She Means Business: Marie Washington • Datacenters • Two Men and a Truck
March 14, 2018 | Serving Haymarket, Gainesville and Western Prince William County | Vol. 17, No. 11 | www.PrinceWilliamTimes.com | 50¢
Page 15
Three familiar faces vie to replace Sawyers as interim school board chairman By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Three candidates familiar to Prince William County’s political scene are running for interim chairman of the Prince William County school board, a countywide post that became available after Ryan Sawyers’ surprise resignation March 7. Shawn Brann, John Gray and Dr. Babur Lateef have or say they will submit applications this week for the board’s upcoming April 18 vote to
Shawn Brann, John Gray and Dr. Babur Lateef appoint an interim leader, who will fill the post until a Nov. 6 special election is held to fill Saw-
yers’ term, which expires at the end of 2019. The deadline to submit resumes for the board’s consideration is 4:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 17. At least two current school board members are also said to be considering a run for interim chair: Vice Chairwoman Lillie Jessie (Occoquan) and Gainesville Representative Alyson Satterwhite. But Jessie declined to comment on her plans Monday, and Satterwhite did not return calls for comment.
See CHAIRMAN, Page 4
Eight years isn’t enough: Earnie Porta returns to ballot for Occoquan mayor By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Woodland enchantment PHOTO BY BRIAN SMITH OF BRIAN’S WILDLIFE PHOTOS
“The well-informed naturalists among you will insist that these are two young great horned owls in a woodland nest not far from the Potomac River. I’m not so sure, however. I’d swear that this scene is so enchanting it could only have come from a dream or a fairy tale,” said photographer Brian Smith. INSIDE Calendar....................................ONLINE Classifieds...........................................22 News....................................................5 Obituaries...........................................10
After a four-year hiatus, Earnie Porta wants his old job back. He’s on the ballot for Occoquan’s top elected post in the upcoming May 1 election. Porta, 54, was mayor of Town of Occoquan from 2006 to 2014. He declined to run for a fifth two-year term in 2014 to pursue a run for the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and to finish his doctorate degree in history. Porta’s 2015 bid against Supervisor Ruth Anderson, R-Occoquan, was unsuccessful. But his doctoral thesis, which explores Morocco in the early Atlantic world, circa 1415 to 1603, is nearly complete. The research took years, Porta said, because it involved deciphering documents written in Old World Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. (The topic appealed to him because Morocco was the first Arab nation to play a key role on the European stage during the period when Christopher Columbus landed in North America.) “People in Occoquan have been encouraging me to run for a while,” Porta
said in an interview this week. “I defend my dissertation in June, so I’ll have that behind me, finally.” Porta is getting his PhD from Georgetown UniEarnie Porta versity, where he also earned an undergraduate degree in international relations as well as a law degree before earning his master’s degree in history from George Mason University. Porta also runs the Occoquan Transportation Company, LLC, a bus-tour operation that ferries tourists from the Lorton Amtrak station to Occoquan to spend a few hours learning about the town’s history and perusing its shops and restaurants while awaiting the Auto Train to Florida. Porta also acts as tour guide for other local outlets. A native of Philadelphia, Porta and his wife, Barbara, have lived in Occoquan since 2001. Porta ran for the board of supervisors as a Democrat in 2015 and See EARNIE, Page 4
Puzzle Page........................................20 PWC Libraries.......................................7 Real Estate............................................6 Sports.................................................18 Times Business...................................15
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