Fairfax County Fire and Rescue has the opportunity to step up their safety protocols thanks to a new grant.

The fire department is one of 25 departments across the nation that the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) thought would benefit from a pilot program that helps departments develop a community risk assessment tool.

The $7,000 grant includes a data analytics system that allows the fire department to identify risks to property and life while also finding different conditions that exacerbate the threat.

The money will go towards the creation of a personalized dashboard that will be active through July 31, 2020 and specialized training to accompany the program, according to the department.

“Not only will access to the tool give us invaluable information about our community’s needs, but it is rewarding to know that using the tool will increase its effectiveness and help other fire departments in the long run,” Battalion Chief George Robbins, who leads the department’s community risk reduction department, said.

This September, the NFPA will hand out another 25 grants to departments. The departments are chosen based on size, geography, community support and other indicators. So far, 150 departments have applied for the grant.

#FCFRD Selected to Receive Community Risk Reduction Grant. One of 25 departments nationwide selected to receive grant from @NFPA as part of pilot program to build a community risk assessment tool. More: https://t.co/2ckoW4lUyR#SafeFairfax #FairfaxCounty pic.twitter.com/dnljR8wyRq

— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) August 15, 2019

Hair salons keep popping up in the Town of Vienna.

Along Maple Avenue, there are around two dozen hair salons and various types of beauty parlors offering personal care services.

While nearby Falls Church and McLean also have a plethora of salons, the ones in Vienna are concentrated mainly along Maple Avenue, with many hair salons working in close proximity to their competitors.

Along Maple Avenue by Nutley Street SW, the Village Green Shopping Center at one point housed three hair studios — Village Green Hair Salon, Avivo Salon and Day Spa and Dogan and John Hair Salon. (Avivo relocated to Tysons earlier this year.)

Tysons Reporter asked Lynne Coan, the town spokesperson, what might draw the appeal for owners to open up shop in this particular area.

“I did check with our planning department, and we really don’t have an explanation for why there are so many hair salons in Vienna,” Coan said. “There are no unique or ‘encouraging’ ordinances.”

Salon O Tony (130 W. Maple Avenue) has been open for 12 years because of its customer service and good reputation, Mustafa Demir, the shop’s spokesperson, told Tysons Reporter. When asked about competition among all the various hair salons, he said salon management doesn’t think it is an issue, but didn’t expand on why.

In 2019, at least three new salons and beauty relators arrived in the area — each one of them offering a variety of hair cuts and spa treatments.

Alya Salon and Spa  (139 Park Street) and Jolie Hair Studio (121 W. Maple Avenue) both opened in February.

Hair studio Sundown and Rise Up moved into the former space of Maple Avenue Market (128 E. Maple Avenue) this summer.

These openings come at a time when the Town of Vienna said that more businesses have opened than closed recently, despite vacancies and increasing rents around town.

“It seems that, for whatever reasons, each community has a proliferation of some kind of business, be it pizza shops or nail salons or hair salons,” Coan said. For the Town of Vienna, it appears to be hair salons.

Photo 3 via Facebook, photo 4 via Facebook, map via Google Maps

After 27 years of service in the U.S. Military, Vienna resident Timothy Redmond decided to share his experiences in an autobiography.

“As You Were” is a novel about Redmond’s personal life experience after 9/11 and the time he served on duty in Afghanistan. Though the book came out in 2018, it continues to attract attention from readers as he tours local bookshops.

Before he even decided to write a novel, Redmond discovered his passion as a novelist during a creative writing workshop for retired combat veterans hosted by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

During the writing process, Redmond told Tysons Reporter he spent time processing traumatic events that happened to him and his close friends — including the death of a friend.

“It’s stressful to relive some of that,” he said.

He also said it took him a little extra time to write the book because he “wanted to get it right” and respect the people he served with through remembrance. Redmond mentioned that several members in his former unit read the book and gave positive feedback.

From the description of the book on Amazon:

A freshly-minted prosecutor with the Brooklyn DA’s Office, Tim Redmond thought he’d left his life as a Green Beret behind as he pulled into the World Trade Center train station on the morning of 9/11. Three months later he was back in Afghanistan with his old A-Team gearing up for the fight of their lives! Follow this team of Special Forces on their raucous and heroic journey through the unimaginable horrors of war and their unique struggle to return to a home they can no longer make sense of.

Redmond shared his book with the community on Aug. 4, when he set up a table at the new Barnes & Noble in the Mosaic District. He signed autographs and bonded with community members from around the region.

Looking forward to the future, Redmond, who works at a local law firm in Tysons, said that he and his publicist are in the process of scheduling similar events in Tysons.

Photo courtesy Tim Redmond

Tysons-based Curbside Kitchen imagines a food truck-friendly world where companies can easily coordinate with food trucks to cater events or just switch up lunch-time options.

