By Sanford S. Williams and  Kevin D. Newman
Manassas City Public Schools

The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy, paraphrasing Dr. King. In this moment of challenge and controversy, we stand with you. We are angry and grieved over the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and we are committed to stand with you as we all fight the racism, inequality, and systemic oppression that continues to plague our society.

And as African-American men who care deeply about our country and our city, we are especially affected by these events.

We have reached the end of a school year that brought a challenge we had never seen before as we dealt with the impact of COVID-19. Now, we are witnessing the wide-reaching impact of events triggered by the tragic death of George Floyd.

We know there are a multitude of emotions our students, staff, and families are experiencing during this difficult time. What we are seeing across the nation is traumatic and we must pause and acknowledge the anger, pain, and grief many students (and adults) are feeling during this time of unrest in our nation.

Recent protests and demonstrations have provoked difficult conversations among families and friends. These conversations are necessary for us to move forward. While parents and guardians serve as the first teachers their children encounter, we understand that we have a responsibility to provide a high-quality education for our diverse student population; preparing them to become informed and active citizens and positioning them to become leaders.

Dr. King also said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” We as a community must address injustice. We are all in this together and if even one of us is not treated fairly, we all suffer. We are committed to ensuring that our learning environment is supportive and understanding of the cultures our students represent. We will be intentional and purposeful in fighting inequality, promoting inclusion, and helping ALL of our students reach their potential.

Finally, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. If you need help dealing with recent events, please reach out to us or other resources in the community. We are honored and privileged to be a part of your lives. With this honor and privilege comes responsibility, and we commit to do all that we can to educate, respect, and empower our children to help make this world a better place.

Sanford S. Williams is the Manassas City School Board Chairman. Kevin Newman is the Manassas City Public Schools Superintendent.

By Margaret Franklin 
Prince William County Woodbridge District Supervisor | OmniRide Commission Chair

As Chair of the Board of PRTC, I understand the importance of providing reliable, safe, and efficient transportation for residents around Prince William County and the D.C. area. The goal of our transit services – The OmniRide and the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) – has always been to get residents where they need to go while reducing congestion. OmniRide and the VRE rely heavily on our transit employees to help carry out these goals. Now with COVID-19 critically impacting our economy, our transit workers are even more vital in providing critical transportation services.

As our community faces unprecedented struggles during this pandemic, we are all coming together to lean on and support each other. Many brave community members fill the roles
of essential workers who are lifting us up and taking care of us. They are doctors, nurses, grocery store employees, restaurant workers and delivery workers. We are grateful that our public transit system is still up and running to get these essential workers to and from work. To all of our transportation employees– bus operators, dispatchers, mechanics, security, and frontline operations staff – we are deeply appreciative of your services to our community.

I want to personally thank all OmniRide for the work they continue to do and the sacrifices they are making to keep
our community moving. Thank you for the rigorous daily cleaning of buses and facilities, for encouraging riders to maintain social distancing, and for ensuring the road-worthiness of our buses.
Our transportation employees provide a necessary service to our community, which many of them also call home. We cannot take their service for granted.

Eventually, the stay-at-home order will be lifted, and we will begin to establish a new normal. Yet, many things will remain the same. The congestion will resume on I-95 and
I-66 and we will still need a reliable way to get to work, to medical appointments, the grocery store, and more. OmniRide will be ready to get you where you need to go. Again, THANK YOU OmniRide First Providers!

By David Decatur
Stafford County Sheriff

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” These are the words that come to mind as we contemplate a great injustice that has rattled the nation over the past several days.

Although the death of George Floyd took place hundreds of miles from Stafford County, the impact of this injustice has reverberated across the nation including here in our community. Alongside our community, we watched with horror the chilling video of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for a prolonged period of time as he pleaded for help and yelled “I can’t breathe.” Several officers stood nearby—doing nothing—as George Floyd took his last breath and died at the hands of the officers who took an oath to protect and serve their communities.

On the heels of such a grave injustice and indescribable tragedy, we cannot do nothing. We cannot be silent.

