Construction work on the Jones Branch Connector is set to finish this spring.

The bridge over I-495 connects the North Central and Tysons East neighborhoods and is undergoing a $60 million project that will add two travel lanes and on-street bike lanes in each direction.

The two travel lanes in each direction have opened already, Mike Murphy, a Virginia Department of Transportation spokesperson, told Tysons Reporter.

Now, the bike lanes and sidewalks are left.

“Weather permitting, the bicycle lanes and sidewalks will open to traffic within the next couple months,” Murphy told Tysons Reporter.

The project is still on track for spring 2020 completion, Murphy said.

Rent the Runway is coming to Tysons Corner Center later this month for a pop-up show.

From Jan. 16 to 26, shoppers can sample items and purchase designer goods such as handbags, clothes and accessories for up to 90% off.

At the shop, there will be items from designers like ML Monique Lhuillier, Diane von Furstenberg, Badgley Mischka, Opening Ceremony, VEDA, Derek Lam 10 Crosby and more, according to the event’s Facebook page.

The hours of operation will be Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.

The pop-up will be located inside of the mall near parking Terrace E.

Anyone who RSVPs on the event’s Facebook page will receive an extra 15% off their purchase.

This event is free and open to the public.

Photo via Rent the Runway/Facebook

For the ninth year in a row, people can taste chocolate from local chocolatiers at an annual festival in McLean.

The McLean Chocolate Festival is a fundraiser for the Rotary Club of McLean — proceeds go to local organizations.

Last year, the festival raised more than $21,000 people and had more than 3,100 attendees, according to the website.

The festival is set to take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 26 at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Avenue).

Attendees can expect a children’s game room and live entertainment. Admission is $2, but kids ages 3 and under can attend for free.

Photo via Burke & Herbert Bank/Facebook

The Vienna Town Council has delayed consideration of giving up certain alleys due to concerns over buffers between residential and commercial areas.

Earlier this week, the council was set to vote on requests for alley vacation for property adjacent to 108-110 Church Street NE and behind 207 Center Street N.

Mayor Laurie DiRocco said at the meeting on Monday that the town staff does not need the land for public use. However, several council members raised objection to considering the fate of the alleys.

“People are upset about development and they want to see some buffers,” Councilmember Howard Springsteen said. “Do we want to give up these buffers?”

The conversation about buffers recently ignited when Wawa cut down trees it wasn’t supposed to. Residents said the trees would have been a buffer between the residential area and the upcoming store at 245 Maple Avenue W.

“I’m really reluctant to give up alleys right now,” Springsteen said, saying that the Wawa incident has raised issues about having buffers between commercial and residential areas.

The alley for Church Street is between commercial areas, while the Center Street one is between commercial and residential areas.

Town Attorney Steven Briglia urged a delay on the vote to allow for more time to discover the property records for the alleys.

“Some of the old alleys, we’re not sure how we got them,” Briglia said.

“We don’t have a plan or idea of how or to what extent in what manner any given alley or easement is specifically useful to the Town of Vienna in whole,” Councilmember Douglas Noble said.

Noble said that the town needs a systematic approach for retaining or selling the undeveloped sections of right-of-way.

“We need to have a larger conversation about this before we start knocking off one property here, one property there,” Noble said.

Councilmember Pasha Majdi requested that the council postpone the proposal until after Town Manager Mercury Payton provides an update on an internal review about communication with residents about construction incidents.

Image via Town of Vienna

A power outage is affecting 144 Dominion Energy customers near the intersection of Georgetown Pike and the Beltway (I-495).

The outage is mostly north of Old Dominion Drive between Swinks Mill and Spring Hill roads.

Crews are investigating the cause of the outage, and customers can expect power to come back between 4-7 p.m., according to the Dominion Energy power outage map.

Peggy Fox, a Dominion Energy spokesperson, told Tysons Reporter that the outage was first reported at 11:55 a.m.

Map via Dominion Energy 

Get ready to bundle up if you venture outside this afternoon — forecasters expect a windy day.

The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for Fairfax County and surrounding areas. The advisory says people can expect west winds from 20-25 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 mph from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Forecasts say the temperature will be around the low 40s today — which could feel more like the 20s with wind.

More from NWS:

* WHERE…Portions of The District of Columbia, central, north central and northern Maryland and northern and northwest Virginia.

* WHEN…From 11 AM this morning to 5 PM EST this afternoon.

* IMPACTS…Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.

People are advised to be cautious while driving and to secure outdoor objects.

A Wind Advisory has been issued for areas along and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the DC metro areas and northward until 5 pm today. Check our website: https://t.co/CJFhYzBvKR for more information. pic.twitter.com/AkvYuLs22Y

— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) January 8, 2020

Just days before the deadline, Congress passed legislation benefiting small liquor distilleries by extending a tax break that was set to expire on Dec. 31, 2019.

The tax break legislation was first passed in 2017 and only originally guaranteed a decrease through the end of 2019.

But, instead of indefinite decrease that groups like the American Craft Spirits Association were hoping for, the tax decrease was simply extended for another year — until Dec. 31, 2020.

The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act lowered the Federal Excise Taxes (FET) for owners of distilleries from $13.50 to $2.70 per gallon — allowing business owners to reinvest that money by expanding their ventures and hiring more staff.

