Updated Sunday, July 3, 2016

We heard from Vinny’s this morning. Someone from the organization returned an email to us and said the restaurant reopened for business.

Original post

Vinny’s Italian Grill and Pizzeria in North Stafford is closed today.

The popular Italian food joint shut its doors due to a lack of water in the restaurant, a worker told us by phone.

This sign was spotted posted on the restaurant’s glass door:

@PotomacLocal Best I could get! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/A4rqfNg42n

— NickZ (@nickz) June 29, 2016

A contractor with the Virginia Department of Transportation on Monday struck a water main nearby. Crews are working in the area to widen a portion of Route 610 from four to six lanes.

Crews are on the scene today trying to fix the water main break, said a Stafford County spokeswoman.

“I have no idea when we’ll reopen,” a Vinny’s employee told us.

The restaurant is one of several Vinny’s locations in the Fredericksburg area. They make mean pasta primavera.

From VDOT: 

Route 1

(Update) Sunday – Thursday, 8 p.m. – 5 a.m. Crews will continue milling and paving Route 1 northbound from just north of the Falmouth Intersection to Route 652 (Truslow Road). Motorists should expect lane closures, a rough driving surface and brief delays in the work zone.

Route 17 Business

(Update) Sunday – Tuesday, 8 p.m. – 5 a.m. Crews will be milling and paving on Route 17 Business northbound from the Falmouth Intersection to Wyne Drive. Motorists should expect lane closures, a rough driving surface and brief delays in the work zone.

Route 17

(Update) Monday – Thursday, daylight to dusk and Friday, daylight to noon. Crews will be milling on Route 17 northbound and southbound and along the side streets between McLane Drive and Stafford Lakes Parkway. Most work will be done behind the orange barrels and cones, however, motorists should expect intermittent lane closures in the work zone. Crews will be working daylight to dusk. 

Route 218 (Butler Road)

(Update) Sunday – Thursday, 8 p.m. – 5 a.m. Crews will continue milling and paving on Route 218 (Butler Road) from Carter Street to the bridge over CSX Railroad, located just east of the WaWa. Motorists should expect lane closures and a rough driving surface in the work zone.

Sidewalk Improvements

(New) Monday, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Work crews will install handicapped-accessible sidewalk ramps at Route 17 Business and Heartfields Lane

Route 610 (Garrisonville Road)

(Update) Monday – Thursday,  8 p.m. – 5 a.m. One lane will be closed intermittently on Route 610 eastbound and westbound at Onville Road. Motorists may periodically encounter brief delays in the overnight hours in this work zone.Crews are placing sewer lines in connection with the Route 610/Onville Road intersection improvement project.

Routine Maintenance

Monday – Thursday, 6 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. and Friday, 6 a.m. – noon. Stay alert for mobile lane closures. Crews will be performing routine maintenance activities in the following locations:

• Route 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway) – shoulder work

• Route 610 (Garrisonville Road) – mowing

• Route 608 (Brooke Road) – mowing and patching

• Route 616 (Poplar Road) – mowing and patching

• Route 612 (Hartwood Road) – mowing and patching

• Route 648 (Dunbar Road) – mowing

Let those early risers on Sat & Sun – who go to the Landfill – know that blocking Eskimo Hill is not an option. pic.twitter.com/nHyjpPExBN

— StaffordCoSheriff (@staffcosheriff) June 22, 2016

The area outside the landfill is also known as a dumping ground for those who choose not to drive all the way into the landfill.

Fire and rescue crews in Stafford County were called to Stafford Marketplace off Route 610 in North Stafford on Sunday morning 

Crews told us they were investigating a possible gas leak inside a grocery store. 

Tear them down or leave them up?

Two dams in the Lake Arrowhead subdivision in Stafford County are at risk of failing. The dams hold back water in Big Lake Arrowhead, and in Little Lake Arrowhead in the community of single family homes in the northwestern section of the county.

The large dam holding back “Big Lake Arrowhead” is a “high risk” dam while the smaller dam for the small lake is considered a low-risk dam. If the dams fail, homes in the adjacent Hidden Lake neighborhood will be in the path of rushing water and could be lost.

What to do about the failing dams became an election issue for Wendy Maurer, who won a seat on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors last fall. Mauer said she heard from residents who wanted to save the dams and by extension the small lakes they support. Others wanted to drain the lakes and leave the dams in a state of decay.

“The whole battle between the ‘fix the dam’ crowd and the ‘don’t fix the dam’ crowd came down to the fact that we did not know who much it was going to cost to fix the dams,” said Maurer.

After talking with a constituent, Mauer learned some residents of Lake Arrowhead between 1990 and 2009 had been paying $500 per year as part of a special sanitary tax district to improve neighborhoods streets. The home association dissolved, and the money — $500,000 — sat untouched in a county bank account, said Maurer.

The sanitary district is no longer in effect. County officials will use a portion of the cash to pave four streets in the neighborhood — Abrahams, Blizzard, Seymour, and Sparky courts. The improvements will bring the streets into the state road system and make them eligible for maintenance by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

A portion of Boundary Drive that carries drivers over the small dam is in need of street repair but is not eligible for admittance to the state road maintenance program because it crosses the dam.

Officials will also examine the possibility of using the leftover money to repair the dams. A $30,000 study of the dams is now underway, the results of which will tell reveal the conditions of the dams. The study began in April and was expected to take two months.

County officials will present the needed fixes to the state, and if the county — by way of the residents — decides to fix the dams, the state will reimburse half of the cost of the study.

