As the holidays approach, here are a number of closures to keep in mind in the area.
Fairfax County Government offices officially close at noon tomorrow through Friday. Offices will also be closed on Friday, Dec. 31 for the New Year’s holiday. But some facilities are open and schedules may differ.
All library branches will be open from 10 a.m. to noon on Christmas Eve, but will remain closed on Friday, Saturday, Dec. 31, and New Year’s Day. Fairfax County Public Schools are closed through Jan. 3. The school system is encouraging the school community to reach out to address mental health concerns.
The Fairfax Connector will operate on Saturday service schedules tomorrow and Friday.
The county’s Circuit Court will be closed on Thursday and Friday, along with Dec. 30 and 31.
Residents should contact their trash and recycling collection for service changes due to the holidays.
All recreation centers operated by the Fairfax County Park Authority are open tomorrow from 5 a.m. to noon, but closed on Christmas Day. The George Washington Recreation Center, however, will be closed both days.
All county parks and recreation facilities will be closed on Christmas.
Vaccination clinics at the Fairfax County and South County Government Centers will remain closed from tomorrow through Dec. 26, as will the county’s COVID-19 call center.
The Tysons Community Vaccination Center will be closed from tomorrow through Dec. 27 and from Dec. 31 through Jan 2. Between the 28th and 29th, the center will be open from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Dec. 30.
Plan Ahead! 2021 Christmas and 2022 New Year’s Holiday Schedule: https://t.co/7byPWvItbj pic.twitter.com/G97H8jyksL
— Fairfax County Government
(@fairfaxcounty) December 21, 2021
Public health officials are also encouraging residents to maintain social distancing measures in order to minimize hospitalizations during the winter surge of cases.
Photo via Tim Mossholder/Unsplash
Fairfax County Public Library is all out of COVID-19 rapid tests once again.
The library system has received 34,652 test kits since Dec. 1 as part of the Virginia Department of Health’s free testing kit pilot program, but as of 10:30 a.m. today (Tuesday), they have all been distributed.
“We are distributing these tests as part of a partnership with the Virginia Department of Health, which sends us the tests,” FCPL Director Jessica Hudson said. “We know VDH is working hard to distribute tests throughout the state, including to other libraries participating in this pilot program.”
Interest in the take-home test kits has been high since they were introduced in 21 of the county’s public library branches on Dec. 3, when supplies were gone within an hour of their availability.
While FCPL has received thousands of additional kits since then, community members will have to turn to other sources if they want to get tested during the holidays, since it’s unclear when the next shipment will arrive.
As of 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 21, none of our branches have rapid tests in stock. We don't expect another shipment before the Christmas holiday @fairfaxhealth has put together a handy link with info about testing in #Fairfax: https://t.co/nngnFKmJ0u pic.twitter.com/19JtSaf29j
— Fairfax Library (@fairfaxlibrary) December 21, 2021
“We do hope to get in tests soon after the Christmas holiday but don’t have a firm delivery scheduled yet,” Hudson said.
Fairfax County residents aren’t alone in making a run for COVID-19 tests amid rapidly rising cases, fueled by the more transmissible delta and omicron variants. Arlington County Public Library announced this morning that it was also out of kits and doesn’t anticipate its next shipment coming until next year.
All Library locations are out of stock of COVID-19 Test Kits. We do not anticipate additional delivery of test kits from @VDHgov until after the new year.
Please check back for updates.
Find info about testing around the region: https://t.co/uEUAxhw13y pic.twitter.com/2XTur6exfq— Arlington VA Pub Lib (@ArlingtonVALib) December 21, 2021
In an emailed statement, VDH attributed the gap in shipments to a combination of increased demand for testing, national supply chain issues, and the upcoming holidays:
Kit availability at a given location is subject to supply. VDH does not guarantee that all participating libraries will always have supply available. Additionally, demand spiked last week, over previous weeks. That along with the holiday and supply chain issues on a national level have impacted supplies. VDH continues to supply test kits to participating libraries; deliveries may be impacted by holiday closures or other factors.