When most law enforcement officers wake up in the morning and put on their badge, they recognize the tremendous responsibility and honor of protecting and serving their community. Each day, they pour their hearts and souls into serving their communities.

Sometimes, that means arresting a criminal, but, most of the time, it means stopping to help an elderly resident change a tire or tying a child’s shoelaces or using their own money to buy a football for a group of children who didn’t have presents under the Christmas tree.

When that officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd and watched him take his last breath, he tarnished the badge and abdicated his duty to his community. Even worse, the killing of George Floyd has bled fear into the African American community and incited concerns that every law enforcement officer is like the one who pinned George Floyd to the ground as he screamed for help.

Today, we want to assure the community that racism, hate, and excessive use of force by law enforcement will find no home in Stafford County. We will not tolerate such a blatant disregard for human life and will work tirelessly to ensure the fair and impartial treatment of all residents regardless of their ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, religion, age, or socioeconomic class.

All our residents will be treated with dignity and respect. Our deputies have been and will continue to be instructed in the core values of the Stafford Sheriff’s Office—fairness, compassion, professionalism, and integrity. We will also continue to protect the rights and civil liberties of others by upholding the constitution of Virginia and the United States. We will not fail our community.

Our deepest condolences go out to George Floyd’s family and friends. You will be in our thoughts and prayers in the days ahead.

Stafford County Sheriff David P. Decatur is currently serving his second term as sheriff, the highest law enforcement position in the county.

by Babur B. Lateef, M.D.
Chairman At-Large
Prince William County School Board

We are excited to see that Governor Northam has placed education funding among the top priorities in his budget submitted to the General Assembly.

Virginia is the number one state for business, and we believe that it should be number one for education as well. The greatest opportunity for sustaining economic prosperity, ensuring a strong workforce with future-ready skills, and empowering individual success is through an outstanding and equitable PreK-12 education for all. 

The foundation of a great education is a great teacher. In order to recruit and retain the best educators, competitive compensation is critical. We are pleased to see the Governor propose a teacher salary increase, in addition to last year’s, and it is our hope that the General Assembly will find a means to add funding for teachers in the first year of the biennium budget. 

While state and local authorities work in partnership to ensure a quality education for students in the Commonwealth, past changes to Virginia’s funding for public education widened the gap between the true local-level cost of providing programs and services and the amount reimbursed by the state.

We are optimistic that our elected officials both in the General Assembly and at the Board of County Supervisors will support our students and teachers through their actions this year. Together we will ensure that we truly deliver a world-class education for all. 

Everyone loves a parade, so when I woke up the morning after the history-making Washington Nationals’ World Series win, I contacted Virginia Railway Express to see if it planned to provide service to the victory parade on Saturday.

• It doesn’t, so you can forget about riding the rails from Fredericksburg or Manassas to see the championship team celebrate its victory over the Houston Astros.
• VRE said Amtrak offers some Saturday service along the line, and OmniRide is providing its regular Saturday bus service between Woodbridge and the Franconia-Springfield Metro station.

After watching every thrilling and (at times) agonizing minute of the World Series, I plan to go to the parade.

• But I’m not looking forward to being lumped in with the crush of people who will, undoubtedly, line up at the Springfield Metro just to enter the station (this happened in 2010 when Jon Stewart held a rally on the National Mall, and we abandoned our plans to go as the line was so long).
• While Washington, D.C. officials said not to, and despite planned road closures in the city, I’m thinking of using an online parking app, securing a parking space, and driving to the parade.

Virginia’s only commuter rail system is a vital link between Virginia’s growing suburbs and the capital city.

• It’s long been reserved for federal workers, many of whom receive subsidized rides to and from work, and those who may be visiting the city during the workweek.

But VRE should start thinking outside the box at providing new service, to new riders, to new destinations outside the general office building.

• It could take a page out of OmniRide’s book, whose executive Director Bob Schneider is starting — for the first time in its history, service outside of Prince William County to Stafford, and is exploring the possibility of a Potomac River ferry that would make OmniRide more than just a bus company.
• The only VRE trains run for those not headed to their daily 9-5 are on Independence Day, Santa trains near Christmas, and excursions for the Clifton Day and the Manassas Heritage Railway Festival.
• VRE is searching for a new CEO, and that person — like Schneider has done for OmniRide — could help shape a new VRE for the 21st century.