“I think you’re going to hear that we’re going to have enough money to fix the dams,” said Maurer.

However, a special tax district similar to the old sanitary district may be needed if there isn’t enough cash to cover the entire repair project. Stafford officials said they plan to send emails to residents about the dam repair project, publish information on its county website, and hold public meetings about the project.

If funded, the repair project could begin in 2017.

Stafford County will create a place to honor its residents who served and died in war.

The Silver Companies donated $100,000 to the effort to construct an Armed Services Memorial at the Stafford Government Center. The donation brought the fundraising campaign more than 70 percent to its $675,000 goal of fully funding the memorial.

“It allows us to go ahead to have those ceremonies, to have those special events, and even for the good government workers in the Gordon Building [Stafford government center] who serve us so well in Stafford County, a great place for them to have lunch,” said Lt. Gen. Ron Christmas, USMC (Ret.), who serves on the memorial commission. “For us, it will be a wonderful place to take your children and grand kids, to sit back and recognize service and sacrifice and recognize those who took the time to serve to make our country is the great country it is today.”

Atlantic Builders also donated $25,000 to the memorial. The company will sponsor a flag pole that will be erected at the memorial site.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors initiated the memorial project appropriated $225,000 to the cause.

“An initiative of the Stafford Board of Supervisors, the memorial grew out of a request from grieving parents who wanted to honor their son, Marine Corps Sergeant Donald James Lamar, II, who was killed in fighting in Afghanistan. The Board decided to create a memorial to honor all who have served, going back to the Revolutionary War.”

“The Board appointed three citizens to serve on the Armed Services Commission: Lt. Gen. Ron Christmas, USMC (Ret.); Delegate Mark Dudenhefer; and Supervisor Gary Snellings, Hartwood District.”

The memorial commission tapped the talents of area high school students to design the memorial.

“The commission held a memorial design contest in 2013 among Stafford’s high schools as a way to draw in the future of Stafford County. Five designs were selected as finalists. Elements of the students’ designs were incorporated into the final design of the memorial. Three of the finalists attended the breakfast this morning: Aaron Brown attended North Stafford High School and is now a student at Virginia Tech; Abriel Maldonado attended Brooke Point High School and is now a student at James Madison University; and Donald Kelley, III, attended Stafford High School and is now an employee of Dominion Virginia Power.”

The winning designers, public officials, members of the memorial commission, and Larry D. Silver of the Silver Companies gathered at a special ceremony at the Stafford Regional Airport on May 26 to announce the Silver Companies $100,000 donation.

Apartment residents called Stafford fire and rescue crews when smoke trapped them inside their homes.

Fire crews were called at 8:20 a.m. Thursday to apartments at 202 Chesterfield Lane in the Stafford Meadows section of North Stafford. Crews used hoses to extinguish the blaze and ladders to the second and third floors to rescue the occupants, stated Stafford fire and rescue Battalion Chief Mark Doyle.

One person was taken to a hospital after he was injured while escaping the blaze. All other victims were evaluated my EMS crews but refused to be taken to a hospital.

One dog was pulled from the apartment building and was reunited with its owner, said Doyle. Building inspectors deemed eight apartments unsafe to occupy.

The fire was discovered by a plumber working in the area. The plumber stayed on the scene to help fire crews with their rescue efforts. Stafford fire officials did not release the name of the plumber or of the company.

The cause of the fire, and how much damage it did is still under investigation. The apartment building’s solid wall construction helped prevent the spread of fire, said Doyle.

Buster Wayne has a growth that needs to be removed.

He is a dog that belongs to a 17-year-old girl from Charlottesville who recently lost both of her parents who were killed in a car crash. Now in the care of a state social worker, Buster Wayne is all the 17-year-old girl has left.

Social services contacted the Saint Seton’s Orphaned Animals charity which works with Loving Touch Animal Hosptial in Route 1 in Stafford County. Buster Wayne was brought there three weeks ago, where veterinarians found the dog suffering from a tick-bourne disease.

The dog was placed on medication until it’s well enough to have the growth removed from its backside. When ready, veterinarians at Loving Touch will remove the growth.

“The people we work with — the disabled, low-income, wounded warriors — they rely on their pet for companionship. The cat or the dog is like their child… when its sick, they reach out to us,” said Jeanette Allard, executive director of Saint Seton’s Orphaned Animals.

Allard said her charity goes beyond providing low-cost vet care. Her organization wants to end the practice of people dropping off animals at a kill shelter because they can no longer care for them.

“We call it economic euthanasia,” said Allard.

Saint Seton, like all other organizations, relies on donations to keep going. The gifts help continue the work of the animal hospital and a “Meals on Wheels 4 Petz” that distributes pet food to neighbors in need.

The charity will hold the 2016 Virginia and Family Pet Festival in support of animals in need of veterinary care. The festival will feature bands, beer, and wine gardens, food, zip line, rock wall, slides, petting zoo, camel rides. Animal welfare organizations will bring dogs and cats available for adoption. The festival also features dog games, contests, and exhibitions, said Allard.

The festival will be held at the Stafford Regional Airport, located at 75 Aviation Way in Stafford County on Saturday, June 4 from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is $5 per car. Wristbands for rides are $10 per person.

Access Eye Center is Stafford County's Business of the Year.

Ophthalmologist Arash Mansouri and his wife Michele took home the annual business appreciation award given by Stafford County's Department of Economic Development.

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