Editors note: This is the latest in a series of profiles highlighting the candidates running in a June 21 Republican Primary Election in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
A former Army Ranger and lawyer seeks the Republican nomination to run for the 7th Congressional District seat.
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Editors note: This is the latest in a series of profiles highlighting the candidates running in a June 21 Republican Primary Election in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.
Crystal Vanuch, the chair of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors is running in a June 21 Primary Election to become the Republican nominee for the newly redrawn 7th congressional district.
Born in Prince William County and raised in Stafford County, Vanuch believes that her connections to the area make her the best option to run against incumbent Democrat Abigail Spanberger in November. Spanberger has held the seat since 2018.
Vanuch has sat on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors since 2020, where she is serving her second year as the board’s chair. Prior to that, Vanuch served on the county’s Planning Commission.
Those connections include her father who was a retired Prince William County cop and being a product of the Stafford public school system.
Vanuch graduated Magna cum Laude from Virginia Wesleyan University and owns a small healthcare consulting company that helps advocate for patients with rare and chronic conditions to gain access to critical care.
During her tenure on the Board, Vanuch has focused on public safety, worked to root out perceived CRT in the county school division, and called in the National Guard in the aftermath of the crippling January snowstorm that left thousands stranded on Interstate 95.
“In just two and a half, almost three years, I’ve gotten $96 million in transportation funding, $23 million in teacher pay raises. Just this year alone, I took a vote to abolish critical race theory in the schools, and I passed the largest ever pay increase for our first responders. So I’d say that’s pretty good at getting things done in my first couple of years,” Vanuch told Potomac Local News.
Vanuch says ready to take on the task should she be elected, and already has plans to tackle a plethora of issues such as legislation to secure the southern border, energy independence that would restart drilling offshore as well as leasing federal lands for drilling oil and natural gas, restarting the Keystone XL pipeline, creating additional lanes on Interstate 95, and veterans care.
“I want to put forth a veteran’s customer service accountability bill, holding the Veterans Association accountable to their customers, which are our veterans, and alleviating any wait times for veterans to get in if they need to get critical care to access mental health resources, they need to be seen within 24 hours,” said Vanuch.
Vanuch’s experience working in public relations in the healthcare field is also something she feels gives her a leg up on the competition. Capitol Hill, she’s helped companies advocate for patients’ rights and navigate how Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Health Care Act work.
Vanuch said that one of the biggest challenges in the healthcare field right now is the lack of transparency in pricing.
“It is absolutely the only industry where you can buy something and that you have absolutely no idea what it costs. And that needs to be fixed at the federal level. And I am the only one who’s been working on that,” says Vanuch.
Vanuch also believes she is the best person to take on Abigail Spanberger in the election, she touts her connections to the district, her conservative bonafide, and her self-financing of her campaign, with more than a half-million dollars in campaign deposits and donations on hand.
“But at the end of the day, I’m the best person for the job because I’m the only one who has ties to 56% of the district, being born in Prince William and then raised and educated and serving in Stafford, I’m the only one who has never waivered and has a conservative voting record. You can look up every single one of my votes,” says Vanuch.
Vanuch is one of seven Republicans on a Primary Election ballot on Tuesday, June 21. Others on the ballot will include State Senator Bryce Reeves, Yesli Vega, of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, Spotsylvania County Supervisor David Ross, Gina Ciarcia, an educator who ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2021, Derrick Anderson, Green Baret from Spotsylvania County.
Click here to find out if you’re in the 7th Congressional District and see your polling place.
The Fredericksburg City Council has adopted a new master plan for parks and recreation that calls for a new community center that could be located along Interstate 95.
A community center is the centerpiece of the master plan. The size and offerings of the new center would be based on the growing population and the desires of residents on what programs they would like to have at the center.
The conception of the new center would include offices for the Fredericksburg Parks, Recreation, and Entertainment Department, a gymnasium with multi-use courts, a wellness room, aerobics studio, locker rooms, concessions, a playroom, a game room, and a multi-purpose room for programming and rentals.
The master plan suggests stationing the new community center along the Interstate 95 corridor between Plank Road and Cowan Boulevard. The center’s placement intends to serve highly populated areas of Fredericksburg and areas where parks may not be nearby.
The plan also suggests that the center’s location could help attract sports tourism to the local area.
Lose Design, the Tennessee-based company that conducted the study and formulated the master plan estimated that constructing the new center would cost $10 million. Lose further estimates that the center could potentially cost $20-35 million if Fredericksburg decided to add an aquatics facility to the center.
