(Updated at 4 p.m.) Virginia recommends that even vaccinated individuals wear masks indoors in certain circumstances, but with different locations experiencing different levels of COVID-19 transmission, the state has stopped short of issuing a mandate.
While some states revised their mask rules shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s announcement on Tuesday (July 27), Virginia had not indicated how it will approach mask-wearing amid rising COVID-19 case levels, with officials saying only that they were reviewing the new guidance.
Gov. Ralph Northam issued the first official statement on the issue via social media on Thursday (July 29), writing that “all Virginians should consider wearing a mask in public indoor settings where there is increased risk of COVD-19 transmission, as the new CDC guidance recommends.”
“This is not a requirement, but a recommendation,” he said.
All Virginians should consider wearing a mask in public indoor settings where there is increased risk of #COVID19 transmission, as the new @CDCgov guidance recommends.
This is not a requirement, but a recommendation.
— Governor Ralph Northam (@GovernorVA) July 29, 2021
These situations include masking indoors at K-12 schools and in areas of the Commonwealth that have “substantial” community transmission of the virus.
Northam noted in further tweets that there has been a dramatic rise in COVID cases in Virginia over the last month due to the delta variant and that “over 98%” of hospitalizations and deaths are residents who are unvaccinated.
When asked why the state is recommending but not requiring indoor mask-wearing, a Virginia Department of Health spokesperson told Reston Now the department “doesn’t have anything to add at this moment” beyond Northam’s statement.
When explaining the decision to revise its guidelines, the CDC cited new scientific evidence showing that vaccinated people infected with the delta variant could potentially spread the virus to others. While the available vaccines effectively protect against severe illness and hospitalizations, the findings concerned officials enough to prompt a reversal of sorts after mask requirements were eased in May.
“This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said.
With case numbers climbing locally, as they have elsewhere around the country, Fairfax County has moved to put new rules in place in the hopes of slowing the virus’ spread without jeopardizing plans to reopen workplaces and schools.
Fairfax County Public Schools announced yesterday (Wednesday) that it will require universal masking in school buildings regardless of an individual’s vaccination status, and the Board of Supervisors approved a motion on Tuesday (July 27) to evaluate whether to implement a vaccine mandate for 12,000 county employees.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said in a statement that he supports a shift back to wearing masks indoors for places with high COVID-19 transmission and around people who are unable to get vaccinated:
With the delta variant surging in unvaccinated communities, I support masking in areas with more people vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 who aren’t able to be vaccinated (such as schools) and areas with a high risk of transmission. In Fairfax County we will continue to follow state guidelines on masking and sharing the effectiveness of masking to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Currently, 76% of Fairfax Health District residents over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 69.4% are fully vaccinated, according to the Fairfax County Health Department’s vaccine dashboard.
While that’s above Virginia and national rates, those numbers have barely budged over the last several weeks as the county looks for ways to get more residents immunized.
Health experts and public officials continue to reiterate that vaccines are the best tools in the fight against the pandemic.
“The vaccine is the strongest tool we have to fight this pandemic,” McKay wrote. “For the sake of our economic recovery, sending students back to school, and returning to normal, we need even more people to get vaccinated. If you aren’t vaccinated, go to vaccine.gov to get scheduled, there are appointments available near you!”
In terms of transmission rates, Fairfax County is currently doing better than many other Virginia counties. But in all areas, case rates are ticking up.
While the CDC’s COVID tracker shows that a large swath of the Commonwealth has “substantial community transmission,” Fairfax County currently has “moderate” transmission like Arlington County. A number of nearby localities like the City of Alexandria, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties have “substantial” or even “high” transmission.
D.C., which has substantial spread, announced today that it will require everyone 2 and older to wear masks indoors regardless of their vaccination status starting Saturday (July 31).
On June 26, Reston Hospital Center announced that it had zero COVID-19 patients for the first time since the pandemic arrived in Fairfax County 470 days earlier.
That moment of celebration would prove to be too-short-lived, but it still provided an occasion for top Reston Hospital officials to reflect on how far they have come over the past 18 months — and how much more work may lie ahead.
