I have passed the halfway point in Leadership Prince William! Our Leadership Prince William class has completed five sessions, and we only have Arts and Culture, Public Safety, Communication and then graduation. Each day I have attended has been more interesting and informative than the last. I’ve been active in Prince William County for about six years and have served on many boards and committees and I belong to numerous groups, all dedicated to making life better for residents of PWC, so I thought I knew most of what our county has to offer. I may be more familiar with what goes on in the …

The recent announcement of a possible property tax increase at the February 14 Board of County Supervisors meeting wasn’t exactly embraced by the community. Immediately, complaints about higher taxes began to be voiced by the majority of residents in Prince William County, yet those complaints were heard while the chambers were filled with teachers protesting they are underpaid for the number of hours they work. The work of the county budget process is a mystery to most people. We generally follow the idea that a tax increase is bad, lower taxes are good, and ne’er the twain shall meet. That …

Last Tuesday, the Board of County Supervisors passed an ordinance regarding the height of fences in front yards. This ordinance was a result of a citizen driven process that actually began nearly four years ago. Citizens complained to their supervisors about conditions in their non-HOA neighborhoods about six foot chain link and six foot vinyl fencing in the front yards of some of their neighbors. At the time, there was no ordinance restricting that height…now there is. Fences built in front yards must be no higher than 42 inches and may not be opaque. That means the beautiful white picket …

Do you know any experts? Some days I feel like I am surrounded by them. People share their knowledge with me on a great variety of topics: business, remodeling, community, weight loss, neighborhoods, social action, health and fitness, causes, gardening, social media, religion, transportation…on and on, the list is endless! I try to learn new things every day and I bet most of you Patch readers do, too. Whether you go to school to learn or you’re challenged with new ideas at your job, or just within the social circle of your friends and family, we are constantly flooded with new information …

I am an opinion writer, not really a news writer, but I’m going to give you a little of both today! Over a very short period of time, some criminal has been tagging all over Dale City. Graffiti is a cowardly crime, committed by someone with absolutely no respect for anyone or anyone’s property. The photos that accompany this article are not all of the locations tagged in Dale City. There were many more. You may think this is not a big deal…you’re right! It’s not a big deal. It’s a huge deal, an enormous deal. These figures taken from the Graffiti Hurts website: A 2006 survey of the 88 cities…

I hope everyone who lives in Dale City or is just driving through has seen the curb and gutter work that VDOT has been doing. All the overgrown grass has been cut back from the edges of the medians and along the curbs. You, Dale City Patch and I are going to take a little credit for this. It’s been my ability to write here, my editor’s willingness to publish and you readers’ response and willingness to share that has sparked my confidence that improving the appearance of our community is a real possibility. I have long believed first looks determine so much, and have often remarked, “Crime …

When I write, I start with a topic sentence or a subject, then get off on some side street and find I’ve written a completely different article than my headline indicated. Try not to be surprised if we wind up some place else. I don’t think 2012 is destined to be our most memorable year, collectively speaking. After all, it’s not as huge as a new decade, and not nearly as enormous as that new century we had twelve years ago. If the doomsday predictions are correct this time, 2012 isn’t going to be memorable, but only a memory, for after all, archaeologists have now unearthed a second …

I don’t have a lot of happy memories to share with you Patch readers today. Growing up poor doesn’t lend itself to big celebrations, fancy feasts, or elaborate trees encircled with gifts. Christmas at my grandparents' wasn’t much better than Christmas at my dad’s house or Christmas at my mom’s house. My grandparents had a tree one year that I recall, but I think it was too messy (or too much trouble or too expensive or something along those lines.) My grandmother did always have a large candelabra for the picture window and two smaller candelabras for the bedroom windows. “Candelabra” is a …

One of the most pivotal changes to our community began ten years ago. Our area was booming. We were building houses “on spec.” That means builders and investors were raising houses with no assurance of profit. They were building without buyers, but reasonably confident some new or “move up” homeowner would want to snatch the property when construction was complete. Some of the most dramatic changes were wrought by the influx of population to Prince William County. In the 2000 census, we had 280,813 residents and in just ten years, our population exploded. The census in 2010 reflected a tally …

I love social media! I stop in at Facebook at least twice a day just to see what everyone is doing. Friends and family post pictures and jokes, links to news items, updates, their joys and successes and their woes and ills. I could never keep up with everyone if not for Facebook. So, I am grateful for social media, the web and the technology that makes it possible. I’m grateful for the electricity that hums through the wires to bring me everything from my computer to my toothbrush. I’m grateful for clean, fresh water to drink or wash my hair any time I want. I’m grateful for the heating and …

