The 18th Annual Manassas Heritage Railway Festival is a family celebration of the rich railway history that Manassas has to offer. Manassas Junction was the site of both the 1st and 2nd Battles of Manassas during the Civil War and of the nation’s first military railroad. Attracting over 30,000 individuals from the MD, DC, and Northern Virginia areas, Festival attendees can enjoy a day of train fun for the whole family. 

Attendees can enjoy elaborate model train displays, live music (Country to Blue Grass), performances by community groups, inflatables, vendors specializing in train memorabilia, or take an excursion ride on the VRE! 

Scenic Excursion Train Rides (to Clifton and back) will be available for purchase at the Manassas Train Depot (9431 West Street) M-F, 9AM-5PM.  All trains board 10 minutes prior to train times.  Everyone boarding the train will need a ticket.

Train Ride Times:

10:00AM/11:00AM/12:00PM/1:00PM

Tickets are $5.00 each (Cash/Check/Charge).  All checks should be made out to Historic Manassas, Inc.

For more info, check out visitmanassas.org (the source)

Brentsville High School’s head baseball coach faces charges after police said he was “communicating inappropriate messages” with a 17-year-old girl.

Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok said the investigation began May 25 after school official received information about communications between Richard Earl Teller, 28, of 3611 Mill Creek Road in Haymarket, and the student.

Teller was also a long-term substitute at the school.

Police said there was “no physical encounter” during the communication, which began in February.

Prince William County Public Schools spokesman Phil Kavits said Teller has been suspended from his positions with the school.

Teller began working with the school system in 2010, mostly working in athletic jobs, Kavits said. Before moving to Brentsville District High School, he worked at Gainesville Middle School.

Teller was charged with taking indecent liberties with a minor by a custodian and the use of a communication system to facilitate certain offenses with a minor.

He was held on $10,000 bond and his court date was not available.

Eight people are recovering after a three vehicle wreck Wednesday morning on Balls Ford Road.

Prince William fire Battallion Chief Curtis Brodie said one person was flown by helicopter to an area hospital and seven people with less severe injuries were transported by ground to Heathcote Health Center and Prince William Hospital.

A red Toyota pickup truck flipped over in the collision, which also involved two white vans.

Balls Ford Road was closed between Doane Drive and Groveton Road from about 8:45 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.

Piece from the First article- 

After the collision, which happened about 4 p.m. near Silver Hill Road in the Sumerduck area, the two planes crashed to the ground about a mile apart from each other, said state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. Plane parts and debris were scattered over the two crash sites.

—

Jim Flanagan and his wife Beverly were in the backyard of their quiet Sumerduck home Monday when they saw a low-flying plane cross a field on their 30-acre property.

“It missed the house by 50 feet,” said Jim Flanagan.

The 1965 Piper PA28140 plane, piloted by Thomas R. Proven, 70, of Broad Run, made a beeline through a 25-foot-wide gap in a continuous tree line surrounding the Flanagans’ property at 15311 Silver Hill Road.

The thick cedar trees ripped off one of the wings and bent the other before the plane finally crashed.

“The fuselage went another 100 feet and it didn’t blow up,” Flanagan said, noting that the torn-off wing remained at the trees.

The Flanagans didn’t know at the time that the Piper and its pilot had just been involving in a midair collision with another plane about a mile away.

That aircraft, a six-seater, caught fire and plummeted to the ground, killing the pilot and passenger, said state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. Police are still in the process of identifying the victims.

At the Flanagans property, the couple rushed over to the crashed Piper and saw the pilot walking toward them.

“He was bleeding profusely from his head and his nose was distorted,” Flanagan said of Proven, noting a 4-inch gash on the man’s forehead. “He seemed very concerned.“

Flanagan helped the pilot call the FAA and other agencies to report the crash.

His wife Beverly, a nurse, set up a makeshift triage at his home and cared for Proven until medics arrived.

Proven was transported to Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, where he was recovering Tuesday morning. Hospital spokeswoman Debbie McGinnis said Proven was in good condition.

Jim Flanagaan said he believes Proven saved his own life by deciding to fly through the tree gap.