FCPL will be closed this Friday and Saturday (Dec. 24-25) as well as New Year’s Eve and Day.
Pharmacies and COVID-19 testing sites across the country have reported overwhelming demand in recent days, with supplies slow to ramp up after manufacturers decreased production earlier this year. President Joe Biden is expected to announce a federal program today that will mail 500 million free at-home kits next year.
In the Fairfax Health District, testing encounters have climbed from a seven-day moving average of 3,620 on Nov. 28 to 6,075 as of Dec. 17, according to VDH data. Over that same time period, the rate of positive tests has increased from 4.6% to 7.4%.
While the Fairfax County Health Department primarily encourages testing for people who have COVID-19 symptoms or have encountered someone with symptoms or a positive diagnosis, there are a number of available testing sites, including some that provide free or low-cost options and accept individuals who don’t have insurance.
A woman alleges that Fairfax County police not only benefited from a sex trafficking ring that victimized her for years but also harmed efforts trying to stop it.
She is suing several former Fairfax County officers, including former Chief Ed Roessler, as well as the county itself. The lawsuit claims the woman — identified as a mother with the pseudonym Jane Doe — was forced to have sex with multiple men per day as part of a trafficking operation exposed in 2018 by an FBI investigation.
“Defendants also conspired to cover up the fact that Fairfax County police officers were actively participating in, and benefiting sexually if not financially from, the work of a local sex trafficking ring,” the lawsuit said.
The Fairfax County Police Department directed FFXnow to the county’s public affairs office, which declined to comment.
The suit alleged that two supervisory officers “actively facilitated” a sex trafficking ring by “providing it with protection intended to prevent discovery of, and appropriate law enforcement intervention into.”
The woman’s attorneys filed a 19-page amended complaint in federal court Thursday (Dec. 16), expanding on an initial nine-page complaint filed in October. The updated document names the officers allegedly involved and alleges that the FCPD damaged a county detective’s work and dismissed his report involving police’s actions.
The suit relates to a prostitution ring run by Hazel Marie Sanchez Cerdas, who brought multiple women from Costa Rica to the U.S. and forced them into commercial sex work in Fairfax County and across the country. Cerdas pleaded guilty to felony racketeering and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in August 2019, with credit for time served.
According to the amended complaint, a friend connected the woman with Sanchez Cerdas, who coordinated her travel in 2010 from Costa Rica. The woman believed she would work as a nanny, housekeeper, or social escort, going on dates to business dinners and events with wealthy men.
Under the belief that she was taking a two-week trip, the woman met Sanchez Cerdas in a Fairfax apartment in 2010. Sanchez Cerdas took her travel documents and threatened her family if she didn’t work as a prostitute, according to the lawsuit.
She was allowed to leave for certain time periods, but under the threat that her family could be harmed if she didn’t return. She escaped in 2015.
Detective Says Police Extorted Sex
A former detective for the county, William Woolf, worked in the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, but the FCPD repeatedly interfered with and jeopardized his work, according to the lawsuit.
When he tried to change his supervisor and report issues to a captain, he received no support from the department, according to the amended complaint.
“Det. Woolf said that trafficking victims, who trusted him, had reported to him that FCPD police officers were extorting sex from the trafficking enterprises they were also protecting,” the lawsuit said.
According to the complaint, superiors disparagingly called Woolf a social worker, and a lieutenant told him to “think about” his kids and not talk about human trafficking. The department later reassigned him to its Major Crimes Division, after which “trafficking cases stopped receiving the manpower and allocation of resources that had earlier supported this work.”
“Police officials regularly derided the notion that trafficked women were victims, insisting instead that they were simply prostitutes willingly engaged in unlawful commercial activity,” the suit said.
The suit also alleges that police tipped Sanchez Cerdas off to sting operations. The FBI investigated at least two officers for corruption but ultimately referred the matter to the FCPD for follow-up, according to the lawsuit.
Fairfax County Public Schools is moving to give its workers collective bargaining powers.
