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!

Monday (Nov. 4)

• Kids STEM Workshop — 9 a.m. at Kilmer Middle School (8100 Wolftrap Road) — Since Fairfax County Public Schools are out of session on Monday (Nov. 4) and Tuesday (Nov. 5), this is an opportunity for students in grades four through six to learn more about math and science opportunities. The tickets are $50.

Tuesday (Nov. 5)

• Jedi Academy — 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Nova Fencing Club (3431 Carlin Springs Road) — Kids will have the opportunity to lean the basics of fencing from “Jedi Masters” at the Nova Fencing Club while using lightsabers. The cost of this camp is $80.

Friday (Nov. 8)

• “The Jungle Book“— 7:30 p.m. at Creative Cauldron (410 S. Maple Avenue) — This production of “The Jungle Book” features Creative Cauldron’s Learning Theater program and will tell the story of the beloved children’s tale. Tickets start at $16 for students and are $20 for adults.

Saturday (Nov. 9)

• Barre and Brunch — 11:30 a.m. at Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street) — This pop-up exercise class will give attendees a chance to participate in a barre workout class while enjoying food and drinks at Falls Church Distillers. Tickets are $35 and include a bloody mary or mimosa.
• Book Binding & Foil Stamping Workshop — 2 to 4 p.m. at Botanologica (817 W. Broad Street) — For this event attendees will learn to make their own book and 10 foil stamped thank you cards. The tickets are $75.
• TEDx Tysons — 10 a.m. at 1st Stage Theater (1524 Spring Hill Road) — An independently organized event, this Ted Talk will feature “Doorways” and talk about transitions and thresholds in life. Tickets start at $45.
• Muslimah Fest — 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center (3159 Row Street) — This empowerment and networking event celebrates strong women in the community. It will feature motivational lectures, talks, a modesty fashion show, quranic recitation, food, short films by Muslim women, beauty and health tips and spoken word poetry.

Photo via Nova Fencing Club

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue wants to educate locals on how to prevent fires with sprinklers following a fire in Tysons.

Fire investigators say that combustible material left on top of a stove caused the fire on Sunday (Nov. 3).

The fire occurred in the 1500 block Boyd Pointe Way — the same block that houses the Adaire Apartments.

“Crews found [the] small fire extinguished by [a] fire sprinkler in kitchen on [the] 22nd floor,” the fire department tweeted.

No one was injured, according to the fire department. The fire caused $250 worth of damages.

“Without sprinklers, fire growth is unrestricted,” according to a video the fire department tweeted out, adding that fire sprinklers can control deadly heat and flames and give people time to escape.

Map via Google Maps

(Updated at 8:30 p.m.) As plans move forward on the Vienna Police Department’s new police station, Vienna officials are now figuring out where the police station will relocate.

The town has been reviewing designs for the new police station at 215 S. Center Street for the last few months.

Town Attorney Steven Briglia told the town’s Planning Commission at the end of October that the police department has a spot in mind for the temporary relocation.

Briglia said that the town fortuitously acquired a piece of property at 440 Beulah Road that has a house in spring 2018.

“We acquired that piece of property because it makes sense. It’s right next to the entrance there. It squares up the lot and it makes a prime piece of public property even better,” Briglia said.

While the police detectives are working in the basement of Town Hall and plan to stay there until the new station is finished, Briglia said that the Beulah Street house is a good spot to relocate the police department.

“It turns out it might be — the chief thinks it’s a good spot for a temporary relocation of the police department — at least some of the operations there,” Briglia said.

Construction on the new station is expected to last two years, Briglia said.

While there’s a “zoning snag” that would complicate the Planning Commission approving the relocation to the site, Briglia said that the town “doesn’t really have any other facility” for the police department to use.

The Planning Commission gets to decide if it wants to recommend approval of the temporary site use to the Board of Zoning Appeals, Briglia told Tysons Reporter.

“We have to have a police department headquarters somewhere,” Briglia said.

Map via Google Maps, images via Town of Vienna

Updated 7/11/19 — A spokesperson for Lord and Taylor said that the store will close in January. 

Shoppers can find big discounts at Lord and Taylor before the department store closes at Tysons Corner Center.

“Store closing” signs say that customers can take advantage of a 20-40% discount on everything in the store. As of this morning (Monday), employees could be seen clearing out a few display cases but the location seemed to be fully stocked otherwise.

