When drivers head out on Manassas streets might want to take it slower, and be extra cautious.
The number of traffic crashes is at a five-year high in the city. When comparing 2019 to the previous year, the number of crashes rose 7%, from 648 in 2018 to 648, respectively.
One of those crashes involved a fatality, according to newly released data from the Manassas City Police Department.
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University of Mary Washington has several performances of the play "Ordinary Days" left this month.
University of Mary Washington Theatre will continue its 2019-20 season with "Ordinary Days", music and lyrics by Adam Gwon. Remaining performances are Feb. 20-22 at 7:30 p.m., and Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. in Klein Theatre, duPont Hall at the University of Mary Washington. The box office opens at 5:30 p.m. and tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Tickets are $25 for standard admission, $20 for students, senior citizens, alumni, and military. Groups of ten or more can receive a discount as well.
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Stafford County says it's going to use fish to attack its growing aquatic weed problem.
Hydrilla, an aquatic weed, is a problem for many bodies of water in Stafford County, including the 520-acre Lake Mooney resorvoir. Stafford County officials are implementing a recommendation of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) to introduce white amur or “grass carp” into Lake Mooney to help combat the issue. Because of hydrilla’s high growth rate, it can quickly take over a water body and impede recreational activities and aquatic habitats. To ensure the establishment of the newly introduced population of fish and to give the fish time to manage the weeds effectively, Stafford County asks residents to release these fish, if caught.
Hydrilla is proliferating at Lake Mooney and has the potential to create a serious issue, particularly along the shoreline. Listed as a federal noxious weed, hydrilla is a perennial aquatic plant that looks similar to the herb thyme and is found in many freshwater habitats around the world, according to Stafford County officials. This plant can grow up to 30 feet long and has a growth rate of up to one inch per day, officials say.
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Music from Broadway is coming to Prince William County for one night only this spring.
On March 7, 2020, at 7:30 pm at the Hylton Performing Arts Center, the MSO, under the baton of Music Director, James Villani, takes the stage for a concert titled “American Idols”, with music from three of America’s greatest composers: Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Howard Hanson.
The highlight of the evening’s performance is one of Bernstein’s most popular works, Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.” The score brings together the musical’s most famous songs (“Somewhere,” “Maria”) and dances (“Mambo,” “Cha-cha,” “Rumba”), as well as the opening confrontation of the Jets and Sharks in the “Prologue” to the tragic “Finale.”
Tickets are available from the Hylton Center Box Office or by calling 703-993-7759. All children and student tickets (through college) are free.
Founded in 1992, the Manassas Symphony is the winner of the 2015 American Prize for Orchestral Performance, Community Division, as well as the winner of 2019 Kathleen Seefeldt Award for Outstanding Arts Organization. The MSO is an Arts Partner of the Hylton Performing Arts Center near Manassas. The all-volunteer orchestra plays five concerts a year and is involved with many educational and civic events throughout the community. For more information on the Manassas Symphony, visit its website.
If you’re looking for summer employment, Prince William County Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism may be able to help you.
The parks department announced the dates of their summer job hiring events for the 2020 summer recreation programs. Hiring managers will be holding open interviews at each of the following events:
Saturday, February 29, 2020 – SplashDown Job Fair, 9 – 11 a.m., at Stonewall Jackson High School, 8820 Rixlew Lane, Manassas.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020 – Lifeguard Hiring Event, 6:30 – 8 p.m., at the Chinn Aquatics and Fitness Center, 13025 Chinn Park Dr., Woodbridge.
Saturday, March 7, 2020 – SplashDown Job Fair, 9 – 11 a.m., at Sinclair Elementary School, 7801 Garner Dr., Manassas.
Thursday, March 19, 2020 – Lifeguard Hiring Event, 6:30 – 8 p.m., at the Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center, 9100 Freedom Center Blvd, Manassas.
The SplashDown Waterpark hiring events at Stonewall Jackson High School on February 29, and at Sinclair Elementary School on March 7, will be accepting applications for Concessions, Cashiers and Guest Services for the waterpark only.
The Lifeguard hiring events at Chinn Aquatics & Fitness Center on March 4, and at Freedom Aquatics & Fitness Center on March 19, are for lifeguards only.
Lifeguard applicants must apply online before you attend either lifeguard hiring event. Applicants at these events will take swim tests, so bring your swimsuit to the hiring event.
For more information on the hiring events and positions available, please visit their website.
Those who are opposed to taller buildings spoke out at Monday’s Manassas City Council meeting.
A public hearing for the city’s 2040 compressive plan was advertised, and it what drew residents to come to speak on the matter. The city plan calls for a more urban downtown, with more apartments centered around the city’s train station used by Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express.
It also calls for more pedestrian paths, lanes on city streets for bicyclists, and more transit bus service.
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High school students are losing valuable time during their education because they’re tired, according to Benjamin Kim, a student representative on the Prince William County School Board.
Kim pushed for a later start time for high schoolers at the January 22 county School Board meeting. He cited both California and neighboring Fairfax County which both mandate schools begin classes after 8 a.m., he said.
“It’s time to put a foot down and give students a better education — and it starts with later start times,” said Kim. “Science and logic says that it’s better.”
Generally, Prince William County high school students are in session from 7:30 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Kim says that early start times would lead to increased academic performance, better student wellbeing, and would make students safer drivers on area roads.
Kim is also seeking a mental health day for students in the county, where students may take excused absences for the betterment of their mental well being. The Montgomery County, Va. school district voted to implement a such a policy last fall.
“Students struggling with mental health sometimes need a day off,” said Kim.
Kim says he has spoken to counselors at his school and students and they said mental health days would be positive. To combat abuses, the number of mental health days students could take would be capped to prevent students from using them as skip days.
Kim, who attends Stonewall Jackson High School near Manassas, is one of there non-voting members of the Prince William County School Board for the 2019-2020 school year.
Traffic is moving again on Prince William Street in Manassas.
The project that began in late 2018, to widen the two-lane street, install new curb and gutter along the street to handle stormwater, and to add new bike lanes and a new sidewalk is finally complete.
“Don’t avoid it anymore. Use it,’ exclaimed Mayor Hal Parrish II, referring to the street that links Grant Avenue to Wellington Road.
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At about 10 square miles, Manassas isn’t a large city. And when it comes to the available on which to build, there’s not much left.
At Monday night’s City Council meeting, this fact was highlighted as city leaders reviewed the Manassas Comprehensive Plan, a document that will outline and guide development in the city of the next 20 years.
While much of the attention has been placed on the city’s downtown area, formerly known as Old Town before a 2015 rebranding effort by the city government, one resident says a piece of land between the city’s famed railroad tracks and Liberia Avenue, an industrial corridor, is ripe for development.
