Manassas Tea Party Call to Arms?

MoonHowler

Every once in a while it’s good to step back and look at what is really being said and by whom. 

A friend sent me a link  that I think bears watching.  First off, I am not a resident of the City of Manassas.  I have friends and relatives there and generally I try to stay out of their business.  However, every once in a while something comes along that is so egregious that it needs comment.

Apparently the Manassas Tea Party has decided to wage war on the Manassas City Council.  They decry increases for services:

Gas and food prices are soaring.  Electric, sewer, trash pickup and water rates are all going up.  As citizens, our first step in these dire financial times is to tighten our own belts and we naturally expect our government officials to follow suit. But look no further than our own Manassas City Council to find a government entity uninterested in reducing the burden on its citizens.

Services go up for everyone, including municipal government.   Isn’t trash service part of City services?  These costs will be passed along to the resident.  The City isn’t your parent, Tea Party People.  You have to foot some of this cost. 

Here are additional complaints:

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A lot of liability and little authority: Manassas Fire and Rescue Chief resigns

MoonHowler

Manassas Fire and Rescue Chief Mike Wood has resigned and not as a happy man.  He has been at his post for 2 years.  According to News and Messenger:

However, by his own admission, Wood is resigning a disappointed man. He said the current fire and rescue department gave him a lot of liability and little authority. It’s also a system that he feels makes residents of Manassas less safe than they should be

“[Public safety] is an essential service and an essential service needs a strategic vision, a strategic plan,” Wood said. “Some two years into my appointment, we’ve not been able to develop a strategic plan. There are too many diverse and opposing views on what could be done, should be done and what may need to be done.”

Manassas City established a system that was a six-person public safety committee comprised of volunteer and career staff.  Additionally, there was a 5 person appeals committee.  City Councilman Andy Harrover helped create  this Manassas Fire and Rescue set-up that was organized to prevent problems.  Obviously it didn’t.  Other officials weighed in on the subject in the N & M:

Manassas Volunteer Rescue Squad president Mike Enright was a little more blunt, stating the Manassas Volunteer Fire Company “disrespected” Wood.

 “I am surprised he lasted this long,” Enright said.

Manassas Mayor Harry J. “Hal” Parrish II said it was tough for all parties involved, including City Council. Set up in January, the system established a six-person public safety committee made up of volunteer and career staffers and a five-person appeals committee made up of Manassasresidents and run by city manager Lawrence Hughes. Councilman Marc T. Aveni chaired the public safety committee.

“I can’t help but think that a great system can come together when people decide they both need and want to work together cooperatively as a team, that is the key,” Parrish said.

Woods departure is seen by many as a real set back to City Fire and Rescue. 

Assistant Fire & Rescue Chief Mike Rohs said he could’ve retired a few years ago but chose to stick around to see what Wood could do.  Both Rohs and Enright praised Wood for his professionalism, open-door policy and his ability to obtain grants for the betterment of the department.

How do volunteers and paid staff work side by side?  It never made sense to me how this works.  Obviously someone or several someones didn’t like taking orders from the paid professionals.  They probably thought they were volunteers and didn’t have to go by the same rules as those on a pay check.  Yet, the volunteers help already stretched municipal budgets and provide a great service to the community.   Regardless of what has transpired, Mike Woods seems to have the respect of most city folks. 

Prince William County has certainly had its ups and downs with this issue also.  Regardless, the next Chief needs to have a great deal more authority over all fire and rescue.  The people of Manassas deserve no less.  City of Manassas people also need to be willing to dump a few of their tax pennies into the public jar to ensure that they have the most up to date equipment.  Word on the street is, they rely a little too much on other jurisdictions to make up their equipment deficiencies.   Hopefully, city folks will help fill in the blanks here.  

 

 

 

Manassas City Council: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

MoonHowler

Today is the Fall Festival in Old Town Manassas.  It is an annual event that brings tourists into the heart of the City from all over the surrounding area.  It is a day for the City to show off what a cool place it is and also a day for the merchants to bring in the bucks. 

Bringing in the bucks is never a bad thing, especially in this economy.  Many local shop keepers in the City and PWC have been hit hard by the recession and some have had to close their doors, as is evidenced by empty stores in and around the area.  I hope that today is a great day for those merchants in Old Town.  The weather is fabulous and it more or less defines what an October day should be like.  Hopefully no one’s political agenda will mar the event.

