County reports local progress

STAFFORD — Amid bad news delivered by Stafford County Administrator Anthony Romanello at the latest board of supervisors’ meeting was a bit of good county news.

In the area of Economic Development, construction of Stafford Medical Center progressed swiftly and is scheduled to open next month. A second Lowe’s was opened on Warrenton Road and a new Wal-mart Supercenter is being built in the same area. The Washington Square Wal-mart is presently expanding to a Supercenter.

The first corporate hangar was opened at the Regional Airport, Stafford’s first Best Buy opened in Garrisonville, there were Geico data center and FedEx Ground additions, and the addition of two industrial buildings, 450,000 square feet each were built.

Site plans were submitted for about 2,934,000 square feet of commercial space added to 729,267 square feet of new space, and, 662,490 square feet are under construction.

A second office addition was built at Quantico Corporate Center in the continuing development of Boswell’s Corner. A Pohanka Honda dealership is planned and several motels were either built or planned.

It has been Romanello’s position that the county needs to deliver needed services but to find ways to deliver them in a more efficient manner. In the meantime, the county needs to aggressively pursue economic development so that when economic conditions turn around, the county will be “well positioned” to benefit from it.

In other areas, progress was made on the Rocky Pen Reservoir as pipelines and the dam foundation were completed.

The foundation of George Washington’s boyhood home, Ferry Farm, was discovered and 268,842 people visited tourist sites.

Soccer parents, and players, may be happy to hear that synthetic turf fields are under way at Smith Lake Park Fields and Patawomeck Park opened.

Phase one of Crow’s Nest Park was completed and the acquisition of phase two was initiated.

Primmer House Road was completed in the southern part of the county, Centreport Parkway was accepted into the state system of secondary highways, and 211 street name signs were replaced.

Voters came out in favor a transportation bond referendum that would go a long way in improving a secondary road system that has been unable to keep up with the county’s burgeoning development.

Fire and Rescue opened new stations at Berea and North Stafford and construction began at the Courthouse Station 2.

And county employees took special pride in their response to a tornado that damaged 177 homes and handled 5,964 calls for service from May 12-15, according to county Public Information Manager Cathy Riddle.

“Public service is more than just a job,” she said. “It’s a calling.”

Jim Lawrence is a contributing writer at the Stafford County Sun. Reach him at info@staffordcountysun.com.