Users of the Town of Herndon’s website may notice some design and usability changes later this month.

The town is set to debut its revamped website on July 17. The upgrade — which is the first major redesign since 2016 — has been in the works since last fall.

Anne Curtis, the town’s spokesperson, said the new site aligns with the Herndon Town Council’s imperative to be “as inclusive and comprehensive as possible in communicating to town citizens and businesses.”

“The new website came about following a lot of analysis and feedback from users on the town’s current site; what works, what doesn’t, and ways we can improve,” she said by email.

The town hired the software company Granicus under a $54,000 contract to complete the work. Previous surveys of Herndon residents and website users found a desire for more visible department buttons, optimized search results and fewer drop-down menus.

The update will include more information that visitors wanted accessible directly from the home page, a more prominent search feature, graphic icons associated with the most-visited pages, and more prominent meetings and events pages.

The site will also include a new service finder feature that directs users to specific town services.

In addition, the new site will have the capacity to be translated into Spanish and other languages and meet ADA compliance requirements, Curtis said.

An industrial automation manufacturer from Austria is now a part of the business fabric in the Town of Herndon.

Tele Controls Inc., a 60-year-old, woman-owned manufacturer, opened its first U.S. subsidiary in Arlington in 2018, according to company spokesperson Apolinar Rivera.

The company makes power monitors, switching relays and other technology used in control panels by industrial sectors, including water and wastewater, power plants and agriculture.

Rivera said that four successful years at a co-working location during the pandemic prompted the move to permanent offices in Herndon, as the company seeks to grow its presence in the U.S.

“We aim to be a valuable resource for these industries and our relocation was made possible with the help of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority,” Rivera said.

A grand opening ceremony is slated for June 22 at the company’s new offices at 570 Herndon Parkway in Suite 110.

The company only has three employees in the U.S. but around 100 employees in Europe.

“With our intentions to grow our industrial footprint in the U.S., we relocated our office in May intending to hire more staff and expand our company to become the top supplier of timer relays, monitoring relays, and energy sensors,” Rivera said.

The Fairfax County Police Department is partnering with Zencity to roll out a community survey tool that markets itself as a way to “reimagine” local policing.

Chief of Police Kevin Davis described Zencity Blockwise as a tool to measure public sentiment and build trust in the community at a press conference yesterday (Monday) to provide more information about the new countywide initiative. He was joined by Zencity Chief Strategy Officer Michael Simon.

“When we partnered with Zencity, we wanted to take that next step and better capture community feedback, community sentiment,” Davis said. “And we want to make sure that the things we do as a police department are in line with the expectations of our broader community.”

Zencity Blockwise is already used by other police departments across the country, including Chicago and San Diego, but it represents an evolution of public engagement tools utilized by FCPD.

Davis noted that just over a year ago, FCPD piloted My90, a community performance feedback tool designed to measure residents’ satisfaction with FCPD following an interaction with law enforcement.

However, Davis explained that, unlike that previous survey, Blockwise captures “sentiment about policing that is not pursuant or following a police interaction.”

Instead, the tool works to limit FCPD’s “blindspots” around residents’ everyday needs by increasing public access to local law enforcement and providing a platform for citizens across a vast and diverse jurisdiction to voice their concerns, according to Davis.

“The way to ensure that we have a more representative voice in the community is to reach as many people as humanly possible,” Davis said. “So people who don’t typically attend community meetings, people who don’t typically have interactions with their police departments, but they certainly do feel a certain way about public safety and about their police department.”

To assist in the FCPD’s goal of increasing its reach, Zencity uses census data to divide Fairfax County into its eight patrol regions and serve randomized digital advertisements to all devices across the county, according to Simon.

The advertisements encourage residents to submit an anonymous two-minute feedback survey that asks open-ended questions about the FCPD in eight different languages.

“You’ll see an advertisement that solicits your feedback wherever you may be on the internet,” Simon said. “That ad is targeted at you because we need you to fill a demographic and geographic quota that represents what the census data tells us about each individual neighborhood.”

