Fairfax County Police said two of the temporary classrooms at Hunters Woods Elementary School were burglarized on Sunday night.
Police said they were alerted to the break-in at the school at 2401 Colts Neck Rs. by school security about 7:30 p.m.
Police are still trying to identify suspects. While items in the trailers were disturbed, nothing appeared to have been taken.
Get home from your New Year’s Eve events safely: all rides on Washington’s Metro system will be free from midnight to 3 a.m. on Jan. 1.
The free rides are courtesy or Miller Lite’s Free Rides program.
“We’re excited to bring our flagship Miller Lite Free Rides program to Washington, D.C. for the first time on New Year’s Eve,”Diane Wagner, Responsibility Commerce Manager for MillerCoors, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Metro is part of MillerCoors overall commitment to help prevent drunk driving by bringing alcohol responsibility programs to more markets.”
Here is what you need to know:
Free rides will be available on all six Metrorail lines and all Metrobus routes. from midnight until the Metro system closes at 3 a.m.
On the rail system, customers should use their SmarTrip card or a paper fare card to enter and exit the system and will not be charged for the trip.
On Metrobus, riders can simply show their SmarTrip card to board at no charge. For specific route and schedule information, visitwmata.com/bus/timetables.
Photo courtesy MillerCoors
Don’t feel like cooking Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Several area restaurants are ready for you.
Christmas Eve
PassionFish at Reston Town Center is open. Check out the special menu on PassionFish’s website.
Red’s Table at South Lakes Village Center is open until midnight with its regular menu until 10 p.m.
Christmas Day
- Tavern 64 at the Hyatt Regency Reston
- Vinifera Wine Bar & Bistro at the Westin Reston Heights
- M&S Grill at Reston Town Center
- McCormick & Schmick’s at Reston Town Center
Visit Open Table to make reservations and see business hours and special menus for the Reston restaurants above.
Generally, most Asian restaurants are open. Call your favorite one ahead of time to see if they are open.
Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are also expected to be open limited hours on Christmas Day. Check with your neighborhood store.
Passion Fish file photo
Who is ready to kick off 2016 with a race?
Potomac River Running is sponsoring the New Year’s Day 5K Jan. 1 here in Reston.
It doesn’t even begin that early — race time is 10 a.m. — so it may not even interfere with your New Year’s Eve plans.
Online registration is $35 and open through Dec. 30. Race day registration (if not sold out) will also be available for $40.
The race starts and finishes at Reston Town Center. The course is on town center streets and Reston Association paths, so no major roads will be affected.
There will be music and New Year’s Day celebrations post-race at RTC.
Lifetime Fitness in Reston is also hosting a New Year’s Day Commitment Day 5K that is open to non members.
New Year’s Day 5K 2015/Courtesy: PR Running Flickr
Reston Association’s Tetra Working Group has outlined to the RA Board some of the long- and short-term uses for the lakefront building the association purchased last summer.
First off, the 3,128-square-foot building will be called by a new name: The Lake House. Tetra Partners, the longtime owner of the space, changed its name to Lauer Commercial several months ago. With that name gone, the building, which served as Reston’s Visitor’s Center for 20 years, should also make a change, working group representatives told the RA Board at the Board’s regular monthly meeting on Thursday.
After a controversial discussion process leading to a member referendum in Spring 2015, RA closed on the $2.6 million purchase in July. Buying the building protects the property — which sits next to Brown’s Chapel Park on the banks of Lake Newport — from commercial development, as well as adds a recreational and community space, RA has said.
Exterior renovations ($275,000) are currently taking place at the building, working group member Laura Creilly, said. The $650,000 developer contribution from Comstock will help offset extensive interior renovations, she said.
Art Murphy, an architect who also is in the working group, said interior walls will be removed so the space has a much more open feel with views of the lake. There are plans for flexible partitions so that different groups can use the building at the same time.
There will also have to be expansions of the small bathrooms to accommodate a higher capacity of people, Murphy said.
So what will the people be doing at the building?
Short-term (in the next 12 to 36 months) uses will likely include camp and school aftercare, as well as corporate/nonprofit and homeowners’ association meetings, Creilly said.
