STAFFORD -- Superintendent Scott Kizner’s Fiscal Budget for the 2019-20 school year proposes a 22.45 percent increase in funding for guidance services in Stafford’s public schools. The total budget requested for the guidance program is $8.5 million.
Funding for guidance services come from both state and local funds. Included in the budget are salaries, benefits, professional development, conference fees, and instructional supplies.
Within the budget, Kizner requests that 17.6 additional counselors which would make about 130 people staffed in the counseling centers countywide. A counselor who works three days of the week is considered .6 of a counselor.
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STAFFORD -- Once a main priority for the Stafford County School Board, setting a new transgender bathroom policy will have to wait.
The issue in recent weeks has gotten pushed aside as the School Board instead focuses on making and approving its 2020 budget and tries to make good on a promise to redistrict and every elementary school in the county.
Talk of a setting a division-wide transgender policy came after a transgender female at a county middle school in October wasn’t allowed to go into either the boys or girls gym lockerrooms during an active shooter safety drill, where students are to go during the drills.
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FREDERICKSBURG — Behind the glass windows of Katora Coffee lies much more than a cup of coffee and hot tea. Within its graffitied walls are two co-owners who risen above countless obstacles to create a community-oriented space.
April and Christian Zammas opened Katora Coffee at 615 Caroline St. on Dec. 11, 2017.
Although they both come from difficult pasts, with the luck of the online dating app Bumble, they found each other and started Katora after dating for about four months.
After graduating from high school in 1992, Christian Zammas immediately went into the restaurant business. He moved from his hometown in Raleigh, N.C. to St. Louis where he worked as both a chef and a DJ.
“I DJ’ed because I loved music, and I cooked because I loved food,” Christian Zammas said. “If I liked cars, I would be at the car dealership, but I like to eat, so that’s why I’m at the restaurant.”
His work in restaurants took him to many places, including New York City. Christian Zammas was a sous-chef for the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Club, and he was featured in the Food Network’s Food and Wine Festival.
By the time Christian Zammas returned to Raleigh, he was deep into a heroin addiction. He had two kids and was working for about 60 hours a week just to stay afloat.
“I was a functioning addict,” Christian Zammas said. “I was going to work to pay for my drugs so that I could go back to work.”
When the mother of his children left and moved to Fredericksburg, Christian Zammas hit rock bottom. He almost lost his arm due to a necrotic abscess, and he was fired from his job after being accused of stealing from a restaurant (months later the restaurant called to apologize when the real culprit was caught).
With a single bus ticket, purchased for him by his children’s mother, Christian Zammas arrived in Fredericksburg on March 13, 2017. He was admitted to the Methadone Clinic, and he checked himself into the Thurman Brisben homeless shelter.
“I’m a career chef, I’m a career DJ, and I’m a career drug addict,” Christian Zammas said. “Since I’ve gotten to Fredericksburg, I’ve realized that what’s given me purpose in this town is being able to give back. It’s bizarre for me, and I’m realizing now that the obsessive qualities I had as an addict I can now obsess on community. I can obsess on finding things for the youth to do because those were the years that caused me the most trouble.”
In August Christian met April who was coming out of a 19-year marriage. Their second date was at High Point Coffee which unbeknownst to them would soon become Katora.
At first, Christian and April were selling sandwiches and wraps out of High Point’s deli case under the name Katora. The name is a Hindi word that means bowl or vessel.
“We were looking up words for ‘bowl’ and we are both really big fans of Hindi culture,” Christian Zammas said. “April actually found the word on google translate, and we liked the alliteration of Katora Coffee.”
When they learned that High Point Coffee would be closing, after being in business for less than a year, they called the landlord to see what they could do to save the shop.
“Owning a food establishment allowed Christian to follow his dream and for us to be together as a family,” April Zammas said. “Since I’m the tech-designer, I’ve been able to handle all the design and development work for our brand. Marketing is a passion of mine.”
Katora Coffee is the only café in Downtown that is entirely vegetarian. They sell coffee, tea, smoothies, juices, and baked goods. Kickshaws Market provides 50 percent of the baked items in Katora’s deli case. When the gluten-free, nut-free bakery closed its storefront on the corner of Sophia and William, Katora started selling its goods in the deli case the next day.
“I’ve been vegetarian since 1997,” April Zammas said. “We’re leaning towards going full vegan soon, but we want to do it right. Sharing this lifestyle choice with Fredericksburg is part of our mission.”
Katora is home to a wide range of community events with everything from poetry slams, art battles, and live music to video game tournaments (Smashtora), drag shows, and sea shanties.
