Manassas Park is taking new steps to enforce the city's parking laws.

The city has a lack of public parking, especially in the area of Old Centreville Road, a side street that runs parallel to the city's main avenue, Route 28. 

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Stafford County has been experiencing delays from the U.S. Postal Service with residents receiving their mail weeks late.

The Postal Service has stated that these delays were a result of the combination of the increased online orders from people staying at home and a decrease in staff because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Manassas Park is working on rebranding itself as a destination.

It's part of the city's new downtown development, where it is building a town center with a plan to create a signage and branding concept. The audience it hopes to reach: the rest of Northern Virginia.

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A new restaurant has come to Woodbridge serving chicken to all members of the community.

"Hot Chikn Kitchn" is a Nashville style chicken restaurant founded by a father-son team, Mike and Anthony Sarago, with the goal of bringing together the community during the Coronavirus pandemic. Together, they found business partners in chef Frederic Gilmore, Eric Williams, Darrell Williams, and Lee Small. They created the restaurant, a for-profit business, with the concept of going into business with a minority-ownership group in the Potomac Mills area after the pandemic affected small businesses. To do so, Mike Sarago called Prince William County Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry to help identify these groups. "I've known Supervisor Angry for a bit of years now, and I reached out to him, specifically, because he's a black male and the first black Supervisor in Prince William County, and just kind of ran the idea past him as far as being involved with a hundred percent minority-owned group and identifying that group to work with to eventually turn the restaurant over to them, so they had a hundred percent ownership," said Hot Chikn Kitchn founder and owner Mike Sarago. Angry put Sarago in touch with Eric Williams, who put together a fully owned minority ownership group, which included disabled veterans and chef Frederic Gilmore. Williams' group manages the labor force within the restaurant while splitting the profits with Sarago.

"Our motto is "unity through food." So it was the different races working together and just really being a gathering place for all different nationalities, ethnicities, groups, whatever that may be. We're really colorblind when it comes to that and during this time, it really seemed to be the right thing to do, given the backdrop of what was going on in society," said Sarago.

They hope that within 12 months, they will be a whole minority ownership group with grants and profiteering. Their main menu consists of non-traditional Nashville style chicken dishes, including:

• Nashville Style Chikn Sandwich
• Ckikn Tenders
• Chikn and Waffles
• Country Chikn Salad
• Loaded Fries

Their meat is certified halal and comes with different sauce options, including side sauces such as their signature Good Sauce and Cheese Sauce. "We wouldn't call ourselves traditional Nashville hot chicken; a traditional Nashville hot chicken is dipped in a light oil and is then powdered with a rub that includes heat, so you get different heat levels. But what we found when we were researching this was that it didn't have much flavor to the sauce, or the heat levels as you would. So we developed a sauce that we infused different pepper heats into," said Sarago. Their sauces are split into four levels. The first level sauce uses a chili-infused pepper. Next is their second level sauce, called "Afterburner," which uses a habanero based sauce. Their third level, called "Angry Hot," is a Scorpion Pepper base sauce, and their fourth level, called "Medic," uses a Carolina Reaper based sauce. They anticipate their most popular dish to be their Nashville style "Chikn" Sandwich and their tenders. Their kitchen is set up so that the customers can see the food being prepared and the state of the kitchen. "Our kitchen - I call it the "Arena" - so where we actually cook, the customers can see what we're cooking, how we're cooking it, and also how clean we're staying, given these times. We were blessed by Mike to have this open area where you can actually see how your food is being prepared, and that the employees are washing their hands, wearing gloves; face masks are on, hair is pulled back, and ball caps are on. Any food-borne illness or biological hazards that could come from a person into the food, we're on top of that 100%," said chef Frederic Gilmore. Since opening up, the restaurant has faced challenges brought on by the Pandemic. Their main challenges have been with their supply chain and getting products in a timely and consistent manner. They have also faced capacity restraints. "Some of the problems that I expected are nothing out of the ordinary of what a small business would face," said Lee Small. "For me, I thought it was finding employees at the caliber we were looking for that would fit our expectations of an ideal candidate." The team has had weekly meetings to address these issues, including shutdown procedures and planning for future challenges they might face. "We're open to everybody. The premise of what we intended to do and what we're doing is to include everyone," said Sarago. Hot Chikn Kitchn is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It is located at 14313 Potomac Mills Road in Woodbridge, at the Potomac Festival shopping center. People can reach the restaurant owners through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They can also call them at -571-398-2145.

An independently-owned pet supply store has survived the economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Now it faces a seemingly even more daunting challenge -- hiring reliable help for the holidays.

During coronavirus quarantine earlier this year, the business received a federal Paycheck Protection Loan designed to allow employers to keep their workers employed during the pandemic. make a number of changes to how they operate.

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On October 8, 2020, Regal Cinemas will close all 536 theater sites in the U.S., including three sites in our area.

This announcement follows a series of movie delays, including Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” Marvel’s “Black Widow,” and the James Bond movie, “No Time to Die.” These movies were postponed to 2021 while other movies, such as “Death on the Nile” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” have been pushed back to December 0f 2020.

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Today marks the official kick-off for the Toys for Tots 2020 holiday campaign.

Now until Christmas, U.S. Marines and 35, 000 volunteers will be conducting 810 toy collection and distribution campaigns in all 50 states for an estimated 15 million children living in poverty.  The mission of Marine Toys for Tots is to bring the joy of Christmas to less fortunate children with the goal of delivering a message of hope that will inspire youngsters to grow into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.  

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In honor of the 35th President, the Lake Ridge Chorale is selling the annual ornament from the White House Historical Association.

From chorale general manager Lynn Godino:

Once again, Lake Ridge Chorale is selling the annual ornament from The White House Historical Association. The 2020 ornament is the Association’s 40th annual and honors our 35th President, John F. Kennedy.

Each ornament is  $20 (no sales tax), and all checks should be made payable

to Lake Ridge Chorale. Your order will be safely hand delivered to you.

Please reply to this email or call Lynn at 703-314-8967 to order yours while supplies last.

In other Chorale news, we have begun work on our virtual Christmas Concert. We will keep you updated once the date has been set.

Thank you for your continued support of the Lake Ridge Chorale. This has been a challenging time for all of us, including performing arts groups. We look forward to the day when we can meet again in person and share the gift of music.

From September 14 to September 27, the Parkridge Center near Manassas will be hosting an outdoor dinosaur exhibit called “Jurassic Encounter.”

The exhibits are free and open to the public daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., regardless of the weather. No tickets or reservations are necessary and the exhibits are self-guided, stanchioned, and zero-touch. It will have 11 outdoor dinosaur environments with Jurassic sized dinosaurs and a digital scavenger hunt.

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