More than 2,000 distillers across the country — including Falls Church Distillers — benefit from the tax break, according to a press release from the American Craft Spirits Association.

“Though FET permanence is critical to the long-term success of our industry and the peripheral industries we support, including U.S. agriculture and hospitality, today we celebrate a small but critical victory,” Margie Lehrman, the CEO of ACSA, said in the press release.

According to a survey by Forbes of 100 members of the ACSA, half of the respondents said that they would have made staffing cuts if the taxes had risen. Others said that they would have cut production, increased prices or halted expansion to compensate for the tax rise.

Michael Paluzzi, the owner of Falls Church Distillers, said in a previous interview with Tysons Reporter that the tax break allowed him to hire new employees and expand his prospects for growth past NoVA into surrounding areas.

Paluzzi had been working with ACSA since July to push lawmakers for a permanent tax decrease. He originally told Tysons Reporter that though he was hoping that Congress would permanently lower the tax, he was also aware that this outcome was a possibility.

The renewal of the lower tax rate was packaged with other legislation, allowing it to be fast-tracked before it expired.

“Tomorrow, we will again shift gears to focus on permanent tax relief and long-term parity with our friends in craft beer and wine,” Lehrman said.

Photo via Dylan de Jonge/Unsplash

The City of Falls Church is pitching in to help Creative Cauldron launch its “Bold New Voices Musical Theater Festival” later this year.

The festival is set to run from April 27-May 6. “The goal of the festival is aimed at supporting musical theater works by women and women-identifying writers and composers,” according to the website.

Creative Cauldron received $2,500 in city funding with a $2,500 match from the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA) for the festival, along with $13,437 in city funding for an operational grant, according to a press release from the city.

Creative Cauldron was one of six local groups that received grants for arts-related activities and support.

“The Falls Church City Council recently approved a recommendation from the Arts and Humanities Grant committee to allocate $45,000 in funding for arts and cultural grants for fiscal year 2019-2020,” the press release said. “An additional $4,500 was funded through a grant from the [VCA].”

Of the 12 total grants, five are operational ones, while seven are for projects, including:

Recipients include Creative Cauldron, Falls Church Arts, The Little City CATCH Foundation, Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, Washington Sinfonietta, and Welcoming Falls Church. Details on their projects and operational needs are listed below:

• Falls Church Arts: $2,016 in city funds with a $500 VCA match to improve event capacity outside the studio
• Falls Church Arts: $2,000 in city funds with a $1,500 VCA match to support increased capacity for studio classes
• The Little City CATCH Foundation: $4,784 in city funds for Watch Night
• Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation: $5,000 in city funds for promoting the 2019 Tinner Hill Blues Festival
• Washington Sinfonietta: $416 in city funds to support a free holiday concert at the Falls Church Episcopal Church
• Welcoming Falls Church: $2,284 in city funds for the Welcoming Week initiative about the contemporary immigrant experience

Currently, Creative Cauldron has a call for submissions through Friday (Jan. 10) for the festival and plans to select three to five new works, along with several finalists.

“One final musical will be chosen by our resident artistic team at the end of the festival to have a fully funded production staged as part of Creative Cauldron’s 2020-2021 season,” according to Creative Cauldron.

Image via Creative Cauldron/Facebook

It’s a snow day for students in Fairfax County Public Schools.

FCPS tweeted this morning that schools will be closed today instead of opening late.

School offices and central offices will be open by 11 a.m., according to the tweet.

Icy roads from yesterday’s snow prompted the closure this morning, FCPS tweeted.

The change in FCPS’ operating status for today is due to the hazardous travel conditions that remain in various parts of the county at this hour, especially on secondary roads.

— Fairfax Schools 🌟 (@fcpsnews) January 8, 2020

Today’s snow has prompted the cancellation of events around the Tysons area this evening.

In Falls Church and the Town of Vienna, the recreation and parks departments canceled activities after 4 p.m., according to press releases from the city.

The Falls Church City Hall is set to close at 5 p.m., while the community center will close at 10 p.m. and the library will close at 9 p.m. — their regular hours. In Vienna, the community center and town hall are also expected to remain open.

Residents in the Little City can expect their trash, recycling and compost collection to occur on Wednesday.

In Vienna, the Windover Heights Board of Review meeting set for tonight has been canceled.

The public hearing on the newly proposed Capital Improvement Program set for tonight at Jackson Middle School (3020 Gallows Road) has been rescheduled to Monday, Jan. 27, at 5:30 p.m., according to a tweet from Fairfax County Public Schools.

Parks and rec programs and classes beginning at 4 pm or later today have been canceled. Community center and Town Hall will remain open until normal closing times. This evening's Windover Heights Board of Review meeting has been canceled. Info: https://t.co/cNIqI0dObA. pic.twitter.com/YrUyd34BXx

— Town of Vienna, VA (@TownofViennaVA) January 7, 2020

SNOW UPDATES AT 4:30 PM ON 1/7 :: all previously scheduled Rec & Parks activities after 4PM are cancelled due to weather. City Govt. facilities open tonight with normal hours (@mrsplfc closing at 9PM & Community Center closing at 10PM). pic.twitter.com/2JxhfhTh9A

— City of Falls Church (@FallsChurchGov) January 7, 2020