The FCPD will then analyze the results to more effectively address the community’s most urgent needs based on the voluntary information provided by county residents. Drawing a parallel to other law enforcement technology that tracks local crime patterns to lower crime rates, Simon explained that Zencity measures three key indicators: fear of crime, trust and priority.

After enough data has been collected to establish a baseline, the survey results will be continually updated and posted to the FCPD’s open data portal, which already has data related to subjects such as use of force and internal retention rates, according to Davis, who emphasized a commitment to community transparency.

Since launching on Thursday, June 1, the survey has already received around 300 responses. Simon said Zencity hopes to garner 1,500 responses every month.

He also hinted that Zencity and FCPD will potentially pilot end-of-survey questions about respondents’ contact information, but for now, the service will be “one-directional.”

Fairfax County is winding down its groundbreaking experiment with self-driving public transportation.

The autonomous, electric Relay shuttle will cease operations after June 23, concluding almost three years of bussing passengers around the Dunn Loring Metro station and the Mosaic District in Merrifield.

Since launching on Oct. 22, 2020, the shuttle has provided 356 trips, as of last Thursday (June 1). While attracting riders was a struggle at times, the pilot project was successful at demonstrating the potential and challenges of using the technology for public transit, Fairfax County Department of Transportation Chief of Operations John Zarbo says.

“I would think we would determine it as a success,” Zarbo told FFXnow. “Our ultimate goal of the project was sort of to be a test bed and to learn about the technology and sort of have an infrastructure area that we could see what the vehicle did. Ridership was extremely important to us, but it wasn’t everything…There was so much more to it.”

The first state-funded test of its kind in Virginia, the Relay pilot was intended to last just one year but got funding for multiple extensions, as the county and Dominion Energy, which owns the vehicle, waited out the hit that public transportation took nationally during the pandemic.

According to Zarbo, ridership has increased in recent months as the sense of COVID-19 as an emergency has faded. He also attributes the uptick to changes to the shuttle’s route and schedule that took effect on Dec. 5.

Originally, the shuttle traveled from the Dunn Loring Metro down Merrilee Drive, crossed Route 29 onto Eskridge Road, and looped around Merrifield Cinema Drive to stop by the Mosaic District’s Barnes and Noble.

The project team expanded the route to include three stops along District Avenue, giving them the chance to see how the vehicle handled a busier street.

“The vehicle does really well interacting with the pedestrians, which was a concern of ours at the beginning, but it did really well adjusting and driving autonomously on its own with very little interaction from the safety steward,” Zarbo said, referring to the on-board operator who assists riders and can take manual control if needed.

The current schedule of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday through Friday also “definitely worked better” than the original Monday to Thursday timeline, according to Zarbo, though the county wasn’t able to get approval for Saturdays.

The vehicle technology, provided by EasyMile, also improved throughout the pilot. A software upgrade enabled the shuttle to better navigate vegetation so it didn’t detect every overhanging tree branch as an object to be avoided. Read More

A revamped version of the Town of Herndon’s website is set to go live this summer.

In the works since last fall, the new site is intended to improve navigation and accessibility for users.

At a Herndon Town Council work session on Tuesday (May 16), town spokesperson Anne Curtis said the town plans to do beta testing before going live with the website this summer.

The new site has fewer menu options on the header and fewer expandable menus in favor of displaying more content directly on the homepage. It also includes several large icons with quicklinks that are popular.

Granicus — the software company the town is working with — also created a mechanism on the site that allows users to switch through a series of drop-down selects to navigate through the site.

For example, a user would be directed to a page on how to pay specific fees and forms based on responses from a drop-down menu.

Staff offered a preview at the May 16 work session, stressing that the work was ongoing. Council members overwhelmingly lauded the new design.

“There’s lot of work still to be done on this website,” Curtis said, adding that departments are now working on populating the pages with content.

A survey of 82 respondents found that residents wanted to see more visible department buttons, better search results and less reliance on drop-down menus.

Based on the town’s analysis, the bounce rates for the site hover around the same levels for most sites with similar content — nearly 61%. Most users appear to use the website for information on meeting agendas, Herndon Community Center, jobs, recreation and the police department’s weekly crime report.

