Prince William County is seeing green. In the parks, that is. The county’s Parks, Recreation & Tourism department touted its 2022 accomplishments and laid out plans for the year ahead in its annual State of the Parks report.
“With a passionate staff of nearly 1,500 full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees, the Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism strives to create recreational and cultural experiences for a more vibrant community,” Parks Director Seth Hendler-Voss said during his Thursday night presentation at the Kelly Leadership Center in Manassas.
He extolled the virtues of Prince William County parks as beautiful spaces that encouraged healthy development for children to learn and play, and the home of the “finest turf fields and pitches in Northern Virginia” for sports.
“We connect people in places along nature’s roadway, an interconnected network composed of 50 miles of multi-use trail, we research and preserve our historic resources, and narrate the stories of our past so that we may better inform our future,” Hendler-Voss said.
Some notable accomplishments include breaking ground on the Rollins Ford Park, a new 70-acre area in the Brentsville District on Vint Hill Road near Lake Manassas. When it’s done, the park will feature two rectangular fields, a destination playground, picnic pavilions, basketball courts, a dog park, and a comfort station surrounded by walking trails and wildflower meadows.
The county hired a new archaeologist with the launch of the new historic community program to research and document the stories of historic enclaves across the county.
Prince William also received a grant from the Commonwealth History Fund for the preservation of the Potters Field Cemetery at Thoroughfare.
Hendler-Voss even gave a shoutout to Northern Virginia Magazine in his presentation — readers voted the summer camps among the best.
According to Hendler-Voss, those summer camps saw 6,500 participants, “outpacing pre-pandemic numbers.”
There is a slew of projects on the docket for the future of Prince William parks. Among them:
- Executing the 2019 bond referendum projects for trails and parks;
- Improving accessibility and improving parks with American Rescue Plan Act funds;
- Gearing up to host the 2024 Solheim Cup international golf tournament;
- Planning for America’s 250th birthday in 2026.
Find the full report online.
Featured image courtesy Prince William Parks, Recreation & Tourism
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