While it may be tempting to throw caution into the wind as 2020 winds to a close, local and state police are emphasizing the need for people to drive safely during the winter holidays, when alcohol-related crashes often spike.

Data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Highway Safety Office shows that the Commonwealth has recorded more fatalities from traffic crashes related to speed and drunk driving so far this year than in all of 2019, the Virginia State Police reported on Monday (Dec. 21).

“Virginia is on pace to have more total fatal traffic crashes in 2020 than in 2019,” VSP Superintendent Col. Gary Settle said. “…Overall traffic crashes in Virginia this year are down significantly. This means each crash has been deadlier – deadlier because of speed, alcohol, distractions, and individuals not wearing seatbelts.”

The increase in deaths from crashes comes even as the COVID-19 pandemic kept many people off the roads and confined to their homes.

According to toll operator Transurban, traffic on the Interstate 95, 495, and 395 Express Lanes was down 80% in April – when Virginia had stay-at-home orders in place – compared to that same time period in 2019. While traffic has gradually increased since then, it remained 39% below 2019 levels as of November.

Police say that drunk-driving related fatalities and crashes typically go up nationwide during the holidays.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 839 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes in the U.S. in December 2018. 285 of them died during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period, the VSP says.

The Fairfax County Police Department’s traffic division steps up its patrol for people driving the influence every year with an annual campaign against drunk driving that runs from the end of November to the new year.

“Although this campaign only runs until January 1, we are fortunate enough to have a dedicated DWI Squad to continue enforcement throughout the rest of the year,” the FCPD said in an email, adding that Virginia DMV recorded 336 alcohol-related crashes, 215 injuries, and seven deaths in the state from Nov. 30 to Dec. 15, 2019.

Health officials have been discouraging people from attending parties or gathering with people outside their immediate household, but for anyone who decides to travel during the holiday season, the Virginia State Police has some recommendations:

• Plan ahead. Designate a sober driver, call a friend or family member, or use a cab or public transportation.
• If you know someone has been drinking, do not let them drive. Arrange an alternative, safer way home.
• Call police if you see an impaired driver on the road. Dial #77 to contact the nearest VSP emergency communications center.

State police will also have new grounds to crack down on distracted driving in the new year. It will be illegal to use a phone or other handheld communications device while driving on highways in Virginia starting on Jan. 1.

“Virginia State Police is urging every motorist on the road this holiday season to be responsible, obey the traffic laws, ditch distractions, and wear a seatbelt,” the VSP said in its news release. “Whether heading to the grocery store, the post office, or delivering gifts to family and friends, choose to do it safely and do it responsibly.”

Photo via FCPD, map via Virginia DMV

The Fairfax County Department of Transportation is seeking public comment on 10 proposed changes to its Fairfax Connector bus service, including alterations to several routes in the Tysons area.

Fairfax Connector announced on Dec. 18 that, in response to the opening of a new Cedar Lane Bridge over Interstate 66, it will enhance service to Routes 462 and 467, which link the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station with Tysons Corner.

In a news release issued yesterday (Tuesday), FCDOT provides more details on those impending changes, which are set to take effect on Jan. 4:

Route 462 — Dunn Loring-Navy Federal-Tysons: This route would continue to serve Old Courthouse Rd. and Gallows Rd. operating every 30 minutes, during rush hour, presently being served by Route 422. The route is now linked to Route 467.

Route 467 — Dunn Loring-Tysons: This change would add service to Old Courthouse Road and Gallows Road, add Sunday service and improve frequency, operating every 40 minutes, 7 days a week.

On top of those changes, Fairfax Connector is also exploring the possibility of adding five routes that would replace service previously provided by Metrobus.

Two of the proposed new routes would serve the Tysons area:

Route 703 — Pimmet Hills: This route would replace Metrobus 3T and provide service between the West Falls Church Metrorail and McLean Metrorail stations, operating Monday-Friday + Saturday

Route 715 — Chain Bridge Rd.: This route would replace Metrobus 15K on weekdays only. The first southbound trip starts at Langley and would eliminate a section of the current Metrobus 15K route between Rosslyn and Langley.

FCDOT will host a virtual community meeting on all of the suggested service changes on Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. Registration for the WebEx event is now open.

Community members can also share their feedback by taking an online survey that is available in English and Spanish, emailing [email protected], calling 703-339-7200, or sending a letter addressed to FCDOT Planning at 4050 Legato Road #400 Fairfax, VA 22033-2895.

Public comments must be received by 5 p.m. on Jan. 22.

According to a presentation on the service changes, FCDOT plans to request that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approve its proposal in February. If approved, the changes would take effect in July 2021.

Photo via Fairfax Connector/Facebook

With Christmas just around the corner, many government offices and services will be closed for the remainder of the week, as employees take Thursday and Friday off for the holiday.

