Kudos, SLHS Cheerleaders — The South Lakes High School cheerleaders won the Liberty Conference title last week and finished second at the Regional Semifinals the weekend of Oct. 22. They will move on to compete at the Region Finals on Oct. 29 at Fairfax High School. If they finish in the top four, the will qualify for the state championships on Nov. 5 in Richmond.

Nearby: Vienna Halloween Parade Wednesday — The Town Of Vienna is holding its 70th annual Halloween parade Wednesday at 7 p.m. This year’s theme is  “Jivin’ Back to the 1940s.” Maple Avenue will be closed between East Street and Lawyers Road from 6:30-9:30 p.m. [Fairfax Times]

SLHS Football Stays No. 8 — South Lakes retained its No. 8 ranking in The Washington Post’t football poll this week. The Seahawks overcame and early deficit to defeat Langley Friday. [Washington Post]

How Did A Teacher With A Record Slip Through FCPS? — NBC4 Washington researches how a teacher charged with sexually assaulting a student get hired by Fairfax County Public Schools. [NBC4 Washington]

Metro recently floated the idea of possibly closing rail stations during off-peak hours as part of a wider cost-cutting measure. The proposal to shut 20 under-used stations midday and late night is part of a solution to a projected $275 million budget shortfall.

Now the transit agency is saying it was not serious. Metro now says the map was meant only to illustrate the transit agency’s dire financial situation.

The proposal, released two weeks ago in advance of Metro’s budget talks, mentioned several Silver Line locations, including Spring Hill, Greensboro, McLean, and Virginia Square-GMU, as well as several on the Prince George’s side of the line (Addison Road, Benning Road, Stadium-Armory, and Capital Heights)

The agency received criticism that the Maryland stations, which are located in lower-income neighborhoods, would affect people who needed public transportation most.

Now Metro says it was not serious, reports The Washington Post.

Metro heard from many community members during a nearly 10-hour long meeting on Thursday. Residents were livid, reports the Post:

Following the backlash, Metro said the map was meant only to illustrate the transit agency’s dire financial situation. But critics questioned the wisdom of circulating the idea if there was no formal proposal. Some said it was merely an attempt to threaten the District, Maryland and Virginia to contribute more money to close the budget gap. …

Metro board Chairman Jack Evans applauded riders for taking a stand but said he had no problem with [Metro GM Paul] Wiedefeld’s decision to use the map as a way to illustrate the budget realities facing the troubled system.

“What Paul is trying to do is say, ‘Okay, if the jurisdictions don’t put the money [to cover the budget shortfall] in, then we have to do service cuts,’ ” Evans said. “And what do service cuts mean? . . . It means no bus routes, it means no stopping trains at the lowest-attended stations. That’s service cuts. Service cuts are painful. They’re not abstract.”

Board member Leif Dormsjo said the station closure idea is “not something we are taking through a public process right now.”

“I found the map surprising at the time that it was introduced, and I think it contributes to people’s suspicion that Metro doesn’t have people’s best interests in mind,” he said. “I think that was probably a good indication of how serious the reaction would be to such a concept, if it was something that management was recommending.”

Wiedefeld is expected to release his budget proposal in November.

This is an op-ed by Reston resident Therese Martin. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.

There have been so many misleading or incorrect comments about the proposed meals tax for Fairfax County during recent weeks that it is hard to know where to begin in pointing out how important its approval is for the citizens of our county.

Foremost, the Board of Supervisors is not proposing a rehash of last spring’s budget deliberations; it is proposing that they be given an important tool to use in making budget decisions in future years.

Each year, our elected representatives must balance the needs of the county’s residents against the resources available to them. Many Fairfax residents apparently don’t realize that counties in Virginia don’t have many tools to use [including use of an income tax as proposed in a recent letter in the local press]. Other than one-time grants and permits or fees that it caps, Virginia pretty much limits counties’ ability to fund services to the levy of property taxes.  In some years, the state actually takes back a part of the funds it provides to localities in order to balance its budget.

