Prince William Times 06/20/2024

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SPORTS: McGovern-led Brentsville girls soccer squad repeats as Class 3 state champs. PAGES 7, 8

June 20, 2024 | Vol. 23, No. 25 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $2.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

County probes damage to Black cemeteries Discovery of early 20th-century Black horse show site stalls other data center project By Cher Muzyk

Times Staff Writer

Prince William County officials have taken steps in the past three weeks to investigate and address damage to two historic Black cemeteries in Brentsville. The damage is associated with construction of a new Iron Mountain data center and a nearby electrical substation needed to power it. Now, further research in connection with yet another data center rezoning revealed that land nearby was the site of an African American horse show grounds and horse racing track active from about 1903 into the 1930s. Both the horse show grounds and the damaged cemeteries were owned by members of the Gaskins family,

TIMES STAFF PHOTO/CHER MUZYK

A headstone at the Gaskins-Slave-Sevinson cemetery, which is now surrounded by an orange fence to protect it from construction activity associated with a new Iron Mountain data center next door.

which traces its lineage to slaves freed in the 1790s by Robert Carter III. Brentsville Historical Commission member Marion Ransell Dobbins shared several newspaper articles about the racetrack with Prince William County Planning Commissioners during their meeting June 12. Because of Dobbins’ discovery, the planning commission decided to pump the brakes on a rezoning proposal that would allow two more new data centers at Wellington Road and Freedom Center Boulevard, just east of George Mason University’s Science and Technology campus. The commission voted 6-2 to defer the application until September to allow the county’s historical commission and archeologist Justin Patton to review an initial archaeological survey of the 37acre site.

See CEMETERY, page 3

County to offer housing help for people with mental illness By Jill Palermo Managing Editor

TIMES STAFF PHOTO/FLORENCE SHEN

Celebrating Juneteenth: A member of the Chihambra African Dance Troupe performs during the Juneteenth African American Cultural Festival in Warrenton on Saturday, June 15. Prince William County is celebrating the newest national holiday, which commemorates the end of slavery, with a parade and festival at Prince William Forest Park on Wednesday, June 19. For full coverage, visit www.princewilliamtimes.com

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People coping with serious mental illnesses make up only about 6% of the population. But in Prince William County, at least 30% of unhoused residents cited mental illness as a reason for their homelessness in each of the last four years. That’s according to data collected during surveys of the county’s unhoused residents every January. The most recent survey found that 37% of Prince William County’s 345 unhoused residents have a serious mental illness, according to a recent report on the region’s homelessness compiled by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. And while dealing with mental illness can make it difficult for people to find and maintain affordable housing,

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the stress of being unhoused makes conditions such as anxiety and depression worse, often leading to substance use, the report said. Now, with help from a $30 million state program, Prince William County is preparing to launch its first “permanent supportive housing program” to help more people with a serious mental illness get and stay housed. The program will provide 72 additional housing “vouchers” that will ensure recipients don’t pay more than 30% of their income for rent — a level housing experts say keeps renters from being overly burdened by housing costs, allowing them to pay for other needs such as food, transportation and health care. See HOUSING, page 2

Buzz around the bee festival, page 6 Scan below to check out The JAM


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