Fairfax County Suspends Trash Collection for Blizzard Week
Fairfax County announced on its Emergency Information website Saturday night, Jan. 23, during Winter Storm Jonas that trash and recycling collection services would be suspended for the week of Jan. 25-30.
Fairfax County Braces for Epic Winter Storm Jonas
Chairman Bulova says VDOT was unprepared for Wednesday night, encourages residents to stay off roads during storm.
With Winter Storm Jonas looming and expected to begin Friday afternoon, a much milder dusting of snow the previous Wednesday night caught commuters and transportation workers off-guard. Treacherous, slick roads resulted in numerous accidents and forcing drivers into gridlock around Fairfax County.
Lorton Brewer’s Wife Dies from Cancer
One week after a special ale was brewed to support her medical and other related costs, Kerri Rose of Alexandria died from cancer.
Brain Injury Services in Springfield gets survivors back into the community
In one moment, Kim Daily’s life changed forever. It was September 2011 and the Centreville resident was in a car accident where she hit her head. Afterwards she experienced some numbness and pain in her neck.
Mount Vernon: Advocate Against Opioid Abuse Attends State of the Union
Don Flattery’s son suffered an OxyContin addiction, died at 26 from an overdose.
Kevin Flattery had everything before him. A 2010 graduate of the University of Virginia, he had moved to Los Angeles after college and was starting a career in the film industry. “He was doing everything he wanted,” said Kevin’s father Don Flattery.
Coyotes on the Rise in Fairfax County
Police advise precautions
Over the last several months, Fairfax County Police said wildlife officials have received an increasing number of calls about the presence of coyotes in the area.
Mount Vernon Brief: Police Investigating ATM Fraud
Fairfax County Police believe a man used a counterfeit ATM card to withdraw cash from a SunTrust Bank machine around 4:15 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2015. The machine is located at 5922 Richmond Highway.
Burke, Fairfax Station, Springfield and Mount Vernon: Suds That Save
20 local breweries craft a beer to support one of their own.
Lawrence “Lance” Rose was born in September 2015, two months premature, to parents Matt and Kerri Rose of Alexandria. Just one month before, Kerri had been diagnosed with stage-four adenocarcinoma: stomach cancer.
Above a Cut
FCPS Superintendent Garza calls for no additional cuts in $2.67 billion FY 2017 budget
For Fiscal Year 2015, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Karen Garza oversaw $96.5 million in cuts made from the school system’s annual operating budget. For FY 2016, it was $55.4 million, she said.
Mount Vernon: Gearing Up for 2016 Challenges
Looking at the year ahead.
With winter vacation, unseasonably warm weather and 2015 in their rearview mirrors, community leaders and elected officials from the Fairfax County School Board, Board of Supervisors, General Assembly turn their attention to some of the most significant issues, developments or decisions in 2016:
School Board Sued over Nondiscrimination Policy Changes
Liberty Counsel challenges board’s authority to add sexual orientation and gender identity.
When the members of the Fairfax County School Board added sexual orientation and gender identity to the school system’s nondiscrimination policy in November 2014 and May 2015, did they have the authority?
Mount Vernon: UCM Adjusting How To Elevate People Out of Poverty
Nichelle Mitchem has always been interested in poverty issues. “In the high school yearbook, other people’s future interests were roller-skating and disco dancing,” she said. “Mine said ‘poverty lawyer.’”
Mount Vernon: Man Shot in Brockham Drive Home
Fairfax County Police are investigating the relationship between a 49-year-old man who was shot in a residence in the 8300 block of Brockham Drive and a possible suspect.
Fairfax County School Board Opens the Door for School Name Changes
No decisions made to affect current school names.
The Fairfax County School Board did not change any names of schools at its Dec. 17 regular business meeting.
Mount Vernon: Inova Hospital Staying Here and Growing
New Inova Emergency Department to open late 2016.
Inova Mount Vernon Hospital isn’t going anywhere. That was the message hospital Chief Executive Officer Deborah Addo had for local business leaders at the Dec. 10 breakfast sponsored by the Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce at Belle Haven Country Club.
Fairfax County: McAuliffe Proposing More for Education
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D, left) unveiled his budget proposal for $1 billion in public and higher education investment at Mark Twain Middle School in Alexandria on Dec. 16, as part of the total state budget he plans to roll out on Thursday, Dec. 17.
Mount Vernon: Police Change Charge to Murder
Fairfax County Police detectives have increased the charge for Andre Curtis Wilkins from malicious wounding to murder in the shooting death of 27-year-old Marquel Davis.