Amy Katz, the CEO of Curbside Kitchen, founded the company around 2017 after talking to her husband Brian about his struggles in real estate and difficulty coordinating food trucks for events.

To solve the problem, she decided to create a technological platform that allows managers to schedule food truck arrivals for their business or building.

Katz described the company as “Uber for a food truck — with a ton of heart” and said that her company helps buildings maintain tenants by building a sense of community and diversity based on a shared love for food.

“Each truck has its own DNA,” Katz said.

When first starting out, the main obstacle was finding a way to coordinate with hundreds of food trucks with unreliable hours and various management types, she said.

“The biggest struggle is bringing the food truck owners up to the same standard,” Katz said, adding that there are many “unforeseen” circumstances around food trucks, including maintenance issues or poor weather.

But, despite the challenges, Katz is optimistic about the company’s growth. “I am so passionate about it that every day we learn something new,” she said.

Today, the company has around 300 food truck partners on call in three cities, but Katz said they plan to keep growing thanks to the Virginia Founders Fund from the Center for Innovative Technology, which recently granted Curbside Kitchen money to expand their venture.

Katz said she did not feel comfortable revealing the grant amount, but she did say that she plans to hire a few more employees and build an app.

The app will tell food truck patrons when their favorite trucks are nearby, allow trucks and managers to schedule gigs and remind trucks to show up at certain times. She said the app should be available for download within six months.

Though they are not the only company that works with food trucks, Katz said that Curbside Kitchen isn’t worried about competition.

“There isn’t really anybody out there with the technology and integration we have,” she said.

As Curbside Kitchen expands, they plan to keep their headquarters in Tysons — where the community is incredibly supportive of the food truck culture.

“I believe people have a close eye on what we are doing,” Katz said.

Photo courtesy Amy Katz

The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Tuesday (Aug. 20)

• Tysons Comedy Regional Showcase — 7-9 p.m. at Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) — This free event brings local comedians to the stage for an evening of laughter. There will be happy hour specials until 9 p.m.

Wednesday (Aug. 21)

• Quarterly Fit Club: Powerwave by Crunch Fitness — 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (The Plaza) — This free workout invites everyone to try a bodyweight and rope exercise class. Equipment is provided.
• Charity Guest Bartender Event — 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) — All tips and a portion of the sales will be donated to Second Story — Tysons Partnership’s charity partner for the Tysons Tailgate. The goal is to raise $1,000. Some of the guest bartenders will include Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust and Borzou from The Falcon Lab.

Thursday (Aug. 22)

• Big Screen on the Green: Disney’s “Moana” — 7:30 p.m. at Town Green (144 E. Maple Avenue) — The Town of Vienna will host a free movie for the community along with popcorn. They invite attendees to bring lawn chairs or blankets.
• Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals — 7:30 p.m. at Wolf Trap (1551 Trap Road) — Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals combine blues, soul, reggae and rock while Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue will bring funky jazz rhythms. Tickets are $35.

Saturday (Aug. 24)

• Maggiano’s Back To School Little Chef’s Cooking Class — 8:30 a.m. at Maggiano’s Little Italy (2001 International Drive) —  This event invites families to learn how to make back to school snacks, including an Italian grilled cheese, while interacting with chiefs from the restaurant. Tickets are $25, but free for parents with their kids.
• All ’80s All Night — 7:30 p.m. at The Palladium (1524 Spring Hill Road, Suite LM) — This free event will feature an ’80s themed DJ dance party. Prizes will be given to attendees with the best ’80s outfit.

Sunday (Aug. 25)

• AIR at Tysons Biergarten — 8 p.m. at Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) — Tysons Biergarten will host an outdoor DJ and dance party featuring current hits from across the world. There will be drinks, food and hookah. Tickets are $5 beforehand or $10 at the door.

A new photo experience prepares to get people into the Halloween spirit at Tysons Corner Center.

American Scream, a self-described “selfie museum,” will allow guests to take spooky photos with a variety of props and interactive displays.

Patrons can visit the pop-up after Sep. 13 near the Lord and Taylor on the first level of the mall, according to a press release. General admission is $18.

Open until Nov. 3, this temporary museum will let participants experience horror themes such as morgues, clowns and haunted dolls.

“The American Scream Selfie Museum will feature unique, interactive exhibits that will make you both laugh and scream and the star of eye-popping selfies,” the press release said. “Visitors of this seasonal pop-up activation can be the star of their own horror movie.”

Photo courtesy of American Scream 

The City of Falls Church mayor is fighting a federal tax law change that he warns will put a strain on local residents.

In December 2017, Congress passed a new law that limits the amount of state and local taxes (SALT) that people can deduct from their federal income tax return to $10,000.

