McLean Drivers: Expect Delays on Georgetown Pike Starting Monday — “Georgetown Pike (Route 193) between Swinks Mill Road and I-495 (Capital Beltway) will have one lane of alternating traffic in each direction via flagging, weather permitting, Monday, July 26 through Wednesday, July 28 between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. each day to replace a stormwater pipe at the Saigon Road intersection, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.” [VDOT]
Founders Row II Proposal Modified — Developer Mill Creek presented revised plans for a second phase of its Founders Row project to the Falls Church City Council on Monday (July 19). Changes since it was first proposed in March include reductions of the height and number of rental residential units and the addition of “more street-level retail and amenities to please its neighbors.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Former Container Store to Host Tysons Block Party — The Celebrate Fairfax! Festival has been canceled for a second consecutive year, but the nonprofit that organizes it is returning next Friday (July 30) with a block party to kick off its 40th Anniversary Series. The event will go from 3-7 p.m. outside the former Container Store at 8508 Leesburg Pike with live entertainment, refreshments from Caboose Brewing Company, and more. [Celebrate Fairfax/Facebook]
The Town of Vienna is about to become the center of Virginia’s Little League baseball world.
For the first time since 2004, Vienna Little League will host the Virginia State Majors Little League tournament, which will take place at Yeonas Park (1319 Ross Drive SW) from July 23-27.
VLL is working with the Town of Vienna and other partners to put on a parade, opening ceremonies, and lots of games to determine a state champion who will represent Virginia in the U.S. Southeast regional tournament, all leading up to the Little League Baseball World Series on Aug. 19.
Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert says getting to host the state championship tournament is “a real honor” not just for local players, but for the town as a whole.
“Our Vienna Little League has been hard at work for months organizing what I’m sure will be a class A event, and our town’s business community is sure to benefit, too, as it welcomes players, coaches and families,” Colbert said. “Vienna has many good family-friendly restaurants and businesses that are perfect for traveling families. I am looking forward to attending opening day and to watch our state’s exceptional teams compete.”
The tournament will feature 16 teams from around the state with Vienna National representing the Town of Vienna and District 4 after winning the district’s under-12 championship last week. The event is expected to bring 800 to 1,000 people from across the state, according to VLL.
The festivities will kick off this Thursday (July 22) with teams checking in, a Parade of Champions at 5:30 p.m., and opening ceremonies at 6:15 p.m.. Games will be Friday through next Tuesday with the champions being crowned on Tuesday (July 27) at 10 a.m.
“We are having a parade of champions prior to the opening ceremony,” VLL Board Member Lynn Jacquez said. “The teams will parade down Patrick Street, from the Cedar Shopping Center to Yeonas Park, where they will be greeted by the four Nationals Racing Presidents as they enter the park. And we’d love to have our neighbors and town citizens line the streets to applaud.”
The tournament is free for spectators and open to the public. There are sponsorship opportunities for businesses that want to support the event.
Community members can also participate as a Vienna ambassador, helping visiting teams find restaurants or things to do in town during their downtime. Anyone interested in being an ambassador can contact Vienna Little League at [email protected].
“Volunteer resource and support resources in the town of Vienna and then the Town of Vienna [government] itself is just an unbelievable youth sports supporter and someone that we can rely on and are relying on,” Jacquez said. “The fire department, the city staff, the police department, everybody is just stepping up, and wholeheartedly. And that’s Vienna, right? We are the town of champions!”
The baseball gods have looked favorably on Vienna this year.
In addition to Vienna National winning the Little League District 4 championship, James Madison High School’s baseball team earned its first state title since 2015 in June on a stellar outing by James Triantos, who was drafted 56th overall by the Chicago Cubs on July 12.
