George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington, died in 1789 and was buried in Fredericksburg near a monument that resembles the Washington Monument but on a lesser scale.

The exact location of the actual grave remains unknown though, so in steps the GSSI Ground Penetrating Radar apparatus manned by historians from Washington Heritage Museums and a professor from Mary Washington University to investigate this colonial mystery.

The radar system looks like a cross between a walker for the disabled and a football field measuring system.

“We won’t see individual bones,” said Dr. Katherine Parker, a professor with the Department of Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington. Parker was out to the site on President’s Day with a few students testing out their new tool. “This is our first project with this, it’s faster, and we don’t have to dig.”

The monument was dedicated on May 10, 1894, near Mary Ball Street and Kenmore Avenue, aside another old cemetery in downtown Fredericksburg. Since there was no headstone placed when Mary Ball Washington was buried just over 100 years earlier, “it is reported to be near the sandstone outcropping now known as Meditation Rock,” states a historical Washington Heritage Museums pamphlet.

Construction of the monument began in the 1830s but was only partially finished, which angered a group of local women who formed the Mary Washington Monument Association and raised enough money to buy the site.

When the monument was finished in 1894, thousands gathered at the dedication, including one of the speakers, President Grover Cleveland. Other presidents who have visited this site include Andrew Jackson and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who laid a wreath at the monument in 1954.

MWU student Blake Bauer and Professor Parker were on site, operating the GSSI. He majored in historic preservation and considered this experience “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “It’s very science-ee” he added.

GSSI stands for Geophysical Survey Systems, headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire. They have customers all over the world, and their mission is to “help customers solve their subsurface visualization challenges with ground penetrating radar equipment.”

The GSSI technology is used to check the structural health of roads, bridges, and skyscrapers to study the thickness of glaciers, their information stated.
On the President’s Day trip to the site, they found several possible places that may be a grave, but there was no digging that day. It will take further research and approvals before any action is taken.

There was a time in the 1970s when kids would get a plastic hockey blade, screw it on a broomstick, and run around the street, hitting the ball into the homemade goal.

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With a road project as significant as the Interstate 66 Express Lanes, having an office open to the public is ideal for those wanting to ask questions to an actual person and discuss future initiatives that impact hundreds of thousands of people in the I-66 corridor.

There is a certain level of complications, too, with the switchable HOV E-ZPass, so an office along I-66 outside the beltway is ideal. Only it’s not open and doesn’t appear to be in operation.

Is it all just for show?

One I-66 E-ZPass Express Lanes driver, identified on Facebook as Lesser Will, showed up at an office on Balls Ford Road near Gainesville to inquire about the rules recently and the pricey tickets that are sent to the so-called violators, and the office was like a ghost town. (insert the echoing HE-LLL-OOOOOO reverberating off the canyon walls here)

“When I got there, I saw no dumpsters or work trucks, which are typically prevalent when you are having work done on a building. In fact, the lobby, which is referenced as being worked in, looks pretty untouched,” states Lesser Will, who also posted photos of a seemingly empty office in the Western Prince William Chatter Facebook Group.

When a driver is initially charged with a toll violation, they are charged the toll plus a $1.80 fee if they pay within five days of the violation. If they pay after five days but less than 35 days, the fee is $12.50. Between 45 and 89 days, the fee goes up to $25; after 90 days, the fee is $100. It gets worse 180 or more days after missed toll (court proceedings): $100 fee + toll + court fees + civil penalties, all set by Virginia law.

In this case, the driver had the “EZ-Pass Flex,” an EZ-Pass with the HOV option. He had it switched off so the toll would be charged, but he got a ticket anyway. In his case, the empty, dark office was a disappointment.

I-66 Mobility Partners operates the office, which spokeswoman Nancy Smith said is temporarily closed to the public while the walk-in customer service center is renovated. That center is the only office near the Balls Ford Rd park-and-ride lot on I-66 in Manassas.

“We look forward to re-opening it as soon as possible,” she said via email. The information is posted at the building’s entrance and on their website, ride66express.com.

