A Maryland man was arrested and charged with DWI after flipping his car during a crash in a Vienna parking lot.
The incident happened just before midnight on Thursday, Feb. 28. Police say the 22-year-old man was driving at “a high rate of speed” through the parking lot of the Cedar Lane Apartments when his car “struck a legally parked, unoccupied vehicle” and overturned.
“The driver, the only occupant in the vehicle, was injured in the accident,” Vienna police said in a crime report. “Upon MPO Borja’s interaction with the driver she detected signs of impairment.”
The driver, a Silver Spring resident, was transported to a hospital and subsequently charged with Driving While Intoxicated.
Photo via Google Maps
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!
Tuesday (March 12)
- Workshop: Fair Housing Protections for People with Disabilities — 12-1 p.m. at The Arc of Northern Virginia (2755 Hartland Rd.) — Non-profit organizations Arc of Northern Virginia and Housing Opportunities Made Equal are hosting a workshop on fair housing protections for people with disabilities focusing on what state policies are for housing discrimination and what people with disabilities should look out for when moving into a home.
Wednesday (March 13)
- McLean Public Safety Program — 7:30 p.m. at the McLean Governmental Center Community Room (1437 Balls Hill Road) — The McLean Citizens Association invites the public to its Public Safety Program featuring Richard Schott, Fairfax County’s police auditor and Anna Northcutt, a member of the Fairfax County Police Civilian Review Panel.
Thursday (March 14)
- Community Forum on Housing for All — 7-8:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Vienna (450 Orchard St NW) — The Fairfax County NAACP will be hosting an event discussing issues related to affordable housing in Fairfax.
Friday (March 15)
- Farewell Bell’s at Tysons Biergarten — 11-2 a.m. at the Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) — The Biergarten is celebrating Bell’s before the company’s beer is no longer sold in Virginia. Everything from fruity drinks to a selection of stouts will be on offer. Registration for the event is free. The event is free and open to the public. A similar event will be held in the Lost Dog Cafe in Merrifield on Wednesday.
- Chubbies Tysons Grand Opening — 5-8 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (1961 Chain Bridge Rd.) — To coincide with the coming of spring, shorts chain Chubbies is celebrating with music and free gifts for the first 100 purchasers of items over $99.
- Backbeat Underground Live — 8-10 p.m. at 1st Stage Theatre (1524 Spring Hill Rd.) — The Backbeat Underground and Virginia Chamber Orchestra will be performing a “souljazz” concert in the Tysons black-box theater. Tickets are $25 at the door, $20 for seniors or advance purchasers, or $15 for students or military.
Sunday (March 17)
- The 8th Annual Nowruz Festival — 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (8100 Tysons Corner Ctr) — A bazaar with music, dance and costumed characters will be held at the mall to celebrate the Persian New Year. The event is planned to include six hours of live performances and an array of traditional Persian sweets, pastries and other dishes.
- Trade-In and Trade-Up Bicycle Blue Book Event — 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at Spokes Etc. (224 Maple Ave E) — The Spokes Etc. Vienna location is offering credit for anyone who trades in an old bicycle and an additional 10 percent through March 31 for anyone upgrading to a Trek Disc Brake Road Bike. The Blue Book value guide can help assess the value of the bike for trade-in credit.
- Capitol Steps in Vienna — 4-6 p.m. at James Madison High School (2500 James Madison Dr.) — Bipartisan political satire crew Capitol Steps will perform at James Madison High School in a fundraiser for the school’s booster organization. Tickets range from $25 to $30.
Photo via Facebook
Laura Schwartz is a licensed Realtor in VA, D.C. and MD with McEnearney Associates in McLean. Reach the office at 703-790-9090.
I’m sure you’ve thought of the big names: Care.com, WhiteHouseNannies.com, etc.
But how do you find local babysitters that won’t charge an arm and a leg? Where are these secret parent sanity saving humans hiding?
Let me share our secret… your local high school.
Did you know that Madison, Marshall, McLean and Langley have career centers in the school? My husband, the genius that he is, sent an email to the career center specialist listed on the school websites with a job posting.
We included a job description, typical hours, number of kids, any requirements, etc and they posted it on the job board at the school. We got a great high school babysitter after reading through the kids who responded.
I’m sure this could also work for after school care, mother’s helper, local businesses looking for some extra support, etc.
I don’t want to post emails for individuals staff at the schools, but it’s really easy to find on the website:
At tonight’s Vienna Town Council meeting, a planned overview of the town’s budget process lays out local budget priorities so far and offers a look at what’s coming next.
In previous meetings, the town manager presented his proposed budget and 10 budget priorities:
- Real estate tax rate remains at $0.225 per $100 of assessed value. This is the seventh year of decrease or no change.