An FCPS webpage launched Friday (Dec. 17) explains that the school system is developing an ordinance establishing the scope and rules of collective bargaining, which will enable labor unions to negotiate pay, benefits, and working conditions for their members.
Work on the proposed draft ordinance is expected to continue until the end of January. The text could be released for public comment in February or March, Fairfax Education Association President Kimberly Adams told FFXnow.
A union representing FCPS teachers and support staff, including bus drivers, custodians, nurses, and cafeteria workers, the FEA says it is confident that the school board will adopt an ordinance allowing collective bargaining.
“We have waited for 44 years, and the time is now to pass a strong ordinance,” Adams said in a statement. “Our students’ learning conditions are our working conditions and we want to remain the school district that people love to work and learn in.”
Local government workers in Virginia had been prohibited from collective bargaining since 1977 until the General Assembly passed legislation allowing localities to authorize the practice during its spring 2020 session.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance for general county government employees on Oct. 19, but FCPS needs to create a separate policy for its employees. The school system has 24,839 full-time workers, according to its website.
The state law still prohibits government workers from striking, and even if FCPS adopts a collective bargaining ordinance, union membership won’t be required for employees, since Virginia remains a right-to-work state.
FCPS says it’s unclear how the introduction of collective bargaining will affect current employees and their pay, but the process for negotiating agreements in the future will be aligned with the school system’s annual budget timeline.
The Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, a union open to all FCPS teachers and other non-administrative, non-supervisory employees, says it has been working with FCPS to develop a resolution “that is inclusive and flexible for all members” since the 2020 Virginia law took effect on May 1.
“Throughout our sessions our bargaining team has fought for a broad and open bargaining scope that helps to establish school staff’s right to negotiate hours and scheduling, compensation, health, retirement, all working conditions and other benefits,” FCFT President Tina Williams said by email. “As we bargain to build power in our county, we will continue to fight to guarantee our members’ voices are included throughout the entirety of the process.”
The FEA and FCFT are among several school employee organizations in a collective bargaining work group created by FCPS earlier this year. The group convened for the first time on Sept. 30 and is expected to continue meeting every few weeks through January.
“FEA has been at each session, ready to advocate for our member’s needs and build partnerships that achieve our interests,” Adams said. “We look forward to the final draft and a strong vote from our school board.”
The novel coronavirus is spreading exponentially in Fairfax County, outpacing even last winter’s surge.
The Fairfax County Health Department reported 569 COVID-19 cases this morning (Monday) for the Fairfax Health District, which includes the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, pushing the total for the pandemic up to 102,362 cases.
The district has recorded 4,229 hospitalizations and 1,238 deaths, including 10 since last Monday.
It’s only the second time since early February that the district has topped 500 new cases in a single day. The first time came on Saturday (Dec. 18), when there were 512 cases, according to Virginia Department of Health data.
Fairfax County alone is now averaging 392 cases per day for the past week — a sixfold increase since Nov. 10, when the weekly average had dropped to 58.7 cases after the late-summer, delta variant-fueled wave.
Though local health officials expressed hope last week that the area’s relatively high vaccination rates would prevent a surge of the intensity seen last winter, the current seven-day average is actually higher than it was exactly one year ago (381.3 cases), and the rise in transmission has come more rapidly, occurring over one month instead of two.
As of Friday (Dec. 17), the VDH has only confirmed two infections tied to the omicron variant, including one in Northern Virginia, but the speed with which cases have climbed in the past two weeks reflects the trajectory that the variant has taken elsewhere.
Scientists currently estimate that omicron spreads at two to three times the rate of the delta variant, which remains the dominant strain nationally. Omicron is starting to make headway, though, going from 0.4% of cases in the U.S. during the week of Dec. 4 to 2.9% of cases the week of Dec. 11.
Fortunately, early research suggests infections stemming from the omicron variant tend to be milder, and while they appear to be less effective, vaccinations still provide some protection, especially when reinforced with a booster shot.
The number of vaccine doses administered among Fairfax Health District residents has exceeded 2 million after this past weekend.
