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Lottery contestants lined up inside a Wawa gas station in North Stafford to purchase tickets from an automated lottery ticket vending machine on July 29, 2022.

During the 29 drawings of the jackpot run that began in April and ended with Friday night’s $1 billion drawing, sales of Mega Millions tickets in Virginia generated an estimated $30.2 million in profit. By law, all of that profit goes to K-12 public education in the Commonwealth.

While the overall winning ticket was not sold in Virginia, in Friday night’s drawing alone, more than 405,000 Mega Millions tickets bought in Virginia won prizes. That includes four tickets that matched four of the first five numbers plus the Mega Ball number. Normally that wins $10,000, however, one of those players spent an extra dollar for the Megaplier when they bought the ticket. The Megaplier doubled that prize to $20,000.

The $20,000 winning ticket was bought online at valottery.com.

The three $10,000 winning tickets were bought at:

  • 7-Eleven, 13821 Heathcote Blvd. in Gainesville
  • Wawa, 510 West Shirley Ave. in Warrenton
  • Sheetz, 15 Wyche Road in Stafford

Of those 405,000 winning tickets bought in Virginia for Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing, more than 64,000 were bought online at valottery.com.

The winning numbers in the Friday, July 29, drawing were 13-36-45-57-67, and the Mega Ball number was 14.

Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday nights at 11 p.m. The odds of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 24. Prizes start at $2 and increase all the way to the jackpot.

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Drinking water consumed by Prince William County residents received a clean bill of health.

The Prince William County Service Authority recently published its 2022 Water Quality Reports, which provide essential information about the source and characteristics of the utility’s drinking water. The EPA requires the annual reports available on the Prince William Service Authority’s website.

The report from the Prince Wiliam Service Authority outlines data from 2021, the most recent regulatory period. It details the number of regulated substances, like fluoride, barium, and metals in the water and the amount of chlorine used to disinfect the water supply.

“The Service Authority is meeting all required testing, all federal guidelines, and the water is considered safe to drink,” said John DeRosa, regulatory officer for the Prince William Service Authority.

Each of the Service Authority’s four distribution systems – East, West, Hoadly Manor, Bull Run Mountain, and Evergreen – has its own Water Quality Report.

Except for drinking water in the Bull Run Mountain and Evergreen communities, the drinking water distributed by the Service Authority is sourced from the Potomac River, Occoquan Reservoir, and Lake Manassas.

While most of the drinking water the Service Authority provides to customers is treated at facilities owned and operated by Fairfax Water, many customers in the county’s western end receive some water treated at the City of Manassas Water Treatment Plant.

Customers in the Bull Run Mountain and Evergreen communities receive their water from six public groundwater wells located throughout the area.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Virginia Waterworks Regulations require all water utilities to produce annual water quality reports.

Meanwhile, the Service Authority is working to identify the source of PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the water supply. While lower than many other water systems at nine parts per trillion (EPA suggests a limit of 70 parts per trillion), the utility is working to find the source of the pollutants.

PFAS is a class of more than 6,000 artificial chemicals used to manufacture various industrial and household products designed to resist heat, water, oil, and stains. Many products are made with PFAS, including non-stick cookware, food packaging, degreaser, personal care products, and water-resistant apparel.

The chemicals enter the water system through stormwater runoff. De Rosa says they’re expensive to remove through water filtration processes like reverse osmosis.

“The levels are so low here, it’s difficult for our technology to detect them,” said DeRosa.

Service Authority customers with questions about water quality or who want a printed copy of their Water Quality Report may contact the Service Authority’s Regulatory Affairs Office at 703-331-4162 or [email protected].

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[Photo: Sheetz, Inc.]
They take their drive-through lanes seriously in Prince William County.

After much back and forth with lawyers representing Sheetz gas stations, the Board of County Supervisors approved a new fueling station and convenience store to be built at Interstate 66 and Route 29 at Gainesville Crossing. It will be the first retail development in a new complex next to a 1,000-space commuter lot.

Micheal Vanderpool of the Manassas-based law firm Vanderpool, Frostick and Nishanian, P.C., representing developer Buchanan Partners, said the Sheetz is the perfect project in an ideal location. Vanderpool petitioned the Board of County Supervisors for a Special Use Permit, a document required before Sheetz could build a planned drive-through lane outside the convenience store, and install gas pumps.

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Elected officials gather for a private event in 2017 for the opening of an Iron Mountain data center near Gainesville, Va. [Submitted photo]
Iron Mountian was one of the first significant data centers to open in Prince William County.

Its grand opening celebration in 2017 was closed to the public and drew several high-profile business leaders and county officials. The county's economic development office heralded it as a win for the region as it began working to lure data center companies from neighboring Loudoun County, which has the highest concentration of data centers globally.