The Manassas City Council has been placed in a position by residents and non residents that really leaves them between a rock and a hard place.  For the most part, the council members are nice people who run for election, don’t get paid much for serving, and who are giving  their time to make their small city and community a better place.  They turn out for events and keep the public informed.  The thing I have noticed the most about them is their unwavering dedication to the City and its residents and their never-ending championing of their home turf.  This is a good thing and the good people of the City of Manassas have elected some mighty fine representatives. 

During the past month, these council members have gotten crushed in a political debate that really has gone too far.  It all started when someone noticed the store front window of KK Temptations, a soon-to-be adult boutique.  The alarm was sounded and local “anti- porn” groups sprung to life.   Several local delegates got involved and so did this blog.  We supported the right of KK Temptations to exist, especially since there were already other stores with similar content within the City limits.  Furthermore, KK Temptations had been approved for business according to City regulations. 

The City Council got to sit through what can only be described as a marathon citizens’ time.  Meanwhile, they got bombarded with requests to regulate the long standing women’s clinic that is an abortion provider.  The Religious Right was on a real roll.  No one wants to look like they like pornography.  Delegate Miller did the Council no favors coming into their bailiwick and stirring the pot.  He immediately defined the store as a “porno store.”  That set the tone and allowed all reasonable and logical discussion to be overruled by a name. 

To cause such a stink over location paints the City, and continues to paint the City as elitist.   No one worried at all that MVC is a block over from the library, Parkside or Kindercare or that Fashion Fantasy is right there on route 28 for all to see as they enter the City from that approach.  Some of those stores have been there for decades.  However, because of the way KK Temptations was defined, the City Council has been placed in the position of spending money that they probably don’t have to handle something, that in all probability, won’t be a problem. 

No elected official wants to appear to support pornography aka obscenities.  Doing so can be a real deal breaker come election day.  They also don’t want to be seen as being old fogies, so they walk a tight rope.  The can-can girls perform in Harris Pavilion and the mothers’ march on a legitimate business goes on up the street.  The Council walks a tight rope and hopes that none of the warring factions drops another lawsuit on their desk. 

I nominate the Manssas City Council for the ‘I wouldn’t want to be them’ award.  They have been put in the position that many PWC supervisors found themselves in in 2007 over immigration–between a rock and a hard place. 

 

Ye Olde City Council …Caves

MoonHowler

It sounds like Ye Olde City Council is going to cave in to the pompous prudes of purity in their quest to extinguish all erotica in the City of Manassas. The pitch forks have been sharpened and the torches lit.  

According to the News & Messenger:

After a  closed session Monday night, the Manassas City Council unanimously passed a resolution aimed at regulating sexually-oriented businesses in the city.

City officials say the resolution will allow officials to keep future sexually-oriented businesses — dubbed SOBs in the paperwork — away from schools, churches, day care centers, playgrounds, youth activity centers and libraries.

The resolution also allows the council to hire outside lawyers to provide a “second opinion” on the validity of existing permits for such businesses. The action will costed [sic] an estimated $71,000.

The action comes in the wake of an uproar over a mother-and-daughter plan to open KK’s Temptations, an adult boutique, in Old Town next month.

 

It sounds like the Salem Witch Trials have begun.  It might be cheaper for Ye Olde City Council to built a dunking pond over on ye Olde Museum Property.  If it floats, it might be erotica. 

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Fire at Sumner Lake Community

MoonHowler

fire

Smoke is billowing from the fire at Sumner Lake.  Sumner Lake is a fairly new community on the site of Selwyn Smith’s farm, nestled in between Point of Woods single family homes, Plantation Lane and  upper Westgate.  The Manassas News & Messenger reports that as many as 8 houses are on fire.   It is a three alarm fire. 

Traffic is horrible around Manassas because of rubber neckers and fire and rescue  vehicles on the move.  We can only hope that there were no injuries.  The fact that this fire has involved multiple homes is no surprise.  Some of those houses don’t have 15 feet between them.  Everyone lives in the shadow of someone else.  When houses are that close, you might as well live in a townhouse row.  Actually, they are probably safer.  There are firewalls.

More from News & Messenger

fire2

Torches and Pitchforks

MoonHowler
Democracy, the old-fashioned way
Democracy, the old-fashioned way

[UPDATE: At least one other blog has launched a character assassination of some of us here on Moonhowlings. Actually, I haven’t been sent a single word that is true. That’s the sad part. How can people be so self-righteous and yet be so incorrect in their assumptions?]

