Updated at 2:25 p.m. — Police said at 2:20 p.m. that “at this time there is no evidence to substantiate the threat” after completing their search. The bank is resuming its normal operations.
Earlier: Police are on the scene of a potential bomb threat at Provident Bank (7799 Leesburg Pike) in Falls Church.
Fairfax County Police said in a tweet this afternoon, below, that “a man called the bank indicating a bomb threat.”
Police told Tysons Reporter that the front desk was notified of a vague threat with very little credible information and after a search of the building no suspicious objects were found.
Following the threat, police remained at the scene to continue investigating the source of the call.
We have completed our search. At this time there is no evidence to substantiate the threat. The bank is resuming normal operations. #FCPDhttps://t.co/seUbHQuENL
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) February 8, 2019
Image via Google Maps
Lunar New Year celebrations are being held around the area.
Today is the Chinese New Year, and some local shopping centers are helping to ring in the year of the pig.
Over the weekend Tysons Corner Center held its Lunar New Year celebration, with cultural performances, plus arts and crafts, in front of a crowd of shoppers and onlookers.
Today the Eden Center in Falls Church (6751 Wilson Blvd) is holding the first of two days of new year celebrations, starting at 11 a.m. The family-friendly, midday festivities will feature a dragon dance and a flag ceremony. The celebrations continue on Sunday, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., with a lion dance, entertainers, balloon sculptures, face painting and “other surprises and giveaways.”
More than 5,000 Dominion customers are without power in the Falls Church area on the coldest morning of the season so far.
Dominion reports that some 4,000 customers are without power in Fairfax County and nearly 1,800 are without power in the City of Falls Church. The cause is listed as a “damaged power line” and restoration efforts may stretch into the afternoon.
Via Twitter, the city said it had deployed generators to key intersections where traffic signals were dark. It encouraged residents who did not have heat to take shelter at local libraries or community centers, while also encouraging residents to check on vulnerable neighbors.
POWER OUTAGES THURSDAY AT 8AM :: @DomEnergyVA reports a number of power outages in the City. We are deploying generators to a number of traffic signals; please pay attention and be cautious.
Report power outages to Dominion on their website or 866-366-4357. pic.twitter.com/iAAbPScjCV
— City of Falls Church (@FallsChurchGov) January 31, 2019
(Updated at 4:50 p.m.) The westbound lanes of W. Broad Street in the City of Falls Church were closed Wednesday afternoon due to a crash.
Both westbound lanes and one eastbound lane of W. Broad Street were closed between Oak and Spring streets, according to the city. The lanes reopened prior to 3:30 p.m.
The crash involved two vehicles, one of which flipped on its side. One female vehicle occupant was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, we’re told.
UPDATE: Both westbound lanes are closed as well as one eastbound lane. https://t.co/PKmnbcmCGV
— City of Falls Church (@FallsChurchGov) January 30, 2019
A Falls Church man has been arrested and charged with drunkenly trying to rob a rideshare driver, then beating him with his own windshield wiper.
The alleged incident happened around 1:45 a.m. Tuesday. Fairfax County Police say 30-year-old William Paneque and another man were being driven from Tysons Corner Center to the 2900 block of Monticello Drive, in the West Falls Church area.
“Once they arrived, one of the men grabbed the victim’s jacket and demanded money,” FCPD said in a crime report. “The victim told the suspect he did not have any money.”
“The suspect broke a windshield wiper off the car and hit the victim with it, causing minor injury,” the crime report continues. “Officers arrested William Paneque, 30, of Falls Church, as he tried to leave the scene. Paneque was charged with attempted robbery, destruction of property and drunk in public.”
Photo courtesy Fairfax County Police Department
On the eve of a snowstorm sweeping across the region, it was the cybersphere that took a surprising hit.
Around 1 p.m., the City of Falls Church and the Town of Vienna both announced on Twitter that their websites had crashed and were inaccessible.
Sorry for the inconvenience folks, the Town's website is currently down. Our provider is having issues across all services. Will update as work is being done to resolve. pic.twitter.com/JBPGegtwNG
— Town of Vienna, VA (@TownofViennaVA) January 29, 2019
Both localities use CivicPlus, a web development business that manages over 2,500 local government websites.
An employee at CivicPlus said the service is “experiencing technical disturbances” while staff at Vienna said the website provider’s datacenter faced an outage.
By 2:40 p.m., the Town of Vienna reported that their website was functional again. The City of Falls Church site is also currently online.
Photo via Town of Vienna
Laura Schwartz is a licensed Realtor in VA, D.C. and MD with McEnearney Associates in McLean. Reach the office at 703-790-9090.