The estimates made by Lose were based on a previous community center constructed by the company.
The study also suggests that the new offices could potentially allow for the repurposing or selling of the Dorothy Hart Community Center. According to the report, if the center was sold, then the profits could offset the costs of the new center.
No member of the Fredericksburg City Council has mentioned a potential sale of the Dorothy Hart Community Center for any purpose as of this report.
The master plan was commissioned to find and survey the needs of Fredericksburg’s parks and recreation over the next 10 years. Conducted by Lose Design, surveys and studies were used to put together a comprehensive plan that would guide Fredericksburg on how to proceed with the development of new parks and the upkeep of its current parks.
The study had some delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, which kept it from being completed before 2022.
Both Fredericksburg and nearby Stafford County have been discussing local parks and recreation. Stafford County decided to charge visitors a $20 parking fee to Historic Port of Falmouth, a riverside park across from Fredericksburg. Non-Stafford County residents will pay the fee.
Stafford County Board of Supervisors and the Stafford County School Board came together to break ground for new turf fields at two high schools.
A ceremony was held at the AJ Slye Memorial Stadium behind North Stafford High School to celebrate a new turf field that is expected to be completed before the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
The new turf fields will replace the grass fields where football and field hockey are played. Concerns about the safety of the fields and equity between schools in the county were arguments presented in a grassroots campaign spearheaded by Carol Leicher and Margaret Lowery. Both women had been assistant coaches for the girls' field hockey teams at North Stafford.
"We watched the girls struggle and listened to visiting teams such as Stafford and Mountain View come and listened to coaches, players, and parents from those schools complain about 'oh we got to play on grass," said Lowery. "Our girls had the advantage of playing on grass, but when they went away to every other school other than Colonial Forge, nobody in Division Five or Six plays on grass anymore."
While both Lowery and Leicher spearheaded the campaign, it was when the duo made their arguments to the county School Board and Board of Supervisors. Eventually, their efforts began to bore fruit. Officials found funds to accommodate the two schools, which the Board approved by Supervisors on April 12.
At the ceremony, Lowery acknowledged that while she and Leicher drove the campaign, it was more than just the duo that made the event happen.
"We spearheaded it, but the parents got together, they started contacting the supervisors and the school board, " said Lowery. "Ultimately, it was the School Board and the Supervisors who both went through a lot of discussions. They didn't make a quick decision, and the credit goes to those two boards together. We got it started, but those boards are the ones that made it happen."
North Stafford and Colonial Forge were the last two high schools in the county to have turf fields installed. Before then, the schools had to either make do with the grass fields, which inhibited the teams' ability to play on turf fields or rent such fields elsewhere.
The fields are scheduled to be completed by August before the 2022-2023 Fall semester begins for the county schools on August 9, 2022.
Editors note: This is the latest in a series of profiles highlighting the candidates running in a June 21 Republican Primary Election in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
As her Primary campaign nears the finish line, Yesli Vega unveiled a personal story.
In 2005, her brother 15-year-old brother Eric and his friend were outside of an apartment building near Alexandira waiting for a friend. Out of nowhere, an MS-13 gang member shot them. Eric was hit twice and survived, while his friend, Anthony, was murdered.
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The Stafford County Board of Supervisors discussed considering changing the timeframe that it does tax assessments from bi-annual to annual.
Griffis-Widewater District Supervisor Tinesha Allen brought up the item, who received complaints from constituents about why their tax assessments were so high. Allen asked for the time to call on the county's Commissioner of the Revenue, Scott Mayausky, about the potential effects of a switch-over in the assessment timeframe.
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Editors note: This is the first in a series of candidate profiles highlighting the candidates running in a June 21 Republican Primary Election in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
Gina Ciarcia has been an educator most of her life. Whether as a tutor, homeschooling her five children, or teaching history at a private Christian school.
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Stover briefed the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, giving a healthy outlook on the airport's business, including a progress report on the ongoing expansion of its runway.
According to Stover, the 1,000 foot runway extension is expected to be completed on time and come in at budget. Phase I of the expansion, which included inspections, permits, and other approvals has been completed on time and has come in slightly under budget. Phase II which involves the actual extension of the runway itself was declared by Stover to be completed by September 2022.
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If you don't live in Stafford County, it will cost you $25 to park at one of the area's busiest summertime destinations.
Stafford County will implement a $25 charge to non-residents for parking at the Historic Port of Falmouth, a popular swimming hole on the Rappahannock River. The county Board of Supervisors approved the new fee during its meeting on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in a five to two vote.