On that website, an orange banner at the top states, “66 Express Outside the Beltway Service Center is closed until further notice for walk-in customers due to area improvements/renovations.”

In the meantime, she recommends, “Our Customer Service Team is continuing to meet with customers by appointment, and our agents are answering calls to 1-833-643-2867 within 45 seconds on average. We remain committed to assisting all our customers with their questions and concerns.”

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County have another medical option with the recent opening of the Harrison Crossing emergency clinic at Plank Road and Harrison Road.

The “Emergency Department at Harrison Crossing,” the 11,000-square-foot facility, is on the southern end of the Harrison Crossing Shopping Center and has two ambulance bays, a walk-in emergency entrance, and parking in the front and rear. Inside is an office for walk-in medical emergencies and a separate emergency clinic.

It is operated by Mary Washington Healthcare and staffed with board-certified emergency physicians and a team of emergency-trained nurses.

Currently, there are 400,000 people in the Fredericksburg area, and with this center opening in the western part of the congested Plank Road area, it serves a need. “People don’t have to go as far to get the treatment they need,” said Justin Richardson, the nurse manager at Harrison Crossing.

“Our region is growing like crazy,” said Susan Spears at the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce. Spears and Richardson were at the ribbon cutting on February 5, but the emergency center opened its doors on January 23 and started seeing patients.

Another emergency medical center about a mile east, Fredericksburg ER opened about a year ago.

Next to the Emergency Department at Harrison Crossing is a Taco Bell, Popeyes Chicken, McCallister Deli, and a Goodyear Tire Center. An access road connects the shopping center, so a traffic signal for the shopping plaza is available only for cars and ambulances heading east.

Ever since the center opened, the area seemed busier, noted some. “Traffic has picked up, I noticed just today,” said one of the workers at Firestone.

One of the customers at Taco Bell was happy to have it right next door. “It’s the only one that’s near here,” she said.

After a round of unsuccessful bids the first time around, Stafford County put out another proposal on a county skatepark to get a place the county skateboarders are missing.

The new park design includes all the basics of Skateboarding 101, including a vertical wall, which is like a half-pipe in the skating world, grinding rails, grinding ledges, skate stairs, a quarterpipe, and a round cone thing in the middle. These features are standard for skateparks of this level. The proposal Bids will only be accepted via eva.virginia.gov.

The skatepark will be at St. Claire Brooks Park at 80 Butler Road in Falmouth.

Bids will be opened 15 minutes after bids are due on the same day bids are received: Monday, February 26, 2024, at 2:15 p.m. A public bid opening will be hosted via WebEx. the document came out on January 23, 2024, and all the proposals are due by Monday, February 5, 2024, at 2 p.m.

According to Brion Southall, Director at Stafford County’s Department of Parks, Recreation, Facilities, and Tourism, the bid package went out last summer, and they received one bid that was well over the budgeted amount. The staff reviewed the bid package and worked with the contractors to discuss ways to make this project work within budget.

Several contractors we discussed it with had too much work on their schedule already, including the design company, who responded that they had over 18 months of projects on the books and could not take on any more work, said Southhall.

USA Skateboarding has a Skatepark Performance and Accreditation Rating for Certification (SPARC) program and a 75-point checklist to evaluate safety and inclusivity. At this stage, it’s unknown whether the Stafford Skatepark will be under this evaluation.

There is skateboarding in next summer’s Olympic Games, though. The World Skateboarding Tour just completed a competition related to qualifying for the Paris Olympic Games this summer, and the skatepark they used for the competition in Dubai in the Middle East looked similar to the plan for Stafford County.

Mike Salmon is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News.

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The Battlefield Restaurant has a pancake on the menu that’s the size of a medium pizza and more than enough for a breakfast entrée. The question is, how do you flip it on the grill?

“I can do it with one spatula,” said diner owner and operator Cindy Jenkins, who claimed it’s all in the wrist. “My son uses two.”

With a giant pancake on the grill, the cook flipped it with one spatula. “That was luck,” he said. It’s served with syrup and a slab of butter the size of a saltine cracker.

