Angela Woolsey | FFXnow

Mixed-use ‘donut’ building floated to replace Idylwood shopping center

Published November 28, 2022 at 10:15AM

Tenants at Fallfax Center on Route 29 include El Tio Tex-Mex Grill (via Google Maps)

A major redevelopment has been suggested for Fallfax Center, a retail strip anchored by El Tio Tex-Mex Grill on the edge of Idylwood near Jefferson District Park.

Property owner Schupp Companies has put forward a proposal to replace the existing shopping center with a residential and retail “donut” building.

News

Police make arrest in burglaries of Latino restaurants in Mount Vernon

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 28, 2022 at 9:30AM

A Fairfax County police SUV with lights on (file photo)

A 20-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly burglarizing two Latino restaurants in Mount Vernon earlier this month, Fairfax County police announced last week.

Police say surveillance footage showed the man, a resident of the county’s “Alexandria area,” breaking into Mezcalero Restaurant three times and Mana Pupuseria once from Nov. 13-18.

Around Town

Shipgarten in Tysons invites pups and pals to Thanksgiving beer festival

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 23, 2022 at 1:30PM

Shipgarten's Thanksgiving Barks & Brews Festival is coming this Saturday (via Shipgarten/Instagram)

People will be talking about Bruno at Shipgarten in Tysons this Thanksgiving weekend.

Characters from the Disney movie “Encanto” will put on a live performance on Saturday (Nov. 26) as part of the biergarten’s Thanksgiving Barks & Brews Festival, which will run from 1 to 6 p.m. that day.

News

Driver, 79, charged in Fair Oaks crash that killed motorcyclist

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 23, 2022 at 10:15AM

The northbound left turn lane from West Ox Road to Ox Hill Road in Fair Oaks (via Google Maps)

A 79-year-old driver who crashed into a motorcyclist in Fair Oaks last month, resulting in the biker’s death, is now facing criminal charges.

Detectives have determined that Fairfax resident Mazher Rajput did not yield to a 2018 Yamaha MT07 motorcycle when attempting to turn left from West Ox Road onto Ox Hill Road on Oct. 25, the Fairfax County Police Department said in a news release yesterday.

News

FCPD: 61-year-old man arrested for allegedly raping woman in 1988

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 22, 2022 at 3:40PM | Updated November 22, 2022 at 4:19PM

Retired Fairfax County Police detective Dick Kline addresses arrest for 1988 rape (via FCPD/Facebook)

(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) Police have arrested a 61-year-old man from Arlington County who allegedly abducted and raped a Fairfax County woman multiple times over three decades ago.

Fingerprint and DNA analyses suggest George Thomas Jr. and his now-deceased brother, Gregory Allen Thomas, were the offenders in the 1988 rape of a 22-year-old woman who got attacked as she was leaving work in Bailey’s Crossroads, the Fairfax County Police Department said this afternoon (Tuesday).

News

Developer seeks to turn one house into three on Wolf Trap area lot

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 22, 2022 at 2:15PM

A developer hopes to subdivide 1800 Creek Crossing Road in Wolf Trap into three single-family lots (via Fairfax County)

A single-family house in the Wolf Trap area could be razed and replaced with three smaller homes under a development plan filed earlier this month with Fairfax County.

Caliber Development is seeking to rezone the 1.14-acre site at the corner of Creek Crossing Road NE and Ridge Lane so it can be subdivided into three lots that will range from roughly 14,700 square feet to over 16,200 square feet in size, per the submitted plan.

Countywide

With 23 pedestrians dead, advocates call for action to make Fairfax County roads safer

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 22, 2022 at 11:45AM | Updated December 5, 2022 at 10:41AM

Each candle represents a pedestrian killed in a crash in Fairfax County this year (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

(Updated at 10:40 a.m. on 12/5/2022) Even with one month left, 2022 is the deadliest year for Fairfax County pedestrians in more than a decade.

Through October, vehicle crashes have killed 22 people on streets and highways in the county — the most since at least 2010, the earliest year in Virginia’s Traffic Records Electronic Data System (TREDS). The previous high came in 2018 and 2019, when there were 17 fatalities each.

News

McLean Community Center hopes to reach youths with new ambassador program

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 22, 2022 at 11:00AM

The McLean Community Center's Old Firehouse Center (file photo)

The McLean Community Center is on the lookout for local teens who are in tune with what kids these days enjoy.

The community center has launched a new MCC Youth Ambassador initiative that invites students from McLean and Langley high schools to provide input on and promote events at their schools and online.

News

Early voting in special election for Vienna area’s new delegate begins this week

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 21, 2022 at 2:15PM

35th House district candidates Holly Seibold and Monique Baroudi (courtesy Laura Goyer Photography, MP Photo Art)

Only a week after finalizing vote tallies from its last election, Fairfax County is gearing up to welcome back voters from several precincts for its next election.

Early voting will begin Wednesday (Nov. 23) to select a successor to Mark Keam, who resigned as delegate of Virginia’s 35th House District in September. A special election will be held Jan. 10, the day before the General Assembly convenes for its 2023 session.

Countywide

Fairfax County firefighters vote to unionize for historic contract talks

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 21, 2022 at 11:45AM

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue engine ladder (file photo)

Firefighters, medics and other Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department employees will have a union represent them in the county’s first collective bargaining negotiations for public workers in over 40 years.

Over 800 FCFRD workers participated in a 13-day election last month to determine whether to have union representation for contract talks with the county government, which will establish pay, benefits and other working conditions.