The split between mobile and desktop users was relatively even: 53% for phones and 46% for desktop users.

The translation feature on the website is also rarely used — a feature that may be redundant with in-browser translation that is offered by most browsers or devices.

The new Apple store at Tysons Corner Center is ready to say hello.

Opening to customers at 10 a.m. today (Friday), the 13,010-square-foot store has been branded as a “new chapter” for the technology company, which launched its original retail location at the mall on May 19, 2001 — exactly 22 years ago.

Given that history, Apple was “excited” to introduce its latest design features in Tysons, a spokesperson said, as the business seeks to maintain its status as a trendsetter in the ever-evolving world of retail.

“It’s so exciting to see how many people know about our old Tysons Corner store,” Jason Reyes, a business expert for the Tysons store, said at a media preview yesterday. “It’s the first one ever in the whole world, and for it to kind of get into its next generation, really, is so exciting to see. It’s just showing how we’re evolving as a company.”

Now located on the mall’s second floor adjacent to Victoria’s Secret, the remodeled Apple Store trades its predecessor’s enclosed, almost utilitarian design for a warmer, more natural look with wood paneling and a wrap-around, all-glass storefront.

Accessibility and sustainability were top priorities for the new design, according to Apple Retail and Design Manager Bill Bergeron-Mirsky.

In addition to being carbon-neutral and operating entirely on renewable energy sources, the store was built out of plant-based materials, with “biogenic acoustic panels and baffles” for the ceiling and biopolymers for the floor.

“That replaces a petrochemical product, but it also increases the performance of the floor itself,” Bergeron-Mirsky said.

He highlighted the varied table and chair heights, intended to ensure all customers can “engage with the store team,” and wide aisles designed for easier navigation by wheelchair users. The store also has a portable hearing loop to assist people who use hearing aids.

The store layout will be familiar, with long tables and wall displays for different products, from iPads and phone cases to Apple Music and Apple TV+, the company’s streaming services.

Additions include a more prominent “Genius” bar for technical support next to a pickup counter for online orders. There is also a table for “Today at Apple” workshops and an Apple Watch studio where both the products and the environment can be customized.

“We can end up transforming this room to highlight [a] new product, or we could bring a music experience into it,” Reyes said. “I mean, the possibilities are endless. Even the lighting itself can be changed, depending on what experience we want to give the customer in this room.”

The focus on accessibility extends to the store’s over 100 employees, a team that includes speakers of American Sign Language, Spanish, Arabic, Korean, Vietnamese, French, Amharic and other languages, Bergeron-Mirsky said.

Apple declined to comment on whether any of its other 500-plus stores will get similar overhauls, but the relocation has boosted the company’s profile in Tysons Corner Center, placing it closer to the Plaza that owner and developer Macerich built as the mall’s focal point.

“Apple has been such a key partner with Tysons Corner Center since they opened their store in our center 22 years ago and we look forward to working with them on this next chapter of their brand evolution for their new location within the center,” Macerich Director of Property Management Jesse Benites said. “As a leader in innovation and design, Apple has always been a destination retailer for malls and we wish them continued success.”

As Northern Virginia continues to cement its position as a global base for data centers, Fairfax County leaders say the time has come to reevaluate the impact of the facilities and, potentially, set some boundaries for the future.

At its meeting this morning (Tuesday), the Board of Supervisors directed county staff to research environmental issues linked to data centers and what’s being done to address them. Staff will also develop guidelines for site locations and the process for approving them.

The unanimously approved motion introduced by Board Chairman Jeff McKay advised staff to report back by the end of this year, but with more centers in the works, some supervisors suggested an accelerated timeline is needed.

“The technology’s changing, the practices are changing, so there may be some things that we need to do even sooner than the end of the year,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said. “I would just encourage us to be flexible and staff to bring things forward when ready.”

Though Silicon Valley remains synonymous with the tech industry, the internet lives in Virginia, which hosts about 35% of the world’s data centers — including 45 million square feet just in Northern Virginia, according to a recent report by real estate developer JLL. As much as 70% of all online traffic passes through Loudoun County, giving it the nickname “Data Center Alley.”