And so goes the morning breakfast shift at the Fredericksburg eatery. It was the middle of the week, and all the regulars filtered in and out. Nearby resident Faye Myers opted for the omelet instead of the pancake.

“It’s got so much stuff on it,” she said of her omelet. “We’ve been coming here for most of our lives,” she said. That’s how it is with most customers, including a crowd that gathered at the end table. Myers said it was the “men’s table,” and that’s the way it is around there. “Clean my plate off like my momma told me,” said one from the men’s table.

He didn’t have the pancake.

The Battlefield Restaurant sits near the city’s downtown, across the street from the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitors Center, and next to a Civil War relic store. It’s on a stretch of Lafayette Boulevard known as “deadman’s curve” because of the number of car crashes, said Myers. There is a collection of pictures and paintings on the wall donated by residents, including a few paintings of the restaurant by John W. Edwards, a regular at the men’s table.

The interior is decorated with a Fredericksburg mural featuring two unidentified people, a framed ticket stub from the “hardtop races” at Fredericksburg Speedway, and a couple of neon “open” signs flickering in the window.

The menu has a breakfast and lunch section, but everything is under $10. It’s loosely put together, with sections for “Hearty Fixins,” “Breakfast Fixins,” and “Eggs & Such.” The restaurant is closed for dinner.

Although “Battlefield” is in the name, the focus is not the Civil War. There are a couple of shelves with antique items and one picture of R.E. Lee strategizing with another soldier called “Tactics and Strategy,” but that’s about it.

The food and the local slant are thick, though, as thick as the pancake.

The Taylor family now knows the Interstate 66 Express Lanes in Prince William County better than most drivers in our region. Their baby, Audrey, was born on the side of the toll road while mom, dad, and their three-year-old son were attempting to get to a hospital.

“It was crazy,” said Brandon Taylor, the father who helped with his wife, Joan, as the express lanes traffic whizzed by. “You hear the stories, but you never know someone that went through it.”

It all started about 5:45 on Tuesday morning, January 30, 2024, when Joan could feel the baby stirring. She woke up, woke Brandon, and he went into his pre-rehearsed motions, grabbing the baby bag they had ready and getting their three-year-old son out of bed. “Twenty minutes later, we were on the highway, and it was happening,” Brandon said.

They were on the I-66 express lanes heading east when he pulled over near mile marker 46 at Gainesville and ran around to her door. “As soon as I got over there, I saw crowing, the baby’s head coming out,” he said.

Cars rushed by, and when Prince William County emergency crews and a Virginia State Police officer showed up, “I had the baby in my hands,” he said.

He was grateful there were trained technicians on the scene. “They took over from there,” he said. Brandon’s three-year-old son in the back seat was wide-eyed the whole time, but when the emergency squad arrived, one took care of the youngster, too.

The Virginia State Police Trooper M. Weinholtz was on the scene with the EMT squad.

“Just as the State Trooper pulled up, little Miss Audrey arrived as well,” said Taylor.
Baby Audrey, along with mom and dad, made it safely to the hospital, and all are doing great – especially with Virginia State Police Trooper Teddy watching out for them, the statewide police agency posted to X (formerly Twitter).

When officials at the I-66 E-ZPass Express Lanes learned about the roadside birth, they couldn’t have been happier. The lanes came in handy despite some of the initial pushback they’ve gotten for some expensive tolls.

“Our team takes pride in being able to play a role in ensuring the safety of our community in such unique and unexpected situations,” said Nancy Smith, Corporate Affairs Director at I-66 Express Mobility Partners.

Afterward, the family went by Prince William County Fire Station 22, off Balls Ford Road, to thank the officers involved.

The Virginia Department of Transportation and I-66 Express Mobility Partners opened the final leg of the I-66 E-ZPass Express Lanes “outside the Beltway” on Tuesday, November 2022.

