2022
In this issue: Our annual calendar
calendar
January 5, 2022
Our 205th year | Vol. 205, No. 1 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50
State supreme court approves legislative maps
Democrat Jennifer Wexton the favorite in new 10th Congressional District By Coy Ferrell
Fauquier Times Staff Writer
All of Fauquier County will be a part of the 10th Congressional District beginning in this year’s U.S. House of Representatives elections after the Supreme Court of Virginia signed off on the final redistricting maps last week. The new 10th District is comprised of Loudoun, Fauquier and Rappahannock counties along with much of Prince William County, all of Manassas and Manassas Park and a small portion of western Fairfax County. That Fauquier will now share in a district that includes parts of Prince William County is a dramatic shift from both the current congressional districts — which have Fauquier
split between districts stretching to Jamestown and North Carolina — and a draft map released Dec. 9 that placed Fauquier in a congressional district encompassing all of the Piedmont region north of Charlottesville; those district boundaries did not pair Fauquier with any of Prince William. The set of maps ultimately approved last week has a significant effect on the partisan makeup of the district that will now include Fauquier. The Dec. 9 draft district would have been highly competitive, with no significant advantage to either party. The 10th Congressional District boundaries approved last week, however, put Fauquier in a district where a Democrat will be favored to win the seat; voters in the area encompassed by the new district voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton by an eight-point margin in the 2016 presidential election.
10th Congressional District Winchester 6th District
Leesburg
LOUDOUN COUNTY
11th District
FAUQUIER COUNTY
Fairfax Manassas FAIRFAX COUNTY
Warrenton
RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY
See MAPS, page 4
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY 7th District
7th District
Culpeper
7th District
Snowstorm wreaks havoc on electric grid, roads COVID-19 cases, By Coy Ferrell and Robin Earl hospitalizations have F T S W A winter storm dumped snow, sleet doubled in the last week and ice across a large portion of Virginauquier
FAUQUIER TIMES STAFF PHOTO/ROBIN EARL
Don Dodson clears a sidewalk in a Bealeton subdivision Monday afternoon.
imes
taff
riters
By Robin Earl
ia early Monday morning, leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity and hundreds of vehicles stranded in freezing temperatures overnight on Interstate 95, a situation one state official called “unprecedented.” In Fauquier, at least 3,000 homes and businesses were still without power as of Tuesday morning with the possibility that it may not be restored for days. The “bulk” of affected Rappahannock Electric Cooperative customers — there were 2,400 affected customers in Fauquier and 75,000 in total — should have power restored by Friday, a company representative said Tuesday morning. However, some might be without power through the weekend, she added.
On Dec. 28, 2021, the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases in Fauquier was 69; compared to the rest of the pandemic that was very high for the county. Seven days later, it was 128. In the state, the seven-day case average has also doubled in those same seven days; it is now 14,410. Last week, the positivity rate (the number of positive tests compared to the total number of tests taken) was 15.9% for Virginia and 17.4% for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District. This week, Virginia is at 29.9% and the health district is at 31.3%. Both numbers are higher than they have ever been. The number of new COVID-related hospitalizations has also skyrocketed. There were 142 in the state last Tuesday, 432 today; the seven-day average was 143 last week and was 333 on Jan. 4.
See SNOW, page 12
See COVID, page 2
Fauquier Times Staff Writer
SPORTS: Fauquier Times’ top stories of 2021, Pages 17-19 9.44x2
connecting you to
People That Care.
oakviewbank.com | (540) 359-7100 | Member FDIC