Fairfax County currently has 11 data centers with five more “in the pipeline,” according to McKay. Alcorn said four of the upcoming sites are in his district, which includes the CoreSite campus in Reston and offices for Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Herndon.

With AWS pledging to invest $35 billion for new data center campuses in Virginia, the facilities could “be beneficial from a tax-base perspective and perhaps even a building repurposing perspective,” McKay said in his board matter, which was also sponsored by Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck and Sully District Supervisor Kathy Smith.

“The region continues to receive requests for more data centers due to our unique location related to the internet’s fiber infrastructure,” McKay said.

However, as the industry’s footprint has grown, so have concerns about the consequences for the environment, local neighborhoods and the power grid.

Citing their impacts on air and water quality as well as electricty usage and greenhouse gas emissions, the county’s Environmental Quality Advisory Council (EQAC) urged the board to develop a plan requiring data centers to use renewable energy “to the extent feasible” and report all emissions and pollutants.

“Actions to mitigate threats to community health and minimize the need for future cleanup of water by County wastewater treatment facilities and Fairfax Water should be undertaken,” EQAC Chair Larry Zaragoza said in the March 13 memo. “Moreover, these steps are important to provide the data centers with clear expectations to reduce environmental impacts.”

The proposed data center plan will build off of updates in the county’s recently voided zoning ordinance, which was scheduled for a public hearing and potential re-adoption today. Read More

An information technology services company is expanding its presence in Reston.

Dev Technology Group plans to invest $366,000 in its current offices at 11440 Commerce Park Drive, embarking on a 10,000-square-foot expansion that is expected to create 90 new jobs. The news was announced yesterday (Monday).

“As a federal contractor, Dev Technology has selected to continue its growth in Fairfax County due to the proximity of clients and access to highly skilled employees, including veterans,” Dev Technology CEO Kendall Holbrook said. “In addition, Northern Virginia is a diverse and inclusive community that allows us to attract and retain people of all backgrounds, which ultimately makes our company stronger and more resilient.”

The company was founded in 1998 to deliver IT services and solutions, including artificial intelligence, to further government missions. Its clients include the Department of Homeland Security, Army National Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) president and CEO Victor Hoskins congratulated the company on its expansion in the county.

“We applaud Dev Technology for their investment and plan of hiring 90 new information technology and software employees,” Hoskins said.

FCEDA worked with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) to secure the project for the county.

“Dev Technology Group is a Virginia success story that bolsters our booming IT industry while providing critical services for the government and 21st-century jobs for civilians and veterans,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said. “We are proud to see a longstanding corporate partner benefit from the Commonwealth’s diverse, world-class technology talent that catalyzes growth.”

📢 BIG NEWS: @devtechnology, an information technology services company, will expand in Fairfax County. The company is investing in 10k sq. ft of new office space to accommodate additional IT + software personnel. The project will create 90 new jobs.

🔗: https://t.co/OOqXyv7cW6 pic.twitter.com/nQnJpVfVwF

— Fairfax County EDA (@FairfaxEDA) May 8, 2023

Image via Google Maps

The robots are taking over the Mosaic District.

Starting today (Thursday), a fleet of boxy, self-driving bots will roam around the mixed-use Merrifield neighborhood, delivering food from restaurants in a pilot program by the delivery service Uber Eats and the robotics startup Cartken.

Right now, robot deliveries are available from the family-owned Greek restaurant Our Mom Eugenia, Pupatella Pizza and the Indian fast-casual eatery RASA, but other tenants could be added later. The pilot is slated to run through April 2024.

The Mosaic District is emerging as a prime testing ground for autonomous technology, hosting Fairfax County and Dominion Energy’s Relay shuttle — though the vehicle is currently sidelined by “mechanical issues” through Friday (April 21).

“We are excited to partner with Uber Eats and Cartken to bring cutting-edge technology to our community, and confident this innovative service will elevate visitor experience and customer engagement at Mosaic,” said Greg Dercach, vice president of property management for EDENS, which owns and operates the development.