The Torches and Pitchforks gathering at Manassas City Chambers scheduled for tomorrow night @ 7 pm just might have to take to the parking lot.  The Manassas City Council will be holding a special meeting at 6:30 in the chambers.  It will be difficult for 2 meetings to be held at the same place at the same time.  Citizens time will be held and the same standards as any other Council meeting will be adhered to. 

This meeting will follow a closed session with attorneys scheduled for 5:30 p.m. 

Since this topic  cropped up last week, I have read and heard the word ‘Christian’ thrown around quite a bit.  That’s getting a little old.  Plenty of good Christian people, as well as people of other faiths, will be in attendance at the City Council meeting supporting an upscale adult boutique.  Some of the politicians who want to trumpet their religion to their base should be just as worried about dissing those folks who don’t consider themselves part of  the Conservative Christian movement. 

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WaPo Front Page: Lurking in the Schools

MoonHowler

The front page of the WaPo has Kevin Ricks plastered larger than life. The Washington Post reveals months of investigative reporting that uncover the a decades-long pattern of abuse, deceit, and duplicitous behavior of 49 year-old teacher Kevin Ricks. Ricks, a former teacher at Osbourn High School, left a trail of betrayal of public trust that stretched as far away as Japan.

From the Washington Post:

Kevin Ricks was a gregarious, well-traveled English teacher at Osbourn High School, a Walt Whitman devotee who was so popular that a photo of him in class was chosen to fill the opening page of the yearbook. A writer and photographer himself, Ricks would walk the halls of the Manassas school with a leather-bound journal of his musings tucked in his bag, next to his laptop computer

What teachers, parents, students and even his wife didn’t know was that his journals contained decades of dark secrets, a running handwritten commentary of Ricks’s world of obsession, infatuation, pursuit, sexual abuse and international child exploitation.

They didn’t know about his library of homemade pornographic videos and explicit photographs capturing his tequila-soaked sex acts with teenage boys he had handpicked. They didn’t know about the makeshift shrine boxes containing mementos of the episodes, including sex toys, soiled tissues and hair trimmings.

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Mr. F Strikes Again

MoonHowler

Yup, you heard it hear first. The roving reporter just returned from the Manassas City fireworks display and emailed me that Mr. F has struck again with more messages. According to RR:

He hung a banner that was the Star of David with “Jude” in the middle of it. He had two signs. One talked about zoning ordinances against political free speech and the other said that PWC and Manassas City were treating “brown” people the way the Nazi’s treated the Jews. He had a shirt with the Star of David on the back and he walked through the crowd several times. There was also a tee shirt on his fence that said “Freedom of speech in Manassas City-hahahahaha…The White Supremacists still rule here”.

He will not get free advertisement on this blog. I won’t post his pictures. He needs to touch up his roots and go back to Arizona if he wants to start that Nazi nonsense. He had his day in court…several of them as a matter of fact. He kept postponing his day in court. That’s more than any Jew in Nazi Germany got and someone needs to tell Mr. F that. The City of Manassas has been more than patient with Mr. F’s shenanigans.

Meanwhile, he and Corey Stewart will each go around, each other’s ying and yang, both strutting attention-seeking behaviors to enhance their own egos.

Kaine and McDonnell Axe NoVA Schools

MoonHowler

 

For several decades, Virginia has used a  formula called the  local composite index (LCI) to  ensure that very poor localities had the funds to operate their school systems and that all children in Virginia had a shot at an equal education.  Basically the formula directs revenues  from wealthier areas into poorer districts.  Because situations change, the LCI is calculated yearly. 

From Del. Dave Albo’s website:

School funding in the Commonwealth of Virginia is determined by the Local Composite Index, or LCI.  The LCI is a result of a Supreme Court of Virginia ruling which stated that the Virginia Constitution requires all children to receive, to the extent practicable, and equivalent education.  Thus, the Court ruled that some funding formula must be used to direct money to areas that can’t afford to educate children. (The Court did not say what the formula has to be only that some redistribution must occur). Consequently, the purpose of the LCI is to ensure less affluent localities are able to provide for their students. The LCI is a figure that determines how much a school system must pay for its own basic education. (“Basic Education” is a set of minimum standards. For example, math must be taught, but band does not.)  The LCI, has a cap of .8000 (a locality must pay 80% of its own basic education) but has no minimum. Only 27 out of 136 schools are required to pay more than 50% of their basic education (e.g. have above a .5000 LCI).