[We just recently heard that Virginia’s well-publicized plan to increase teacher salaries is on the chopping block because of its anticipated budget shortfall. Thus any increase in Fairfax teacher salaries to bring them up to the level of surrounding jurisdictions will depend on the local property tax.]

Read More

South Lakes High School football coach Trey Taylor was named the Washington Redskins Foundation’s High School Coach of the Week last week — and that was before SLHS earned another victory to improve to 8-0.

The award is given out each week by the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation and Inova Sports Medicine.

The Seahawks earned their biggest victory of the season Oct. 14 with an upset over then-No. 8 Madison. South Lakes then climbed 10 spots in the Washington Post poll. The Seahawks are the No. 8 team now. The team beat Langely 42-14 on Friday.

“Coach Taylor does a great job of helping each of his players recognize their full potential,” Linda Jones, SLHS Director Student Activities, said in a release. “He encourages his players to focus on academics first and to always do the right thing.”

The Redskins and Inova highlight some of Taylor’s accomplishments on and off the field since arriving at SLHS in 2014.

Coach Taylor has used community outreach as an opportunity to advocate team building amongst his student-athletes. Coach Taylor and his players are active in the “Readers Are Leaders” program with Terreset Elementary School and assist with the Reston Youth Association’s football camps and clinics.  Players also help South Lakes custodial staff move school furniture before the start of every school year.

All South Lakes football coaches are Heads Up Football certified and emphasize the importance of proper tackling techniques to players. Taylor encourages his players to seek out the assistance of the Athletic Training staff when necessary. Additionally, he holds clinics for youth football coaches on proper techniques.

The High School Coach of the Week program is an NFL-wide initiative designed to recognize area high school football coaches who continuously demonstrate hard work and dedication to their football programs, the health and safety of their players, and who make a difference in their communities.

The Redskins Charitable Foundation has convened a panel of local high school football media experts to provide nominations of deserving high school coaches for consideration and selection.

Each coach chosen throughout the high school football season will receive a $2,000 donation from the Redskins Charitable Foundation to their football program and a framed certificate signed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Redskins Head Coach Jay Gruden, Redskins President Bruce Allen and General Manager Scot McCloughan, as well as other giveaway items from the Redskins Charitable Foundation and Inova Sports Medicine.

Coach Trey Taylor at SLHS football practice/file photo

Development is moving Reston forward, with new residential, office and retail going up all around Reston Parkway and Old Reston Avenue.

One plot remains the same — and empty.

The 126-year-old Bowman Distillery has been empty for at least 20 years. The distillery, formerly home to where they used to make Virginia Gentleman whiskey, has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1999. That means it can’t be torn down to make way for condos, offices or the other type of development happening around Reston.

The white brick building could, however, be repurposed into something else. A museum? A Bed and Breakfast?

In addition to being a distillery, the building served long ago as the Wiehle Town Hall and a church.

The distillery has gone through several rezoning applications over the years. In 1989, after Bowman Distillery moved operations to Fredericksburg, the building was rezoned as part of a larger mixed-use development. Some of that development happened on parts of the original 32-acre property, but the historic building remains untouched.

In 1998, it was sold to an owner who planned to build a Bed and Breakfast or condo. It sold again in 2010 for $540,000.

With its historic bones and close proximity to the W & OD Trail and Reston Town Center, surely someone has a vision for the property. What is yours? Tell us in the comments.

Old Bowman Distillery/file photo

Two Views On The Meals Tax — The Washington Post has op-eds from both sides of the Fairfax County meals tax, on the ballot on Nov. 8. Supervisor Chair Sharon Bulova is for it; Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Jim Corcoran is not. [Washington Post Bulova, Washington Post Corcoran]

South Lakes Stays Unbeaten — The No. 8 Seahawk football team crushed Langley  42-14 Friday to move to 8-0. Next up is Hayfield in the Homecoming game this Friday. [South Lakes Athletics]

Beer Would Help Fairfax County’s Bottom Line — Fairfax County will consider legislation next month making the way easier for craft breweries in the county. [Washington Post]

Capital Bikeshare officially launched in Fairfax County on Friday, with nine stations in Reston and eight in Tysons Corner now available to add another mode to the area’s multimodal transportation.

