Prince William County news in brief
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Version 0 of 1. Effective Tuesday, rather than the originally posted date of Jan. 1, the National Park Service will no longer charge an entrance fee for Manassas National Battlefield Park. An assessment of the fee program this year determined that collecting an entrance fee is no longer cost-effective. In addition to eliminating fees, Manassas will no longer offer the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes or other interagency passes. These passes can be purchased at most federal recreation sites that collect entrance fees. For information, call 703-361-1339. Several locations in Prince William County will accept natural Christmas trees for recycling after the holiday. Ornaments, lights and tinsel must be removed from the trees beforehand. The sites are: →Prince William County Landfill, 14811 Dumfries Rd., Manassas: 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The facility is closed Jan. 1. →Balls Ford Road Compost Facility, 13000 Balls Ford Rd., Manassas: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The facility is closed Jan. 1. →Leesylvania State Park, Shelter 2, 2001 Daniel K. Ludwig Dr., Woodbridge, will accept Christmas trees and use them for habitats. →Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, 5399 Wellington Rd., Gainesville, will accept cut trees from Dec. 28 to Jan. 10. Call 703-392-1661. For information, call 703-792-4670 or visit pwcgov.org/recycling. Applications are being accepted for the Virginia State Parks AmeriCorps Volunteer Project, which places 25 part-time AmeriCorps members at state parks between April and August. Members serve 675 hours and receive a bimonthly living allowance. After completing a term of service, AmeriCorps members are eligible to receive an award of $2,182, which can be used for education expenses. Training covers trail improvement, interpretive programming, customer service, volunteer management and watercraft skills. For an application, contact Bobby Wilcox at 703-232-0667 or bobby.wilcox@dcr.virginia.gov, or visit americorps.gov or virginiastateparks.gov. A public meeting on the proposed elementary school near Prince William Parkway at Chinn Park has been rescheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 7 at Gar-Field High School, 14000 Smoketown Rd., Woodbridge. The new date allows staff members more time to address concerns raised at the first community meeting. The new school is scheduled to open in 2018 and will relieve overcrowding at Vaughan, Westridge, Marumsco Hills, Kerrydale, Springwoods and other area schools. Dancers from the McGrath Irish Dance Academy, based in Manassas, recently competed at the southern regional Oireachtas (an Irish dance competition) in Dallas. Patrick Gareau of Dumfries took first place for boys under 10. The school’s eight-hand ceili team (all under 10) also won first place in their division. — Compiled by Sarah Lane |