Memorial Day is coming up on Monday (May 27). Check this list in case you are planning to visit government facilities around Fairfax County this weekend while honoring people who died while serving in the U.S. military.
County-wide
All county offices, schools and libraries will be closed on Memorial Day.
County trash and recycling collection won’t have any changes for Monday and Recycling and Disposal Centers at the I-66 Transfer Station (4618 West Ox Road) and the I-95 Landfill Complex (9850 Furnace Road) will be open on Memorial Day. Residents with private collection will need to contact their haulers.
Vienna
Town of Vienna offices will be closed on Monday, but refuse collection will take place as scheduled.
The Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) will have reduced hours on Memorial Day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Falls Church
The Mary Riley Styles Public Library will be closed on Sunday and Monday.
The Community Center (223 Little Falls Street) will be open from 2-6 p.m. on Sunday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday.
City Hall, city government offices and courts will be closed on Memorial Day.
McLean
The McLean Community Center and the Old Firehouse Center will be closed on Monday.
Other Closures
Metro trains and buses and the Fairfax Connector will be operating on a Sunday schedule (8 a.m.-11 p.m.) on Memorial Day.
The Department of Motor Vehicles will be closed on Monday.
Speaking of closed offices, Tysons Reporter will be on a break as well on Monday.
Supervisor Jeff McKay and candidate Timothy Chapman doubled down on a bitter feud at a debate for the Democratic nomination for the Board of Supervisors Chair in Tysons this morning.
The debate at Valo Park (7950 Jones Park Drive) touched on a variety of countywide issues, with Chapman repeatedly slinging attacks at McKay over school spending and Metro expansion.
When the issue of a recent ethics complaint against McKay came up, sparks flew between the candidates, while the other two candidates, School Board member Ryan McElveen and Georgetown law professor Alicia Plerhoples, tried to stay above the fray.
The complaint alleges that McKay purchased a home at a discount from a developer who brought business before the Board of Supervisors — a violation of state ethics law. The question of the ethics violation was raised by moderator Julie Carey, who asked Chapman why his campaign didn’t come forward as the source of the allegation.
“We wanted to confirm allegations were accurate and correct,” Chapman said. “They are… Anybody who understands real estate knows these allegations here are very troubling.”
But McKay fired back that the allegations were false and started as a smear campaign.
“There is zero credibility. The allegations are completely false,” McKay said. “To try to smear me, because you’re not winning a campaign is a Trump maneuver.”
Plerhoples and McElveen centered most of their responses on affordable housing and school overcrowding issues but did reluctantly weigh into the debate when prompted by Carey.
“Whether the ethics complaint has merit or not, public officials have a duty to investigate for public trust,” Plerhoples said. “It doesn’t get suspended because it’s an election year.”
McElveen said the issue is emblematic of a larger problem.
“The supervisor districts have devolved into fiefdoms,” said McElveen. “I would address that at the county level.”
For most of the debate, the four candidates widely agreed that the lack of affordable housing and overcrowding of the schools were two of the biggest problems facing the county. McElveen specifically called out the Fairfax County School Board’s decision not to immediately tackle the McLean High School boundary question.
The proposal had been backed by School Board member Jane Strauss (Dranesville) but faced pushback from other members of the board, like School Board member Dalia Palchik (Providence), who said the change needed to wait for further planning.
“We have overcrowding at Marshall and McLean High School,” said McElveen. “Frankly, the School Board has been very political on not taking on that challenge. I say we need to act now.”
The primary will be held on June 11.
The aftermath of the storm yesterday (Thursday) has left more than 1,300 residents around Falls Church without power and caused several road closures.
The Dominion Energy map shows two power outages currently in Falls Church as of 10:45 a.m. today (May 24) — one affecting 1,009 customers from West Street to Lincoln Avenue and another one affecting 324 customers around Shreve Road above Jefferson District Park.
Dominion expects that power will be restored later tonight for both outages between 6-11 p.m.
Several roads in Dunn Loring and Falls Church were still closed as of 8:33 a.m., according to a released list from the Fairfax County Police Department. FCPD will update the list throughout the day.