The group also said general walk-in hours should be available. It will give residents a quiet place to sit and read indoors or on the deck — as well as a good sales tool for future use. Open hours would be staffed by volunteer docents, she said.
“Anyone could come in and use the space,” she said “It is a good way to sell the space. Someone could come in and say “I can have a party here.’ “
Long-term plans (by 2020) could include adult classes such as wine tasting or fitness; celebrations such as parties, family reunions or small weddings; and nature programs.
Creilly said the group, which has held six meetings, has heard from neighbors concerned about noise, and the group is still discussing hours the space would be available for special events with that in mind.
Plans are still in the preliminary phase. The group will make another presentation to the RA Board on Feb. 25. The board will eventually get member comments and vote on usage plans.
At the February RA meeting, the 15-member group will propose concept plans for outdoor use, as well as preserving green space and the feasibility of reducing impervious surfaces (parking) that contribute storm-water runoff.
Photos: Top, interior plans for building/RA; bottom, exterior of building/file photo
Services For Paul McGuinness Jr. — Visitation for Paul McGuinness Jr., the Reston teen who was found dead in Adams Morgan last week, will be Monday at 5 to 8 p.m. at Adams Green Funeral Home in Herndon. Funeral services are Tuesday 11 a.m. at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 11900 Lawyers Rd. Memorial contributions may be made to Special Olympics of Virginia. [Washington Post]
2015: A Good Year — Fairfax County says economic indicators show home sales were up 8.5 percent, among other good news. [Fairfax County]
Metro’s Holiday Schedule — Need to get somewhere by Metro on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the rest of the week until Jan. 1? Metro has some amended hours . [Metro]
Kudos, Dogwood — Dogwood Elementary School was honored by Reston Association last week for its large participation in National Walk to School Day in October. There were 495 students (about 64 percent of the school population) who walked to school.
South Lakes High School Class of 2014 graduate Michelle Buck was struck and killed by a driver Thursday in Collegeville, Pa., police there said.
Buck was a sophomore Dean’s List student at Ursinus College in Collegeville.
According to news reports, Buck was struck and killed at around 6:30 p.m. Police said Buck was walking east on the Main Street sidewalk and had stepped into a crosswalk when she was hit by a Nissan Rogue SUV. The Nissan was also traveling east. The driver did stop.
Police told local TV stations the driver is a local resident who is cooperating with the investigation.
“It is tragic when we lose a member of the Ursinus family,” said Ursinus President Brock Blomberg, in a message to campus following the accident. “Please join me in keeping her family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. I encourage all of us to find comfort and support in one another during this trying time.”
Buck, from the Fox Mill area of Herndon, had recently declared her intention to double major in philosophy and neuroscience, the school said.
Joel Bish, associate professor of psychology, said in a statement that Buck was a “delightful student” who was “quiet and unassuming, diligent and respectful.”
At South Lakes, Buck was active in the strings program, and continued playing in a violin ensemble in college.
Service information is pending.
Read more on Ursinus College’s website.
With the developer backing out of the Lake Anne redevelopment deal, the one acre of Reston Association land that was swapped as part of the plan will return to RA’s possession, says an attorney representing the association.
Actually, it never officially left RA’s grasp, says RA land use attorney John McBride.
In 2014, RA and the county agreed to a land swap with Fairfax County in order for Lake Anne Development Partners to complete its large mixed-use plans.
RA gave the county one acre of land adjacent to Lake Anne Plaza on which the developers planned to build a 120-space parking garage. In return, RA would get 1.2 acres of land off of Baron Cameron Avenue. At the time, the swap was controversial because the Lake Anne land contained mature trees, among other reasons.
As part of the deal, RA would also get $100,000 for environmental improvements (tree care and stream restoration, for example). LADP also pledged to pay for 25 percent of the cost of dredging Lake Anne, a project that was recently completed.
RA Treasurer Dannielle LaRosa said on Thursday none of that pledged money was included in the association’s 2016 budget.
McBride said at RA’s regular monthly meeting on Thursday that the swap was “expressly contingent upon final agreement between LADP and the County being implemented and continuing through to performance.”
