How much parkland are citizens willing to spend their tax dollars on for private interest  groups.  Whatever happened to the idea of passive recreation, a park that ALL citizens can enjoy, as opposed to parks that EXCLUDE citizens and only INCLUDE a small minority of people.  Hellwig is a blatant example of clear duplicity.  The Park Authority, under  the guise of fixing the entrance, is really simply allowing Parkland to be “given” away ( an annual lease fee of ONE dollar) to another private interest group. 

Read more of the background information here, the Prince William Conservation Alliance blog.

UPDATE: March 23 2011 — Despite the Board of Supervisors direction that the Park Authority work with the County Transportation Dept. to prioritize improvements to the front entrance to Hellwig Park (see below), the Park Authority Board is scheduled to vote tonight on a resolution approving a lease agreement with the Northern Virginia Soccer Club for their use of the property purchased to improve the front entrance to Hellwig Park.

According to the staff report, the lease agreement covers a five year period at $1/year and would renew by mutual consent. Click here to read the staff report and proposed lease agreement.

Update: Park Authority votes to allow five year lease to Virginia Soccer Association. PA demonstrates the worst of government decision making. The “premise” of the PA for supposedly needing the use of tax payer dollars to buy land to build a second entrance was based on safety? HUH? So now, instead of dealing with this critical “safety issue” by fixing the original entrance, as they were directed to do by the BOCS when denied the money to purchase the land, the PA will instead do nothing. You see, in order to fix the entrance, the newly leased house would have to be demolished.  How pathetic.

14 Thoughts to ““Highway to Hellwig” Park Saga Continues…………………..”

  1. Where is Hellwig Park?

    How much do other groups pay to use park authority property?

  2. Elena

    hellwig is in Nokesville, off of Aden road. Good question, I don’t know Moon.

  3. TWINAD

    I have to haul my son down there twice a week for soccer…I thought it was Woodbridge! It sure seems like it…from Gainesville anyway. I didn’t know there was any controversy surrounding Hellwig and NVSC…I will have to get up to speed…and I promise I won’t be like the parents of the Grizzlies:)

  4. Censored bybvbl

    Hellwig Park is in Independent Hill. There is a small playground, a mini-library, a small hiking path in the woods and ballfields galore. I’ve walked my dog there occasionally but the path is so short as to not be worth the drive down there. It would be nice if adults didn’t have to travel into Fairfax County in order to canoe, kayak, or hike for any distance.

    The park entrance on Bristow could use some improvement as one exits to go back toward rt. 234. Where do they propose putting an additional field?

  5. Elena

    GREAT point censored, and that is exactly what Silver Lake could have been, but now, well, what was once a “jewel” is not so much from my perspective.

    @Twinad 😉

  6. clueless

    @Censored bybvbl
    Censored, Leesylvania has great trails and river views but you have to pay an entrance fee. You can also canoe and kayack.

  7. clueless

    More local trails. Conway Robinson Forest in Gainesville has some nice trails as does Manassas and Bristoe Battlefields. This link is to the PW trails and streams coalition.

    http://www.pwtsc.org/?page_id=58

  8. Censored bybvbl

    @clueless

    Thanks for the list. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Leesylvania. I’ll have to visit it again. You’re right about the battlefields – you can make your hike as long as you please there.

  9. Anonymous

    I hear the Park Authority Board approved the lease agreement with the Northern Virginia Soccer Club tonight. Gainesville representative was said to be the only Board member voting against the agreement.

  10. Elena

    @Anonymous
    Well, apparently the Park Authority had allowed the Soccer Association to MOVE in prior to the vote! So, the PA contends they HAVE to spend taxpayer money to buy property, from a developer, in order to build a CRITICAL new road for safety into Hellwig Park vistors. The BOCS directs the PA to instead redevelop the front entrance at Hellwig, part of which requires the DEMOLITION of the building the Soccer Association wanted, that has now leased for FIVE years!

    At least we know that the guise of the critical safety issue that desperately needed a second entrance was complete and utter BS. The PA wont’ even fix the original entrance that the BOCS directed them to complete in lieu of a second entrance.

  11. TWINAD

    Okay, well I have read up on this issue now so am now properly informed on what has been going on. My son has had practices twice a week at Hellwig and games every other weekend for several seasons now…and also participated in several tournaments at the park that were PACKED!

    NEVER ONCE, in all those visits to the park over the last couple of years, have I felt that the entrance into the park was unsafe or that having only one entrance created a traffic backlog. It’s cruise in, cruise out! What are they talking about!? I can KIND of see how the entrance might not look at that safe because the entrance is right off a road and there is not an intersection on that road (sorry, don’t know the name of it) at the entrance that requires the cars traveling in either direction to stop, but like I said, I just haven’t seen a problem getting in there whether it’s tournament type crowds or just a few teams out there practicing.

    Honestly, I’ve seen about 10 accidents at the intersection of Heathcote Road and Route 29 in Gainesville over the last two months and those are only the one’s I have actually seen…who knows how many more there have been. If someone wants an example of a dangerous intersection, that would be where I would send them. Even though I haven’t yet figured out why there have been so many accidents there. There’s a light, so I don’t get how they keep happening.

  12. TWINAD

    Also, the League needs a house to conduct registration?! Cough, cough. It’s the Internet stupid. That’s how it’s done. The reasons for the need for the house seem flimsy at best.

  13. Thanks for your input, Twinad. It helps us to be able to visualize it.

  14. Elena

    Thanks Twinad!

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