- Three percent compensation increase for eligible employees
- Water and Sewer rates rising 10 percent in total to cover operating costs, maintain positive cash flow and meet industry standards for billing the fixed cost portion of the bill.
- Parks and Recreation revenue increasing $280,000 due to strong attendance and programming
- Minimal personnel changes
- Stormwater engineer salary increase to handle sustainability coordinator duties
- Shift $200,000 from operating budget to capital budget for asphalt costs
- Two vehicles added using unspent capital lease proceeds, water and sewer funds and stormwater funds
- Three percent decrease in health insurance for Anthem, 9 percent increase for Kaiser health insurance, generating an additional $125,000 in savings
- $400,000 available for unfunded priorities allocated to an economic development manager, updated zoning code and other priorities
The economic development manager position was one discussed by the Town Council as part of the strategic plan. The consultant would assist the town in trying to stem the tide of businesses vacating the town.
Town Council work sessions for the budget are planned for March 16 and 18, with a third on April 22 if needed.
A public hearing on the budget, water and sewer rates is scheduled for April 8 and for the proposed tax rate on April 29.
Final budget adoption is scheduled for May 13.
File Photo
(Updated 8:30) — A new exhibit in Vienna’s Freeman Store & Museum showing the town’s expansion in the 1950s is scheduled for a grand opening Sunday (March 10).
The museum’s website says the new exhibit will feature stories of how the town grew in the ’50s through the twin lenses of the opportunities and challenges of the decade.
The store and museum is managed by Historic Vienna Inc., a local non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting local history.
According to the Historic Vienna Inc. newsletter:
Remember hula hoops, Barbie dolls, play doh, and matchbox cars? Remember Patsy Cline, Elvis, Little Richard, and the Kingston Trio? How about Leave It to Beaver, Gunsmoke, I Love Lucy, and The Ed Sullivan Show? The Korean War? segregation? Vienna experienced the 50s in all its good, bad, and ugly. Come to the Freeman Store to experience Vienna in the 50s through an exciting multimedia exhibit.
In the early part of the decade, Vienna’s Maple Avenue was still a street that ran mostly through fields with sporadic residences along the roadside, but over time the next few decades, the town would gradually become more and more developed.
According to the Town of Vienna website:
In 1940, Vienna was still a small, quiet, rural town with a population of 1,237 and remained virtually untouched by the metropolitan character of the nation’s capital. The town began to take on a new look in the 1950s when many businesses started to move from the old commercial section on Church Street to Maple Avenue. The post-World War II rush to the suburbs brought a burgeoning of population to Northern Virginia, almost 10,000 new residents to Vienna alone, their new houses blending with those of an earlier era.
In 1954, the first of Vienna’s modern shopping centers was opened. More shopping centers followed in quick succession along a widened Maple Avenue in an attempt to keep up with the influx of newcomers who bought homes in the town’s new subdivisions. Older residents recall with nostalgia the Victorian homes and the maple trees that lined Maple Avenue before it was widened in 1958.
The other current exhibit in the museum is dedicated to the Women’s Suffrage Movement, highlighting the 100th anniversary of the League of Women Voters.
Photo via Town of Vienna
Tickets are rapidly disappearing for the 5th Annual Fishing Rodeo in Vienna on March 30. So if you’re interested in the trout fishing extravaganza, you may want to hook a ticket reel soon.
At the annual event in Wildwood Park (700 block of Follin Lane SE), hundreds of trout are dumped into Wolftrap Creek to swim right through banks packed to the gills with local fishers. Tickets are $3 per fisher.
Volunteers will provide instruction on fishing and stream education, as well as offering fish-cleaning demonstrations.
Half of the time slots have sold out. The remaining slots are:
- 9:30 a.m. — 12 tickets
- 10:30 a.m. — 41 tickets
- 11 a.m. — 16 tickets
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own fishing rod, bucket, plastic bag and ice A limited number of fishing rods are available to borrow. Bait will be supplied and fish marked with special tags can earn the fisher a gift card from a local merchant. All participants over 16 must possess a fishing license.
Tickets were available on sale to Vienna residents in January, but have since opened up to the public.
Photo via Facebook
An effort to prohibit Vienna Town Council members from taking private meetings with developers was brought to a screeching halt this week.
Town Attorney Steven Briglia said such an ordinance would likely violate a number of laws, from First Amendment rights protecting free speech, including that of developers, to the Citizens United case and Virginia’s Dillon Rule, which only allows localities to pass ordinances where granted clear authority from the General Assembly.
According to Briglia at a Vienna Town Council and Planning Commission work session on March 4:
“The question came up about a month ago about possibly limiting discussion with developers and passing an ordinance requiring any meetings by members of a public body be public. I started with that mandate to see if there was any authority that could restrict a local ordinance… To get right to the end, not only could I not find any authority in Virginia that would enable the town or any locality to pass an ordinance restricting individual contact by representatives of a developer with a member of the council, but… under Virginia law the general assembly says you can do what we say you can do and no more.”
