Vienna | FFXnow

Published June 15, 2023 at 9:30AM

Fairfax County will alight with joy and celebration with a variety of opportunities to celebrate Juneteenth this coming weekend (June 17-19).

Just last week on June 6, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors officially recognized Monday, June 19 of this year as Juneteenth. Only recently anointed a state and federal holiday, the occasion commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved men and women in Galveston, Texas finally heard the news that they had been freed two years prior under the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Around Town

New summer concert series coming to the Mosaic District

By Angela Woolsey

Published June 14, 2023 at 2:15PM | Updated June 23, 2023 at 12:19PM

Strawberry Lane will get blocked off Saturday nights this summer for a new Mosaic Live concert series (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Updated at 12:20 p.m. on 6/23/2023 — The Mosaic Live kick-off event on Saturday has been canceled due to forecasted inclement weather, according to Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik. The series will instead begin on July 1 with the Munit Mesfin Band.

Earlier: Live music will take over Strawberry Lane at Mosaic District this summer.

News

Finished Nutley Street interchange at I-66 expected to open tomorrow

By Angela Woolsey

Published June 13, 2023 at 9:30AM | Updated June 13, 2023 at 9:55AM

An aerial view of the Nutley Street and I-66 interchange, as of April (via VDOT)

The new Nutley Street interchange at I-66 just south of Vienna is about to achieve its final form.

Lanes that will let drivers going from Nutley to I-66 bypass the dreaded roundabouts are scheduled to open tomorrow (Wednesday), the Virginia Department of Transportation recently announced.

News

Man will serve two years in prison for fatally shooting friend in Vienna

By Angela Woolsey

Published June 12, 2023 at 9:30AM

The Fairfax County Courthouse (file photo)

A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to serve two years in prison for a fatal shooting at the Vienna Park apartments that the judge described as “a parent’s worst nightmare.”

What began as an intoxicated hangout between friends ended in tragedy when Vienna resident Andrew Gordiyenko shot 21-year-old Matthew Chadwick on June 10, 2021, according to defense attorney Erik Jurgensen’s recounting of the incident at a sentencing hearing on Friday (June 9).

News

Vienna will send 1950s-era Faith Baptist Church building to ‘house heaven’

By Angela Woolsey

Published June 8, 2023 at 2:15PM

The former Faith Baptist Church building in Vienna (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

The Faith Baptist Church that has occupied 301 Center Street South in Vienna for about seven decades will officially be torn down.

Faced with increasing maintenance costs, the Vienna Town Council voted unanimously on Monday (June 5) to demolish the entire two-story building, which was originally built in the 1950s, according to Fairfax County records.

News

Robert Hanssen, double agent who used Vienna park as dead drop site, dies in prison

By Vernon Miles

Published June 6, 2023 at 10:15AM | Updated June 22, 2023 at 1:11PM

Robert Hanssen, former Vienna resident and convicted spy (image via FBI)

Spy Robert Hanssen, a former Vienna resident who passed along secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia via a nearby park, died yesterday (Monday) in a Colorado federal prison.

Hanssen, 79, was an FBI counterintelligence agent who was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for passing classified information to Soviet (later Russian) intelligence.

News

Police: Postal worker pepper-sprayed during armed robbery in Vienna

By Angela Woolsey

Published June 5, 2023 at 9:30AM

Vienna Police (file photo)

Vienna police are searching for a person who robbed a postal worker while armed with a knife and pepper spray on Friday (June 2).

Officers responded around 11:50 a.m. to a U.S. Postal Service employee’s report that they had been robbed in the 500 block of Church Street NE, the Town of Vienna Police Department said in a news release that afternoon.

News

Vienna Police revives crackdown on stop sign violations for June

By Angela Woolsey

Published June 1, 2023 at 1:15PM

A Vienna Police car on Mill Street (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

The Town of Vienna Police Department will once again usher in summer with a hardline approach to stop sign violations.

The department launched a campaign today (Thursday) that will see officers step up their enforcement of traffic safety laws, especially those governing stop signs, after seeing “a noticeable increase in such violations.”

News

Police: Vienna man denies throwing rocks at juveniles who yelled racial slurs

By Angela Woolsey

Published May 26, 2023 at 1:30PM | Updated May 26, 2023 at 4:23PM

A Vienna police SUV (file photo)

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) A rock fight disrupted a warm Saturday afternoon for two Vienna households last week, though who exactly was throwing the rocks is a matter of some dispute.

A resident in the 100 block of Patrick Street SE reported to police on May 20 that, around 5 p.m., a man threw rocks at his juvenile son, who was playing outside, according to the Vienna Police Department’s weekly recap for May 19-25.

News

Storage facility for classic cars could motor into Vienna warehouse

By Angela Woolsey

Published May 24, 2023 at 2:15PM

A classic Cadillac red convertible (via Ryan De Hamer on Unsplash)

A Vienna warehouse recently vacated by the U.S. Postal Service is being eyed as a potential storage site for classic cars.

Roadhouse Development Company LLC is seeking to lease the existing, 34,241-square-foot warehouse at 831 Follin Lane SE for indoor car storage, according to a certificate of occupancy application scheduled to go before the Town of Vienna Planning Commission tonight (Wednesday).