Photo via Vienna Little League/Facebook
Metro Extends Service Hours This Weekend — Starting Sunday (July 18), Metro will provide rail service until midnight for the first time since operating hours were reduced at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The transit agency approved a package of fare reductions and service improvements in June aimed at attracting riders as more offices are set to reopen in the fall. [The Washington Post]
Freedom Hill Park to Recognize Historic Carter Family — As part of an interpretive history project, the Fairfax County Park Authority is inviting the public to a traditional land ceremony and sign dedication at Freedom Hill Park in Vienna on July 31. The new signs will tell the story of the multiracial Carter family, whose accomplishments include establishing the First Baptist Church of Vienna and possibly spying for the Union during the Civil War. [FCPA]
Fairfax County School Board Elects New Chair — The school board unanimously approved Sully District representative Stella Pekarsky as its new chair for the 2021-2022 school year. Board members thanked Mason District representative Ricardy Anderson for her time as chair amid the pandemic and noted she will get some much-deserved time with her family. [FCPS]
Food Trucks Stop by Providence Community Center — “Come by the Providence Community Center tomorrow [July 16] from 11am to 1:30pm for some freshly made empanadas by @empanadasdemza! This will make for a great snack over the weekend so make sure you grab some extra to share with your friends and families!” [Supervisor Dalia Palchik/Twitter]
General Assembly to Hold Special Session in August — “Governor Ralph Northam today [Wednesday] issued a proclamation calling the members of the General Assembly into special session on Monday, August 2. A special session is necessary to fill judicial vacancies and allocate more than $4.3 billion in federal relief funding.” [Office of the Governor]
British Pub Opens Doors in Vienna — Hawk & Griffin had a long-awaited soft opening this week for its 435 Maple Avenue West venue, which is now open for reservations and will start allowing walk-ins on Friday (June 25). The British pub has been in the works since February 2020 but delayed opening due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [Patch]
Tysons Boulevard Lane to Close Again — One northbound lane of Tysons Boulevard will be temporarily closed for a second year to give pedestrians and bicyclists access to a half-mile stretch of road in the Tysons Galleria area. The closure will begin on July 6 with no set end date, though it could be reassessed depending on traffic conditions. [Fairfax County Department of Transportation]
Scott’s Run Trail Project Awarded — A new asphalt pedestrian trail and two bridges over Scott’s Run were named Project of the Year for Transportation in the under-$5 million category by the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA). The project started construction in July 2019, and Fairfax County held a ribbon-cutting on Feb. 4. [Fairfax County Park Authority]
Vienna Hosts George Mason University President — GMU President Dr. Gregory Washington will discuss the paradox of Mason’s role as a key figure in American history and as a slaveholder at the Vienna Community Center at 5 p.m. today. The event will also feature a panel discussion as part of the Town of Vienna’s Liberty Amendments Month celebration. [Volunteer Fairfax/Twitter]
Wolf Trap Goes Full Capacity Starting in August — Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts will return to full capacity in August for the second half of its summer season. Unveiled yesterday (Tuesday), the lineup for August and September includes Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Indigo Girls, and Renée Fleming with the National Symphony Orchestra. [Patch]
Justice Department Will Assist in Bijan Ghaisar Case — The Justice Department will allow FBI agents to cooperate in the prosecution of two Park Police officers charged with manslaughter for shooting and killing McLean resident Bijan Ghaisar in 2017. The move reverses a decision made during the Trump administration and could help the Fairfax County prosecutors on the case. [The Washington Post]
Longtime McLean Hardware Store Owner Dies — McLean Hardware owner Glenn Kirby Wiggs died on June 5 at Medstar Washington Hospital Center at 71 years of age. He had operated the store for almost 40 years after purchasing it in 1984, and he continued visiting twice a week from his home in Frederick, Maryland, even as his health declined. [Patch]
Merrifield Student Advances in Spelling Bee — Akshita Balaji of Merrifield is one of 30 students to advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s semifinal round after she spelled two words correctly and gave an accurate definition for a third word during yesterday’s quarter-finals. Broadcast on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. on June 27, the semifinals will determine the 10 to 12 spellers who will go to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., for the finals on July 8. [Inside NoVA]
1st Stage Celebration Sold Out — Tickets for 1st Stage’s first in-person event since February 2020 have sold out. The theater company’s June 27 outdoor concert reading of “A New Brain” at The Boro will still be available for other viewers to watch via an online livestream. [1st Stage/Twitter]
Vienna’s inaugural, month-long celebration of constitutional changes known as Liberty Amendments Month will take place from June 19 to July 19, featuring live entertainment, history-based talks, and much, much more.
The Town of Vienna announced the events schedule for its inaugural Liberty Amendments Month last Thursday (June 3). The municipality officially adopted the new celebration in December.
Also supported by the Virginia General Assembly, Liberty Amendments Month celebrates the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments, which collectively abolished slavery, granted citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the U.S., and extended voting rights to all citizens regardless of race or gender.
With each week bringing activities centered on a particular amendment, programming ranges from themed restaurant specials to art exhibits, films, shows, classes, walks, and other activities.
A full schedule can be found on the Town of Vienna’s website, but here is an overview of the month’s signature events:
13th Amendment (June 19-25)
Marking the anniversary of when the last enslaved people in the U.S. learned about the Emancipation Proclamation, a Juneteenth Celebration will be held at the First Baptist Church of Vienna (450 Orchard St. NW) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 19.
Following a ceremony at 11 a.m., the kickoff will feature live music, kids’ performers, a book giveaway for kids, and vendors with an emphasis on Black-owned businesses, including crafts, civic organizations, and food trucks. The event will stream live on the town and church’s social media.
The First Baptist Church will also hold a COVID-19 vaccination clinic during the event.
14th Amendment (June 26-July 2)
Vienna’s celebration of the 14th Amendment, which granted U.S. citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the country, will kick off on June 26 with a discussion of the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry St. NE).