Billed as a timesaver, the 23-mile stretch of toll lanes from Route 29 in Gainesville to the Capital Beltway allows vehicles with three or more occupants to travel the express lanes for free and vehicles with fewer passengers to pay a toll. All drivers need an E-ZPass or E-ZPass Flex to use the lanes.

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From the front, the Katora Coffee Shop looks like an inviting place to come in, have a cup of joe or a pastry, and converse with whoever is around. Once inside, though, there’s more to it.

The walls are adorned with local art, and a small stairway leads to a back room that doubles as a sound studio for local musicians, including Michael Huntley, who made national news on December 19, 2023, as the winner of Season 24 on NBC’s “The Voice.”

Before his name became associated with the show, Huntley was a regular at Katora, performing for friends and locals on Caroline Street in Old Town, Fredericksburg.
He also doubled as a sound engineer for the performances backstage.

“He would build the track from the ground up,” said Ethan, who is a part owner of the shop with Christian and April Zammas. They all saw Huntley on the show last year. “He nailed it,” said Ethan.

Huntley was just one of many local sounds that packed the Katora in recent years, and the Katora staff is happy with all the local influences. “This is where the community is,” added Will King. Chief is another local who works at the shop. “It’s a really fun spot,” he added.

Their live events are one thing that sets them apart. On Wednesday nights, they have an open mike night, Thursday night is comedy night, and Friday is slam poetry night. Saturday night is band night, and they’ve had local favorites like “The Pentagram Sting Band,” “Lacking,” and “Meadows,” to name a few. “A lot of student bands and traveling bands,” said Ethan.

Their description is inclusive.

“Katora began when April met Christian. With deep roots in community – their dream has always been to offer a safe space supportive of recovery, mental health, LGBTQ+, the arts, and music,” their description refers to the Zammas couple that started the shop a few years ago. In 2019, they opened a second Katora on the Mary Washington University campus.

The menu has as many tea drinks as latte-type drinks, and the sizes aren’t tall, grande, or venti as they are at Starbucks. The “Don’t Chai This At Home” is a tea of a different sort, and the “Macashroom Mocha” has cordyceps, a mushroom, and a maca root plant. “People are intrigued by that drink,” said Chief, a barista. “They’ll experiment sometimes,” he added.

“The building used to be a crematorium,” added Chief.  But that’s a whole other story for the Halloween season.

Katora Coffee is at 615 Caroline Street in Fredericksburg.

Mike Salmon is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News.

The city’s Visitor’s Center and the Department of Economic Development and Tourism office are being relocated to modernize Fredericksburg’s tourism industry and make destinations accessible to all.

The new office, at 601 Caroline Street, is across from the current center and one block south. It is a more modern building with more of the infrastructure the city departments need.

The new visitor’s center will be on the first floor, but the new offices for the Department of Economic Development and Tourism will be on the third floor of the building.

The city has begun construction on the third floor, but work on the visitor’s center space is not scheduled to begin in the next few months. A city spokeswoman said both projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

The city plans to partner with Main Street Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg Nationals, University of Mary Washington, National Park Service, Sister Cities, and other tourism sites in the new space, a city spokeswoman said. Previously, the FredNats used the space at 601 Caroline Street for their team store in 2019 before the stadium opened in 2021.

Since the building is relatively new compared to the current visitor center, which dates back to 1824, it will be better equipped for computer hookups and the modernization of electrical equipment that is needed in the commercial world today.

Although construction has begun, the word hasn’t gotten around to everyone on Caroline Street. The current Visitor’s Center brings in a certain number of tourists daily, so the shops and restaurants look forward to foot traffic around that location. “Hayden” at the “Pons Shop,” a few doors down, wasn’t aware of the move. However, the owner said the relocation would affect the business.

Over at the “Pour by Fifth Scents Candle Co.” the manager, Cecily, was aware of the move but didn’t think it was far enough to affect her business since she is a few blocks away.

“I did hear about that,” she said.

The current Visitor’s Center does have some history, like all the old buildings in downtown Fredericksburg. In 1824, the city candy maker Anthony Kale made and sold candy out of the first-floor shop while he lived with his family upstairs.