WIN OR GO HOME: Eight Prince William football teams begin playoff journeys. SPORTS, Pages 18-19
November 11, 2021 | Vol. 20, No. 45 | 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.
County supervisor, neighbors offer their homes for data centers By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
Yet another group of rural crescent homeowners is seeking to sell their land for data centers in western Prince William, including county Supervisor Pete Candland, who once said he would “fight tooth and nail” to keep data centers out of the county’s rural area. All 19 homeowners who live in Catharpin Farm Estates off Pageland Lane, including Candland and his wife, jointly filed a comprehensive plan amendment Nov. 4 to have their neighborhood re-designated as “tech/ flex” for data center uses, according to newly filed county documents.
Candland has led the charge on the board of county supervisors to keep new development out of the rural crescent, but said he decided to sign onto the CPA with his neighbors “due to the distinct possibility that his home would be an island in a sea of data centers” if he did not join in, according to Paul O’Meara, a spokesman for Candland’s office. “Supervisor Candland and his wife were the last ones in their neighborhood to sign the CPA application,” O’Meara said in a Thursday email. “Supervisor Candland has been very clear on his opposition to data centers in the rural crescent. He has voted several times to stop this process from
continuing. Unfortunately, cussed for weeks if they it seems evident that the mashould join their neighjority of the board of county borhood in filing the CPA, supervisors seems intent on and that it was “one of the allowing data centers in the hardest decisions we’ve rural crescent.” ever made.” Now that Candland’s “We knew many peoown home is included in ple would be very disapthe CPA application, Canpointed in our decision if Supervisor dland is disqualified from Pete Candland, we joined. But in the end, voting on any data center we felt that we were literR-Gainesville proposals along the Pageally in a no-win situation,” land Lane corridor, O’Meara said. Candland wrote. “If the neighborThat will leave the approval of data hood was going to become a sea of centers along Pageland Lane to the data centers, we didn’t want that for remaining seven board members. our family.” In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, Candland said he and his wife dis- See DATA CENTER, page 8
Local demand high for COVID-19 vaccines for kids 5 to 11 By Cher Muzyk
Contributing Writer
PHOTOS BY MIKE BEATY
12th Annual Northern Virginia Veterans Parade: Hundreds lined the streets of Old Town Manassas on Saturday, Nov. 6, for the return of the Veterans Day parade. The parade was led by two retired Marines, Cpl. Adam Devine, top right, and Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski, bottom right, and included more than 60 entries, a mix of veterans groups, community groups and marching bands. More pictures on Page 6.
From the WW II to the White House: Local veterans recall decades of service. See Page 5
See VACCINES, page 2
Local farmraised chickens make for happy ‘smallidays’ See Page 15
88 DULLES, VA
It’s all about people . . . and always will be. www.vnb.com
“It just
Leonore Chapin, a felt like a Gainesville mom of triumphant three, acted quickly moment that to get her elementary-school-age kids vacciwe’ve been nated against COVID-19 waiting for, this past week. for so long.” On the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 3, the LEONORE CHAPIN, day after the Centers GAINESVILLE for Disease Control MOM OF THREE and Prevention gave its final approval for the shots, Chapin read a post on social media about Gainesville Pharmacy offering walk-in appointments for kids’ vaccinations. Less than two hours later, Chapin was waiting in line outside the pharmacy with all three kids, whom she pulled out of school early to get their shots. “It just felt like a triumphant moment that we’ve been waiting for, for so long,” Chapin said Thursday. “It seemed worth it to miss a couple hours of school.”