Uber and Cartken — an Oakland, California-based artificial intelligence company created by former Google engineers — first teamed up to experiment with food delivery robots in the Miami, Florida, area, launching a pilot in December.

The companies chose to introduce the robots to the Mosaic District, their first site in Virginia, because of the development’s walkability and abundance of dining options.

“Uber and Cartken share a vision to provide greater affordability, reliability, and convenience to merchants and consumers — all at the touch of a button,” Noah Zych, Uber’s head of autonomous mobility and delivery, said. “Our expansion to Fairfax is another important step in this journey, bringing Virginia residents a little more Uber magic through sidewalk robot delivery.”

Sporting six wheels and a red flag, the robots are equipped with sensors and cameras that help them navigate and avoid collisions. They can carry 1.5 cubic feet — about two full paper grocery bags — and reach speeds of 3-6 mph, depending on the environment.

They will travel anywhere within the Mosaic District, though residents will have to step outside to pick up their deliveries.

While made by a different company, Cartken’s vehicles will look familiar to anyone who has recently visited George Mason University’s Fairfax campus, where robots from Starship Technology have been delivering food to students since 2019.

Founded in 2019, Cartken has also worked with Grubhub at some college campuses and deployed its robots to make Starbucks deliveries at malls in Japan.

“Our team at Cartken is excited to further partner with Uber Eats and expand our reach to serve the Fairfax community,” Cartken co-founder and COO Anjali Jindal Naik said. “Cartken is at an inflection point, where we are rapidly bringing our AI, computer vision, and lidar-less autonomous robots to more places, like Mosaic District, in partnership with Uber Eats.”

Patrons of the participating Mosaic District restaurants can request a delivery by robot through the Uber Eats app, which allows users to track the vehicle’s route and arrival time. A standard delivery takes 20 to 30 minutes, but there’s a “priority” option that advertises a 15 to 25-minute wait for a $1.49 fee.

Registrations for Fairfax County’s School Age Child Care (SACC) summer program will reopen tomorrow (Thursday) after technical issues disrupted its scheduled launch yesterday.

Camp Fairfax started allowing families to register at 8 a.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 21), but the Fairfax County Office for Children, which oversees the program, reported at 9:13 a.m. that “technical difficulties” had taken the system down.

“The registration system…experienced a system failure following the opening of SACC summer program registration,” the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS) said in a news release. “Staff responded by immediately pausing all summer registrations. Staff continues to work diligently to resolve issues and ensure the system can adequately respond to demand.”

NCS said it anticipates the issues will all be fixed today, enabling it to restart registrations at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

However, enrollment will now be “staggered” based on the name of the 35 locations where the camps will be held:

• Beginning Thursday, Feb. 23: Sites beginning with letters A-J (Aldrin Elementary School to James Lee Community Center)
• Beginning Friday, Feb. 24: Sites beginning with letters K-P (Kent Gardens Elementary School to Providence Community Center)
• Beginning Monday, Feb. 27: Sites beginning with letters S-W (Springfield Estates Elementary School to Wolftrap Elementary School)

Open to rising first to seventh graders who live in Fairfax County or Fairfax City, Camp Fairfax operates in week-long sessions from late June through early or late August, depending on the location. Each camp session has three “cabins” with activities aimed at artists, performers or athletes.

Camps located at the county’s community centers will run from June 20 to Aug. 18, while school sites will run from June 26 to Aug. 4.

The fees for this year’s camps will be determined by the county’s upcoming budget, a draft of which was presented to the Board of Supervisors yesterday. The cost can be adjusted based on a family’s income, with last year’s fees ranging from $10 for a family earning under $53,000 to $281 for a family earning $132,500 or more.

Registration will be available online and by phone (703-449-8989), though NCS advises not logging into the system before 8 a.m.

“Neighborhood & Community Services is committed to providing all Fairfax County and City of Fairfax residents equal access to high-quality camp and childcare opportunities,” NCS said. “We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to meet the demand for these services in our community.”