I can imagine a time when the now greatest baseball city is connected via rail to the newest city to have a baseball stadium, Fredericksburg, the new home for the Fredericksburg Nationals starting in April.

• When fans flock to see star players of the Washington Nationals come to rehab with the Fred Nats, as they did when the team was the Potomac Nationals and it played in Woodbridge, or when fans are headed to a game Nats Park in Washington, they can ride VRE north or south.
• And, with a new $2 billion Long Bridge in place, we might take the train to watch the Nats clobber the Orioles in Baltimore.

Editor’s note: We periodically publish opinion posts (letters to the editor) on local issues of interest to our subscribers and readers. 

By Mark Scheufler
Prince William County resident

Capacity Improvements for Route 28 between Fairfax County and Manassas have been narrowed down to two general alternatives:

1. Extension of Godwin Dr. along the Flat Branch to Route 28

2. Widening Route 28 through Yorkshire from four to six lanes.

The problem is both alternatives are prohibitively expensive and do not provide a good return on investment (ROI) for Prince William County residents.

The four-mile Godwin Dr. Extension Alternative will have a significant impact on at least 70 residential properties and create permanent noise impacts for many more.

• Most of the affected properties are below the Prince William County median home price, thus removing some of the affordable housing stock in the county.
• In addition, the loss of properties will impact the tax revenue generated by the county.
• Also, the proposed alignment will be built through an “Environmental Resource” area.
• Building next to a riverbed will result in higher levels of stormwater runoff and impacts to adjacent parkland and Bull Run watershed. Finally, this alignment will induce more traffic into the Route 28 corridor that currently uses Sudley Rd (234 Business) to access I-66.

The other option under consideration is to expand Route 28 from four to six lanes.

• This option will eliminate most of the businesses along Route 28.
• This is similar to what was done along Route 1 in Triangle 10 years ago.
• This will result in a loss of commercial tax revenue for the county that may never be recovered.
• In addition, this route will have significant utility relocation costs.

A better alternative is to build a new three-lane Route 28 southbound alignment — 400 feet to the west of existing Route 28 from an expanded eight-lane Bull Run Bridge to Manassas Drive.

• When done, Route 28 would have two northbound lanes and five southbound lanes.
• With the Route 28 Fairfax County widening project coming online in late 2022, the most severe congestion in Prince William County along Route 28 will be in the southbound direction during the evening rush hour.
• This improvement will create five lanes of southbound traffic, plus Old Centreville Road, to help dissipate traffic as it funnels down to Manassas Drive and Liberia Avenue.
• Having a one-way roadway makes it easier to synchronize traffic lights between Compton Road and Manassas Drive.
• The main benefit of this alignment is it adds the needed near term capacity improvements while also providing options for county planners, county residents, property owners, and developers to envision and revitalize the Route 28 corridor through the Yorkshire Small Area Plan.

The Route 28 corridor is an excellent place for upzoning the land with affordable higher-density mixed-use development and adding bus transit and bike/pedestrian infrastructure.

• Growth is coming to Prince William County, planning the growth in activity centers such as the Route 28 corridor is needed for the county to prosper.

• Without proper planning and vision, the development will continue to occur on the outer edges of the county near or in the rural area.

• If Prince William County is going to fund this project through a bond referendum, it needs to benefit current and future Prince William County residents and businesses.

By Delegate Luke Torian
(D-52, Prince William County)

In addition to our efforts in the General Assembly, some issues must be solved by the Congress and surprise medical billing is one of those issues. When members of Congress return to Washington in a few days, I believe that they should take immediate action to work on common-sense legislation that will resolve the problem of surprise medical billing.

Anyone who has been impacted by a surprise medical bill—and that’s roughly 57% percent of all Americans, according to a University of Chicago, study understands the heavy financial toll that was endured. Individuals who have received medical treatment weeks or months earlier should not be confronted with surprise medical bills which require payment for costs they assumed would be covered by their insurance company.