Super Bowl LIII is quickly approaching as the Patriots take on the Rams on Sunday, February 3 at 6:30 p.m.
We all know Super Bowl Sunday is where new year’s resolutions are forgotten. Or maybe that’s just my junk food loving heart talking. If you are thinking of hosting a party this Sunday, I have some great take-out options to help make it easier.
- Don Pollo — The Vienna Charcoal chicken newcomer is offering a free chicken with any Fiesta Family Platter.
- Taco Bamba in Vienna — Is taking catering requests by Thursday, 1/31 for their wings, nachos, tacos and all of their other goodies.
- Foster’s Grill — For wings, order ahead of time or they WILL sell out.
- Santini’s — In Oakton or McLean for pizza, party subs and their other decadent food.
- Open Road — In Merrifield has platters for wings or chicken bites with pre-order.
- Bonchon — In Fairfax or Arlington for some of the most delicious wings that exist.
- Founding Farmers — To go catering where you can order off the full menu.
- Liberty BBQ — In Falls Church, offering Super Bowl specials on their BBQ meat, wings, sides and desserts. Must pre-order and pick up on Friday.
- Rocco’s — In McLean for pizza or wings.
- O’Malley’s Pub — In McLean for wings.
Check out Tyson’s Biergarten if you would rather go out to watch the game. They have a long list of beer and food.
A 24-year-old Fairfax man is facing a litany of charges, including assault on law enforcement, after an incident in the Falls Church area over the weekend.
Police say Victor Vanegas was “causing a disturbance and breaking items” at an address near George Mason High School when police responded and an officer attempted to place him under arrest.
Vanegas “then assaulted the officer and tried to run away,” but was soon thereafter caught and taken into custody.
More from Fairfax County Police:
ASSAULT ON LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER/DRUNK IN PUBLIC/DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY: 7100 block of Shreve Road, 01/12/19, 11:50 p.m. An officer responded to a man causing a disturbance and breaking items. The officer located the suspect and attempted to place him under arrest. The suspect then assaulted the officer and tried to run away. He was then caught and placed under arrest. Victor Vanegas, 24, of Fairfax was charged with assault on a law enforcement officer, drunk in public, destruction of property and possession of schedule 1 narcotics.
Map via Google Maps
The area around the West Falls Church Transit Station could start to see some major development soon.
A public meeting is set for Tuesday (Jan. 15) from 7-9 p.m. in the Northern Virginia Center at 7054 Haycock Road to discussed the proposed changes. According to staff at District Supervisor John Foust’s office, more information about the proposed development will be presented at the meeting.
The plan is to allow a mix of uses on property belonging to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and Virginia Tech. The WMATA proposal could include 150,000 square feet of office space, 500 multi-family units in townhomes, and 50,000 square feet of retail. Height limits, currently 45-65 feet, are proposed to go up to 65-85 feet.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech is looking to add new institutional, office, retail and residential uses to the Northern Virginia Center property southwest of the WMATA property.
Plans for the site allow new development, so long as that work doesn’t interfere with the property’s use as a transit hub and the surrounding road network supports the development without diminishing access to the station.
The plans do not include the Village and Pavillion Condominiums to the southeast along Haycock Road.
In the planning documents, staff said the proposals would encourage a mix of uses in a compact, pedestrian-friendly urban form within a 5-7 minute walk of the station while preserving existing stable neighborhoods near the station.
Photo via Fairfax County Government
If you check the Google homepage, you might have noticed today’s charming dancing dinosaurs doodle. What you might not know is the artist is local second-grader Sarah Gomez-Lane.
Last year, Gomez-Lane won the 10th annual “Doodle 4 Google” competition, earning a $30,000 scholarship and $50,000 for her school, Pine Springs Elementary, to spend on technology.
Animators at Google also helped Gomez-Lane turn the artwork into a short interactive, animated feature where, on clicking, each of the animals will act out a scene, from eating berries to playing the trumpet.
Surfing the net today? Take a minute to peep the Google Homepage and celebrate #OurFCPS https://t.co/Qybq5bHotH
— Fairfax Schools 🌟 (@fcpsnews) January 8, 2019
“When they called my name, I felt happy and surprised,” said Gomez-Lane in a video put together by Google. “I’m going to call my principal. He’s going to say ‘yay.'”
According to a statement from Google:
“We’re thrilled to share the work of our 2018 Doodle for Google winner on the US Google homepage: 2nd grader Sarah Gomez-Lane, who drew delightful dinosaurs to highlight her dream of becoming a paleontologist! We fell in love with Sarah’s rendering of her dinos, and were blown away by her big (you might even say “dino-sized”!) ambitions for her future, especially at her young age.”
Image via Google
