jim – Page 22 – Notes n Letters

Fairfax slavery indexing project

In 1799, a 40-year-old man named Aleck was working as a carpenter at Lexington Plantation on Mason Neck. Kate, a 50-year old woman with impaired vision, was working in the plantation’s main house.

Aleck and Kate might have been forgotten if their names had not been recorded in a will book at the Fairfax County courthouse. Both were slaves owned by George Mason V, son of the statesman George Mason of Gunston Hall, and their names were recorded in an inventory of his property.

A project now underway in the Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Center is making personal information about Aleck, Kate and thousands of other enslaved people more accessible by creating an index of slaves mentioned in the county’s will and deed books.

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Washington Post, October 21, 2015

Financial systems delayed again

For the third time this year, the ongoing $41.4 million upgrade of Loudoun County’s aging financial management systems — which handle core computer functions such as accounting, procurement, assessments, taxation and human resources for the county government — missed a scheduled completion date.

The Board of Supervisors allocated $25 million in its fiscal 2010 budget to replace the system, but the cost of the upgrade has exceeded that amount by more than 65 percent.

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Washington Post, October 18, 2015

Preventing concussions in H.S. sports

A two-year push to prevent concussions and other injuries in Fairfax County high school sports is showing encouraging results, according to data released by the school system.

Statistics collected by Fairfax County public schools indicated that the number of injuries sustained by football players declined by 16 percent over the past year, and the number of concussions by 28 percent. There were similar declines in the incidence of concussions and other injuries among lacrosse players.

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Washington Post, October 15, 2015

Chairman candidates debate

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — From left: Candidates Scott K. York (I), Thomas J. Bellanca (I), Charlie King (R) and Phyllis J. Randall (D)

Candidates for chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors squared off in a debate Tuesday, trading blows and staking out differing positions on such issues as all-day kindergarten, the rural economy and the need for a police department.

Four-term incumbent Chairman Scott K. York spent much of the evening on the defensive, responding to attacks from Democrat Phyllis J. Randall and Republican Charlie King, while independent challenger Thomas E. Bellanca mostly stayed out of the heated discussion. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Loudoun County, the debate was held at the Sterling campus of Northern Virginia Community College.

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Washington Post, October 11, 2015

Manassas-area children’s choirs

About 70 Manassas-area children are joining their voices in song as members of a new choral group that began rehearsing last month.

The Greater Manassas Children’s Choir, an offshoot of the Manassas Chorale, is divided by age into two singing groups, each with a director. Becky Verner leads about 50 children in grades 5 through 8, and Susan Dommer is head of a smaller group of children in grades 2 through 4.

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Washington Post, October 11, 2015

A glimpse into an astronaut’s life

Forget packing for a jaunt to the beach. Kids visiting the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly are setting their sights on a much more ambitious destination: Mars.

At the Astronaut Academy, the latest offering in the TechQuest program at the Northern Virginia offshoot of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, children are using an alternate-reality game to get an idea of what it’s like to be an astronaut.

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Washington Post, October 4, 2015

40 hikes at age 40

When Stephanie Manning decided to mark her 40th birthday by completing 40 hikes in one year, she was celebrating more than her age.

A few days earlier, Manning had begun to emerge from a deep, six-month postpartum depression. Embarking on a year of hikes, she said, helped her to overcome that and to reconnect with family members and friends in ways she had never expected.

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Washington Post, September 27, 2015

Priorities for Dulles area

Dulles area residents want more roads to ease traffic and connect neighborhoods; biking and walking trails; access to government services; and options for shopping, entertainment and recreation — all while trees, streams and open space are protected.

Those were residents’ central messages in input gathered through Loudoun County’s Dulles Community Outreach Project. The final report, which the county’s planning staff presented to the Board of Supervisors Wednesday, included a list of 28 “consensus recommendations,” many of which involved transportation improvements and community amenities.

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Washington Post, September 20, 2015

Falls Church Episcopal rebuilds

When the Rev. John Ohmer was named rector of the Falls Church Episcopal in September 2012, he faced the challenge of rebuilding a historic church that had lost most of its membership in a split with conservatives, primarily over the issue of ordaining openly gay clergy.

In late 2006 and early 2007, more than 90 percent of the 2,200 members of the church — which dates to Colonial times — voted to leave the Episcopal church and form the Falls Church Anglican.

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Washington Post, September 16, 2015

Solarization in Dumfries

Solarize NOVA, a program that offers free on-site energy assessments and bulk purchasing discounts for the conversion to solar power, is available to homeowners and businesses in Dumfries through Nov. 10.

As part of the program, sponsored by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and the Local Energy Alliance Program, Dumfries homeowners can use a new online mapping tool to estimate how much energy they could save by converting to solar power. The program bases savings predictions on factors such as the size of the roof and the amount of sunlight the building receives, said Robert W. Lazaro, director of regional energy planning for NVRC.

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Washington Post, September 13, 2015