“The main thing we told ourselves from the beginning is that we were going to make our place a welcoming environment,” Christian Zammas said. “If you don’t belong somewhere, you belong here. If you don’t fit in at the cool kid’s shop, if you have kids, or if you are a vegetarian, we have it all here.”
STAFFORD -- Amidst a storm of information regarding Superintendent Scott Kizner’s newly proposed transgender policy, the name of one organization keeps recurring: Equality Stafford.
The group was formed two years ago by Amy Saunders, Stafford resident and mother of a transgender student. It is a community of both adult allies and students who seek to establish LGBT+ policies in Stafford.
“I formed Equality Stafford in hopes of joining the community together to speak out in support for all LGBTQ students and staff,” Saunders said.
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STAFFORD — In the effort to improve traffic flow northbound at Interstate 95 and Route 17, officials have two options.
The first design is VDOT’s “base” option which is within the project’s budget, which takes away the northeast ramp for traffic exiting I-95 north and entering Route 17 North. Getting rid of the loop essentially prevents traffic from slowing down as other drivers try to merge get on and off I-95 on the same stretch of road in the existing a collector-distributor lane.
A new traffic light will be installed at the I-95 off-ramp to Route 17 southbound to allow drivers to get to Route 17 northbound as well.
The second traffic pattern is the “bid” option and would cut about 30 seconds off travel times at the intersection, but it is over budget and would cost $16 to $20 million more than the first design. The more expensive option includes an overpass that would allow I-95 traffic to exit onto Route 17 northbound without going through a traffic light.
Like the first plan, the northeast loop ramp would be demolished.
With the “bid” option the proposed off-ramp would cut through a property on which a nearby Motel 6 stands, located on Route 17 east of I-95. The “base option” design wouldn’t affect the motel.
Plans to reconstruct the interchange are all part of the Northbound Rappahannock River Crossing project that seeks to decrease traffic between the Route 17 interchanges in Stafford County, and the Route 3 / I-95 interchange in Fredericksburg. Officials from the Virginia Department of Transportation on Jan. 15 gave a presentation to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors with design plans for I-95.
The total budget for the project is $132 million. At least $45 million will come from Transurban (operators of the I-95 E-ZPass Express Lanes,) and then another $85 million will come from federal Atlantic Gateway project funds.
No plans have been made to increase the budget to pay for the second design. If contractors who are bidding on the project are bullish, officials hope they can get one to include the ramp from the “bid” option in the “base” option price.
New Rappahannock River bridgesÂ
The discussion comes as crews are currently working to add new lanes in the center of the highway, and a new bridge over the Rappahannock River as part of the Southbound Rappahannock River Crossing Project. On the northbound side, which calls for adding an additional travel lane to the highway, however, there are more environmental restrictions due to environmental protections on wetland areas north of Fall Hill Avenue in Fredericksburg.
When construction is complete, the three outside lanes will be collector-distributor lanes allowing drivers to exit to Route 17. The thru lanes will be on the inside will be for general traffic.
A new northbound bridge included in the River Crossing Project will be built in the median between the current I-95 bridges crossing the river. Although a new southbound bridge is currently under construction, the two bridges will remain independent structures, about 10 feet apart. The reason these two bridges can’t be adjoined (or the preexisting bridges widened) is because when a bridge is too wide, it can’t be inspected by VDOT for safety.
As for the sound impact on nearby residential areas, VDOT has yet to do a noise assessment of the new stretches of road; although, noise barriers will likely have to be built.
There will be an informational meeting on Jan. 30 from 5-7 p.m. at James Monroe High School regarding the I-95 Northbound Rappahannock River Crossing project. VDOT staff will give a presentation at 5:30 p.m. and answer any questions about the proposed plan.
OCCOQUAN — The Town of Occoquan is redesigning their town logo in order to promote marketing and draw in new businesses.
“The creation of a Town logo was initiated last spring by the prior administration as part of a website redesign project that is ongoing, and was spurred by requests from the business community to update the Town website to better promote offerings in Occoquan,” Mayor Earnie Porta said.
Imagine, Inc of Manassas was hired as the contractor for the town logo. In addition to designing the new logo, Imagine, Inc will be responsible for building a new municipal website.
It will cost the town $8,750 to redesign the website, train staff to maintain the website, and pay for the new logo. The town is paying for this project with unused funds from the community and business support budget.
Residents played a large role in redesigning the logo.
Included in the overall cost of the project are stakeholder surveys. Imagine, Inc conducted a series of surveys to gather opinions from the residents and businesses regarding the logo change.
