to City Council for review and is working with the City Manager to determine tax consequences.

DUMFRIES — Dr. Mary Kate Moriarty is a contestant in an upcoming episode of Jeopardy!

She’s a dentist at Modern Day Dentistry in Fettler Park just outside Dumfries and has been a resident of Northern Virginia for more than 20 years.

“It was a surreal experience,” Moriarty told Potomac Local. “The first time I saw Alex Trebek, he walked out on stage and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is really happening!’”

Moriarty is a lifelong fan of Jeopardy! “I’ve been a fan ever since I was a little girl, so trying out for it has always been in the back of my head,” she shared.

Growing up, Moriarty’s grandmother was an avid fan of the old Jeopardy! with Art Fleming. “She was so invested, we couldn’t talk to her when it was on,” Moriarty recalled.

Moriarty first tried out for Jeopardy! in 2003, when she was living in California. “I was in the contestant pool, but they didn’t end up calling me back,” she said.

As it turns out, that was the year Ken Jennings swept, winning 74 Jeopardy! games in a row and earning himself the record for the longest winning streak on the show. “I was glad in retrospect that they didn’t call me back that year because he was unbeatable,” Moriarty laughed.

Applying to compete on Jeopardy! starts with an online test. About 80,000 people take the test each cycle and that number is whittled down to 400. Every few years, Moriarty would take the test for fun, hoping to get called. This past April, she was informed that she had passed and was invited to Philadelphia for an in-person audition which took place in September.

“You take one written test again and then there’s a mock show where you pretend you’re playing and they have the buzzer set up,” Moriarty explained. “They just want to see if you’d be a good contestant and they look for enthusiasm and personality.”

A week later, Moriarty got the call that she had been selected.

“I was in my car, just leaving my Northern Virginia rowing club practice, and I was so excited I had to pull over,” said Moriarty. Her teammates were the first to hear the news and celebrate with her.

Moriarty started prepping for the big day and her friends were eager to help.

“I’m weak in geography and the day after I shared the news, my friend Jean left books on my porch in geography, world knowledge, and presidents,” she said.

Moriarty said her strongest category is arts and culture.

So what is it like being on Jeopardy! and seeing Alex Trebek in person? Moriarty traveled to California, accompanied by her daughter, and said it was a whirlwind of excitement. “The day goes by so quickly and before you know it, they’re taping. It’s all a blur looking back on it,” she said.

“What it really comes down to is the buzzer,” said Moriarty. “It really is all about who is fastest.”

“The crew and the staff were so kind and made you feel really special,” she said. “This was beyond a bucket list thing for me, I’m just so happy I could do it!”

Tune in to Channel 7 WJLA on Thursday, December 13 to see Moriarty compete.

MANASSAS -- A three-year city and school funding plan which includes an estimated tax rate increase of nine cents is on the table for the full council to vote on.

The plan includes an increase of the city allocation to Manassas City public schools of 2.625% annually over the next three years. The cost is estimated at roughly three cents added to the tax rate per year for three years, which is a total of nine cents once fully implemented.

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WOODBRIDGE -- A Star Wars event at Freedom High School put on by Boy Scout Troop 501 has been abruptly canceled, following reports that the high school told the troop they could not have full access to the gymnasium, despite a previous agreement.

The event, Star Wars Days, was scheduled for December 1 and 2 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Freedom High School gymnasium.

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In the wake of Amazon’s announcement to build its second headquarters (dubbed HQ2) in Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhood, real estate prices are projected to soar and officials are mixed on how to ensure affordable housing for Northern Virginia residents.

Finding housing in a rapidly growing community has been a concern in the area for years. A recent survey conducted by Suburban Virginia Republican Coalition (SUV GOP) found that suburban residents in the area named affordable housing as one of their four key issues, in addition to commuter transportation, property taxes, and education.

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MANASSAS PARK -- Massive city debt has crippled badly needed updates to Manassas Park’s water system, city officials confirmed.

At least half of Manassas Park’s water system pipes are 65 years old, laid when installation was mostly unregulated and not held to particular standards. As a result, breaks are common occurrences, especially as cold weather approaches.

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MANASSAS -- The city of Manassas has acquired Annaburg Manor, a historic property, for the purpose of turning it into park space. The property has 3.65 acres of land, but the building is badly in need of renovation.

“Resident surveys have noted a lack of public space and a need for additional space in the community. This is a very nice, undeveloped area,” said Manassas city manager Patrick Pate.

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