The Virginia Department of Health confirmed the Commonwealth’s first COVID case on March 7, 2020, but Reston Hospital officials believe they had at least one case about a month earlier than that.
“Because of our proximity to Dulles, we started seeing patients very, very early,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tom Taghon told Reston Now in an interview last week at the hospital.
He recalls one patient in particular who had flown internationally and was sent to their emergency room in early February 2020.
“[The patient] was probably the first COVID patient we had, though because of the [lack] of testing capabilities, we couldn’t prove it,” he said.
Early in the pandemic, individuals who tested positive at Dulles International Airport were often brought to Reston Hospital.
Now that vaccines are available and scientists have a clearer understanding of how the novel coronavirus functions, Taghon notes that it may be easy to forget how uncertain those early days of the pandemic were and how much was being discovered about COVID every day.
“What the public may not fully appreciate was that this was a really… a rapidly evolving situation and that was a real challenge for us,” Taghon said. “We would literally change pretty significant policies overnight because we learned something new. Things changed quickly.”
Those early experiences led the local hospital to be among the first, they say, to restrict visitation, require masks, and to realize that it didn’t matter if a patient had traveled to a hotspot.
“The disease was spreading very rapidly [that] pretty early we made the conclusion it doesn’t really matter if they were actually in China or not,” said Taghon.
Soon, much of the other things that were happening at the hospital — surgeries, screenings, and other care — slowed down to a trickle. Many of the staff working in other units came over to help with the ICU.
Monica Oakcrum, the director of critical care at Reston Hospital, says it was a real challenge explaining to families why visitation was restricted in those early days.
“Families were frantic understandably and it was a real struggle,” Oakcrum said. “But we [had to] protect our patients, the community, and our staff.”
The stress and burnout was intense for doctors, nurses, and staff, but frontline healthcare workers heard from the community how much they were appreciated.
In the earlier days, Restonians would come out and cheer during shift changes. Meals and handmade cards from children were delivered to the hospital.
“Those things really did make a huge difference,” Oakcrum said. Read More
Reston Association is putting together a five-year plan for capital improvement projects as a number of decades-old facilities are in need of upgrades.
At last week’s Board of Directors meeting, staff provided a draft that details the capital improvement projects facing the organization over the next five years.
In much the same vein as one put together by other localities like the town of Herndon, the document will detail the cost, timeline, and designs of both major projects — ones that will cost over $500,000 — and minor ones.
“It includes a strategic plan…how we currently fund our projects, what are the major projects, and outlines all capital spending,” RA Director of Capital Projects Chris Schumaker said.
While the draft was provided to board members, it is not expected to be made public until before the Board of Directors budget work session on Aug. 18, when it will be discussed more at length, confirms RA spokesperson Mike Leone.
This plan comes at a vital time for RA, as the board engages in a series of budget work sessions that could result in an increase in assessments for members.
The potential increase is being contemplated due to a rise in operating expenses and the number of capital improvement projects that are being undertaken over the next several years. Back in March, a recreation facility work group determined that some of RA’s decades-old facilities are in dire need of renovations and work.
There are currently eight active capital projects and another 30 that are scheduled, according to RA’s website.
The ongoing projects include the Hook Road tennis courts, which are expected to be completed by mid-August.
The renovations will turn two tennis courts into pickleball courts, which are expected to be completed in time for Reston’s first “Paddle Battle” tournament. In addition, construction on four footbridges will start next month and be completed early next year, Leone tells Reston Now.
There’s also the much-discussed renovation of Lake Thoreau pool, which received final approval from RA’s design review board last week. Construction on the $3.5 million project is now supposed to start in November — a four-month delay from initial estimates — with a grand opening expected for May 2023.
While new pools may be opening, there’s a chance several may be closing.
In May, RA staff recommended that four neighborhood pools be “seriously considered for repurposing,” which could mean closure, due to budgetary concerns and low usage. RA is currently collecting community feedback on that proposal.
A new exhibit at Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art in Reston is set to highlight how great art can still be created even in the midst of intense political and social upheaval.
