Owners of the new Hilton Garden Inn celebrated the hotel's grand opening in Haymarket.

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The Red House Tavern will help make a new Hilton Garden Inn in Haymarket more than a welcome place to stay.

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Mountain Road (Route 600) between Quaker Road and Ridge Road will be closed to through traffic, weather permitting, from 7 p.m. Friday, March 11 to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 12 to replace a culvert pipe, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Those needing to reach properties along Mountain Road will have access; however, traffic will not be able to go beyond the point of pipe replacement in either direction.

Through traffic will be detoured via Mountain Road, Logmill Road (Route 701), Route 15 (James Madison Highway) and New Road (Route 600) back to Mountain Road.

Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are reminded to use caution when traveling in active work zones. Be alert to new traffic patterns and limit distractions.

You can get real-time traffic, work zone and incident information online at 511virginia.org, via the free mobile 511Virginia app, or by calling 511 in Virginia.

Chicas, a stay-at-home mom from Haymarket, claimed the fourth and final top prize in the Extreme Millions Scratcher game.

“I thought he was joking!” she told Lottery officials as she validated the winning ticket.

It all happened a few days before Valentine’s Day, when her husband bought the ticket at In & Out Mart, at 9103 Mathis Avenue in Manassas. He scratched the ticket and realized it was a winner.

That’s when he called his wife.

“Aw, you’re lying!” was her reaction, a lottery press release states.

Chicas chose to accept a $6.6 million lump-sum payment rather than take the full $10 million over 30 years. The store where her husband purchased the ticket also receives a $50,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Because this was the final available top prize in Extreme Millions, the game is being closed, states the Virginia Lottery. The Virginia Lottery’s policy is to end scratcher games after the last top prize is claimed. The odds of winning that top prize in Extreme Millions were 1 in about 3 million.

A home burned to the ground Sunday near Haymarket.

Prince William County fire and rescue crews received a 911 call at 8:23 p.m. to the 4000 block of Lawnvale Drive for a house fire.

They found an a single-family home fully engulfed in flames. The occupant had just returned home to find heavy fire and smoke, said a county fire and rescue spokesman.

The home sustained extensive damage and displaced two adults. Emergency crews took the unidentified occupant to an area medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, a spokesman said.

Recently hired Chief of Police Al Siebert spends his first 100 days making a full review of the Haymarket Police Department.

Siebert made his report to the Haymarket Town Council which consisted of a review of the department. The newly-appointed chief held audits and inventories of everything from making sure policies were up to date, to inventory of resources and equipment, and making changes to document filing which the chief had found to be problematic.

One of the main aspects of the report was a full review of the department policy to make sure they were up to date, conformed to current practices, and were accredited. Siebert reported that 80 policies were written generally but were hard to read and not easy to follow. The policies followed by the Haymarket Police Department were based on policies followed by police departments in Southwest Virginia which were adopted and accredited in 2016.

According to the chief, the department is currently updating the policies to make them current, easy to read and customized to Haymarket, a town located on Interstate 66 in Prince William County.

A full inventory of police personnel and equipment was also made, the results of which Siebert called “remarkable” in his report. Currently, the Haymarket Police Department has six full time officers and three part time officers that have an average of 15 years of experience which makes the department personnel one of the more experienced in the area. Siebert’s assessment found that all of the officers have certifications in two or more fields of specialties.

The department also did an inventory of its equipment and found it all to be in good shape, Siebert announced that moving forward there would be semi-annual inspections of all police property to make sure that it all stays up to standards.

Siebert also held an inventory and audit of the department’s evidence room as well as their procedures for documenting and labeling all items kept for evidence. The Chief’s report found that all property and evidence were accounted for and standards are being met.

The department plans to procure a safe for extra security of valuables, drugs, and weapons, the department is also currently purging any property and evidence no longer needed.

One issue found by the audit was that the department’s storage of internal documents was found to be problematic. Instead of keeping the documents on a central server, the department was found to instead use external hard drives to hold documents. Siebert reported that a new server would be installed and would be completed by the end of the month.

Siebert also reported that the department would also restart its Drone program, the Haymarket police does own a drone which could be used for assisting officers in search and rescue, traffic collision investigations, crime scene analysis, crowd monitoring, surveillance, town planning needs, structural issues, among other uses.

Siebert had wanted to get the program up and running in his first 100 days but complications such as a certification class officers needed for the program was canceled and damage to the drone itself delayed the program’s relaunch.

Going forward Chief Siebert wants to have plans for department budgets that look towards the next five to ten years and create development plans for the officers for advancement. All these will help to provide quality service and engagement to the community according to the chief.

Located at the center of the small town in western Prince William County, the new 2,570 square foot building will have 117 rooms. Those rooms, along with the hotel's meeting spaces, can hold 175 people, according to Nicole Warner, Media and Partner Relations Specialist for the Prince William County Office of Tourism.

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ALDI will open a new grocery store in Haymarket.

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A 13-year-old boy died after he was struck by a car while crossing busy Route 15 near Battlefield High School near Haymarket.

The collision occurred at 12:36 p.m. Tuesday, October 19. The boy was crossing the four-lane road when a Honda Odyssey van struck the child. The van had a green light, and the driver remained on the scene, police said.

The police department did not identify the child. The driver has not been charged.

Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland expressed his sorrow following the news of the child’s death.

Here’s the statement from Prince William County police:

Fatal Crash Investigation – On October 19 at 12:36 p.m., investigators with the Crash Investigation Unit responded to the area of James Madison Hwy. and Graduation Dr. in Haymarket (20169) to investigate a crash involving a pedestrian. The investigation revealed that the driver of a 2019 Honda Odyssey was traveling northbound on James Madison Hwy. just prior to Graduation Dr., when the vehicle struck a pedestrian who was present in the roadway.

Investigators determined the driver of the Honda Odyssey had a green light to proceed through the intersection as the pedestrian was attempting to cross James Madison Hwy. from Dominion Valley Dr. to Graduation Dr. The driver of the striking vehicle remained on scene and was not injured. The pedestrian was transported to an area hospital where he died as a result of his injuries sustained in the crash.

Due to a change in Virginia law, the identity of the juvenile is not being disclosed. The investigation continues.

Identified:
The deceased was identified as a 13-year-old male juvenile of Haymarket
The driver of the 2019 Honda ­­­­Odyssey was identified as a 46-year-old woman of Chantilly