By the time local officials such as Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va 11th), County Supervisor Sharon Bulova, Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and Del. Ken Plum cut the ceremonial ribbon at Reston Station at 2 p.m., it was most certainly not biking weather as rain began to fall and wind began to blow.

Nonetheless, the bikeshare stations will now offer a new way to get around Reston, 24 hours a day, rain or shine. The county plans to have a total of 29 stations soon (15 in Reston), said county bicycle program manager Adam Lind.

“To be able to stand here with well on the way to 30 bikeshare stations in Fairfax County less than two years after the feasibility study is really a testament to the hard work and effort that went into this,” said Lind.

“Bikeshare is really another transportation option. It is really about solving that last mile of getting people from transit to where they live and work. That is why we concentrated bikeshare from here to the town center.”

Stations that opened Friday include the YMCA Fairfax County Reston; Reston Town Center Transit Station; Reston Regional Library; Reston Station; Temporary Road and Old Reston Avenue; Library Street and Freedom Drive (Reston Town Center); New Dominion Parkway and Fountain Drive (Reston Town Center); Sunset Hills and Old Reston Avenue; and Town Center Parkway and Bowman Towne Drive.

The Reston and Tysons bikeshare operations join the more than 400 stations in the Capital Bikeshare network.

Hudgins said Reston was a natural place to put Fairfax County’s first bikeshare system.

“Reston is a well-connected place,” she said. “We have the [Metro] station, the town center, the village centers and the W&OD Trail. In less than three miles, you can go any of those places. This will be a real connector.”

Hudgins said multimodal transportation has been on the minds of county officials since they started planning for Metro here years ago.

“When we started planing for transit, we said ‘we have got to find out how t0 connect people to transit. We knew that biking would be another option for us. When Reston developed under [founder] Bob Simon — I think he is up there cheering — our village centers are within three miles of transit. This kickoff is just the beginning for us.”

Visit Capital Bikeshare online to see membership options, rates and how to use the system.

Photos: Top. Del. Ken Plum (second from left), Supervisor Chair Sharon Bulova and Rep. Gerry Connolly among VIPS cutting bikeshare ribbon in Reston; Bottom, Bikeshare station at Reston Station.

Here is what was reported stolen to Fairfax County Police’s Reston District Station for the week ending Oct. 20:

• 11900 block of Crayton Court, cell phone from residence
• 13000 block of Elm Tree Drive, packages from residence
• 2200 block of Hunters Run Drive, wallet from business
• 11900 block of Market Street, purse and jeans from business
• 11500 block of Olde Tiverton Circle, wallet from residence
• 11100 block of South Lakes Drive, merchandise from business
• 2100 block of Statute Lane, wallet from business
• 12000 block of Town Square, merchandise from business
• 11400 block of Washington Plaza, cell phone from business
• 11100 block of Market Street, merchandise from business
• 11900 block of Market Street, merchandise from business
• 12100 block of Sunset Hills Road, property from business
• 1200 block of Admiral Zumwalt Lane, wallet from vehicle
• 2400 block of Jefferson Way, bicycle from residence
• 1000 block of Utterback Store Road, property from vehicle
• 1800 block of Cameron Glen Drive, cell phone from residence
• 10700 block of Falls Pointe Drive, TV from residence
• 2200 block of Hunters Woods Plaza, cash from business
• 1100 block of Mill Garden Court, license plate from vehicle

STOLEN VEHICLES:

• 1900 block of Reston Metro Plaza, 2006 Honda Civic

There will be 54 more townhomes heading for the increasingly developing Sunrise Valley area soon.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gave final approval for Rooney Properties’ application to tear down a 1980s office building at 11720 Sunrise Valley Drive and replace the building with residential development.

The development will have quarter acre-pocket park located north of a private street that will run east to west through the center of the property. The park will include benches, a butterfly garden, public art, lighting and a bike rack.