Additionally, a town meeting was held in which residents could voice their opinions on the first draft of the logo. As a result, the contractor designed three more possible logos. While no official logo has been chosen, the council will likely vote to adopt a new logo in January.
Occoquan isn’t the only town changing their image. The Town of Dumfries is also in the process of redesigning and implementing a new town logo.
Dumfries Mayor Derrick Wood hired 99 Designs to remake the town logo. He paid 358 dollars for the logo design, not including the cost of printing the logo on flags.
Until a budget for the new year is confirmed, the Dumfries cannot move forward with printing its new logo on flags.
STAFFORD -- Residents filled 70 minutes of citizen comment time at the School Board meeting on Tuesday. They spoke about the proposed Gender Identity and Expression policy drafted by Stafford Public Schools Superintendent Scott Kizner regarding transgender students.
It’s in response to an incident in October when a Stafford County middle school when a transgender student was reportedly unable to take refuge in locker rooms during an active shooter safety drill. While the drafted policy is in part a follow-up to this issue, transgender policies have been discussed in Stafford in recent years.
“The reason why we are here is not because of what happened a couple months ago, but we should not forget that this policy is finally giving what we heard that night some clarity,”
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PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — LaTonsha “LT” Pridgen (D) is running to represent the voice of the people in Coles District as a member the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.
She says she’s running to improve education, transportation, and to bring more jobs to Prince William County.
On the issues
On the issue of education, Pridgen wants to address the overcrowding of Prince William County Public Schools and build closer ties between the County School Board and Board of Supervisors, which funds the schools. She also wants to reevaluate the revenue sharing bill, last amended in April 2013 where the Board of Supervisors automatically provides 57.23% of the county’s budget directly to the school division.
“What we have right now is not working,” Pridgen said. “Education is critical and vital. I believe education can truly help us get to a place of equity.”
Additionally, Pridgen has expressed her opinions on the importance of raising teacher salaries.
“In order for us to give children the quality education that we know they deserve, we have to be willing to invest in our teachers,” Pridgen said.
The Board of Supervisors places no specific mandates on how the school board appropriates its funds.
Since a majority of Prince William residents leave the county for work, Pridgen wants to recruit companies and jobs that would pay a livable wage for residents. She wants to ensure that people can both live and work within the county.
“We should market Prince William to big businesses,” Pridgen said. “We should know the skill sets of the people who reside in the county, we should do our economic research and studies, and we should figure out what types of companies we could bring here that wouldn’t overburden our infrastructure.”
Today, the largest employers in Prince William are the county school division and Walmart.
As for public transportation, Pridgen advocates for affordable, convenient mass transportation. She believes that the VRE should consistently run both ways during the day. Â
“Public transportation needs to be able to serve everyone in the county,” Pridgen said. “I know that in Coles, it does not serve everyone.”
Grassroots work for DemocratsÂ
Pridgen is a first-time candidate. Now that the Midterm elections are over, she is now focusing on her own campaign.
Currently, she works as a project manager for CARFAX, and in her spare time, she does grassroots work for democratic campaigns.
In the November midterm elections, Pridgen went door-to-door canvassing for several democratic candidates including Tim Kaine, Jennifer Wexton, and Vangie Williams. She actively attends fundraisers and meetings for the Prince William Democratic Committee.
Pridgen grew up in Dallas, in an environment in which water and electricity were luxuries. The school was her only guarantee of a hot meal, and teachers were often the only people who gave her a friendly word each day, she said.
“Growing up in that type of environment made me feel like I was meant to serve,” Pridgen said. “I believed that I was going to make sure that people like me always have a voice.”
Pridgen moved to Virginia in 2013 and has since started advocating for legislation to protect children.
In addition to volunteer work at children’s advocacy centers and women’s shelters, Pridgen founded a nonprofit organization named Stomp out the Silence. Stomp out the Silence focuses on the education and prevention of childhood sexual abuse. It was founded in 2014 and achieved federal tax exemption in 2017. Â
She helped fight for the Virginia Senate Bill 101 that was approved on March 29, 2018. The bill gives family life education programs in schools the choice to discuss and raise awareness about child abuse. It’s patrons were Jennifer McClellan, Barbara Favola, Scott Surovell, Wexton, Adam Ebbin, and Kaye Kory,.
“Seeing that bill actually pass helped me realize that we can get things done from within the system,” Pridgen said.
WOODBRIDGE -- Prince William officials want to give the county’s water tanks a makeover.
A new Prince William County wordmark will be painted on the sides of Service Authority water tanks throughout the county.
“Certain tanks may need a different type of artwork based on the size, dimension, or way it’s laid out,” said county spokesman Jason Grant.