Lord and Taylor offers clothing, shoes, apparel and accessories for men, women and kids. Shoppers preparing for the winter season can find discounts on seasonal items such as gloves, coats and boots, along with everything else in the store. For example, a women’s bright yellow coat that would normally cost $300 is on sale for $240.

Tysons Reporter received conflicting reports from staff on why the store was closing but Business Insider reported earlier this year that up to 10 Lord and Taylor stores in the U.S. could close by the end of the year — including the flagship store in New York. It is unclear if the closing in Tysons Corner Center is related.

Todd Putt, a spokesperson for the mall, sent Tysons Reporter the following statement:

Lord and Taylor represents very attractive real estate at Tysons Corner Center and we are enthusiastic about future uses that will continue [to] add incredible energy to The Plaza.

And their decision to close at our center is not reflective of our business. Just in time for the holidays, we’re opening some exciting new brands, including Abercrombie Kids, Beauty Nail Bar, Roots, Helzberg Diamonds’ expansion, and much more!

Across our portfolio, Macerich has a strong track record of reimagining former big box spaces into creative, far more productive new uses. This includes not only fresh and exciting retail, but also entertainment, offices and other new experiences that are a real fit with what people want today. We see the same happening here at Tysons Corner Center.

Alexandra Cohen, a spokesperson for Lord and Taylor, told Tysons Reporter that decisions to close stores “are never easy, but they are the right ones for the company.”

“We are committed to treating every associate with respect and fairness through this process; all eligible associates will receive appropriate employment separation packages and transfer opportunities will be explored where feasible,” Cohen said.

The Vienna Police Department received a call last week about a man who allegedly threw a martini glass that cracked one of Ristorante Bonaroti’s windows.

“An employee reported that a customer was sitting outside of the restaurant when he became irate and threw a martini glass,” according to the police report. “The glass cracked an exterior window of the restaurant.”

The incident occurred around noon on Sunday (Oct. 27) at 428 E. Maple Avenue.

“When employees began to call the police, the customer became more upset, making vague threats regarding the police,” the report said.

The man was gone before officers arrived.

Image via Google Maps

Absentee Ballots Rushed to Voters — “Roughly 1,300 new ballots were sent out Oct. 16 and 17 to accommodate the new Republican candidate, Eric Anthony Jones, on the ballot, Fairfax County’s general registrar Gary Scott told the News-Press.” [Falls Church News-Press]

Advisory Firm Moves to Tysons — Capstone Strategic, Inc. announced Friday that it has moved to 8521 Leesburg Pike, Suite 230. [Benzinga]

Facebook Considered Tysons For New Spot — “Social media giant Facebook Inc. has reached a deal to take a large block of office space in Reston Town Center after weighing other potential locations, including Tysons.” [Washington Business Journal]

Calling All Volunteers — “The City Council is looking for seven volunteers to join the newly-created Stormwater Task Force, which will update the list of stormwater improvement projects in the City’s Watershed Management Plan.” [City of Falls Church]

New Glass Recycling Container in Vienna — “We worked with Fairfax County to get our very own exclusively glass purple recycling container that is hungry and waiting at its location on Mill Street NE in the gravel shoulder next to Capitol Building Supply.” [Town of Vienna]

Car Crash Closed McLean Road — The 1800 block of Great Falls Street in McLean was closed due to a car crash on Sunday. The road has now reopened. [Fairfax County Police Department]

A Vienna family is raising a furry friend before he moves to New York — in search of a larger purpose.

Jennifer and Ellie Butler, a mother and daughter pair, volunteered to foster a dog under Guiding Eyes, a New York-based organization that pairs guide dogs with people who need them.

Percy, a black labrador, arrived at their doorstep in May when he was just a little over 12-weeks-old and now is in the midst of by-weekly general training, the Butlers said.

The family decided to participate in the program after a suggestion from 18-year-old Ellie, who offered to take on the primary responsibility for Percy. Ellie was inspired by the documentary “Pick of the Litter,” Jennifer said.

Jennifer said the pair splits up the work. Jennifer brings Percy to work and Ellie takes care of him after she gets off from Flint Hill High School at 3 p.m.

Once a week, Percy will attend doggie school and has the chance to play with about a dozen other local guide dogs in training, Jennifer said. Percy is a “very good boy” because he listens to commands, stays in his crate at night, doesn’t eat before he is given permission and doesn’t bark, she added.