The Reston Town Center-based local arts organization, which re-branded earlier this year from Greater Reston Arts Center, is debuting “3AM: Time Sensitive” next month, a collection of performance-based works from a Myanmar artist collective.
“There’s a lot that we can learn about how people express themselves, how people create art, and how people organize in their communities in the face of volatile political times,” says show curator Adriel Luis. “Often times what can be missed is how much we can learn about…these issues happening in the United States when we actually look at things from a global lens.”
The exhibit will feature three video-based works showing lived-in experiences of the artists, particularly the impact of globalization, political turmoil, and the complexities of queer life in Myanmar.
This is the first time that work of the three artists that make up 3AM — Ma Ei, Ko Latt, and Yadanar — is being shown in the United States. The exhibit at Tephra will run through early January 2022.
One piece, says Luis, features still images of the artists holding objects that are commonplace in Myanmar, some traditional and some clearly imported from the west.
“There are places in this world that are actively going through civil war, but yet art persists and people continue to express themselves,” Luis says.
The exhibit is in-person only at the moment, but the display will also be shown out the windows of Tephra’s gallery at 12001 Market Street for those who are not comfortable coming inside.
Despite a pandemic, Tephra has had several notable exhibits and displayed works over the last few months including Quantum Shift, which is still on display until August 7, as well a monolith sculpture that was erected in D.C. back in May.
Luis says he and Tephra as a whole made it a priority to work with international artists not only to grow as an institution, but also to provide a look into what’s going on in other parts of the world.
Luis, who is also a curator at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, says his career has been about bringing artists from across the world to local galleries and communities.
“The hope is to demonstrate how showing an international artist can actually resonate deeply within a local community, as opposed to sticking out like a sore thumb,” he says.
He believes Reston’s size will give community members a closer connection to the message that these artists are trying to make.
“There’s a lot of reasons why somewhere like Reston is so much more similar to the environment that these artists are used to than a bigger city like D.C.,” he says.
Under normal circumstances, the artists would be here to introduce and answer any questions about their work, but between the COVID-19 pandemic and upheaval in the wake of a military coup in Myanmar, that isn’t possible for 3AM. Luis and Tephra are still trying to figure out a way to have the artists be available for a conversation about their works.
Either way, the message that Luis hopes audiences take away from this, no matter the circumstances, is one that is universal.
“The message is ‘what does it mean to be true to ourselves?’,” Luis asks. “We’ll definitely see how it lands once it’s shown, but that’s the hope.”
Courtesy Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art
Monday, July 26
- Pleibol & Food (6:45 p.m.) — Baseball and food go hand-in-hand. Join the National Museum of American History for an event centered around their new exhibit, highlighting how the Latin diaspora has shaped ballpark snacks.
Tuesday, July 27
- The Night Sky (8 p.m.) — Spend the night at Roll Top Observatory at Turner Farm Park in Great Falls taking a tour of the planets, constellations, stars, nebulas, and galaxies that make up our night sky.
Wednesday, July 28
- The Roadducks (7-8:30 p.m.) — A four-decade staple of the southern rock music scene, the Northern Virginia-based Roadducks are hitting the stage at Burke Lake Park to rock in the summer air.
Thursday, July 29
- Citizen Science (7-8:30 p.m.) — Help biologists count the local dragonfly population by taking this class that will help you identify and do a proper, scientific count. The class is virtual and sponsored by the Reston Association.
- Rosslyn Live (6:30 p.m.) — It’s the last performance of Rosslyn Live, so take a seat, grab a drink, and enjoy a fun-filled night of drag performances.
Friday, July 30
- Block Party Tysons (4-7 p.m.) — Mark the 40th anniversary of the Celebrate Fairfax! Festival with a block party on Leesburg Pike in Tysons. There’ll be food, games, and music from local musician Shane Gamble.
- Summer on the Green (6:30 p.m.) — Throughout the summer, the Town of Vienna is hosting summer concerts every Friday. Bring the family to the Town Green on Maple Avenue for a night of music, dancing, and good times. This week, local dance and rock band Fat Chance will be playing.