The LCI is calculated through a complicated formula. The formula attempts to determine which school systems can afford to may more of their own basic education, and which systems cannot afford to pay. In determining who can pay, a formula has been developed which considers a bunch of different variables.

So what’s the problem? The LCI is changed yearly because conditions change. Governor Kaine placed a freeze until 2012 on recalculating LCI. Governor McDonnell is considering upholding this freeze. Northern Virginians are having a fit because it was hit harder than the rest of the state by foreclosures and a deflated housing market. They will lose millions on the old plan:

According to the Dixie Pig blog (Delegate Scott Surovell’s blog) the Northern Virginia School losses from not adjusting the formula this year  are as in the millions.  According to Delegate Surovell:

McDonnell’s office confirmed Friday that he would uphold the freeze implemented by Kaine. The outgoing governor proposed freezing the index until the 2012 fiscal year. He theorized that this would protect 97 school divisions that would lose money if the formula were re-calculated. McDonnell Freezes School Funding Formula, The Virginia Gazette (Jan. 25, 2010).

Yesterday, Governor McDonnell who campaigned on the idea that he was from Mt. Vernon and understood Northern Virginia’s needs confirmed that he is going to affirm this policy decision, not just for one year but at least until 2012.

This decision is a breach of the state’s responsibility to Northern Virginia’s children. Here are the top six affected jurisdictions according to the numbers I was given yesterday.

Fairfax County $61 Million
Loudoun County $34 Million
Prince William County $22 Million
Stafford County $4.5 Million
Fauquier County $4.3 Million
Manassas City $3.1 Million
TOTAL $128 Million
 

 

 

 

 

 Northern Virginians are furious as well they should be.  They will have to make up the deficits and jurisdictions are already strapped.  It appears that we have been sold out by 2 governors.  So much for either Kaine or McDonnell being education governors.  And regardless of where he is from, Governor McDonnell obviously does not understand the educational problems of his own county.  According to Del. Surovell in an update, the new total is a $144 million dollar shortfall.  I hope Prince William and City of Manassas are prepared for 40 kids per class.  That number definitely is not considered ‘best practice.’ 

Northern Virginians should contact their delegate and senator immediately to require the  LCI formula to be recalulated as it is supposed to be.  This issue is definitely bipartisan.  Democrats and Republicans all have kids. So do Independents. 

A big thanks to Poor Richard for bringing  the Local Composite Index freeze to my attention and for providing background information.

[Ed. Note:  The LCI is calculated every TWO years rather than one as stated above.]

Owners of Property at 9500 Liberty Street Fined

MoonHowler

 

Prince William Circuit Court Judge Wenda Travers found Delia Alvarez, owner of the property at 9500 Liberty Street, guilty of three zoning ordinance violations and fined her $1200. The on-going saga of the various Liberty Street signs goes back to fall of 2007, around the time Prince William County passed a resolution dealing with illegal immigration.

Each sign erected at the Liberty Street property was addressed by the City of Manassas. Thursday’s court case resulted from a sign tied to a tree on October 29, 2009. City inspector James Gillie told the court that he first saw the sign on this date. Ms. Alvarez was sent a letter advising her that the sign was out of compliance with city zoning code regarding signage. She was directed, in writing, to remove the sign by 9 am on November 2. Ms. Alvarez did not respond nor did she take down her sign.

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Cleaning up Old Town

MoonHowler

What’s going on in the City of Manassas  with all the loitering, pan-handling and shady goings-on  near Harris Pavillion  and the convenience stores?  I keep hearing as many complaints about these sites as I do about Coverstone 7-11.  It is impossbile to go in to  the Grant Avenue 7-11  (between Center and Church) without being  approached and pestered for ‘change.’  Some of them get aggressive when you ignore them.

The store clerks seem to be afraid of the people that hang out in front of there.  The loiters go in and steal from the store then they hang out and intimidate the approaching customers, that is when they aren’t too busy slithering around back to complete their ‘deals.’ 

This loitering has been an on-going problem for several years.  Maybe it is time for the City cops to start making routine stop-bys and run some of these jokers off.  For the record, my sources tell me it isn’t Latinos.  The people are mainly whites and blacks.  There are very few Latinos loitering.   I have also been told to advise women, both young and old, to not go near that 7-11, especially at night. 