“Those trees are 15 to 20-inch cedars,” Flanagan said, referring to a potential head-on crash had he flown elsewhere. “They wouldn’t have gone anywhere.“

Flanagan said he frequently sees small planes over his property-the Warrenton-Fauquier Airport is about 10 miles away. At first, his family didn’t think too much of the low-flying plane, he said.

Officials were still on Flanagan’s property as of Tuesday afternoon as they continue their investigation.

What caused the mid-air collision remain under investigation.

In a news release, National Transportation Safety Board officials said both airplanes were operated by NTSB and FAA employees. Proven, the surviving pilot, is a crash investigator for the FAA, officials said.

Because NTSB employees were involved, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will investigate the crash.

Late notice, I know. I just found out about this today when i was at work, but

Crawfish Festival: The Festival Begins at 5pm and will end at 11pm. There is no enrty fee for the festival. We will have an extended patio with VIP seating. VIP seating is $10 per person and gets you that seat all night! Crawfish Boats will be $10 we will also have the grill outside serving up Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Andoullie Sausage Po Boys, Chicken Salad Sandwhiches Chicken Gumbo and Potato Salad!! Fun For the whole family. We wil have two Bands preforming SOL and Funk Root as well as Zach Quintana. The Outside bar will be featuring Abita Beers and Our Signature Hurricanes!!!

Let good times roll!!! Our annual crawfish boil is here again!! We will be serving up fresh Louisiana Crawfish boiled on site!!(yumm)

Live music great beer and lots of fun!! Great fun for the whole family!!

The Manassas City Council voted Monday to allow Pierce Funeral Home to build two crematoriums at 9609 Center St.

The decision came after a deferral and a public hearing where residents voiced concerns about mercury emissions from burning human remains with silver-amalgam dental fillings.

The matter first came before the council on Feb. 27 when it decided to keep the public hearings open at the urging of a Manassas resident concerned about the emissions.

In March, funeral home owner Bob Pierce requested a 45-day deferral for time to review several studies on mercury emissions obtained by city staff.

The studies, compiled by John Reindl, a retired engineer from the Dane County Public Works Department in Dane County, Wis., came from across Europe and New Zealand and varied widely in showing the amount of mercury released when burning human remains.

Pierce’s attorney, Gifford R. Hampshire of Blankingship and Keith, spoke to the council Monday night before the vote on the special use permit.

Hampshire cited a study by Cambridge Environmental of Cambridge, Mass., which showed that the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere from burning human remains was negligible.

Pierce hired Cambridge Environmental to do the study, and several people who spoke at the public hearing suggested the study was biased because Pierce paid for it.

Hampshire told the council that the Cambridge Environmental reports were not biased, but were indeed the best reports the council had.

“They are good scientific work, in fact they are the only reports that you have that are based on EPA air dispersion modeling, which takes into account specific factors that must be taken onto account in order to reach any sort of objective conclusion,” he said.

Hampshire said the other reports were “generic” and   irrelevant to the council’s decision. He said the council should decide the matter according to a “rational land -use basis.”

Hampshire also said improvements to the property and the state-of-the-art equipment that the funeral home proposed to use for cremations should mitigate neighbors’ concerns.

Traffic, noise, odor would not be factors because of steps the funeral home has taken toward mitigating those issues, Hampshire said.

Councilman Jonathan L. Way said he was persuaded by the “technical expertise” of the Cambridge study.

Way quoted the study, which stated that the emissions were “expected to be harmless” and “vanishingly small and would not threaten the health of anyone, including pregnant women and the fetuses in Manassas or further afield.”

Way went on to say that the fears of a biased report were unfounded.

“These people are national, if not world-class, scientists,” he said. “These are not the kind of people who would even contemplate prejudicing their position and their reputation on some little, tiny crematorium study. The world just doesn’t run that way.”

No one showed up to speak for or against the crematoriums, one of which would be used for pet remains and the other for human remains.

Mayor Harry J. “Hal” Parrish II broke a tie vote to allow the special use permit.

Councilmen Marc T. Aveni and Andrew L. “Andy Harrover voted against the permit, along with Councilwoman Sheryl L. Bass. Councilmen Mark Wolfe, J. Steven Randolph and Way voted in favor of granting the permit.

Hampshire said the council’s decision was “the right thing to do.”

Pierce said he thought the crematoriums with new landscaping and new buildings would be a “plus for the city.”