Known as the SALT deduction cap, this law has stirred up controversy.

Some people claim it puts people in areas with a higher cost of living at a disadvantage because they will likely pay more in taxes, while others say that SALT deductions disproportionately benefit a small proportion of wealthy taxpayers.

In June, Mayor David Tarter spoke in front of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee by invitation of Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) regarding the recent cap on the SALT deduction policy.

Tarter said he is one of a few politicians across the country that are spearheading an effort to reverse the decision or minimize the damage they say it will have on their communities in the near future.

“The new cap on the SALT deduction double taxes citizens on these payments and penalizes workers in high-cost areas, like my city, where wages and income are high but are fully matched by the cost of living,” Tarter told the committee, adding that the new law takes away more tax dollars from the city.

Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields, who manages the city’s finances, told Tysons Reporter that Falls Church residents spend more on housing comparative to anyone else in the country. He added that this new legislation only “exacerbates” the city’s lack of affordable housing.

According to Tarter’s statement to the committee, the median home price in the city is around $825,000 — “That doesn’t buy you a mansion but likely a modest brick rambler built in the 1950s.”

That median home price is drastically more than the $229,000 median home price across the U.S., according to Zillow.

Despite the fact that Fairfax County is among the richest counties in the nation, it still has problematic financial burdens that lawmakers are attempting to solve.

“I’ve heard from a fair amount of people how their taxes have gone up and not at first realized implications,” Tarter told Tysons Reporter while talking about the fallout from the law.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Wednesday, Aug. 14, that they will waive the tax underpayment penalty for more than 400,00 people who did not claim a special penalty waiver when they filed their federal income tax returns this year.

“Earlier this year, the IRS lowered the usual 90% penalty threshold to 80% to help taxpayers whose withholding and estimated tax payments fell short of their total 2018 tax liability,” according to an IRS press release.

Locally, this may help residents in the Northern Virginia area who were hit with unforeseen financial burdens recently because of the SALT deduction cap.

“There are no yachts in Falls Church, just lots of hard-working families trying to get by in the high-rent district,” Tarter said. “Most of the folks that I know are two-income families who serve their country through work in government or the military and want the best education possible for their children.”

Ultimately, Tarter hopes that the SALT deduction cap, currently sitting at $10,000 per household, is heightened or eliminated entirely.

“The next steps are up to Congress,” Tarter said. “I suspect, given the way things are right now, there probably won’t be any immediate action.”

Image via C-Span

A new convenience store may soon open in Merrifield.

The Bodega will move into a space at 2730 Gallows Road near the Dunn Loring Metro station.

It is unclear when the business will open, but the owner recently placed a banner outside the shop announcing the new location saying the bodega is “coming soon.”

A pending liquor license application indicates that the shop wants to sell beer and wine.

Tysons Reporter reached out to but did not hear back from the owner.

Catherine Douglas Moran contributed to this story. 

A new pizza place will join other eateries along Leesburg Pike near the Greensboro Metro station next weekend.

MOD Pizza at Pike 7 Plaza (8350 Leesburg Pike) plans to begin serving customers with a soft opening on Sunday, Aug. 25, and Monday, Aug. 26, according to Phil Singh, the location’s construction manager. The new pizza place is sandwiched between Cava and Honeygrow, which both opened last fall.

This location will feature an array of pizzas, salads, sides and soft drinks along with beer and wine.

During the soft opening, the pizza place will have limited hours from noon-2 p.m. and 4-6 p.m.

During these hours, customers will receive a 50% on all menu items with the exception of alcoholic beverages. All proceeds with go to a charity, but Singh said the company has not decided on one yet.

The eatery will officially open on Tuesday, Aug. 27.

MOD Pizza is currently hiring employees for its new location.

The Boro in Tysons is one step closer to completion.

Businesses moving into the area are starting to put up signs and advertise apartment rental opportunities — the 70,000 square-foot flagship Whole Foods no longer has its sign saying “Whole Foo.”

Patrons can expect more than a dozen stores and businesses to start opening this fall, Caroline Flax, a spokesperson at The Meridian Group, said. Options for hungry diners include smoothies, Italian cuisine, ramen, poke and Starbucks.

A Tysons Reporter poll recently asked readers which restaurant or grocery store they were most excited for — 59% of participants voted for the new Whole Foods location.

In a different poll asking about upcoming entertainment opportunities, 54% said that they are most excited for ShowPlace ICON to open.

For business owners looking to rent offices or commercial retail space, there are still spots available.

In addition to the new retail, the sprawling development’s two luxury apartment buildings named Rise and Bolden will have one and two-bedroom apartments available for rent starting in September, according to a press release.

Comment below and let Tysons Reporter know if you plan to check out The Boro once construction is finished.