BRENTSVILLE GOLF TEAM CONTINUES TO DOMINATE DISTRICT, Sports, Page 9
April 1, 2021 | Vol. 20, No. 13 | 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.
People stream into the community vaccination center at the former Gander Mountain store on Thursday, March 25.
This Easter Sunday, the worship service at First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries will be live-streamed to their more than 4,000 members via the Internet. But the COVID-19 vaccine shots will happen in person. The church is offering up its full-size gymnasium to a team from George Mason University, which plans to administer 350 shots on Easter Sunday. The event is one of the first mobile vaccination clinics to take place in eastern Prince William County -- part of an effort to make the vaccine more accessible to Black and Hispanic populations that have been hard hit by COVID-19. Senior Pastor Rev. Luke Torian, who is also a state delegate for the 52nd District, said he chose Easter Sunday for a vacci-
By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
See VACCINE, page 2
See VA PRIMARIES, page 5
Mobile clinics, ‘CVC’ at Gander Mountain site help to boost local vaccination rate nation clinic because it seemed a like a good day to celebrate a step toward overcoming the now yearlong pandemic. “So now, when people are asked when they got their shots, they can proudly say, ‘We got them on Easter Sunday,” Torian said in an interview this week. The Easter Sunday clinic will follow two others set for Thursday, April 1. Pharmacies were set to give 2,000 inoculations at First Mount Zion Baptist Church and another 1,000 at Todos Supermarket, 139045 Jefferson Davis Highway. What’s more, First Mount Zion Baptist Church and other community advocates were invited to use their networks to help fill the vaccine appointments with anyone who is currently eligible to be vaccinated in Virginia. That includes anyone in the state’s 1a and 1b
17 to face off in upcoming nominating contests
priority groups: those who are over 65, those between 16 and 64 with underlying health conditions as well as a long list of essential workers. Meg Carroll, community manager at Georgetown South, called the vaccination events a “game-changer” for her Manassas community’s mostly Hispanic residents. Many have been left out of the state’s vaccination process for a variety of reasons, she said, including a lack of awareness about the online registration process. And while most have mobile phones, many don’t have computers, which makes the online registration process more difficult. Some, she said, have told her they are nervous about entering their personal information into a state database.
Vaccine effort picks up the pace By Jill Palermo
Local Va. House races draw a crowd
A crowded field of Primary election: candidates has emerged Tuesday, June 8 in Prince William County’s eight House of Delegates districts ahead of this year’s party nominating contests, an early sign that the Northern Virginia suburb is still competitive after Democrats captured every local House seat in 2019. There are a total of 17 candidates – 6 Republicans and 11 Democrats – running in primaries, firehouse primaries and conventions in six of the eight districts. In total, five of eight Democratic incumbents in Prince William County are facing a primary challenge; seven of eight districts have at least one Republican running; and more than one Republican candidate is running in three districts. Additionally, the 31st and 50th House districts are among the most contested races in Virginia, each with a total of five candidates vying for the seat. Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, said the prolific number of candidates in Prince William County is an indicator the area remains politically volatile. “The best measure of how competitive a district is, is how many people are willing to run. And by that measure, Prince William County has some of the most competitive House districts in the commonwealth,” Farnsworth said. Prince William used to be a stronghold for Republicans in the House of Delegates. They held all but two districts in the county for years. But that changed when former President Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Trump’s election electrified the local Democrats, who went on to flip every Republican-held House of Delegates seat in the county between 2017 and 2019. Farnsworth said Republican hopefuls in the area may see things differently now that Trump is no longer in office.
TIMES STAFF PHOTO
Times Staff Writer
See PrinceWilliamTimes.com for coronavirus updates
INSIDE Classified............................................12 Lifestyle................................................8 Obituaries...........................................11
Opinion.................................................7 Puzzle Page..........................................6 Real Esate...........................................10 Sports...................................................9
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