The following roads closed in FCPD’s McLean District are:
- Winder and Drexel streets
- Jefferson and Woodlawn avenues
- Elmwood and Stuart drives
- Marshall Street between Jefferson and Farragut avenues
- Woodley Place between Lee Hwy and Deborah Drive
- 2900 block of Rogers Drive
- 2900 block of Wallace Drive
- 2700 block of Greenway Blvd
Local storm reports from the National Weather Service yesterday around 7:30 p.m. reported “a tree uprooted and many large branches snapped” by the intersection of Route 50 and I-495, a large fallen tree blocking Summerfield Road and S. Washington Street and “downed wires and trees” near Jackson Avenue and Summerfield Road.
A few people took to Twitter to share a video of the thunderstorm in Tysons yesterday and spottings of downed trees and power lines.
Thunderstorm rolling into Tysons Corner and the W2 Communications offices ⛈⚡️ @capitalweather pic.twitter.com/ixp67wIS2D
— W2 Communications (@W2Comm) May 23, 2019
Driving from Merrifield to Tysons and seeing a ton of downed limbs and branches. Winds here were legit during yesterday’s storms
— Andrew King (@H2Omaker71) May 24, 2019
Map via Dominion Energy
Simply Beauty plans to open an eyelash extension studio in Tysons on Tuesday (May 28).
Currently located in Haymarket, Simply Beauty offers eyelash extensions and refills.
The new Tysons store will open at 8027 Leesburg Pike, Suite 308, its website says.
The new spot is across the street from the Tysons Corner Marriott and is in the same building with the Nordstrom Rack, BJ’s Brewhouse and Neisha Thai.
Image via Google Maps
The sprawling Boro development that hopes to become the new beating heart of Tysons could be getting a little larger.
The Meridian Group — developers of The Boro — are planning to submit designs this summer for a recently acquired property across Westpark Drive at 8333 Greensboro Drive, according to the Washington Business Journal.
The Business Journal reported that the new development would likely be a mix of residential types including townhouses, apartments, for-sale condos, and a high-rise senior living component.
Senior living has been particularly hard to come by in Tysons, especially with The Mather facing some difficulty in the approval process.
Image via Google Maps
New improvements recently completed are designed to make Idylwood Park (7715 Virginia Lane) in Falls Church a little more accessible.
The park is tucked into the northeast corner of the I-66 and I-495 interchange.
According to the Fairfax County Park Authority website:
The project included fully paving the parking lot, which had been comprised of compacted gravel that presented maintenance and accessibility issues. Contractors from Southern Asphalt improved the parking lot and drive to comply with [Americans with Disabilities Act] accessibility requirements. Additional striped parking spaces were added by reconfiguring the overall layout to be more efficient.
Renovations started in June 2018, during which the park was accessible only via foot traffic.
The total cost of the project was $309,732, provided through Fairfax County’s infrastructure project fund.
Photo via Fairfax County Park Authority
The three-day family festival ViVa! Vienna! returns to the Town of Vienna for Memorial Day weekend.
Attendees can enjoy live entertainment, amusement rides and items from more than 160 vendors during the free festival, which kicks off on Saturday (May 25) and ends Monday (May 27) at 245 W. Maple Avenue.
Some of the activities during the festival include the semi-finals for Vienna Idol, a blood drive on Sunday and Monday, more than two dozen entertainers performing on three stages and a Memorial Day Tribute at 1 p.m. on Monday.
ViVa! Vienna! is set to have 24 different amusement rides. Tickets for the rides cost $1 each. Rides for small children require three tickets per ride and major rides require three to five tickets.
Ahead of the event, the Town of Vienna has tweeted some black and white photos of previous ViVa! Vienna! attendees.
Started by the Rotary Club of Vienna more than three decades ago, the annual event donates all of the proceeds to charities.
This was taken three years ago at ViVa! It's the time to create memories so you can look both back and forward at a weekend some would call the birthplace of summer. Hope they're both back for this one. ViVa! Vienna! takes you to that time starting 10am this Saturday #nostalgia pic.twitter.com/4Q74nmohEa
— Town of Vienna, VA (@TownofViennaVA) May 22, 2019
Video via YouTube
Music lovers looking for free concerts can head to McLean on Sundays this summer.