To help make the connections to the two Silver Line stations, the developers will build six-foot sidewalks along Sunrise Valley Drive and Roland Clarke Place. The plan also incorporates a separate, 10-foot wide path for bicycles along Sunrise Valley. Read More

The process to decide whether a 138-foot tall cell phone tower can be constructed at Crossfield Elementary School has been stalled.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission, which held a public hearing on the application by Milestone Communication and Verizon Wireless on Sept. 28, was slated to render a decision on the issue Wednesday, pending the opinion of the Hunter Mill Land Use Committee. However, the land use committee deferred decision, so now the issue will have to wait.

The issue is back on the planning commission docket for Nov. 16. The planning commission will either recommend the project for approval or denial; the application then goes to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for final approval.

Many Crossfield-area parents spoke out — as they did before the planning commission in September — at the land use committee meeting Wednesday.

The parents say radiation exposure 127 feet from the elementary school’s playground provides an unacceptable risk for the students, among other concerns. They also said on Wednesday that the Fairfax County Public Schools Facilities Department did not follow policy and overlooked multiple errors in the application.

A county planning staff report recommends approval of the application, which Milestone says is necessary to fill in gaps in coverage in the areas off Lawyers Road, including Reston’s Fox Mill Woods neighborhood adjacent to the school.

The pole, which would be built to look like an evergreen tree, would be able to carry signals from five mobile carriers. The pole would be on a 2,500-square-foot area surrounded by an 8-foot fence.

Fairfax County Public Schools have towers on more than 30 properties, the vast majority of them are high schools and middle schools (including South Lakes High School in Reston).  The cell phone companies pay the landowners to lease the pole space. FCPS, for instance, has made more than $4 million from the arrangement over the last several years, FCPS officials said.

Milestone collects rent from the wireless carriers on its towers, 40 percent of which goes to FCPS. Schools receive $25,000 each time a tower is built, and then $5,000 from each wireless carrier that leases space on the tower.

Photo: Proposed cell phone tower at Crossfield Elementary School/Credit: Milestone Communications.

Check Out School Renovations — Terraset Elementary recently completed two years of expansion and renovations. See the finished product at an open house Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. at the school at 11411 Ridge Heights Rd.

Now Open: Bikeshare in Reston — Capital Bikeshare’s 15 Reston stations officially opened for business at 5 a.m. Friday. There will be a ceremonial ribbon cutting at Reston Station at 2 p.m. [Reston Now]

Football Tonight — No. 8 South Lakes (7-0) is at Langley. Herndon (1-6) is at Robinson. Both games are at 7 p.m.

New Herndon Soccer Coach — Paul Robeson has been hired as the Herndon High Girls Soccer team coach. Robeson has been coaching in the Northern Virginia area for the last 26 years, including three years at WT Woodson High School. For the last 10 years he has been with Herndon Youth Soccer.  [Herndon High Athletics]

The Reston Association Board of Directors is considering member assessments of $698 for 2017. That’s an increase of $41 from 2016.

However, that is not necessarily the amount the board will agree on later this year. The amount cannot be higher, and in fact, may be lower. RA will hold public budget meetings on Nov. 7 and 17, where members are encouraged to speak out.

The board will set the 2017 budget at the Nov. 17 meeting.

The 2016 assessments could have been more than $700. However, the board found a $1 million surplus in operating fund reserves, which kept the annual bill lower.

At a special RA meeting on Wednesday, the board discussed putting less than the recommended $2.9 million in the Reserve, Repair and Replacement Fund this year.

While the balance in the RRRF is above $6 million, that is because only a small number of projects have been recently completed. The projects, particularly repairs to the Lake Anne Dam, will need to happen soon, and RA needs the full amount of money in RRRF, the board decided.

The board opted to fund the RRRF by choosing to use money from both assessment revenues ($2.3 million) and surplus operating cash $550,000.

Overall, RA says it need $14.7 million to fully fund the community’s and the association’s needs in 2017. RA says it needs more than $300,000 for staff raises and new staff positions that were on hold while it dealt with the overrun for the Tetra/Lake House property in 2016.

Because the board has identified capital projects procedures as an area that needs to be improved, a proposal to form a Capital Department was presented Thursday, with various options for staffing and internal promotions. The board approved the request to hire a Capital Department director.