Fairfax County government offices will officially close at noon on Thursday (Dec. 24), and they will be closed for the entirety of Christmas Day.

All county parks and recreation facilities, including golf courses and RECenters, will be closed on Christmas.

However, all RECenters will be open until noon on Christmas Eve, and other facility hours vary that day depending on the specific location. The Jefferson District Golf Course in Falls Church, for instance, will have its last tee time at noon on Dec. 24, while the Oak Marr Golf Complex in Oakton will close at 2 p.m.

The McLean Community Center will be closed on Dec. 25 and have a half-day on Dec. 24 in accordance with the Fairfax County government’s holiday hours.

Fairfax County libraries will close at 1 p.m. on Thursday for the holiday weekend.

In the City of Falls Church, all city offices and services will be closed for the entirety of Dec. 24 and 25, including City Hall, the community center, and Mary Riley Styles Public Library. The library will also be closed on Dec. 26 and 27.

The Town of Vienna will close its offices on both Thursday and Friday. The Vienna Community Center will be closed from Dec. 24-27. Waste collection will proceed as normal on Christmas Eve, but there will be no collections on Christmas Day.

Fairfax County will not provide any trash and recycling collection services on Christmas Day. Customers who typically have their waste collected on Fridays will instead get service on Saturday (Dec. 26).

In addition, the county’s recycling and disposal centers at the I-66 Transfer Station (4618 West Ox Rd.) and the I-95 Landfill Complex (9850 Furnace Rd.) will close at 1 p.m. on Dec. 24 and stay closed throughout Dec. 25.

For transit users, Fairfax Connector will operate on Christmas Day according to its Sunday service schedule. Information about specific routes can be found here.

With students on winter break since Monday (Dec. 21), Fairfax County Public Schools has put its meal distribution services on hold starting today through Jan. 1. Yesterday, FCPS offered four days of breakfast and lunch to students who picked up meals at bus stops, and students who used Grab & Go locations or meal kits sites received 14-day meal kits.

Bus route meal distributions will resume on Jan. 4, while distribution at Grab & Go locations and meal kits sites will return on Jan. 5 and 6, respectively.

Staff photo by Ashley Hopko

A reconstructed Cedar Lane Bridge over Interstate 66 in Vienna will reopen to traffic today as anticipated, the Virginia Department of Transportation confirmed yesterday (Tuesday).

Restoring Cedar Lane’s connection between Cottage Street to the north and Route 29 (Lee Highway) to the south, the new bridge is wider and features a sidewalk on its west side. A new shared-use path on the bridge’s east side will eventually link to a 66 Parallel Trail being developed from Dunn Loring to Centreville.

VDOT closed the bridge to both drivers and pedestrians on May 15 so that crews could demolish the existing structure and build the new one.

The bridge reconstruction is part of VDOT’s Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project, which is adding toll lanes along 22 miles of highway between Vienna and Gainesville.

The Cedar Lane Bridge reopening will enable Fairfax Connector to restore service on Routes 462 and 467 between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station and Tysons Corner to the routes and schedules they had before the bridge closed.

The Fairfax County Department of Transportation announced last week that it will also add Sunday service to Route 467.

Until the service changes take effect on Jan. 4, Fairfax Connector buses will continue following a modified route that utilizes Cottage Street and Gallows Road for those two routes.

Even with the new bridge completed, some construction activities will continue in the Cedar Lane area.

“Drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, and other bridge users should be alert for continued construction activity in the area surrounding the bridge, including completion of nearby sidewalks, noise walls, and the shared-use path along I-66,” VDOT said.

Photo courtesy VDOT

McLean House Fire Caused by Unattended Cooking — Fire investigators have determined that a condominium fire that occurred in the McLean area approximately 9:05 p.m. on Monday (Dec. 21) was caused by cooking left unattended in the kitchen. The blaze displaced three occupants and resulted in approximately $93,750 of damages. [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department]

Fairfax County Exceeds Face Mask Donation Goal — “In total, 77,010 cloth face coverings were donated and distributed this year. To provide free masks to the most vulnerable, including low-income families, the county put out a call in May for the community’s help to sew and donate 65,000 masks for children and adults.” [Fairfax County Emergency Information]

Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ends Use of Cash Bail — “Fairfax County’s top prosecutor formally announced Monday [Dec. 21] that his office would no longer seek cash bail, saying it exacerbates inequalities between the rich and poor in the criminal justice system.” [The Washington Post]

McLean Community Center Finds New Way to Celebrate Christmas — “The McLean Community Center on Dec. 12 held a special event to take the place of its traditional “Breakfast with Santa.” Youngsters ages 2 to 8 had the chance to take a photo with Saint Nick in a contact-less, outdoor environment. Santa was safe and secure in an inflatable snow globe.” [Sun Gazette/Inside NoVA]

Staff photo by Jay Westcott

Fairfax County will host Virginia’s first-ever Smart City Challenge next month.