According to permit data published by the Prince William County Department of Development Services, Iron Mountain will build a $6 million addition to its campus at 11680 Hayden Road, just off Wellington Road near Gainesville.

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Bill Wright
Gainesville

Citizens were recently treated to two more mind-numbing episodes in the surreal story of the Prince William Digital Gateway.

The July 13 Planning Commission meeting featured an exchange where Gainesville commissioner Rick Berry asked acting Planning Office Director Rebecca Horner why there was a work session scheduled to discuss the proposal when neither the Comprehensive Plan update nor the overlay district review was complete.

Ms. Horner’s incredulous reply was, “They [the Supervisors] did not require that type of analysis.”  Why is the Prince William Digital Gateway jumping the line to be considered ahead of reviews that ought to precede it?

The following evening, the Planning Office hosted a virtual discussion on the Camoin report that they seem to believe validates all their preconceived notions.

When asked when the County would release detailed information on the land and expected capacity for data centers under development, Director of Economic Development Christina Winn said that non-disclosure agreements protect information.

Is that a joke?

Is she really telling us that information essential to evaluating the necessity for the Prince William Digital Gateway will be withheld from public review and scrutiny at the behest of private corporations that stand to profit from public ignorance?

Unbelievable.

What is driving the contrived urgency to push the Prince William Digital Gateway proposal forward in this illogical sequence?  Whose armored car is double-parked outside?

Stop the embarrassment and suspicion surrounding this troubling proposal until the Planning Office can get its act together and its story straight.

Potomac Local News occasionally writes editorials and accepts opinion-based letters to the editor on local issues. Readers may email letters.

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Chris Griffin, 38, a business owner and lifelong Prince William County resident calls on Board Chair At-large Ann Wheeler to resign. [Photo: Uriah Kiser/PLN]
Storm clouds continue to gather for Ann Wheeler, the top locally-elected official in Prince William County, Chair-At-large of the Board of County Supervisors.

As thunder rolled during a summer storm on Tuesday, July 12, residents gathered outside the county government center demanded Wheeler, the highest elected county official, resign from office or face a recall campaign. It's the second call for resignation in as many weeks for a member of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

According to Wheeler's 2021 financial disclosure, the Chair listed a 300% increase in purchased stock compared to 2020 in nine data center firms. One of them, Blackstone, Inc., is pushing the Board of County Supervisors to rezone more than 800 acres next to the Manassas National Battlefield Park to build a data center campus.

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A diagram showing the retail portion of the 153-acre Gainesville Crossing, which will sit next to a commuter parking lot at I-66 and Route 29.

The retail and commercial portion of a 153-acre data center site in Gainesville is ready to be developed.

Developer Buchanan Partners says the first tenant at Gainesville Crossing will be a Sheetz gas station on the property at Interstate 66 and Route 29. While it can build a convenience store by-right, the developer is seeking a Special Use Permit to install gas pumps and a drive-through lane for customers to order and pick up food.

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A highway crew at work on Interstate 66 near Sudley Road. [VDOT]
Commuters on Interstate 66, between Route 29 in Gainesville and Route 29 in Centreville will experience extended lane closures and travel effects beginning June 7 as paving operations accelerate to prepare the future I-66 Express Lanes for opening later this year as part of the Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project.

The east section of I-66 between Route 29 in Gainesville and Route 29 in Centreville will be reduced to three travel lanes, with the left lane/HOV lane closed for six days. The closure will allow crews to work more efficiently in paving this section of the future Express Lanes and will reduce the traffic impacts of additional paving during the coming months. Three travel lanes will remain open in this section during peak travel periods.

Following the paving of the eastbound Express Lanes, crews will begin final paving for the future Express Lanes on I-66 West in late June. This will also include the general-purpose lanes between Route 29 in Gainesville and the I-495 Interchange, according to VDOT.

All work is weather dependent and may be rescheduled if inclement conditions occur.

The Transform 66 Outside the Beltway Project will add 23 miles of new E-ZPass Express Lanes alongside three regular lanes on I-66, between University Boulevard in Gainesville to I-495. The new lanes should be open in December.

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[Photo: Gianni Tonizzo/Facebook]

A fire broke out at Grace Jewelers tonight, an independent jewelry store at 14059 Promenade Commons Street in Gainesville.

A fire alarm sounded at about 7:40 p.m., signaling all inside to get out of the shop. No one was injured.

According to initial reports, following the store’s evacuation, someone back inside and smelled smoke in an office area.

Crews doused the blaze in under 30 minutes. A power crew was called to shut off electricity to the accepted areas of the Virginia Gateway shopping center. The center is home to a Regal Cinemas, restaurants, and several boutique shops and sits off Linton Hall Road near U.S. Route 29.

Initially, the fire was reported as an outdoor fire at a nearby Bar Louie restaurant.

More as we have it.

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