CEO Cate Fulkerson also said two current RA employees would be reassigned to the new department, which will be charged with ensuring projects are done on time and within budget.

The board heard from a few members during the public comment session Wednesday. Read More

Virginia residents who were shut out of voter registration on the deadline, Oct. 17, will have an extra few days to ensure they can participate in the Nov. 8 election.

Many people said they were shut out of registration on Oct. 17 when the online registration crashed.

That resulted in the New Virginia Majority Educational Fund filing suit against the Virginia Department of Elections on Tuesday.

A judge in the Virginia Eastern District Court in Alexandria issued an injunction Thursday.

The guidance from the Department of Elections is to accept all voter registration applications that are:

• Received in-person during normal business hours (until 7 p.m. Thursday and between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday).
• Received online by 11:59 p.m. on Friday Oct. 21.
• Received through the mail with a valid postmark on or before Friday, Oct. 21.

To register in person in Reston, visit the North County Government Center, 1801 Cameron Glen Dr. When you do so, keep your receipt for proof of registration in case of a recount or voter irregularities.

The suit had been seeking to keep registration open through the weekend.

“I am pleased that the court has agreed with the request to extend Virginia’s voter registration period after unprecedented web traffic prevented many people from completing their registrations online before the original deadline,” Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement. “The Commonwealth will fully comply with the court’s order and extend our registration process online, in-person and through the mail.”

“The Virginia Department of Elections and the Virginia Information Technology Agency have been working overtime since Monday night to expand the capacity of the system that allows Virginians to register to vote online, and I am confident that the steps we have taken will provide an improved experience to people who use it.”

The Virginia American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the crash “an avoidable crisis” and pressed the commonwealth to do better.

“The on-line registration system went ‘live’ with General Assembly approval in July 2013,” said a statement from the ACLU. “Nonetheless, in the ensuing three years, the Department has not received the funding for needed hardware and software upgrades nor has it developed the technical expertise needed to ensure that the online registration system is able to handle the predictable increase in usage in a presidential election year. …”

“The Commonwealth must do better, and the legislature needs to take action to ensure that the Department of Elections has the state funds it needs to operate, especially when in the not too far distant future when federal dollars are no longer available.”

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are bringing some star power to Fairfax County this weekend.

Singer, songwriter, and The Voice judge Miley Cyrus will campaign for the Democratic Presidential ticket Saturday.

The Clinton campaign announced Thursday Cyrus will speak at a rally at George Mason University in Fairfax.

She will also knock on doors to “speak to students about the high stakes in this election for millennial voters, laying out Clinton’s vision for an America that is stronger together,” says a statement from Hillary for Virginia.

“Cyrus will urge voters to visit iwillvote.com to ensure that they have all the information they need to vote for Clinton on Election Day,” the Clinton campaign said.

Check back for exact time and other info about the GMU event.

Photo: Miley Cyrus/Credit: NBC.com

Dirt has begun turning for construction of Excelsior residential project in Reston.

To review, this is a plan for two buildings with a combined total of 457 residential units on five acres of the 22-acre Oracle campus at Sunset Hills Road and Old Reston Avenue.

The project was first proposed by Reston Excelsior LLC (a division of Lerner Enterprises) in 2oo6 and was sent back from the county several times for changes that were finally approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2010.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission had recommended denial of the plan for two 15-story towers because they seemed out of scale with Plaza America, Reston Parkway and surrounding areas.

However, a lot has happened since 2010. The Reston skyline has come to include The Harrison, Midtown, BLVD and plans for a 23-story office tower, among other buildings. So 15 stories seems rather modest.

Excelsior was back before the supervisors in July, where it got a requested parking reduction of 16.4 percent. The buildings had originally been approved for 820 underground parking spaces. The buildings — located in between the Wiehle-Reston East Metro and the future Reston Town Center Metro — will now have 612 spaces, including 58 designated for guests.

The Excelsior is planned to have 212 studio/one-bedroom units;  202 two-bedroom unites; and 33 three-bedroom units. The development will include 1 acre of open space.

Renderings courtesy Lerner Enterprises