A consideration to limit the height of flag poles and monuments in Stafford County is making its way to the Board of Supervisors' agenda. 

At the July 7 Community and Economic Development Committee, committee members Garrisonville District Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer and Rock Hill District Supervisor Crystal Vanuch voted to send the item to the general Board. Chairman of the committee, Gary Snellings of Hartwood, was not present at the meeting. 

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Black Lives Matter protesters took to the Fredericksburg streets on July 1 to mark one month after they were teargassed in earlier protests.

Twice the city used teargas in early June, and the Stafford sheriff’s office also deployed teargas on protesters on Falmouth Bridge.

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In a highly unusual move, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors has edited all vulgarity out of the public comment portion of its June 16 video recording. 

Black Lives Matter supporters filled the citizen comments period demanding racial equality, the defunding of police, and the end of the 287(g) program, abolished the next day. All this comes after a month of nationwide protests that were sparked by the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. 

Some of the comments were laced with profanity, all of which were subtly edited out of the uploaded video recording. “Beeps” were not used over the audio, the vulgar words were just cut out. 

“You guys f-ing suck,” said one commenter. 

“The minute you police the language that can be used here is the minute you lose the voices who are rightfully angry. All I have to say is F- decorum,” said another speaker. 

At the close of the comment period, Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson requested the vulgarity to be edited out of the recorded video.

“I did not want that profanity played during those replays knowing we do not give a warning for the profanity,” Lawson told Potomac Local News. 

Lawson’s fellow conservative on the Board, Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega, disagreed with the decision to edit the video. 

“This language was allowed, and thus I don’t think it should be censored to cover for the out of control tenor of the meeting. I actually think it’s good for the public to see that these are the types of people calling for the defunding and abolition of our police,” Vega said. 

Under the Freedom of Information Act, public comment minutes do not have to be recorded verbatim. The video recordings are public record, but they can be edited just as a report is changed from one draft to another in a database. 

Lawson also asked about changing board rules to allow only public comments only in English unless an interpreter is present. 

“I’d like to change our Board rules and procedures so that when people are addressing the Board during public comment time that English is the only language that they use unless they have an interpreter,” Lawson said at the June 16 meeting. 

Some Spanish-speaking residents were at the meeting that night.

The county attorney, Michelle Robl, will provide her legal advice to the Board at the July 14 meeting. 

“The Board may consider amendments to their rules of procedure regarding the issue,” Robl said.

The board discussed making the issue of decorum a topic at their upcoming retreat if one takes place. No time or place has been decided yet for the retreat as it is still in the planning stages.

The Board of County Supervisors will hold its next meeting on July 14, 2020.

A woman called 911 after coming across a group of protestors in Downtown Fredericksburg blocking the intersection of Caroline and Hanover street.

The protest, one of the daily recurrences in Fredericksburg this past month, took place on June 13. It was sanctioned by the city.

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The Fredericksburg City Council has passed a three-phase plan to address racial inequality and respond to the recent protests. 

For the past three weeks, protestors have taken to the streets of Fredericksburg calling for police reform and highlighting the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. 

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Five students from James Monroe High School have tested positive for the coronavirus.

These students were all at the June 5 personal graduation ceremonies that the school held in its parking lot.

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The Stafford County School Board is looking to pass a new policy on employee conduct, including regulations for electronic communications with students. 

Under this policy, employees are allowed to engage in electronic communication with students on school-approved platforms for “legitimate purposes connected to school programs or services,” the policy outlines. 

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Stones at Government Island in Stafford County have been vandalized.

The Sheriff's Office got reports of this incident on May 26 and are investigating, according to Major Shawn Kimmitz.

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Schools will be opening in the fall, at least in some capacity.

Gov. Ralph Northam announced at his June 9 briefing that the schools will be opening in phases that correlate to the phases of general reopening.

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