Manassas city officials held an online meeting on Thursday, May 18, to discuss several pedestrian improvements coming to Manassas city streets in the coming months.
The meeting was held on Zoom, lasted about a half hour, and updated residents on several sidewalk and bike lane projects listed in the city's transportation master plan.
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Meeting reporters are residents like you who want to help neighbors understand what is happening in their local governments in Prince William and Stafford counties, Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Manassas Park cities.
Meeting reporters attend public meetings, take notes on events of the meeting, and then submit their notes to us at PLN.
Meeting reporters receive meeting training and are paid $50 per meeting ($17 per hour, three-hour minimum, more for longer meetings as needed).
Join us Monday, June 5, 2023, for our next meeting reporter training on Zoom (space is limited): https://calendly.com/potomaclocalnews/documenter-reporter-training?month=2023-06&date=2023-06-05
More info about our meeting reporter program: https://potomaclocal.com/2023/04/14/we-want-to-pay-documenters-to-report-the-news/
Prince William County Public Schools honored its top teachers and principals of 2023.
Hundreds gathered on Wednesday, May 10, for the annual Outstanding Educators awards ceremony at the Hylton Performing Arts Center outside Manassas. The evening began with a reception and then a ceremony honoring teachers and principals in primary and secondary education.
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Editor's note: Meeting reporter Robert Grimes documented this meeting of the FAMPO Policy Committee. I've used the notes to create this story. Click here and learn more about becoming a meeting reporter and our next training session.
More than 100 people gathered on Monday, May 15, 2023, to speak out on a proposal to build a new bridge linking Fredericksburg and Stafford County over the Rappahannock River.
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Please welcome Natalie Villalobos, our newest community meeting reporter.
Natalie is a Woodbridge native and now covers the Prince William Board of County Supervisors for us.
Also joining our team is Robert Grimes, who will be covering meetings in the Stafford County and Fredericksburg areas.
I’m excited to be working with both of them.
Meeting reporters are residents like you who want to help neighbors understand what is happening in their local governments, from Fredericksburg to Manassas.
Meeting reporters attend public meetings, take notes on events of the meeting, and then submit their notes to us at PLN.
Meeting reporters receive meeting training and are paid $50 per meeting ($17 per hour, three-hour minimum, more for longer meetings as needed).
Join us Monday, June 5, 2023, for our next meeting reporter training on Zoom (space is limited): https://calendly.com/potomaclocalnews/documenter-reporter-training?month=2023-06&date=2023-06-05
More info about our documented program: https://potomaclocal.com/2023/04/14/we-want-to-pay-documenters-to-report-the-news/
Residents gathered at the Manassas Park Community Center to speak out on a plan to build a $300 million bypass (a pre-inflation figure announced in 2019) in a floodplain between Sudley Road (Route 234) and Centreville Road (Route 28) just outside Manassas.
Several residents who spoke at the April 20 meeting said flooding is a serious issue within the area Prince William County plans to build the four-lane, three-and-a-half mile street.
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Uriah Kiser, Potomac Local News publisher, here.
In the past year, we learned a judge granted bond to a suspected killer, there are elevated amounts of “forever chemicals” in our drinking water, and our leaders said “no” to a grocery store known for driving down prices.
- All of these stories in our community went underreported.
- Now, imagine you could do something about it. Imagine you could be the community’s eyes and ears and report the news.
They said I was crazy.
If there is one thing I’ve learned after nearly 13 years of publishing PotomacLocalNews.com, I can’t be everywhere.
- Many people said I was crazy to have staked out a territory of Prince William and Stafford counties, Manassas, and Manassas Park cities — 628-combined square miles with more than 676,000 people — and try to provide news to all the neighborhoods.
- It’s not easy, and nothing worth doing ever is. While I’m still the business’s sole employee, I’ve had a lot of help over the years from people who love and care about their community, want its residents to be informed, and submit photos, news tips, articles, and op-eds. We’ve had fantastic success with our student work-based learning interns from the Stafford, Spotsylvania, and Manassas school divisions.
We’ve lost 2,500 newspapers.
Newspaper circulation (the traditional local news source for most Americans) has been at its lowest since 1940.
- Revenues have been down more than 62% since 2008. Nearly half of all newspaper jobs disappeared between 2008 and 2018. We’ve lost 2,500 community newspapers since 2005.
- Unfortunately, it’s a continuing trend.
- The future of local news, and the work of educating communities on local issues, holding local officials accountable, and driving participation in elections won’t be done by those who write for newspapers or their companion websites.
However, there is hope.
This week, we celebrated a first and a potential milestone that could be the future of how local news is reported in our communities.
- It’s a model I have watched with great interest since 2018 and one that, if implemented correctly and supported by our readers, would provide an excellent service to our community.
On Monday, April 10, 2023, Lynn Forkell Greene attended the Manassas City Council meeting and “documented” the meeting. Documenting is a fancy word for taking notes or reporting what she saw and heard.
- She covered the entire meeting from start to finish — from the council member’s comments about the city’s recent 150th-anniversary party to what residents had to say about a proposed, first-of-its-kind affordable housing project in the city.
- With her notes, meeting documents, and a video of the proceeding on the city’s website, I wrote a story about the development that promises affordable housing to city employees.
Get paid to report the news.
We cover multiple communities and many public meetings, so we’re recruiting, training, and paying documenters to attend public meetings and report what they see and hear.
- This paid opportunity is perfect for retirees, students, or anyone who needs extra income, has an interest in their community, can work independently and collaboratively with a team, and has a nose for local news.
- Please email me at [email protected], and I’ll send you information about how to get trained and paid to report the news and the eyes and ears of our community.
I hope you’re as excited about the prospect of more local news as I am.
Thank you for your continued support of what we do.