I just finished reading an article by Nathan Curby, titled, Homelessness in Prince William by the Numbers. It was an excellent recap of the condition of the unsheltered homeless in Prince William County. At the end of the article, there was a comment posted by a reader who made a statement, then asked a question, “There is little in the way of affordable housing in the county. Single occupancy housing is a humane and altogether reasonable solution to much homelessness. What political party would support such?” How do we answer such a question? I certainly agree that single family housing is …

Oh, I dread every time I sit down to write about a topic I feel it’s essential to share but fear may be frightfully boring. I know sometimes it’s hard to generate excitement about mundane topics and it’s even harder to create memorable words about anything that’s just “good for you” to know. Still, if you’ve read any of my other columns, you know I am driven by a need to make not just a better future, but a better present for all of us. So, while I present lofty topics of transportation, telework and commuting, I never lose track of those quality of life issues like community appearance, …

Last week I explained the broken windows theory and how crime can be invited to a neighborhood that looks like no one cares. It’s not just our neighborhoods that show a lack of respect and care, but the primary entrances to our communities also reflect a poor image. I often wonder if I am the only one who sees our surroundings in this manner. Certainly, I don’t hear many people complain about community maintenance. I think we become immune to our surroundings and don’t notice issues like walks, curbs and gutters, overgrown foliage, signs, and litter because we see it every day. We become …

One of my biggest fears is that someday, I will be found dead on the ground, in 101 degree heat, with a weed whacker clenched in my sun burnt hands. No, strike that! The even bigger fear is that someone will speak at my memorial service and say, “She died doing what she loved.” That would be such a lie. I do love volunteering. I do love making a difference in my neighborhood, in my community and in Prince William County. I love helping people and changing a neglected space into a spot to be enjoyed. I genuinely believe in the “broken window theory.” Since the introduction of that study and …

I loved the idea of Metro coming to Woodbridge twenty years ago. Today, I still like the idea of Metro coming to Woodbridge. My dilemma now is even if we began a feasibility study tomorrow, it would take at least another twenty years for Metro to become operational. That means the Metro idea I loved would be forty years old…is that going to work for us then? Congressman Gerry Connolly recently hosted a Metrorail forum, to determine if Metro is viable as a long term solution. The Congressman’s message was this: Extension of Metrorail to Prince William County is a transit solution we should …

I hate I-95! I grew up in a small town, adjacent to a big city. Jeffersonville, Indiana was located just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. I spent a good chunk of my young, married life in a similar condition, living more than ten years on Scott AFB, just down the road from St. Louis, Missouri. I have truly loved to drive all my life. I liked to get in my car and find new places and new routes to get there. I was always a confident driver.   When we moved here, I thought the geographical conditions were nearly identical: small town in the shadow of a big city. The similarity ends …

My husband and I spent the day with a good friend in Manassas last week end. We visited the 36th annual Edgar Rohr Memorial Antique Car Meet, at the Manassas Museum. This event was spread out over a huge area and had a great crowd of people. Visitors were looking at the beautiful cars and chatting with the owners. Everyone was relaxed, strolling across the green, enjoying the cooler weather and the car show. We next visited the Brews, Bands and BBQ. Tickets for this event were a little pricey ($25 at the gate), but the food was wonderful, with restaurants and caterers competing for the title …

Virginia has been a pretty crazy state over the last couple of months. If you were stuck in Antarctica, you may have missed some of the events that occurred.  We broke records for high temperatures. We had drought. We had an earthquake and are still experiencing aftershocks. We were brushed lightly by a hurricane, we had terrible storms with violent lightening, and most recently, we were inundated by flood. I recently recounted some of the possible things to help be prepared for the “next” time, and things to consider after the event had passed. We had lots of information given to us by the …

I was getting ready to walk out the door for Jazzercize class, but I turned on the television to check the Weather Channel. It was a beautiful fall day and the sky was a brilliant blue, but I wanted to put down fertilizer on the lawn and needed to be sure rain wasn’t coming in later to wash the fertilizer off the lawn. Ten years ago, I didn’t check my weather forecast online. Before I had a chance to turn to channel 32, I saw footage of one of the most horrendous sights I’d ever seen. The video showed a plane flying into a tall building. At first, I simply couldn’t comprehend what I was …

All my life I’ve had the phrase, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” running through the back of my mind. I always attributed the fact that I have no less than 36 rolls of toilet paper in the cabinet to growing up poor and that may well be the truth. I know that when I was six or seven, I had to cut cardboard to put inside my shoes to keep my socks from developing the same size hole I had worn in my shoes. I could hope for the best: It may be close to Christmas or a birthday and I’ll get new shoes! Even then, though, I prepared for the worst. Not only did I put the cardboard in the …