BEWARE BATTLEFIELD: Often overshadowed by Patriot in boys basketball, the Bobcats are 13-3. SPORTS, Page 12
February 3, 2022 | Vol. 21, No. 5 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $1.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
Manassas mom sues Youngkin over mask order
Families with kids at risk of serious illness due to COVID-19 file federal lawsuit By Cher Muzyk
Contributing Writer
More than 100 people attended a Jan. 27 listening session at George Mason University’s Beacon Hall Conference Center in Manassas to speak for and against the PW Digital Gateway, a plan to open 2,133 acres in western Prince William to new data centers.
Meeting on rural data centers draws a crowd
Proposed ‘PW Digital Gateway’ divides western Prince William residents
See MASKS, page 2
By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
More than 200 people turned out to a Jan. 27 meeting to express their support for –or opposition to – a proposal to replan 2,133 acres of rural land near Manassas National Battlefield Park for new data centers. The proposed development, known as the PW Digital Gateway, could transform a swath of land along Pageland Lane in western Prince William County into a new technology corridor accommodating up to 27.6 million square feet of data centers development. If approved, the plan would amend the county’s comprehensive plan to allow for industrial development. The land is currently planned for low-density housing and agricultural uses. Hosted by Prince William County’s planning department, the meeting drew a nearly equal number of supporters and detractors to George Mason University’s Beacon Hall Conference Center. Over three hours, 41 people spoke against the project, and 33 spoke in favor of it. Prince William County initially planned to allow virtual public comments. The county had
Tasha Nelson’s 10-year-old son, Jack, is a social kid who loves science and seeing his friends every day in his fourth-grade classroom in Manassas. Jack, who has cystic fibrosis, can only attend school in person, his mom says, because the City of Manassas is among 70 Virginia school divisions that continued universal masking despite Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order allowing parents to choose to send their kids to school without masks. Jack’s disease causes long-lasting, irreversible lung damage and limits the ability to breathe over time. It also puts him at a greater risk of getting seriously ill or dying from COVID-19. Jack’s physician team at Johns Hopkins Medicine advised that Jack, who is vaccinated, can attend school as long as universal masking is in place. “His doctors say that he needs to be surrounded by people who are masked so that he’s not only keeping his germs to himself, but they are keeping theirs to themselves,” Nelson said. Jack swallows his pills, uses a nebulizer repeatedly and tolerates physical therapy so he can live his life, Nelson said, and that means going to school and learning with his peers.
About 50 trade workers from the Northern Virginia Labor Federation held a press conference in support of the PW Digital Gateway. to reschedule the virtual portion of the meeting to Feb. 3, however, because so many people signed up to speak, and would have likely pushed the meeting late into the evening or early morning. Those in favor of the plan cite the economic benefits – a potential tax windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars for Prince William County’s local government and school system. Those opposed say it would destroy the area’s environmental and historic resources and open the door to rampant new development in western Prince William County’s rural area. See DATA CENTER, page 5
COVID update See Page 2
COURTESY PHOTO
Tasha Nelson and her son Jack, 10.
Upcoming Events See Page 11
88 DULLES, VA