This problem may increase as more insurance companies reduce their provider networks.

Congress must take immediate action that does not have a negative impact on patients.

Some of the current proposals in Congress would have a negative impact.

• • There is discussion in both the U.S. Senate and House to enact legislation that would resolve out-of-network payment disputes by instituting a benchmarking solution, which would lead to government rate-setting.
  • While on the surface, this might seem to solve the problem of surprise billing by separating patients from the dispute process, benchmarking would actually create an entirely new set of problems that impact far more patients in Virginia and throughout the nation.

A benchmarking approach would set arbitrarily low rates for physicians performing out-of-network care as it would be based on insurers discounted in-network averages. Moreover, benchmarking would fail to account for the drastic differences in cost and complexity of providing clinical care in different geographical locations and among different types of health care facilities.

• • Benchmarking would give large insurance companies the power to determine the type of treatment patients can access and which physicians patients can see.
  • This system would also remove any incentive for insurance companies to negotiate fairly with providers—both on out-of-network payments and on contracts that bring more doctors into their networks.
  • Benchmarking creates a one-size-fits-all, take-it-or-leave-it system that would slash rates to physicians and transfer significant losses onto our nation’s hospitals and emergency rooms. For the facilities serving either very rural or very urban areas, the results could be catastrophic. California has tried the benchmarking approach, and it led to provider consolidation, an outcome that was devastating to rural hospitals.

These facilities, many of which are struggling as it is, serve as America’s safety net of hospitals—providing medical care for a disproportionately larger share of uninsured, underinsured, Medicare, or Medicaid patients. Jeopardizing their ability to provide care threatens access and affordability for some of our most vulnerable citizens.

I encourage Congress to reject benchmarking and instead utilize Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR), a process outlined in other legislative proposals that would provide a far more patient-friendly, equitable approach to ending surprise billing.

• • IDR would establish a fair, transparent negotiation process for insurers and providers to settle out-of-network billing disputes.
  • The IDR process would involve a third-party, independent mediator who guides those involved in reaching a decision amenable to both parties.
  • In the meantime, interim payments would provide hospitals and emergency rooms—particularly the ones serving our most at-risk patients—added stability to ensure continued access to care.
  • IDR has worked well in New York, where it was implemented in 2015, and it will work for America. For the good of my constituents and citizens in the Commonwealth, I urge Virginia’s senators and representatives to support legislation that includes this balanced approach to ending surprise billing.

This letter to the editor was sent to us by Mark Scheufler, a Prince William County resident. All of the letters we’ve posted by him all have to do with improving mobility around our region. This latest letter comes as the Virginia Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting on improving Interstate 95 statewide, at James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg from 6 to 8 p.m.

Getting between Richmond and Washington, D.C.c can be difficult with very unpredictable travel times, especially on weekends in the summer. The Commonwealth of Virginia is building a significant number of projects along I-95 in the Fredericksburg area that will improve traffic flow over the Rappahannock River.

This coupled with the new Harry Nice Bridge [over the Potomac River, linking Virginia and Maryland] coming online in 2023 will lead to longer travel times between Fredericksburg and Richmond

Virginia is expected to add 1.5 million people between now and 2040 with the vast majority of that growth along the corridor between Washington DC, Richmond, and Hampton Roads. Improvements to I-95 between US1 (Exit 126) and I-295 (Exit 84) will be needed.

VDOT should consider adding the project below to the list of recommendations for the I-95 Corridor Improvement Plan.

Expand I-95 from six to 12 lanes between U.S. 1 (Exit 126) and I-295 (Exit 84) using a dual-dual configuration similar to the New Jersey Turnpike layout between Philadelphia and New York City.

· Each direction will consist of three barrier separated car only express lanes with limited access points between Fredericksburg and Richmond/I-295 and three local lanes for cars and trucks with access to all existing interchange points.

· All lanes would be assessed a $2 toll to enter this 40-mile stretch of highway each day via E-ZPass or pay by plate.