McLean’s returning summer concert series plans to feature a variety of musical styles, including Latin, brass, jazz, Americana and rock.
The concerts run from June 16 to July 29.
June lineup:
- Alphabet Rockers — hip-hop beats for kids
- Jazzy Ash and the Leaping Lizards — New Orleans-style jazz and favorite jazz standards
- Sonia de Los Santos — Latin American family music
July lineup:
- DuPont Brass — a brass band that plays jazz, hip-hop and R&B
- Frontiers — a Journey tribute band
- Justin Trawick and the Common Good — a band led by D.C.-based songwriter Justin Trawick
- Slippery When Wet — a Bon Jovi tribute band
Sponsored by The Alden at the McLean Community Center, the concert series takes place every Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. in the gazebo of McLean Central Park (1468 Dolley Madison Blvd).
Photo courtesy McLean Community Center
Updated at 8:45 a.m. — Corrects the picture of the building and its address.
Passersby the McLean Medical Building would never know that the building is connected to the first doctor in the nation who gave children the Salk polio vaccine.
Denice Dressel, a heritage resource planner for Fairfax County, recently unearthed the building’s ties while working on a heritage study to identify potential significant sites as downtown McLean prepares for a new look.
Her research revealed that the building (1515 Chain Bridge Road) was constructed in 1964 and first owned by a group of doctors that included Dr. Richard Mulvaney, who is credited with being the first doctor to give the vaccine to kids with the crippling disease.
Mulvaney died at the age of 88 in 2006 at Inova Fairfax Hospital, according to a Washinton Post obituary.
The building does not have any markers or plaques indicating its connection to Mulvaney, Dressel said.
Dressel’s finding flummoxed some members of a task force made up of McLean residents working to revamp the downtown area during a Monday (May 20) meeting.
“Who determines whether or not that is an architectural gem or a building that could use some substantial demolition and work?” Kim Dorgan, the chair of the task force, asked. “A quick point — I think many of us are surprised to find that building on this list.”
Dressel said that there are no regulations to preserve the buildings on the list, which might affect the fate of the McLean Medical Building.
“While I was conducting the fieldwork, a redevelopment proposal was submitted for the site, which proposes to raze the building,” Dressel said, adding that redevelopment is in the very beginnings of review.
Image via Department of Planning and Zoning
The Sunrise Senior Living Facility proposed for downtown Vienna received approval from the town’s Planning Commission last night (May 22).
The senior facility has faced a myriad of concerns around its parking, retail space and location at the corner of Maple Avenue and Center Street.
After public hearings, dozens of residents and some of the planning commissioners said they are worried that the parking spaces might not accommodate all of the visitors, employees, shoppers and roughly 100 residents.
Recent modifications that the Planning Commission OK’d last night dropped the number of units from 83 to 82, removed the mezzanine, reduced the retail to 2,264 square feet, altered the fence height and removed the grand staircase inside the facility — changes the developers said addressed town residents’ previous criticisms.
The changes mirror a solution proposed by Planning Commissioner Mary McCullough at the May 8 meeting to reduce the retail space to free up the parking spaces that retail employees and shoppers would use.
“The improvements are a true reflection that you listened,” McCullough told the developers last night.
While most of the planning commissioners said they thought the modifications improved the project, Commissioners Sharon Baum and David Miller said they still had reservations.
Baum said that she wanted to see more retail space instead of less, while Miller brought up a concern about the senior living facility’s placement.
“Is this the use we want at this corner?” Miller asked, questioning how many of the older residents would visit nearby retail and restaurants. Miller said that he would rather see apartments or condominiums, hinting at younger residents.
Ultimately, the Planning Commission approved the modifications and the proposal.
“Is it perfect? No,” Michael Gelb, who chairs the Planning Commission, said. “I haven’t seen a perfect project yet.”
Next up, the proposal has a Vienna Town Council meeting scheduled for June 3. Town Council has until Aug. 2 to make a decision.
Rendering via Town of Vienna
