Author: Scott McCaffrey

A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.

Countywide

Fairfax County secures voting role on Metro’s board of directors

By Scott McCaffrey
Metro general manager Randy Clarke, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn and Northern Virginia Transportation Commission executive director Kate Mattice during a Silver Line station opening in 2022 (staff photo by Matt Blitz)

Fairfax County will once again have a voting representative on Metro’s board of directors.

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn has been tapped as Virginia’s second voting member on the Metro board, along with Paul Smedberg, who represents the state government. Alcorn will represent Northern Virginia localities, replacing Loudoun County supervisor Matt Letourneau.

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News

Split Planning Commission recommends considering housing on Reston golf course

By Scott McCaffrey
Reston National Golf Course (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

A deeply divided Fairfax County Planning Commission voted on Wednesday (June 4) to recommend that the Board of Supervisors authorize staff study the possibility of housing on the Reston National Golf Course site.

The 8-4 split reversed a preliminary 6-1 vote with four abstentions taken on May 15, when commissioners indicated support for county staff’s recommendation not to move forward with the proposal.

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Countywide

Fairfax leaders seek regional collaboration to prevent seniors from being scammed

By Scott McCaffrey
Jason Kratovil chairs the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission (screenshot via Fairfax County)

Fairfax County leaders are hoping for a more coordinated, regional approach to helping seniors avoid scams.

“It needs to be broader than just a county message,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said at an Older Adults Committee meeting on Tuesday (June 3).

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Countywide

Consideration of blanket policy on FCPS students personalizing graduation caps deferred

By Scott McCaffrey
Students at Langley High School's 2023 graduation ceremony (photo by Brian Trompeter/GazetteLeader)

Members of a Fairfax County School Board committee have postponed consideration of what restrictions, if any, should be placed on student mortarboards during graduation ceremonies.

“We’ll come back to it,” Hunter Mill District School Board member Melanie Meren said at the May 27 meeting of the board’s governance committee.

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Countywide

Fairfax County’s basic-income pilot program helped participants, anecdotal data suggests

By Scott McCaffrey
Person counts dollar bills (via Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash)

Fairfax County’s 18-month experiment in providing at-risk households with monthly cash stipends has wrapped up, but it will still be some time before its successes and shortcomings are fully fleshed out.

“While the project itself is finalized, the research is ongoing,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said.

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Countywide

New initiative hopes to help N. Va. workers ‘pivot’ amid federal government upheaval

By Scott McCaffrey
Man in suit and tie (photo via Hunters Race on Unsplash)

Local economic development organizations have joined forces to launch a comprehensive initiative aimed at assisting federal employees, contractors and other professionals facing career disruptions.

“The Pivot” is an initiative of the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance, which includes the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

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Countywide

Community concerns crop up with initial FCPS boundary rewrite proposals

By Scott McCaffrey and Angela Woolsey
The Emerald Chase neighborhood organized a "Bike to School" demonstration to highlight their concerns about the initial redistricting proposals for Fairfax County Public Schools (photo by Marti Londal)

Fairfax County’s first major school boundaries overhaul in 40 years is set to move into its next phase.

With the last in a series of community engagement events set for Friday (June 6), the complicated effort of redrawing boundary lines will soon shift to a 95-member Superintendent’s Boundary Review Advisory Committee.

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News

Some job seekers say they’d work at these Fairfax County companies for free

By Scott McCaffrey
Capital One's headquarters building in Tysons at night (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Three Fairfax County-based businesses have made a list of the top 100 firms nationally where young Americans would be willing to work free for a year, in hopes of landing a full-time position.

Tysons-based Capital One placed 39th on the ranking, with Tysons’ Hilton coming in at #46 and Vienna-based Navy Federal Credit Union #55.

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Countywide

Upcoming forum to look at Fairfax County’s proposed trash collection takeover

By Scott McCaffrey
Fairfax County trash collection (photo via Fairfax County)

Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity and Fairfax County staff will host a televised forum tomorrow (Tuesday) to discuss a plan that, potentially, would have the local government oversee trash collection for single-family properties countywide.

Herrity asked his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors on May 13 for permission to host the event in conjunction with the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES).

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Countywide

Legislators suggest Virginia needs to take more active role in food safety

By Scott McCaffrey
Del. Mark Sickles (D-17) (photo via campaign website)

Virginia may need to enact more food safety requirements at the state level in response to cutbacks and deregulation efforts by the Trump administration, two legislators and several advocates said at a recent forum.

“We have historically, in my opinion, not done the kind of oversight we need to do. We’ve let the federal government do most of it,” Del. Mark Sickles (D-17) said during the press event on May 28.

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