Prince William Times 08/31/2023

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SPORTS: 40 girls participate in girls-only golf invitational in Prince William County. PAGE 11

August 31, 2023 | Vol. 22, No. 35 | 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.

Power crunch prompts planning for new high-voltage lines Latest projects to fuel data centers will likely impact residents, businesses By Peter Cary

Piedmont Journalism Foundation

PHOTOS BY DOUG STROUD

Military re-enactors demonstrate from atop a World War II-era Russian T-34 tank as visitors look on during the annual Americans in Wartime Experience Tank Farm Open House. The nonprofit aims to raise about $70 million for an indoor/outdoor museum planned for Dale City.

‘We’re making progress’

Americans in Wartime Experience aims to break ground in about 2 years, its CEO says

See POWER, page 4

Soccer parent arrested after coach is beaten during game

By Jill Palermo

Times Staff Writer

The vision for the “Americans in Wartime Experience” was hatched by a group of local Vietnam veterans nearly 30 years ago. Over the years, progress has been slow. Now, organizers say they have enough momentum to open the museum’s first building in about 24 to 30 months. That’s according to Dennis Brant, who has served as chief executive officer of the nonprofit since 2019. During an event preceding last weekend’s Tank Farm open house, the annual fundraiser for the Americans in Wartime Experience, Brant ticked off a list of recent accomplishments. The museum’s 70-acre site, donated by the Cecil and Irene Hylton Foundation in 2010, has received more than 500,000 cubic yards of fill dirt over the past few years from area construc-

Spurred by an increasing number of power-hungry data centers, the keepers of the electric grid in Northern Virginia are embarking on an ambitious, multi-billion-dollar plan to bring more electricity to the data center zones while shoring up other parts of transmission system. This plan far exceeds the handful of new transmission lines that Dominion executives have been discussing with community leaders and activists in Prince William County. Some of the proposed projects are mammoth, and some contain surprises, including the resurrection of transmission lines opponents thought they had killed, risking the re-ignition of long-fought battles. An example is a new version of the Wheeler-to-Warrenton transmission line that was dropped last year amid opposition to the Amazon data center approved for Warrenton. A version of that project can be found among the list of possibilities, although its proposed route, while not finalized, has shifted.

By Cher Muzyk

Times Staff Writer

tion sites to help level off its sloping landscape. The site work is creating an upper level for the future museum building and a lower level for its planned, outdoor “Landscapes of War” exhibits.

A youth soccer coach was knocked to the ground and beaten in the head with a metal water bottle by a parent during a boys’ soccer scrimmage over the weekend at George HellBlerand Hoxha wig Park in Manassas. The parent charged in the incident, Blerand Hoxha, has a violent criminal history, according to court records.

See MUSEUM, page 2

See ARREST, page 10

An Americans in Wartime Experience volunteer talks to young visitors during the recent Tank Farm Open House held Aug. 26 to 27 in Nokesville.

BOTTOMS UP: New beer garden in Occoquan expands local brewery scene, page 6

ALL ABOARD: Saturday shuttle aims to ease parking challenges in Occoquan, page 9

88 DULLES, VA

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