Scheduled to go from 1-3 p.m., the event will stream live online via Facebook and YouTube. Philip Hirschkop — one of the attorneys who represented Mildred and Richard Loving in the monumental 1967 decision that invalidated Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages — will be part of a Q&A, and community members directly affected by the case will give first-person testimonials.
15th Amendment (July 3-9)
The 15th Amendment kickoff celebration will take the form of a Justice for All Concert and Festival at the Vienna Town Green (144 Maple Ave. E) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on July 3.
Highlighting the amendment that prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race, community musicians will perform songs with a theme of justice. The event will also feature food vendors, civic organizations, voter registration, and more.
19th Amendment (July 10-16)
The celebration of the 19th Amendment, which extended voting rights to women, will begin at 2 p.m. on July 10 at the Vienna Community Center.
Cheryl Johnson, clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, will deliver a speech live online via Facebook and YouTube titled “But for the 19th Amendment.” Her speech will be followed by a question-and-answer session, and a performance of the reader’s theater play “Failure Is Impossible” by the American Association of University Women.
Liberty Amendments Month will close on July 17 with a Multicultural Festival that will take place from 2-7 p.m. at Church Street and the Vienna Town Green, featuring performers, interactive activities, crafts, and food as well as vendors celebrating diverse cultures and communities across the region.
Town offices will be closed on July 19 for Liberty Amendments Day.
Nearly a year after an autonomous shuttle first traveled in the D.C. metro area, Fairfax County leaders are looking at ways to extend that kind of technology to the rest of the state.
The county’s Department of Economic Initiatives has partnered with the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority to host a series of virtual panels next Thursday (June 10) for an event titled “Creating an Autonomous Vehicle Ecosystem in Virginia.”
“This virtual event will address where we are today and what we need to do to make the dream of a network of fully autonomous vehicles a reality in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” the event page says.
The event will feature three panels on autonomous transportation in Virginia, including a case study of the electric, driverless Relay shuttle that Fairfax County and Dominion Energy are currently piloting in Merrifield.
Relay launched passenger service in October and travels between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station and the Barnes and Noble in the Mosaic District. The shuttle, which travels at 10 miles per hour, can transport up to 12 people but has been limited to three people and a public safety attendant for social distancing.
The Relay panel will feature Fairfax County Department of Economic Initiatives consultant Dale Castellow, Smart Community Innovation and Strategy Manager Eta Nahapetian, and Fairfax County transportation planner Sarah Husain.
There will also be panels with experts from the private and public sectors to talk about how technology can “safely enable vehicles to function in even the most complicated scenarios” and why it’s important to navigate the first mile and last mile of trips to successfully implement autonomous vehicle technology.
Other speakers include representatives from the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, companies like Perrone Robotics and Sensagrate.
Mike Mollenhauer, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Center for Technology Implementation, will talk about the university’s partnership with VDOT to evaluate and test partially assisted autonomous vehicles in Fairfax County, including sections of I-66, I-495, Lee Highway, Arlington Boulevard, and areas where numerous crashes occur.
The free event runs from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Registration is free but should be done in advance to get information about how to attend.
After a year off, the two-decade-old Ride of the Patriots in Fairfax is back and ready to rumble.
With the 2020 iteration canceled due to the pandemic, the Memorial Day weekend event and ride is returning to the D.C. area, but it will be scaled down a bit compared to previous years.
It will take place Friday (May 28) through Sunday (May 30) starting at Patriot Harley-Davidson on Fairfax Boulevard in Fairfax.
There will be vendors, food trucks, an appearance from the “Saluting Marine,” and a gathering of bikers.
There will also be two rides, each limited to 225 riders. On Saturday, the ride will begin at 11 a.m., and on Sunday, it will depart from Patriot Harley-Davidson at 11 a.m. to join up with AMVet’s Rolling to Remember in D.C. Registration to ride cost $25.
First held in 1999, the ride’s purpose is to remember and commemorate military veterans, particularly those who fought in the Vietnam War and those who remain missing in action. In recent years, there’s been a focus on veteran suicide.
An average of 17 veterans die by suicide per day, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
In previous years, upwards of 12,000 bikers would join in on the festivities from across Northern Virginia and even the country. But this year, there will be significantly fewer participants.
Kevin Hardy, the event’s organizer since 2017 and marketing director at Patriot Harley-Davidson, thinks there will be about 300 to 400 bikes this year.
Hardy says the constantly changing COVID-19 health regulations over the last few months made it tough to plan for more than that. He’s excited, though, that the end of most capacity limits starting May 28 will allow Ride of the Patriots to happen again this year.
“You don’t want to not have it for two years. I’m a big believer in things being front of mind,” Hardy said. “If you don’t [hold the event], it kinda fades away with time.”