Briglia also said the proposed ordinance could be seen as a violation of free speech.
“I think there would be First Amendment [issues] and I ran it by other attorneys and they had the same concerns I did,” said Briglia. “Citizens United was an expansion of basically corporate rights under First Amendment. Years ago, the Supreme Court said corporations are people for purposes of certain activity under government [so] corporations have the same rights as an individual.”
The effort had been spearheaded by Councilmembers Pasha Majdi and Howard Springsteen, two of the leading opponents to the controversial Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) developments last year. Majdi asked if the proposal could be pursued as a town policy and a resolution rather than codified law, but ultimately the Council agreed not move forward with any plans for limiting developer-council member discussions.
The discussion also opened old wounds about developer pressures on Town Council members, with Springsteen saying developers frequently used overbearing or even threatening tactics to try to intimidate the town into getting their way. But during a heated exchange, one Planning Commission member said the proposal was but another attempt to stall new development.
“This is another effort to make the MAC even more difficult,” said Planning Commission member Sarah Couchman. “I don’t think this is a widespread problem. It’s like electoral fraud. People hype it up. To use a policy of fear that Council members and Commissioners are going behind people’s backs and having meetings with developers is not right. I’m sorry you feel you need a policy to cite, but the fact of the matter is you can always say ‘I am not comfortable with this.'”
File photo
Vienna police were called last week for a report of a drive-by paintballing.
The incident happened last Monday, around 4:45 p.m., at the intersection of Marshall Road and Ware Street, SW.
“A resident reported that her vehicle was struck with a paintball on the driver side door while she was driving from Ware Street turning onto Marshall Road,” Vienna PD said in a crime report. “She did not observe anyone in the area.”
Photo via Google Maps
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 (March 4)
- McLean CBC Study Task Force — 7-9 p.m. at Fairfax County McLean Government Center (1437 Balls Hill Rd) — Tonight the task force developing policy recommendations for downtown McLean’s future will continue looking at where the rural transitions to urban in McLean. Staff is also scheduled to present potential land use scenarios.
Tuesday (March 5)
- McLean Citizens Association Meeting with Superintendent Scott Brabrand — 7 p.m. at Mclean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave) — At an MCA-hosted meeting, the Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent is scheduled to discuss priorities and challenges facing the schools, particularly regarding the overcrowding at McLean High School. Residents will be able to ask Brabrand questions.
Thursday (March 7)
- 2019 Philadelphia Flower Show — 6:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave) — The McLean Community Center will be hosting an all-day trip to Philadelphia to see 10 acres of landscapes and gardens. The trip is $138, or $133 for McLean residents, and includes transportation, tickets to the show, a morning snack and driver’s tip.
- 2019 Shape of the Region Conference — 8-11:45 a.m. at Valo Park (7950 Jones Branch Dr) — The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia will host a conference looking at the economic inequality in the region and how closing that divide can help businesses. Registration is $65.
- Adventures in History: Ancient Egypt — 4:30-5:30 at Dolley Madison Library (1244 Oak Ridge) — Library staff will host a class for kids ages 6-12 on ancient Egyptian history, featuring games, stories and skill-building exercises. The event will include a costume contest.
Sunday (March 10)
- Jazz Brunch at Blackfinn — 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at Blackfinn Ameripub Merrifield (2750 Gallows Road) — The bar and eatery near the Mosaic District is hosting a relaxing Sunday brunch featuring live music from the Blue Dot Jazz Troupe. Seating is first come, first served with free admission.
- 2019 Trombone Summit — 2 p.m. at Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E) — University of North Texas’ “U Tubes” and the Capitol Bones will host a trombone festival at Jammin Java.
Photo via Facebook
Laura Schwartz is a licensed Realtor in VA, D.C. and MD with McEnearney Associates in McLean. Reach the office at 703-790-9090.
A few years ago, the Kustard shop on Church Street consolidated into a small cart inside of Kiln & Co on Church Street.
Kiln & Co. is a paint your own pottery shop that hosts classes, camps, parties and stop in and paint anytime opportunities. In the back of the Vienna location, you’ll find Kustard & Co. dishing out custard, making Krazy Shakes, unlimited toppings, milkshakes, Sundaes, shakes, cones, floats and other sweet treats.
They’re also always giving back to the community by attending PTA events, local 5K races and events by dishing out ice cream, sometimes even for free.
They have 3 locations:
- 138 Church St. NW (inside Kiln & Co.) — closed Tuesdays
- 455 S. Maple Ave. (in the Target/Tinner Hill building)
- 1631 Washington Plaza N. (Reston) — by appointment in the Winter
Is there a local business that regularly supports your organization? We’d like to spotlight them. Please email me at [email protected] or leave a note in the comments section below.