So, no deal means no land swap. When the LADP contract is officially terminated, which it should be soon, then the land swap issue is also terminated, said McBride. The RA board does not have to take any action.
“RA owns the property and always has,” McBride said.
LADP’s plans would have brought 1,000 residences and over 100,000 square feet of office and retail space to the Lake Anne area. LADP reps said last Friday the plan was not economically feasible and it was backing out of its contract.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has identified the person struck and killed on the Wiehle Avenue eastbound exit ramp of the Dulles Toll Road on Wednesday as Alan Douglas Cruickshank, 50.
MWAA says the police investigation is still ongoing and no charges have been filed so far against the driver of the striking vehicle.
Witnesses said Cruickshank was attempting to cross the lanes on the exit ramp heading towards the bus stop on the south side when he was hit shortly after 6 a.m.
He was taken to Reston Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after.
Photo: Alan Cruickshank/Courtesy Loudoun Funeral Chapel
The body found in an Adams Morgan alley on Thursday has been identified as Reston college student Paul McGuinness Jr., a police spokesman told The Washington Post.
McGuinness’s family members have also said it was McGuinness, 19, whom they found lifeless at the bottom of a stairwell in the 2400 block of 18th Street in DC.
The family members told TV reporters they spent hours searching the area after McGuinness was reported missing on Wednesday.
They said McGuinness had gone to Adams Morgan with a cousin and was last seen about 1:30 a.m. at a bar, Madam’s Organ, located at 2461 18th St.NW
McGuinness was a 2015 graduate of Herndon High School who was home on winter break from his freshman year at Virginia Commonwealth University.
“He was a JOY,” said Dannielle LaRosa, a Herndon High parent. “He always had a smile for everyone. I am heartbroken.”
McGuinness attended Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington before transferring to Herndon for his senior year. He played on the Hornets’ football team in the 2014 season, according to the HHS yearbook.
Police are still investigating the cause of death and what exactly happened early Wednesday, but foul play is not suspected.
This is the second tragedy to hit the Herndon High Community in the last five months. In August, three members of Herndon High’s Class of 2014 – Kyle Mathers, Holly Novak and Dale Neibaur – were killed in a car crash on their way to a gaming festival near Austin, Texas. A fourth HHS grad, Kevin DiCicco, was badly injured in the crash.
Photo: Paul McGuinness/Courtesy Herndon High yearbook
Reston Association’s Board of Directors voted Thursday to pass a motion that will keep all voting records confidential.
The board says RA will continue to publish aggregated voter turnout reports, including turnout percentage by voting district and property type, however it said it was “in the best interest of members to not release information about who voted in any RA election or referendum.”
RA says “protecting the privacy of members and fortifying the integrity of the election process were the deciding factors in the board’s decision.”
The motion passed 6-2 with one abstention (South Lakes Director Julie Bitzer). At-Large Director Ray Wedell and Hunters Woods/Dogwood voted against the proposal and were quite vocal at the meeting.
“RA should pride itself on openness, honesty, and fairness,” said Wedell. “It has been anything but in this case.”
The rule is effective immediately. It is departure from the rules of national, state and county elections, where voter participation records are made available. Elections Committee Chair Ed Robichaud said those elections are different because votes are by registered voters. In RA elections, votes are by properties.
“Protecting the privacy of our members is a responsibility we take seriously,” said Ellen Graves, RA’s board president. “By ensuring residents that their voting records will remain confidential, we hope more members will participate in the election process, which is crucial to shaping Reston’s future.”
Fewer than 15 percent of households typically vote in the RA Board elections each spring, RA records show. There was about double that in last spring’s member referendum on whether to purchase the former Reston Visitor’s Center.
The motion came about after a Reston resident, Irwin Flashman, has spent more than a year asking RA for voting records concerning board elections and last spring’s member referendum on the Tetra building.
RA had given Flashman voting records, which included which households voted but not how they voted, in the past. RA said then it was obligated to release the information under its bylaws and Virginia law.
Flashman said at the time he wanted the records so he could analyze and try to boost the number of locals who cast their ballots.