Scheduled to kick off on Jan. 23, the challenge is a month-long virtual competition where teams of participants will develop and pitch potential solutions to challenges in health, transportation, housing, education, energy, infrastructure, public safety, and other facets of society.

Fairfax County has partnered with several public, private, and nonprofit groups to organize the contest, including Smart City Works, the McLean-based nonprofit Refraction, Virginia Tech, Girls in Tech DC, and the Universities at Shady Grove.

“The goal of the Challenge is to advance equitable and inclusive opportunities for all people to thrive in the greater Washington, D.C., region,” Smart City Works said in a Dec. 21 press release announcing the challenge.

While the challenge was designed with the D.C. area in mind, anyone, from college students to startups, can participate regardless of where they live. Organizers say they will put a particular focus on encouraging women and people of color to get involved.

Registration is currently open. There is an admission fee of $15 for students and $30 for everyone else “to help defray hosting and other expenses,” Smart City Works says on its website.

Conducted entirely online through Zoom, the challenge will give participants a month to form teams and use data, resources, and mentors made available by organizers to develop ideas for how technology or other forms of innovation can be used to make communities more equitable, livable, resilient, and sustainable.

Teams will present their projects to a panel of judges, who will evaluate the pitches based on innovation, regional impact, practicality, and equity and inclusivity. Winners will be awarded more than $350,000 in cash and in-kind prizes, along with an opportunity to implement pilot projects with Fairfax County, the City of Fairfax, and other partner organizations.

Alongside the actual competition, the challenge will feature streamed and recorded discussions with government, nonprofit, and business leaders throughout the month. Anticipated speakers include Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Dominion Energy CEO Bob Blue, and Fairfax County Deputy County Executive Rachel Flynn.

“The Smart City Challenge is the perfect opportunity to tap bright minds to improve the lives of everyone in the Washington, D.C., area through technology, innovation, and problem-solving,” Refraction CEO Esther Lee said. “We are excited to bring together forward-thinking businesses, entrepreneurs, universities, government, and nonprofits to showcase collaboration and thought leadership.”

Fairfax County previously partnered with Smart City Works and Refraction to start the Northern Virginia Smart Region Initiative, which aims to foster innovation and economic growth in the area.

The county contributed $50,000 when the two nonprofits successfully applied for a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to fund the initiative in 2019.

Photo by Michelle Goldchain

With COVID-19 vaccines expected to take months to roll out to the general public, one Tysons-based company has developed software that it believes will enable schools, businesses, and other facilities to open their doors with an added layer of security against the novel coronavirus.

Senseware (8603 Westwood Center Dr.) has adapted its air quality monitoring platform to detect the presence of COVID-19 particles or conditions that facilitate their spread.

The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority announced on Dec. 18 that it will host a webinar with FCEDA President and CEO Victor Hoskins and Senseware CEO and co-founder Serene Almomen on Jan. 7.

Presented in conjunction with the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance, the webinar is the latest segment in a 10-part series called “Catalyst for Change: How Companies Turn Disruption into Success.”

“Safety is the critical component of bringing employees back into working on-site at offices during this unprecedented time,” Hoskins said. “This webinar will focus on how Senseware…has developed a platform for detecting COVID-19 particles in order to enable a safer environment for employees returning to the workplace.”

Since COVID-19 primarily spreads through respiratory droplets and other particles carried in the air, Senseware says that its platform can determine the effectiveness of ventilation systems in mitigating the coronavirus’ transmission by monitoring the air supply flow rate, particle sizes, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide and ozone levels.

The company says it has integrated bio-sensors into its system that can detect the existence of viruses, including the novel coronavirus, and other harmful microbes.

Using the data collected by its sensors, Senseware sends reports to customers and automatically issues an alert if air quality conditions become unhealthy or unsafe.

“Knowing if [the] COVID-19 pathogen is in the air we breathe in real time will play a major role in safely repopulating spaces,” Almomen said. “We are excited to share how we introduced this new innovation to help promote people safety and wellbeing during this critical time.”

The FCEDA webinar will take place virtually on Zoom. Registration is free and can be done through this link.

Image via CDC on Unsplash

McLean Community Center Executive Director George Sachs will retire next year, MCC Marketing and Communications Director Sabrina Anwah confirmed to Tysons Reporter yesterday (Monday).

Sachs has served in the role for more than a decade, a tenure that includes overseeing the massive, $8 million renovation of the community center’s Ingleside Avenue facility that was completed in December 2018.