Mount Vernon: Alice’s Kids Donates Items to Enhance Student Self-Esteem
As a seventh grader growing up in Long Island, current Mount Vernon resident Ron Fitzsimmons missed 60 days of school because he was too embarrassed to go. After his father abandoned them, Fitzsimmons’ family survived on welfare, but only just.
Mount Vernon: Police Make Arrest In November Shooting
Fairfax County Police arrested Andre Curtis Wilkins, 21, of Waldorf, Md. on Dec. 4 and charged him with malicious wounding related to the Nov. 18 shooting death of Marquel L. Davis, 21, of Audubon Avenue.
Mount Vernon: Beacon at Groveton Wins Highway Beautification Award
The Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation recognized local businesses doing exceptional work to enhance their streetview image with the annual holiday open house and Mary Thonen Highway Beautification Awards.
Citizen Speakers Turn Out for J.E.B. Stuart High Name Change
School Board to take action Dec. 17
J.E.B. Stuart High School senior Whitten Rutledge is proud of his school, mostly.
Mount Vernon: Wreath and Christmas Tree Sale at St. Aidan's
Now in sixth year raising money for outreach and operating expenses, the church has brought in 540 freshly cut evergreens from a small North Carolina vendor.
Mount Vernon: Fox Trot Tradition Continues at Fort Hunt
A record-breaking 430-plus participated in the 14th annual Fort Hunt Elementary School Fox Trot run on Saturday, Nov. 21.
Adam Torres trial for murder of John Geer postponed until April 2016
Former Fairfax County police officer Adam Torres was charged with second-degree murder in August this year for shooting Springfield resident John Geer in August 2013. The trial was scheduled to begin on Dec. 14, but a continuance was recently granted to the defense, pushing it back until April 18, 2016.
Mount Vernon: Arcadia Farms Offers Veterans More Purpose in Life
Beads of sweat on Laron Murrell’s forehead glisten under his grey wool beanie as he digs his hoe into the live earth. On one side, the Woodlawn Plantation mansion stands, a relic from 1800. The plantation overlooks Fort Belvoir, situated across Route 1 bustling on a gleaming Monday morning in November.
Mount Vernon Brief: One Dead, Two Injured in Hybla Valley Shooting
Police identified Marquel Davis, 22, of Audubon Avenue in Alexandria, as the man who died in a Hybla Valley shooting on Nov. 18. His cause and manner of death have yet to be determined by the medical examiner.
Mount Vernon High School U.S. Marine Corps JROTC hosts Veterans Day program
Mount Vernon High School senior Elisa Solomon is a Cadet Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at her school. She’s also a poet. The young officer stood at the podium in the center of the school’s Michael M. Skinner Field House on Veterans Day, Nov. 11 and read her original work “The Superheroes.”
Fairfax County Updates Teacher Safety Training In Wake of Woodson Fire
Science teachers across Fairfax County Public Schools have begun mandatory updated safety training in the wake of an Oct. 30 fire at Woodson High School that injured five students and a teacher, and caused $7,500 in damage.
Mount Vernon Brief: 17-year-old Charged in August Murder
On Oct. 29, police announced a 17-year-old from the Huntington area was charged with the murder of Khalid Aboumalik, 42.
Mount Vernon Brief: 17-year-old Charged in August Murder
On Oct. 29, police announced a 17-year-old from the Huntington area was charged with the murder of Khalid Aboumalik, 42.
Fairfax County: Garza Presents Budget Task Force Report to School Board
Transparency and methodology of budget review questioned.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Karen Garza is attempting to scale a towering projected budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2017. On Nov. 9, she presented School Board members the report of budget cuts recommended by a 36-member task force she summoned earlier this year.
Mount Vernon Snapshot: Volunteers Clean up Jeff Todd Way
Volunteers from the Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce board, Mount Vernon Paint Co., Mount Vernon High School football team, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and friends and family of Jeff Todd came together on Nov. 7 to clean up trash on Jeff Todd Way.
Mount Vernon Brief: Arcadia Program Seeks Applicants
The Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture is a nonprofit organization based on Woodlawn Estate operating a farm, mobile market, food hub and farm-to-school programs.
Springfield: Capital Area Food Bank raises awareness of local hunger with Empty Bowls events
Kady Wohlfarth of Alexandria spent two months of her off days from the Alexandria Wegmans prepared food section to create 100 clay bowls. Hers accounted for one-third of the bowls at the “Empty Bowls” fundraiser and awareness-raising event for the Capital Area Food Bank.
Mount Vernon Viewpoints: Why was it important to you to come out and vote today?