“This is an overall part of the lack of transparency that seems to be a part of the RA board,” he told Reston Now last week. He also outlined his thoughts in a Reston Now op-ed and spoke at last night’s meeting.
“This is a poorly thought-out attempt to cloak something in secrecy that should be open to the membership,” he said.
Several Reston Association members addressed the board during the member comment section of Thursday’s board meeting.
“The resolution is a really, really bad idea,” said Lake Anne resident John Lovaas, who formerly served on the RA Board. “It’s an anti-democratic idea. It [access to voter records] has been the practice of the RA board forever, as far as I know. Members had access to records of residences that voted. It is disturbing. Your press release said that [releasing records] is threatening the confidentiality of ballot. That is just plain false.”
Meanwhile, Flashman said he has filed a complaint with the state ombudsman about RA’s actions.
The long-awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens officially opens Friday (though many rain-soaked fans in Reston attended showings from 7:30 p.m. to midnight Thursday).
Bow Tie Cinemas Reston Town Center has no shortage of showings. Purchase advance tickets online on Bow Tie’s website or your favorite movie app.
Here is the schedule for Friday, Saturday and Sunday:
- 12:30 p.m.
- 3:00 p.m.
- 6:20 p.m.
- 8:50 p.m.
- 10:30 p.m.
3D:
- 10:00am
- 11:40 a.m.
- 1:20 p.m.
- 3:50 p.m.
- 4:40 p.m.
- 7:10 p.m.
- 8:00 p.m.
- 9:40 p.m.
- 11:10 p.m.
Photo: “The Force Awakens”/Credit: Starwars.com
White Christmas? — WTOP looks at the odds. [WTOP]
Holiday Giving — There will be an Inova holiday blood drive at Reston Town Center on Tuesday, Dec. 22, noon to 7 p.m. [Facebook]
Prudent Purchase? — Should the Virginia Department of Transportation purchase the Dulles Greenway in the hopes of lowering tolls? VDOT’s CFO says it is a bad idea. [WTOP]
Small change At Small change — Small Change Consignment is celebrating the start of its 35th year with a 35 percent off virtually everything sale now through noon on Christmas Eve. That includes all clothes, shoes, books, baby gear, and toys.
Police in the District are investigating if a dead body found in an Adams Morgan alley Thursday is related to a missing teen from Reston.
Paul McGuinness, 19, was last seen about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday at Madam’s Organ, a bar at 2461 18th St. in Adams Morgan.
Reston and Herndon residents have been on a social media campaign this afternoon to see if anyone has seen the Herndon High School Class of 2015 grad and Virginia Commonwealth University freshman.
According to our sister publication Borderstan, the body was found in the 2400 block of 18th St. NW around 11:51 a.m. on Thursday. Metropolitan Police confirmed it is a “death investigation” rather than a homicide investigation.
The body was located in an alley close to Madam’s Organ, which said in a Tweet it will be closed tonight.
Photo by Tim Regan. Borderstan editors Andrew Ramonas and Tim Regan contributed to this story.
Reston Town Center is about to get its second men’s salon.
Roosters Men’s Grooming Center has signed a lease and construction permits for space at 11990 Market St., in the ground level of the Midtown condos.
Roosters is a franchise operation that has local locations in Bethesda, Franklin Farm in Herndon, Ashburn and Merrifield, as well as more than 70 others nationwide.
Roosters offers hair cuts and color, beard grooming, signature facial shaving and other men’s services.
Roosters’ upcoming opening comes just a few months after Joe Grooming opened up at 11944 Market St. Joe Grooming’s Reston store is the first salon location for the McLean-based company that makes its own hair gel, shave balm and other products.
The Reston Town Center beauty boomlet of 2015 also includes the recent opening of bluemercury at 11924 Market St. Bluemercury is a locally founded chain that sells cosmetics and other beauty supplies, as well as offers some spa services.
Other beauty and grooming options at Reston Town Center include a Sephora store, an Origins store, an expanded PR at Partners Salon at a new location, L’Occitane, Salon Nordine, and an Aveda store and salon.
Bottom photo: Roosters location in Florida/Credit: Yelp