According to VDH data, 933,875 residents, or 81.4% of the population, have received at least one dose, including 91.7% of people 18 and older. 831,306 residents — 72.4% of the population — are fully vaccinated, including 82.5% of adults.
In addition, a quarter (25.7%) of district residents have gotten a third dose or booster shot, which amounts to 295,006 people. That includes 33.3% of adults.
Local health officials say vaccinations should be combined with the other mitigation measures, like masking and social distancing, that have become common practice during the pandemic.
“We cannot let our guard down and must remain vigilant in our practice of all of these measures to the best of our ability,” Fairfax County Health Director Dr. Gloria Addo-Ayensu said in a statement last week. “Everyone eligible for the vaccine or a booster should get vaccinated, social distance, wear a mask while indoors in public settings, and wash their hands frequently.”
Changes to Virginia’s gas tax and transit fees will eventually bring savings to Fairfax County bus riders facing financial hardships.
Customized Fairfax Connector bus passes will cut fares in half for low-income riders with a new program that might begin this coming summer, county staff told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at a transportation committee meeting on Tuesday (Dec. 14).
The county plans to reduce fares for people with incomes up to 225% of the federal poverty level. That would put the eligibility cap around $29,000 for an individual or $59,625 for a family of four.
Residents of Fairfax County as well as the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church will be eligible.
The county’s transportation staff is working with the Department of Family Services and Housing and Community Development to get users of those services the discounted passes because they’ve already had their income screened. The county could later expand its outreach to others who qualify.
“I think this is going to be a great, great program once we get it piloted,” Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk said.
The county will receive $5.49 million in state funds to pilot the effort for three years as part of Virginia’s new Transit Ridership Incentive Program (TRIP), which supports projects that reduce barriers for low-income travelers or improve connectivity in urban areas, such as by creating dedicated bus lanes.
The grant program was created as part of a transit funding overhaul approved by Virginia General Assembly in 2020. The legislation also raised the gas tax by 5 cents per gallon on July 1, 2020 and again on July 1, 2021.
With about 30,000 daily riders, Fairfax Connector is the largest local bus system in Northern Virginia. It already offers free rides to middle and high school students, and the county temporarily suspended fares for all riders for part of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
County staff are slated to update the board on the reduced fare effort this spring.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay asked staff to return with more information about the cost of implementing and administering the program compared to “the cost of just waiving fares, period,” noting that some neighboring localities are looking at eliminating fares.
“I support this needs-based one, given the size and complexity of ours,” McKay said. “But I do think we need to know what the administrative cost of this is and weigh that against a larger, maybe more aggressive way to provide transit as something that our residents in need can utilize.”
Human remains found near Route 1 earlier this week could be the victim of a possible serial killer, the Fairfax County Police Department says.
Police say the remains were found Wednesday (Dec. 15) in a container near a shopping cart in the 2400 block of Fairhaven Avenue in the Alexandria area. The surrounding area is described as isolated and wooded.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis will share details this afternoon about evidence that police have gathered suggesting the dead individual is the victim of a serial killer, with four bodies discovered across the state since August, according to a media alert.
Kelley Warner, the chief of police for the City of Harrisonburg, will also be present at the news conference, which will be held at 1:15 p.m. today (Friday) in the Public Safety Headquarters (12099 Government Center Parkway).
The conference will be livestreamed on the FCPD’s Facebook page.
As Fairfax County prepares for a “likely” wave of omicron infections, officials are cautiously optimistic that vaccination rates and the potentially less-severe illness caused by the variant may prevent a surge like what was seen last winter.
Fairfax County Health Department Director Dr. Gloria Addo-Ayensu and epidemiologist Dr. Ben Schwartz lauded the county’s vaccination rates in a status update for the Board of Supervisors’ health and human services committee on Tuesday (Dec. 14).
At the same time, the officials urged residents to get their booster shots in anticipation of already-rising case rates getting accelerated by the omnicron variant that’s quickly spreading around the globe.
While early research suggests the variant is more transmissible and has an increased ability to infect those who are already vaccinated, officials remain hopeful that Fairfax County can avoid a winter surge as drastic as the one seen a year ago.
