Eight members of Girl Scout Cadette Troop 3849, based in Montclair, took home the top prize in the first-ever Teens in the Timber Outdoor Survival Competition held May 22 to 24 at Camp Brighton Woods in Maryland.

read the entire article at the below link...

Montclair Girl Scout troop takes top prize in Timber Outdoor Survival Competition
The Potomac News, 6/17/09

(Editors note: My wife is a leader of this troop, and my daughter a member. Very proud and impressed with each of them.)

I'm interested in learning if there are others, students or parents, who have had experiences as a victim of theft at Forest Park High School. My son is a Sophomore there and recently had some valuables stolen from his shared gym locker. He says that students are warned that they use the lockers at their own risk, and that the school takes no responsibility for anything stolen from them. The lockers are very small, and shared by multiple students, and apparently are easily broken into.

Some other anecdotes I've heard, but for which I have no first hand information:

- a friend's child recently had a wallet, cell phone and iPod stolen from their locker.

- in one instance a member of the football team was found to have stolen from another student's locker, and his only punishment was a one-game suspension

There was an interesting article in today's Post about how Prince William County's schools are selling advertising on the school web sites. The ads started last October and have so far brought in $50,000 in revenue, which will help offset the costs of the school system's online services. Some find it controversial, and other attempts to advertise to a captured audience of students in public schools have been knocked down by angry parents. But I don't have any issue with these ads and applaud PWC Schools for finding the revenue in tight times.

What do you think?

Money-Hungry Schools Getting Down to Business
The Washington Post, 3/13/09

The video from last week's Candidate's Night has been digitized and can be viewed online at the MPOA site.

Tonight the MPOA Board of Directors unanimously approved a Draft Budget that contains expenses totaling slightly more than $2.3 million in expenses and will result in an annual assessment of $520 per lot, a decrease from the current $528 annual assessment. The most significant change in the budget was the cancellation of the contract with our private security contractor, effective March 1, 2009. MPOA will begin to provide a lessor amount of contracted security by hiring off duty Prince William County Police office to patrol in Montclair. Some current services provided by our current security contractor, including after hours use of the MPOA Building, house checks, and the opening/closing of beach parking lots are not yet specifically accounted for and will cease unless alternative approaches are made for their continuation.

In 2009, homeowner assessments will be due in 10-monthly payments, rather than the current 11-payments. Monthly payments include a two-dollar service charge, so if approved, this budget will have assessments to be paid with 10 payments of $54. As always, lot-owners can also pay their assessment in a single lump sum.

The move of The Montclair Post to our new web host is now completed and the site you're looking at right now is hosted at Hostgator. A couple of comments got lost in the move, because they were made on the old site after the database had been copied and moved to the new site. And a glitch that prevented accounts from staying login has been corrected with a patch. Next steps will include upgrading to the latest version of our content management system (Drupal). And of course, suggestions for new functionality or content are always welcome!

Regards,

The Management

Sometime within the next month, The Montclair Post web site will be moved to new hosting. During that time there are likely to be a few periods where access to the site is interrupted, or thing just are just 'glitchy'. They are just computers after all. So heads up, and know that we're not going away, just moving servers.

From the PRTC Rider Express Email List
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On November 6th, the Board of Commissioners for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission authorized a fare increase for bus services operating in the Prince William County area. The new fares, which were discussed at six public hearings this fall, will take effect on Monday, Dec. 15.

The fare increase is part of a multi-faceted plan that the Board approved to defray higher-than-budgeted fuel and bus service costs and address overcrowding on PRTC's OmniRide commuter routes. The plan features more service hours and additional buses to ease overcrowding.

To supplement the bus fleet, the Board authorized PRTC to contract with Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc. for the lease-purchase of four buses. Over the next few months, the four buses being lease-purchased as well as the new buses PRTC ordered months ago that are now being manufactured will be delivered and placed into service. Two of the new buses are expected in November, two more are scheduled to arrive several weeks later, and four others are expected between January and April.

Certainly we're all aware by now that Sen. Obama has won election to be the next President of the United States. Locally, Obama won every election precinct that includes portions of Montclair. His victories in Prince William and Loudon Counties were instrumental to his victory in Virginia, and winning Virginia was key to his victory nationally.

Here's the results precinct by precinct:

Source... https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/election/