Tempered Steel

Tempered Steel is the reason that we have lived in Prince William County’s rural crescent for the last 26 years. Twenty-seven years ago, Steel carried me from Fauquier County to the top of Bull Run Mountain, bringing me to witness the rural beauty of Prince William County. From that moment, our family knew we had to find a home in that valley that we saw and leave behind the hubbub of Arlington.

It never bothered me that Steel was a free giveaway, determined by the hunt crowd to be not tall enough and not the right breed for their interests. He was strong, beautiful, loyal, patient and talented. He was magnificent; he was mine; and I loved him.

Steel succumbed to the old age of 35 on December 14, 2022. He died the morning after our Prince William Board of County Supervisors adopted the new comprehensive plan – Pathway to 2040. His passing is a tangible symbol of everything that is wrong with their current drive to urbanize and industrialize every corner of our county, particularly their disappearing of “rural” from all planning.

“Tempered steel” is now my mantra. The blood, sweat, tears and time spent fighting for what we love has tempered me forever. I refuse to accept what “they” are trying to do to my home and to the home I want for my daughter, my grandchildren and their grandchildren. The quality of life we all risk losing matters too much to just watch it being incrementally chipped away by their flawed decisions.

A community of like-minded county citizens from all districts continues to expand and come together, standing up and speaking out against the wrongs being thrust upon all of us by those who should know better. We are defending our families and our neighborhoods against the predators attacking from all directions -- worst of all from our own elected leaders.

We are not going away. There will be a reckoning at the June 20 Democratic primary for the chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. And then again in the November elections, when all those supervisors in majority positions will have to deal with citizens determined to choose better representation for themselves and their families and to bring integrity, honesty and sustainable planning back to the dais.

We will make certain that Tempered Steel’s legacy and message endures.

KAREN SHEEHAN Protect PWC Haymarket

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Money can’t buy you love

The lesson of Kerensa Sumers’ defeat in the recent special election to fill the Gainesville District supervisor’s seat despite her huge advantage in campaign cash is: Money can’t buy you love. There is a limit to what even lavishly funded promotion can do to convince a skeptical public weary of tall tales from dubious messengers.

Despite this revelation, expect the same playbook to be trotted out in the upcoming campaign to re-package Board of Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler. The same cast of characters who have been shamelessly wielding their influence throughout her administration – data center developers, trade unions and Digital Gateway landowners – will open their checkbooks again in the expectation of extending their reign over the public interest. Trust your actual experience and not the one that will be slickly manufac- tured for you.

The narrative is already being woven. Bipartisan opposition to a developer-friendly, environmentally destructive agenda is being painted as the traitorous defection of “Bob Weir Democrats;” in other words, those who support Weir, a Republican, because of his stance against runaway data center development. It couldn’t possibly be that thousands have had enough of their principles being betrayed and their trust being co-opted only to make fat cats fatter.

Sailors say: “Any port in a storm.” The storm that has raged over Prince William County for the past two years has produced strange bedfellows and strategic alliances necessitated by the common cause to save our communities.

ELENA SCHLOSSBERG Haymarket Resident

Residents gripe about rising tax bills, request funds for the animal shelter

FUNDS, from page 3

Noelle Shott, a member of the advisory board, said the panel has been advocating for the cost of adoptions to be raised from $45 to $200, which will include the cost of spaying and neutering pets at the shelter rather than sending them to a third-party clinic, which can often cause the animal to stay at the shelter days longer than it otherwise would.

“All surrounding counties have already adopted in-house veterinary staff. Their adoption fees include spaying and neutering,” Shott said. “It’s better, more consistent care for the animals, reduces the length of their stay and utilizes a fully functional on-site veterinary suite that is not operational today.”

Shott also said that the extra funds would help the animal shelter start a veterinary science program in local high schools and with Northern Virginia Community College.

Some teachers from Prince William County schools also spoke at the meeting, including members of the Prince William Education Association.

The PWEA is a union of teachers and other people who work in the education field, such as teaching assistants, cafeteria workers and bus drivers.

The teachers who spoke highlighted the lack of staff and low teacher wages in the county, with one teacher saying that she’s been physically hurt and threatened by her young students. The teacher declined to give her name to a reporter after she spoke.

“I’ve never seen such a high level of desperation among teachers,” said Jerod Gay, who represents the PWEA at the statewide Virginia Education Association. “We have almost 1,000 positions not staffed.”

Brandie Provenzano, a Battlefield High School teacher and vice president of the PWEA, said that the 5% raise that the school board is proposing for teachers will barely cover the increasing cost of their healthcare.

“To invest in the county, you have to invest in the children and the people who teach them,” Provenzano said.

Reach Anya Sczerzenie at asczerzenie@fauquier.com