It sounds like it is time for this neighorhood to be cleaned up and for the riff raff to move on.  The City of Manassas has a wonderful Old Town section that is being destroyed by this element.  The City has great cops also.  Perhaps people just move on and don’t complain.  However, if you can’t go in a store or to a pavillion because of the loiterers being obnoxious, this hurts the City and it hurts the City’s revenue.  There are enough good City people who are part of this blog that I know this matter will get the full attention of those who can and will fix the problem.  I have promised my souces this.

HO HO HO It’s a Manassas Christmas Parade

MoonHowler

xmas parade

HO     HO       HO

 

It’s that special time of year again, for the Manassas Christmas  Parade.

 In fact, the parade will be 64 years old tomorrow. Santa arrived via VRE and the Manassas Christmas tree has been lit. Time to roll!

 

It begins at 10 o’clock am and travels the regular route, along Center Street, going the opposite way of normal traffic.

There are dignitaries, cars, clowns, motorcycles, Shriners, floats, horses, bands, twirlers, ROTC groups, angels, carolers, dancers, and just about anything a person would like to see in a parade. (no elephants)

Manassas folks love their parade! Doing the math, it appears that the first Manassas Christmas Parade began in 1945, right after WWII ended. Was the first Christmas parade to celebrate the end of the war? How did the parade evolve into an annual event? Where are the historians?

Manassas Council to spend $100K on Civil War Anniversary

MoonHowler

The Manassas City Council voted Wednesday to spend $100,000 on the upcoming 150th anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas.  The 150th anniversary of the first major engagement of the Civil War will take place around the week of July 21, 2011. 

The City hopes to bring in revenue and position itself for long term tourism.   Creston M. Owen, chairman of the board of Virginia Civil War Events Inc. plans to organize 9 days worth of events.  He came before the board on Wednesday to ask for money. 

According to the News and Messenger:

Owen’s outfit of volunteers is poised to begin organizing the nine-day commemoration that is set to include a Blue and Gray Ball at the Candy Factory, a re-enactment of the First Manassas, breakfast with the troops and concerts on the lawn of the Manassas Museum and at the Battlefield.

Owen told the council that it’s time to get started if the aim is to educate and attract the crowds that will generate income and put the area on the map.

“We’re only 18 months away. If we don’t start beating the drum now, we won’t get people here,” Owen told the council.

Owen has also met with the Prince William delegation of the Virginia General Assembly and hopes to get a million dollars from the state for this 9-day event.  To date nothing has been heard publically about the Prince William County involvement in the commemoration of the sesquicentennial or about their plans to infuse money into this venture.

Already citizens are cheering for their home town.  However, an equally strong set of boos are being heard because of the recession,  extremely tight municiple budgets, and basically, a Tea Party mentality.  Is this something that the local governments ought to be supporting or is this an event better handled by private enterprise?

First Ever Manassas Veterans Day Parade November 7, 2009

MoonHowler

Saturday Manassas will hold its first ever Veterans Day Parade. The Parade begins at 11:00 am and will commence along the same route as the Christmas Parade.

There is quite a parade line up which you can view at the following website:  Line UP

From Emma:

I just wanted to remind everyone that Manassas will have its Veteran’s Day parade tomorrow at 11 am. The parade committee located over 100 WWII Vets living in Manassas Area. The First Cavalry Honor Guard from Fort Hood Texas is supposed to present colors.

I think it’s going to have a lot more meaning than anyone anticipated, and I would encourage everyone to get out there and cheer on our vets and honor our active-duty soldiers.

Additionally, she added: 

[I] Forgot to add that the parade will feature a Blackhawk flyover, a moment of silence and the national anthem right after the WWII veterans arrive at the reviewing stage.

 

It definitely sounds like a fun event full of honor and regalia for our veterans. A big thank you to Emma for the selling points.

Fernandez Taunts the City…Again

MoonHowler

More signs from our local gadfly, Mr. Fernandez.  

Pwc and mans. City

stop your racism. Ag

ainst native Americans

287g, another law by

white supremacists to

get rid of people of color

stop 287g…no more chains

on working people

equality & justice 4 all

 

The above was dictated to me and supposedly it is color coded as shown. The sign is roughly a 7 x 10.

The paragraph below is my opinion only. M-H

I expect the good people of Manassas and its surrounding areas have long been out of patience with this type of signage and with the gentleman who is allowing it to happen. Mr. F stands in the way of any healing our community might want to transpire. He continues to throw gasoline on a fire that is trying to go out. I suspect it is because if the fire goes out, he loses the attention he so desperately seeks. His 15 minute walk of fame is growing dimmer and dimmer.