· No toll booths would be used.

· Additional tolls would not be charged for multiple entries per day.

· Tolls would be the same for cars and trucks.

· Tolls to supplement future improvements (capital and operating) along the CSX rail line between DC and Richmond that was outlined as part of the recent DC2RVA study

In 2013, The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation that requires legislative approval of tolls on I-95 South of Fredericksburg and in 2016 the FHWA revoked an exemption to toll the existing lanes of I-95 along this stretch of highway. These two policy decisions would need to be enacted for this $4 billion project to move forward.

Starting with a daily traffic count of 120,000 unique vehicles and a $2 toll, the 40-year toll collection period would generate $6.6 billion based on a 1% traffic increase and 2% toll increase per year.

Doing nothing to improve conditions along this corridor will reduce Virginia’s economic competitiveness along the I-95 corridor between Maine and Florida.

By Senator Scott Surovell
(D-36, Fairfax, Stafford, Woodbridge)

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has called the state legislature to Richmond this week for a special session to focus on measures to reduce firearm violence in the state.  Addressing this problem is long overdue.

Last year, guns killed more people than car accidents in Virginia.  The majority of those deaths were people committing suicide.

Just last week, three people were shot in the Fairfax County portion of the 36^th District in Gum Springs and Rose Hill.  The week before that, two people were found shot to death in the woods off Featherstone Road in Woodbridge.

Over the last ten years, I have served in the General Assembly, we have passed one bill that represents progress on this problem.  In 2016, Attorney General Mark Herring issued an opinion that ended the state’s practice of recognizing out-of-state concealed weapons permits from states with protections that are not as robust Virginia’s.  This also meant that Virginia concealed weapon permit holders could not carry concealed weapons in those other states.

This was so alarming to firearm advocates that they were willing to allow the Commonwealth to pass a statute requiring the subjects of protective orders – necessitated by domestic violence – to surrender their weapons while the order was in place in return for the restoration of concealed weapon reciprocity rules.  That is it.

During my ten years in elective office, Virginia repealed the one-gun-a-month rule that had curtailed Virginia’s prominent role in gun trafficking.  General Assembly committees have routinely killed bills to address gun violence that I cosponsored, One example:  A bill to ban magazine extensions like those used to kill 10 people in Virginia Beach last month or wound Congressman Gabby Giffords, 13 others and killed six people.  A committee killed Senator Adam Ebbin’s effort to ban the type of bump stocks used to kill 59 people and shoot 422 others in Las Vegas.

I have carried legislation to require background checks on all firearm sales which would end the gun show loophole, a current law that allows sales without background checks.  90 percent of Virginians support this, polls show, but legislative committees kill these bills every year.

Governor Northam has also asked us to consider a ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15 that the D.C. Snipers used to kill 17 people and wound 10 more all over the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in 2002.  That same weapon was used in Las Vegas, Newtown, Aurora, Orlando, Sandy Hook, Texas Church, San Bernadino, Waffle House and Santa Fe High School.

I am also cosponsoring legislation to create so-called “red flag” orders which would allow an individual to petition a judge to issue a temporary order requiring a suicidal individual to surrender their weapons.  This concept is even supported by the president, but it is opposed by firearms rights advocates.

The current U.S. Supreme Court has reinterpreted 200 years of jurisprudence to hold that the Constitution provides some protections for purchasing and owning firearms, but as with all constitutional rights, there are limits.  We have Constitutional protections for free speech, for example, but no one can maliciously defame someone with false speech, threaten physical harm or shout fire in a crowded movie theatre.  Each of the measures that I have described in this column is a reasonable limitation that will not curb anyone’s ability to hunt or defend themselves person or their family.

I will try to make progress this week, but when one of my colleagues claims guns prevent rape and the state senator whose district saw ten people murdered last week will not even consider changing his opposition to measures like this, I am not optimistic.

Please email me at [email protected] if you have any feedback.

Virginia State Senator Scott Surovell is elected to serve the 36th Senate District encompassing portions of southern Fairfax County, eastern Prince William County, and northern Stafford County.