“You could tell people already worked with him by the time we got him,” Jennifer said.

Guiding Eyes provides guide dogs to those in need — free of charge, according to their website. They also cover all of the costs for foster families except for the food, Jennifer said.

Going forward, Percy will move to New York sometime this summer for specialized training.

He will take an aptitude test to determine what his path will be, Jennifer said, adding that she could see him helping law enforcement because of his strong nose or assisting children because of his calm personality.

“I think he’d do well with just about anyone as long as they love him,” Ellie said.

The love given to Percy from the Butlers has been reciprocal, the family said.

“I’ve always been a little shy until I got this dog. You have to speak out for the dog since they don’t have a voice,” Ellie said. “I learned to speak up and be more outgoing.”

Ellie hopes to foster another Guiding Eyes dog in the future, she said.

“With Percy leaving, I thought at the beginning, ‘Oh it’s going to be fine,'” Jennifer said.  “But we’ve grown to love him.”

Photo courtesy Guiding Eyes

To prepare for the upcoming election, Tysons Reporter looked into how Board of Supervisor candidates in Fairfax County are funding their campaigns. 

Both Democrats in the races for the Providence and Dranesville District Supervisor seats have much larger war chests than their Republican opponents by thousands of dollars.

Tysons Reporter took a look at where the donations to the four candidates’ campaigns are coming from.

Providence District Supervisor Race 

Democrat Dalia Palchik has raised just roughly $110,000 in monetary campaign contributions. 

Major donors include the Jefferson Village Association LP — real estate developers in Bethesda, Md. who have donated $25,000 — and Alison Georgelas, a managing consultant at IBM, with $5,000.

Palchik also received smaller amounts from individuals or organizations like the Fairfax County Professional Firefighters and Paramedics — IAFF Local 2068, who donated $1,500 and openly endorsed her. 

Karl Frisch, who is running for the Providence District seat on the Fairfax County School Board, assisted Palchik with in-kind donations including campaign buttons costing $260.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), around $34,000 of Palchik’s campaign funds came from construction or real estate groups. 

Besides political consulting, one of Palchik’s largest expenses was a $1,700 food tab at Inca Social for a fundraiser.

Republican Eric Jones only reported one $200 donation to his campaign from Andrew Finlayson, a retired veteran and member of the Republican Party in North Carolina. Jones told Tysons Reporter that he paid for the rest of his campaign expenses out of his own pocket.

So far, he spent $7,880 of the roughly $9,700 going towards his campaign.

Jones did not report any in-kind contributions and reportedly spent money on a P.O. box in Merrifield, political consulting and signage, among similar things.

Dranesville District Supervisor Race

This year, Democrat John Foust received $81,000 in monetary campaign contributions, according to campaign finance reports.

About $20,000 came from lawyers, according to VPAP.

Foust’s biggest donors so far include Fairfax County Professional Firefighters and Paramedics, who donated $5,500, and several McLean couples.

One couple has donated $9,500 — Sophia Lynn, the head of Crow’s Nest Research Center, gave $4,500, while appellate attorney David Frederick donated $5,000.

Wedding designer and decorator Prabha Bhambri, while Inder Jit Bhambri donated $4,000.

Karen DuVal, who owned a McLean property connected to the War of 1812 and the Civil War, donated $3,500.

He also received $3,000 from Felipe Rodriquez, the CEO of Sterling-based Aeronautical Systems.

Back in September, Foust spent about $1,200 on photoshoot expenses and about $2,300 on the production and design of walk cards.

Meanwhile, Republican Ed Martin — who has missed campaign finance deadlines — told Tysons Reporter that he’s raised about $3,000.

Two campaign finance reports covering April to the end of August say he didn’t raise or spend anything. A new campaign finance report, which was filed yesterday, says that he received $50 in September.

Martin provided Tysons Reporter photos of checks showing the Virginia Republican Victory Fund gave him $500 and the Patriot Republican Women’s Club gave him $50.

The election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Catherine Douglas Moran contributed to this story.

Local pups around Tysons sported some adorable costumes for Halloween.

Several dog parents sent in pictures of their pups dressed as hot dogs, Super Dog and many other cute costumes.