Rolling Thunder, the similar, long-running Memorial Day weekend event, officially ended in 2019, leaving smaller events like Ride of the Patriots to fill the void.
Hardy believes bringing awareness to veteran issues remains of the utmost importance. He also has a personal connection to the topic, with his father being a retired military colonel who served in the U.S. Army for 27 years.
“I think there’s a lot of change going in America today and a lot of what [these veterans] did enabled people to speak their mind and protest certain things,” Hardy said. “A lot of what America is and those rights were fought for by veterans.”
After starting in Fairfax, the Ride of the Patriot will proceed down Route 50 towards the District.
The Fairfax County Police Department confirmed to Reston Now, Tysons Reporter’s affiliate site, that they will temporarily close Route 50 between Patriot Drive and I-495 “to allow safe passage” for the riders starting around 11 a.m. on Saturday and at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
The hope is that next year’s event will be back to 2019 attendance levels with thousands of bikers making their way down Route 50 to pay their respects to those who have served.
“We’ll be ready to go in 2022 for thousands and thousands of bikes heading from here to D.C. in honor of veterans,” Hardy said.
Photo courtesy Kevin Hardy
The first in-person show for 1st Stage since the COVID-19 pandemic began is coming to The Boro in Tysons.
The theater is holding an outdoor performance of the off-Broadway musical and book, “A New Brain,” in the form of a concert reading at 5 p.m. on June 27 at Boro Park, an outdoor space of the development located at 8350 Broad St.
“For over a year now, we’ve been looking forward to bring live theater back to our beloved audiences,” the nonprofit said in a news release. “We’re so excited to see you again and to offer this wonderful musical experience of hope, recovery and rediscovery.”
With a book by William Finn and James Lapine, “A New Brain” follows a composer who undergoes a surgery while trying to create a song for a children’s TV show. The concert reading will be directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer with music direction by Walter “Bobby” McCoy.
The event will also be livestreamed. In the case of rain, it will only run online.
Organizers hope to bring the community together and raise money to support 1st Stage’s safe return to in-person theater. Donations will be matched up to $20,000, thanks to a reciprocal gift.
Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, the theater company announced in March that it was canceling in-person shows for the remainder of the 2020-2021 season, though it has provided some online performances and classes. The organization hopes to return to its space this winter.
“‘The 1st Stage Celebration at The Boro’ will be one of the first live cultural experiences in the Tysons region following more than a year of cultural drought,” organizers said. “With an outdoor in-person audience, and a free companion livestream, this will be the first opportunity for our full community to gather together since our last production in February 2020.”
The event is currently selling $500 sponsorships, which includes seating for two as well as with food and drinks.
Tickets will be available June 1 for $20 each, with attendees allowed to bring a chair or rent one for $10. Food can be brought or possibly bought — the group is working on food possibilities with restaurants. A cash bar will also be available.
“Four of our incredible donors got together to provide this [$20,000] to aid the theatre and inspire others to give,” Heidi Fortune Picker, director of engagement for 1st Stage, said. “Honestly, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our 1st Stage family during this time.”
Virginia to Speed Up Unemployment Claims — Gov. Ralph Northam told the Virginia Employment Commission yesterday (Tuesday) to invest $20 million to add staff and make technology upgrades to process unemployment insurance claims faster. Aiming to modernize the system by Oct. 1, the governor’s office says the funds will speed up the resolution of cases flagged as potentially fraudulent or ineligible, about 4% of all claims. [Office of the Governor]
Warmer Weather Brings Hope for Cicadas — Brood X cicadas emerged “in pockets” around the D.C. region this past week, but evening temperatures in the 40s and 50s presented challenges during their molting process and left those that molted successfully “sluggish” and vulnerable to predators. The emergence should accelerate later this week, with temperatures expected to climb into the 80s and 90s. [The Washington Post]
Verizon Proposes Cell Tower in Falls Church — Verizon Wireless and Milestone Towers have submitted a proposal to the Falls Church City School Board to install a cell tower on the city’s high school and middle school campus. Two virtual town halls will be held today (Wednesday), starting with one for surrounding residents at 6-7 p.m. and followed by one for the school community at 7-8 p.m. [Falls Church News-Press]
Celebrate Fairfax Festival Canceled — “Celebrate Fairfax organizers announced late Monday that the 2021 festival will not take place. The event is typically held over several days in the summer outside the Fairfax County Government Center. The event was also canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” [Patch]
Caboose Tavern to Donate Pancakes to Firefighters — “Neighborhood favorite Caboose Tavern is donating one stack of pancakes to the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department for every breakfast meal purchased through May 28. The Caboose Tavern team will deliver the pancakes to Vienna’s first responders following the campaign. The partnership comes shortly after Caboose launched their new breakfast service.” [Caboose Tavern]
Photo by Joanne Liebig