“We are likely to have an omicron wave here,” said Schwartz. “[But] what we are hearing so far about omicron is that there are fewer hospitalizations.”
The COVID-19 vaccines, particularly booster shots, help prevent severe illness, the experts note. As of yesterday (Wednesday), nearly 69% of all Fairfax Health District residents were considered fully vaccinated, one of the highest rates in the D.C. area.
But that doesn’t mean residents no longer need to be cautious or careful during the holiday season.
“Even if most infections are mild, a highly transmissible variant could result in enough cases to overwhelm the health care systems,” Schwartz said.
Booster shots are being highly recommended as well as continuing to mask indoors, even if it’s technically no longer required.
“We’ve got to stay with the mitigation efforts,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said. “I know everyone is exhausted with them, but now is no time to let our guard down.”
Omicron aside, hospitalizations and deaths are currently down across the county, with officials crediting vaccinations.
In addition, while infections were once higher among communities of color compared to the county’s white population, those rates have since more or less evened out.
“This is…a consequence of vaccination, where Hispanics in Fairfax County have a higher vaccination coverage rate than other racial and ethnic groups,” Schwartz said.
Children between the ages of 5 and 9 currently have the highest rate of infection, likely due to that age group just being approved for vaccines a little over a month ago.
Cases within Fairfax County Public Schools, though, have remained very low, according to county health department statistics. Just 0.76% of all students have contracted COVID-19 since late September. The rate is highest among elementary school students, likely due to the delay in vaccination approval.
To this point, 40 school outbreaks have occurred, which are classified as three or more cases within a class or group, but no schools have had to close due to COVID-19.
“This should be proclaimed very widely to the community. These school numbers…are a massive success,” McKay said.
A coalition that tried to recall school board member Elaine Tholen has filed another recall petition, this time for school board member Laura Jane Cohen.
Open FCPS Coalition says it’s seeking to remove the Springfield District representative over Fairfax County Public Schools’ pandemic response. Dee O’Neal Jackson, the group’s founder, said in a statement that the school board has failed students during the pandemic, especially those with learning disabilities.
“We hope the Court recognizes the concerns of these 8,000 residents and requires Ms. Cohen to explain why the concerns of these parents are invalid,” the group said in a statement, stating that it filed the 8,000-plus signatures collected for the petition on Friday (Dec. 10) at the Fairfax County Courthouse.
Open FCPS Coalition has gathered signatures against multiple school board members and previously noted concerns with school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Open FCPS Coalition formed in fall 2020 to protest Fairfax County Public Schools going virtual during the pandemic and campaigned to recall Tholen, who represents Dranesville District, and Member-at-Large Abrar Omeish.
Cohen noted Tholen’s case was summarily dismissed after a special prosecutor said he had investigated the allegations in the petition and found that none of them could be substantiated.
“Allowing public officials to be recalled over policy disagreements unnecessarily politicizes their work,” Cohen said in a statement. “Virginia law is clear: differences of opinion over matters of policy are simply not grounds for removal from office.”
While the Open FCPS Coalition describes itself as a grassroots, bipartisan group concerned with keeping politics out of schools, it’s received funding contributions from former Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete Snyder and N2 America, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing center-right policies in the suburbs.
Open FCPS Coalition previously said only one school board member, Braddock District representative Megan McLaughlin, advocated for reopening in a way it felt was consistent and a priority.
“The Board has worked hard to ensure the safety and health of our 180,000 students and tens of thousands of teachers and staff during the pandemic,” Cohen said in a statement. “I’m proud that we’ve been able to successfully return and keep students in our buildings this year and provide a much more normal school experience in spite of the pandemic related challenges all systems are facing.”
Fairfax County’s growth has come with deadly and dangerous roads for pedestrians, congestion for drivers, and other consequences that planning leaders hope to reverse.
At a Tysons committee meeting on Thursday (Dec. 9), the Fairfax County Planning Commission cited downtown Falls Church, Merrifield’s Mosaic District, and Reston Town Center as examples of what developers and governments should strive to make: mixed-use communities where people can live, shop, work, and play.