Because Tysons Reporter received so many photos, we split them up into two posts. Check out the gallery from yesterday for more photos, which features photos of dogs wearing their Nats gear, pretending to be a flamingo and dressed as Batdog.

Thank you to everyone who submitted pictures!

Editor’s Note — Tysons Reporter is running Q&As with the candidates running for the Dranesville and Providence District seats on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors this week. The stories have been lightly condensed and edited for clarity. 

Featured here is Democrat Dalia Palchik, who is running against Republican Eric Jones for the Providence District seat. 

Dalia Palchik currently serves as the Providence District Representative on the Fairfax County School Board. But next week, she’s hoping voters will choose her to represent the district on the Board of Supervisors.

Palchik grew up in the area after immigrating with her family to the United States at an early age from Argentina. She was elected to the school board in 2015 and currently chairs the Public Engagement Committee and is a liaison to the Planning Commission Schools Committee and the Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee.

Just days after current Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth announced in December that she wouldn’t seek election, Palchik jumped into the race.

She won the Democratic nomination back in June, promising “progressive leadership” for the entire community.

Tysons Reporter sat down with Palchik at Caboose Commons to speak with her about her priorities if she is elected.

Tysons Reporter: What would you do to tackle affordable housing?

Dalia Palchik: This is key. To me, this is the number one challenge we have here especially in the Tysons area.

We are at the point where it is not just non-profits and the government that want to tackle it, but the private sector knows that people like us can’t move here and afford to live here. Our workforce is having a hard time living close as well as those who are hoping to retire in place.

So yes, we are hoping to continue and grow the good work that is happening in the county. The county is starting to do affordable housing and we need to increase that. I really want us to have a master plan the way Arlington has a master plan to tackle that. But more specifically I think we really need to figure out how to work together with the government, the private sector and the non-profits to really expand.

We are not going to get the units we need in the region, we need over 300,000 units in our area. We absolutely have to work together. You are not going to get all those to unite just through public funding and government programs.

For me, it’s really listening and bringing different stakeholders to the table. I would form a working group or task force to tackle the issue from different aspects.

TR: What are the three ways you’re hoping to tackle climate change? 

Palchik: Number one, we are starting with this joint environmental taskforce. I sit on that committee now and that’s really looking to lead by example. This task force is looking at what the schools in the county can do.

The big area is looking at how we help incentivize and remove barriers on the private side for homeowners and businesses. One of those is C-PACE. C-PACE is a program that helps incentivize privately owned buildings to get some upfront funding to help increase their efficiency and the emissions that are going to be produced by their buildings.

Virginia, unfortunately, requires some changes at the General Assembly level. So that’s going to be the other thing, helping to get some of these bills through.

TR: What are your transportation project priorities?

Palchik: We need to figure out the last mile challenge, how do we help people of different abilities, income levels, have access to getting to public transit. I was just talking to a friend last night she said, “I am one mile to the Metro one way and a mile to the Metro another way and I don’t feel safe enough to bike.”

Number two is continuing to support and establish the Metro system that’s there, the expansions, working with WMATA to make sure our systems funded and that we increase ridership.

Tysons has been doing really well with the Silver Line and we want to see that across the board. I used to take it every day. Finally, figuring out that balance. Just the other day I was at a meeting for Route 50. You wanna make sure that people have alternative solutions.

TR: What is your plan for the budget? 

Palchik: Schools are number one. We need to continue to support and fund our schools. I also think we need to find ways to, first of all, fill some of our empty office space, diversify our economy, support small local businesses.

We need to make sure we are a county that supports and attracts larger businesses but also homegrown ones to increase our tax base. In the next couple of years, the Providence District is going to be more commercial than residential real-estate.

Number one beyond that is making sure we are leaders that our employees are paid well enough that they are able to live here, that they are supported and that we are not growing programs at the expense of those who work for us.

TR: The county is currently looking at adding a new school to Tysons. Is that enough to address capacity issues? What should be done for all the incoming students?

Palchik:  You bring up the word boundary changes, and it becomes a very contested and political challenge. I’ve had people ask me to redo a boundary around their home.

As a community, we need to make the best dest decision about what’s best for the kids. One of the challenges we’ve had, in the county we can no longer afford to buy new land to build schools.

We have to address capacity. As a supervisor, and Supervisor [John] Foust has done this, I would be dedicated to knowing where we need more capacity for schools.