•   News  
• Business
• Entertainment
• Pics
• Blogs
• Sports
• Obits
• Redskins
• Real Estate
• Classifieds
• Jobs
• Search Local
• Shop
• Bride & Groom

by Hugh Muir

The Stafford Parks and Recreation Department this month will begin to seriously consider opening the seasonal Aquia Landing Park to year-round use, as well as to add hours and services to the out-of-the-way beach and picnic facility on the Potomac River.

A plan was first discussed by the department last fall and outlined to the public at a meeting in mid-December. With that input, acting Assistant Director Camilla Shover said, Parks and Recreation will work up a series of priorities that will go to the Board of Supervisors for approval.

The timeline is a cautious one. "I'm going to tread very carefully, but methodically, on this," said Aquia District Supervisor Paul Milde, who attended the December public presentation, along with seven residents. He said he was "very sensitive" to local residents' concern over increases in traffic and disturbances.

"I want to make the park more accessible, while cutting down on crime," Milde said. Crime in Aquia Landing Park consists mostly of petty vandalism and drug and alcohol abuse, officials said. The park is at the end of some 10 miles of twisting road east of the county's Administration Building at U.S. 1 and Courthouse Road.

"I'd like to have some kind of finality [on the proposed changes] by the end of next season," Milde said. The season traditionally has been Memorial Day to Labor Day. The supervisor said he would be sending out a survey seeking further public comment on the park project.

Opening the park year-round would bring it into line with other parks in Stafford, including Curtis Memorial, Smith Lake, Duff Green, Autumn Ridge and Willowmere. Another aspect of being open off-season, Shover said, was that people who now enjoy walking the trails there during winter months would no longer technically be "trespassers."

The park's hours also would be expanded. The present schedule at Aquia Landing is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and weekends after school is out. Suggested new summer hours would be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the off-season hours would be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Shover said new facilities and services could include handicap access to the shelters and the beach, and harder-surface pathways to facilitate wheelchairs. The concession stand would be expanded and, for the first time, a permanent potable water supply would be made available in the park.

Other amenities could include a playground installed near the shelters, new and improved trails for bird-watching, a fishing platform extending over the rocky waterfront and a wooden walkway above the park's marsh area.

"We wanted to have the public meeting in December so that Parks and Recreation could start the new year ready to go on this project," Shover said after last month's public hearing. "It's a lovely park. We know the public likes it."