SPORTS: Meet the Cedar Run and Cardinal District basketball all-stars. PAGE 9
March 25, 2021 | Vol. 20, No. 12 | 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.
See PrinceWilliamTimes.com for coronavirus updates
New commission digs into county’s workforce disparities By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
Prince William County’s local government, police and school division workforces do not reflect its “majority-minority” population, the newly formed Racial and Social Justice Commission learned during its first discussion of racial disparities among public employees. The commission is tasked with examining local police, government and school policies with a focus on racial and social justice issues and recommending policy changes back to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors later this year. The 12-member commission was created by the county board last year and began meeting in January.
Its March 18 meeting, the first broadcast on the local government cable channel, marked the first comprehensive, public discussion of racial and ethnic disparities among county workers in recent memory. But the commission’s deliberations were also at times contentious, with some commissioners raising objections to certain procedures and the scope of the group’s work. The commission consists of eight citizen members appointed by individual supervisors in addition to ex-officio members: Police Chief Peter Newsham; County Executive Chris Martino; School Board member Loree Williams (Woodbridge); and Prince William County Human Rights Commission Chair Curtis Porter. Commission Chair Shantell Rock, appointed
by Supervisor Margaret Franklin, D-Woodbridge, said in an interview Tuesday the presentations given by county and school staff shared “one clear, obvious issue.” “The leadership and staff of [county agencies and schools] does not reflect what the community looks like. That’s concerning to me,” Rock said.
Police
Newsham gave a lengthy presentation detailing the racial disparities in the county’s police force. Newsham said that of the county’s nearly 700 sworn police positions, 72% are white, 9% are African American, 11% are Hispanic and 3% are Asian. See COMMISSION, page 4
In the eye of the swarm
‘Brood X’ cicadas expected in Prince William this spring
Bail set in only 25% of cases By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
pletely gone by the end of the month, Day said. Experts agree that the coming Brood X periodical cicadas will emerge in Prince William County, but some areas will see more than others. “Prince William is definitely going to have cicadas. But it may be kind of spotty. There are probably some areas where the volume is just going to be outrageous. And then in some areas, people will be asking, ‘Where are they?’” Day said.
Prince William’s local jail population is at its lowest in years, but it’s not because people are being arrested or Commonwealth’s charged with Attorney Amy crimes less ofAshworth ten. An increasing number of people who are charged – but not yet convicted – of lesser crimes who are not considered a danger to the community are being sent home to be supervised by “pretrial” officers while they wait for their cases to be heard in court, instead of being held in jail. The change is a result of new policies implemented by Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth aimed at creating a fairer criminal justice system.
See CICADAS, page 2
See BAIL, page 4
By Cher Muzyk
Contributing Writer
The cicadas are coming, and there will be billions of them. Maybe even trillions of them across the 14 states – including Virginia – where a coordinated emergence of periodical cicadas named “Brood X” will occur this spring. In a normal year, Prince William residents might see an occasional green annual cicada in their yards or run across a recently shed, empty skin. But the Brood X periodical cicadas set to arrive this spring are different. With their thick black bodies, orange-veined wings, bulging red eyes and striking orange legs, periodical cicadas are both big and heavy, as those who have been hit in the head by them in past years might remember. Periodical cicadas spend 17 years developing underground while feeding on plant roots. This spring, when the
Cash bail sees sharp decline in county
PHOTO BY ERIC DAY, VIRGINIA TECH ENTOMOLOGIST
By mid-May, Prince William residents can expect to see – and hear – dozens if not hundreds of Brood X cicadas in their trees and yards. soil 8 inches under the surface reaches 64 degrees, Brood X will emerge from the earth en masse. Expect to see them locally in early- to mid-May, said Eric Day, a Virginia Tech entomologist with the Virginia Cooperative Extension. “That’s when you’ll start to see them coming out of the ground and climbing trees. They’re very synchronized. So, when the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees, the party starts,” Day said. The cicadas will peak in early June and are expected to be comINSIDE Classifieds...........................................12 Library Page.........................................8 Lifestyle..............................................10 Obituaries...........................................11
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