Deputy County Executive Rachel Flynn said the emergence of major thoroughfares, shopping meccas, and other projects have dramatically changed how pedestrians interact with streets, which were increasingly built with the goal of getting vehicles from point A to point B as quickly as possible.
“We shifted how we built…our roads,” she said, noting how 100 years ago, pedestrians shared roads with bicycles, horses, streetcars, and automobiles, and speed limits were about the same pace as pedestrians themselves.
She said streets used to be considered “owned” by everyone, used for everything from a marketplace for businesses to playground for kids.
“Everybody got to use the street equally,” she said.
Is Mixed-Use Development Helping?
Mixed-use projects like Reston Town Center and the Mosaic District present an alternate path forward that more consciously balances the needs of different road users, Flynn said, pointing to The Boro in Tysons, Comstock’s Reston Station, and the upcoming Halley Rise complex in Reston as other examples.
“Whenever you see people just walking in the street, you know you’ve a great street. You know it’s safe,” Flynn said.
Suggesting their walkability is closer to what might be seen in a city, she said these projects have proven successful for developers and the public, creating places where people want to live as well as destinations.
However, with lower parking requirements and other measures aimed at reducing vehicles, such projects haven’t always come with community support. The pending Campus Commons redevelopment caused an uproar over congestion at Wiehle Avenue and ultimately included changes to accommodate concerns.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors also recently approved an expansion of The Boro that some feel lacks sufficient accessibility accommodations and traffic controls, particularly across Westpark and Greensboro drives.
How We Got Here
Fairfax County’s road network is hardly alone in privileging cars, with everyone else as an afterthought.
With the rise of mass-produced vehicles, the automobile industry campaigned to change how streets were used and designed. Lobby groups pushed the term jaywalker to shift blame for crashes onto pedestrians, and the rise of highways and sprawling suburbs in the mid-20th century — not to mention some conspiring by oil and car companies like General Motors and Standard Oil — led to the demise of rail-based transit systems.
As time went on, regions across the country expanded lanes to allow more vehicles to travel, but as the D.C. region knows all too well, those changes can have the opposite effect, accommodating congestion that brings traffic to a stop.
Flynn noted that 71% of people drive alone to work in Fairfax County — a number she says the county should “get down to 50%” by including multimodal improvements in road and development projects.
“We’re not going to widen our way out of this,” she said.
What Could Happen Next
To establish a more comprehensive vision for walking, bicycling, and other non-motorized forms of travel, the county started developing an ActiveFairfax Transportation Plan last year.
Expected to be completed at the end of 2022, the project incorporates a “Complete Streets” concept that emphasizes safety and mobility for all road users and prompted the creation of a Safe Streets for All initiative.
Some options for improving street safety in dense population centers like Tysons and Reston include slowing speeds between 25 to 35 mph, limiting certain roads to six thru-lanes, adding on-street parking, and pursuing other ways to calm traffic, Flynn said.
She wants the county to make “beautiful boulevards,” not “car sewers.” Addressing I-95 congestion and the use of Route 1 in the Lorton area to bypass problems, Flynn suggested the county could rethink how to discourage cut-through traffic.
“We’d be glad to have you,” she said. “You can come here, but it’s going to take you a little longer and this is our main street. This is not our 95 anymore.”
Flynn also said inadequate crosswalks create problems, noting that seniors, people of color, and poorer people are disproportionately among the pedestrians killed in crashes, according to D.C. advocacy group Smart Growth America.
Planning Commission representatives expressed their support for a less car-centered mindset, saying they would like involve the Virginia Department of Transportation and other organizations in discussions.
At-Large Commissioner Timothy Sargeant said the county’s planners have already changed their thinking, embracing seemingly bad grades for traffic efficiency.
With fatal crashes, merchants losing business, and limited space for development, several cities have shifted away from the volume-based metric are highlighting another model: reducing vehicle miles traveled.
Flynn also suggested infrastructure improvements can help create a sense of place and show people “we care about you,” praising the presence and beauty of the Arlington Memorial Bridge.
