Author: Angela Woolsey

Angela Woolsey is the site editor for FFXnow. A graduate of George Mason University, she worked as a general assignment reporter for the Fairfax County Times before joining Local News Now as the Tysons Reporter editor in 2020.

Countywide

County seeks $5M for multi-year effort to update voting machines

By Angela Woolsey
Voting in Fairfax County (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Early voting for the next general election has just gotten underway, but Fairfax County’s elections staff is already planning for next year and beyond.

The county’s Office of Elections has requested $5 million to launch a multi-year rollout of new, updated voting machines as part of a $190 million spending package carried over from fiscal year 2022, which ended on June 30.

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News

FCPD: Rose Hill man charged with murder after father found dead

By Angela Woolsey
Fairfax County police car with lights flashing (file photo)

An 82-year-old man died in Rose Hill yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) after an apparent assault by his son, Fairfax County police say.

Samy Hassanein, 36, was arrested overnight and has now been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his father, Talat Hassanein, the Fairfax County Police Department announced this morning (Wednesday).

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News

Dog dies, home lost in McLean house fire

By Angela Woolsey
Firefighters assess the scene of a house fire in the 6900 block of Birch Street on the McLean border (via FCFRD)

(Updated at 10:10 a.m. on 9/30/2022) Four people lost their home and a pet dog early Wednesday morning (Sept. 28) after a fire at their house in McLean.

Fairfax County and Arlington firefighters were dispatched at 1:45 a.m. to the 6900 block of Birch Street, near the West Falls Church Metro station area, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department tweeted at 7:06 a.m. that day.

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News

Regional Tex-Mex chain is coming to Merrifield’s Gatehouse Plaza

By Angela Woolsey
Guapo's will replace the now-shuttered Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant at Gatehouse Plaza in Merrifield (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

A family-owned chain of Tex-Mex restaurants will soon add Merrifield to its roster of locations across the D.C. area.

Guapo’s plans to take over the former Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant at 3052 Gate House Plaza, as the Washington Business Journal reported on Friday (Sept. 23).

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Countywide

Surveys give Fairfax County mostly high marks for Covid response

By Angela Woolsey
The Fairfax County Government Center's COVID-19 vaccination site in March 2021 (via FCHD/Twitter)

There were undeniably hiccups along the way, but Fairfax County’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic earned an overall positive assessment from community surveys conducted this summer.

A general community survey issued in June received 2,148 responses, representing just a fraction of the county’s over 1.1 million residents.

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News

New plan submitted for Virginia Tech campus redevelopment near West Falls Church Metro

By Angela Woolsey
Virginia Tech's Northern Virginia Center in Idylwood (via Google Maps)

A developer has officially filed plans with Fairfax County to bring housing, retail, and new office and academic facilities to Virginia Tech’s campus in Idylwood.

As a joint entity named Converge West Falls LLC, real estate investment firm Rushmark Properties and the construction company HITT Contracting have proposed replacing the existing Northern Virginia Center at 7054 Haycock Road with a 283,000-square-foot office building, up to 440 residential units, and a 2,000-square-foot retail pavilion.

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News

Upgraded bridge on Mount Vernon Trail in Fort Hunt officially reopens

By Angela Woolsey
National Park Service staff, elected officials, and community volunteers celebrate the reopening of Mount Vernon Trail's Bridge 12 (via National Park Service)

The National Park Service has completed the first of four planned projects to reconstruct bridges along Mount Vernon Trail.

Park service staff, elected officials and community members celebrated the reopening of Bridge 12 near Fort Hunt Park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday (Sept. 24). The occasion coincided with National Public Lands Day, which encourages volunteers to help restore and improve national parks and other public lands.

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News

Vienna proposes bonuses to attract more maintenance truck drivers

By Angela Woolsey
A kid runs past Vienna Town Hall (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

With the national shortage of commercial drivers continuing to strain services from trash collection to school buses, the Town of Vienna plans to increase salaries and offer bonuses to bolster its maintenance workforce.

As part of a new incentive program, the Department of Public Works recommends that the town increase its entry-level salary for maintenance workers to $55,000 and offer a $2,000 hiring bonus to new employees with a commercial driver’s license (CDL).

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News

West Falls Church development plans will require major Metro parking cuts

By Angela Woolsey
A rendering of the proposed development outside the West Falls Church Metro station (via WMATA)

Metro anticipates reducing the parking capacity at its West Falls Church station by over 700 spaces in order to accommodate a planned redevelopment of the property between I-66 and Haycock Road.

Under review by Fairfax County, the project would replace the Metro station’s surface parking lots with 24 acres of mixed-use development, including up to 900 residential units, 110,000 square feet of office, and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.

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News

Remains found in Tysons identified as teen who disappeared 47 years ago

By Angela Woolsey
Police have identified the remains of Patricia Gildawie, a 17-year-old Fairfax City resident who went missing in 1975 (via FCPD)

Human remains discovered by a drainage ditch in Tysons over two decades ago have been linked to a teen who went missing back in 1975, Fairfax County police announced today (Monday).

With help from the private forensics lab Othram Inc., cold case detectives have identified the remains found behind the Post apartments in 2001 as those of Patricia Agnes Gildawie, a Fairfax City resident who disappeared when she was 17.

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