While more details about Sachs’s decision to retire likely won’t come until the new year, MCC has put out an advertisement for the position on the Fairfax County government’s job database.

As the MCC’s chief administrative officer, the executive director plans, organizes, and manages the agency’s facilities, programs, and services, which range from community events and classes to musical and dramatic performances at the 386-seat Alden Theatre.

According to the job posting, the executive director is also responsible for hiring and training both professional and volunteer staff, supervising MCC’s website and public communications, reviewing the budget, and serving as a liaison to elected officials as well as local public and private groups, among other duties.

Qualifications include:

Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a bachelor’s degree in arts administration, recreation administration, or a closely related field; plus five years of progressively responsible supervisory experience administering diversified recreational or cultural programs, preferably in a large recreational or cultural facility. A master’s degree may be substituted for one year of the required experience.

CERTIFICATES AND LICENSES REQUIRED:
The following must be obtained within 90 days of employment:

• CPR
• First Aid
• AED

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to foster a healthy organization and encourage teamwork and collaboration.
• Demonstrated success and experience in recreation operations, planning and programming.
• Ability to identify and mitigate risk in operations.
• Experience with budget development and management.
• Ability to oversee a robust communications and marketing strategy.
• Experience overseeing capital projects and improvements.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.).
• Knowledge of virtual meeting and conferencing platforms.

NECESSARY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

• The appointee to the position must satisfactorily complete a criminal background check, credit check, and Child Protective Services check.
• Must be able to communicate with others verbally and in writing.

The job posting notes that the position requires frequent evening meetings, along with occasional weekend and holiday work. Applicants may also be required to lift up to 15 pounds, and while the job “is generally sedentary in nature,” the ability to read and work on a computer is essential.

The advertised salary range is between $95,447 and $159,078 annually.

The posting is scheduled to close at 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 15. MCC will hold panel interviews to select its next executive director.

The Fairfax County Park Authority is exploring the possibility of revising its master plan for Clemyjontri Park in McLean to allow for a proposed arts center from the McLean Project for the Arts.

Park Authority staff kicked off the process last week with a virtual public meeting on Dec. 17, when MPA Executive Director Lori Carbonneau presented conceptual renderings for the proposed arts center and detailed how it would align with Clemyjontri’s core mission of providing a playground for children of all abilities.

“We have a vision of a natural marriage of art and the outdoors that this center can create,” Carbonneau said. “It’s going to celebrate our natural heritage, and it’s going to offer a way to extend the vision [property donor Adele] Lebowitz had of creating a place where all can play.”

The overall plans for the arts center have not changed since the public’s first glimpse of the project in February. If approved, it would house three galleries, studio classrooms, staff offices, and an outdoor event space, potentially with gardens and public artwork.

However, what was initially envisioned as a campus with multiple pavilions has now been consolidated into a single building, a change that Carbonneau says came out of talks with prospective architectural and engineering firms that toured the park on Mar. 12.

In addition to lowering maintenance costs, having just one building would make security and cleaning easier, and MPA would only have to invest in one central heating, air conditioning, and ventilation system, a concern that emerged as the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of proper indoor ventilation.

Carbonneau and Park Authority staff emphasized that the project is still in its infancy, meaning that it’s too early to give concrete answers to many questions, including the potential cost to its impact on parking and traffic.

When asked about potential plans to address existing issues with crossing Georgetown Pike, Ryan Stewart, the chief of long-range planning for the Park Authority, said the agency will consult with the Virginia and Fairfax County transportation departments throughout the master planning process.

MPA would schedule arts center programming around peak park usage, with exhibition openings and other special events generally taking place between 7 and 10 p.m., according to Carbonneau, though the organization has not studied park usage beyond publicly available data.

“During COVID, any analysis would be unsatisfying because of the very different traffic patterns that we’re all experiencing right now,” Carbonneau said. Read More

Emergency responders with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department are on the scene of a house fire in the 1100 block of Pine Hill Road in McLean.

The blaze was visible through the house’s second floor when crews first arrived around 10 a.m. today (Tuesday).

Units on scene of a house fire in the 1100 block of Pine Hill Road in McLean area. First arriving reported fire showing from 2nd floor. Crews working to extinguish. #FCFRD pic.twitter.com/vuIgR267nz

— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) December 22, 2020

The FCFRD reported at 10:21 a.m. that the fire has been extinguished, and crews are now clearing smoke from the home. No injuries have been reported.

Responders from Arlington County and Montgomery County provided assistance.

UPDATE: house fire in the 1100 block of Pine Hill Road in McLean area. Fire is out. No extension. Crews clearing smoke from home. No reported injuries currently. @mcfrs and @ArlingtonVaFD assisting. #FCFRD pic.twitter.com/ODGI3KsPtb

— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) December 22, 2020