“These guys decide how resources are shared, apportioned. School resources is an important issue for me. Your no or yes makes a big difference.”
Mount Vernon: Surovell Victorious In 36th
Del. Scott Surovell (D-44) will be switching to the Senate side of the capitol building in Richmond, after he defeated Republican challenger Jerry Foreman for the 36th District senator job. Foreman finished with 3,684 votes, over 31 percent, to Surovell’s 7,934 votes, over 68 percent.
Mount Vernon: Storck Elected District Supervisor
With almost 57 percent of the vote Mount Vernon School Board member Dan Storck defeated businesswoman and Republican Jane Gandee.
Mount Vernon: Voting ‘Slow But Steady’ at West Potomac
Doris McBryde of Mount Vernon had a simple goal as chief election officer at the West Potomac High School polling center: “Get people to vote, as expeditiously as possible.”
Mount Vernon: Geotechnical Drilling at Dyke Marsh
In preparation for restoring up to 100 acres of Dyke Marsh, the The National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a short drilling project in the last week of October.
Fairfax County: Republicans Celebrate the Victorious
And honor the defeated
Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock) said he much preferred this night to the one when he was elected to his first term. A close race with his opponent meant waiting around until late into the evening. This year, Cook defeated Democrat Janet Oleszek by a more handy margin of about six percent of the vote.
Fairfax County: Palchik Upsets Incumbent Reed for Providence School Board Seat
With 58.22 percent of the vote in unofficial election results, Dalia Palchik of Annandale defeated the incumbent Providence District Fairfax County School Board representative Patty Reed, who garnered 41.31 percent.
Fairfax County: Hough Edges Incumbent Velkoff for Third At-Large School Board Seat
Fairfax resident Jeanette Hough said her race for the Fairfax County School Board started with a phone call to Springfield District representative to the board Elizabeth Schultz. “What are we going to do about the school board?” Hough remembers asking. “We’re being ignored as parents and taxpayers.”
Mount Vernon: About Scott Surovell
Liz Smith: “To me, he is involved with his neighbors, his community and is very easy with everybody. He’s not standoffish at all, talks with people on the things they’re interested in and answers their questions very directly when he’s talking with them.
Mount Vernon: Friends, Neighbors and Constituents reflect on Jerry Foreman
“I’ve found him to be very effective, with solid values to cut taxes and improve the environment for business. I think he’s done that for the most part."
Mount Vernon: Bucknell Receives New Laptops
With school textbooks in Virginia being shifted to digital form, “it means everyone should get a computer,” said Del. Scott Surovell (D-44). Yet at schools like Bucknell Elementary School in the Mount Vernon area of Alexandria, a Title I school with a 73 percent free and reduced lunch population, many students don’t have computers or internet service at home to access those required resources.
Fairfax County: School Bond Referendum Tops $300 Million
The Nov. 3 election ballot will include a Fairfax County Public Schools bond referendum, featuring school improvement projects totaling $350,000,000.
Fairfax County Public Schools To Relocate 500 Staff
Fairfax County Public Schools has signed a 13-year lease at the Willow Oaks Corporate Center in Merrifield to relocated 500 support staff from the Fairfax Ridge Administration Center, where its lease it set to expire in March 2016.
Herrity: Fairfax County Board Made Decisions Not to Disclose Geer Information
Springfield supervisor speaks up on transparency at first committee meeting to review 140+ recommendations from ad hoc police commission.
While Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh was held up as one source of stalling the release information regarding the 2013 shooting death of Springfield man John Geer by then-Fairfax County police officer Adam Torres, Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) offered that “decisions we made” on the Board of Supervisors, on the counsel of the Fairfax County attorney, were also responsible for Torres’ name, discrepancies in the investigation and other details of the incident being withheld from the public and Geer’s family until a lawsuit finally forced the police department to release everything.
Fairfax County: School Board Promotes Dyslexia Awareness
And adopts two-hour delay for March Primary.
Nine-year-old Maxwell Gebharts stood confidently on a step-stool to address the Fairfax County School Board Oct. 22. “My old school didn’t know I was dyslexic,” he said. “I was very sad and felt like I wasn’t keeping up with everybody.”
Fairfax County: League of Women Voters hosts Forum for Board of Supervisors Chairman and At-Large School Board
Chairman Candidates Debate Economy, Police, Schools
Continuing their series of meet the candidates events, the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax area gave citizens another opportunity at James Madison High School in Vienna to ask questions and visit with hopefuls for both Board of Supervisors chairman and Fairfax County School Board at-large member.