Saturday, July 31
- Around the World Cultural Food Festival (11:30 a.m.-7 p.m.) — After a year off, the global food festival is back and now at Oronoco Bay Park in Old Town Alexandria. Enjoy foods, music, and learning about cultures from across the world.
Sunday, August 1
- Natural Dye Workshop (12:30-2:30 p.m.) — Learn how to dye with natural products like a professional in this three-session class from Smithsonian Associates. This workshop is virtual and will take place over three weekends.
- Brick Fair (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) — This mega Lego fair comes to the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly. There will be building, exploring, and learning from the experts. Masks are required for those who are not vaccinated.
The skeletal remains of Michael Delaney, the Reston man who went missing from Reston Hospital in May 2020, have been found in the Sugarland Run area, Fairfax County police confirmed.
On Friday afternoon (July 23), the Fairfax County Police Department published a message on Facebook saying the remains were found on Wednesday (July 21) by its Search and Rescue team after a community member reported it.
The FCPD says it does not suspect foul play in his death.
We’re saddened to announce Michael Delaney was found on July 21 by our Search and Rescue team. Our team returned to search the area of Sugarland Run after a community member reported finding what appeared to be skeletal remains. During the search, officers discovered clothing matching the description of what Mr. Delaney was last seen wearing as well as skeletal remains. Detectives from our Crime Scene Section collected the remains which were given to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Dental records confirmed the remains are Mr. Delaney’s. Detectives do not suspect foul play in his death.
“On behalf of the Major Crimes Bureau, my heartfelt condolences go out to the family and Friends of Mr. Delaney. We are incredibly sorry for your loss. There is so much that goes into these kind of cases and I want to thank the lead detective for his dedication to this case and to Mr. Delany’s family since he went missing over a year ago. Many people played an important and valuable role to include our Search and Rescue team, detectives from our Major Crimes Bureau as well as our local and state law enforcement partners. They tirelessly followed up on every lead we received, many of which led them outside not only Fairfax County but the state. A special thank you to the many volunteers and to the other public and private entities who assisted with searching over 5,000 acres since the time Mr. Delaney went missing. This is not the resolution our detectives and our agency hoped for and our hearts remain with the Delaney family,” Major Ed O’Carroll, Commander of the Major Crimes and Cyber and Forensics Bureaus
This information confirms what Courtney Park-Jamborsky, Delaney’s step-daughter, announced in a Facebook post early yesterday (Thursday).
In the message, Park-Jamborsky said that Delaney’s clothing, a gown, and wallet were found, along with his remains.
“Our family is heartbroken but feel relieved to know about Michael after 14 months of agony,” she wrote. “We are forever grateful for the outpouring of support since May 10, 2020.”
Reston Now has reached out to the family, but has yet to hear back as of publication.
According to surveillance video, Delaney walked out of Reston Hospital in the evening of May 10, 2020.
The previous day, Park-Jamborsky had taken him to the hospital because of a fall at his Reston home. While Delaney suffered from dementia, she was not allowed to accompany him inside due to COVID-19 protocols that were in place at the time.
“I stood at the sliding emergency room door at the hospital, and he stood there with me,” Park-Jamborsky told Reston Now in May 2021, a year after his disappearance. “I felt like I was letting a 5-year-old walk through that door without someone helping him. But I had confidence that [Reston Hospital] knew what they were doing. I never thought in a million years that he would disappear.”
He was admitted into the hospital and kept overnight. Around 9:30 p.m. the next day, Park-Jamborsky says she received a call from the hospital saying they couldn’t find her stepfather.
Surveillance video showed Delaney walking out of the hospital about 30 minutes earlier. FCPD put out a missing persons alert several hours later.
Delaney was never seen again, despite a search that lasted weeks. While Delaney’s location has been found, it still remains unclear as ever what led up to the tragedy.
The Reston Association Design Review Board gave its final approval to the $3.5 million renovation of Lake Thoreau pool, though with a request to see a color sample.
The approval at the design review board meeting on Tuesday (July 20) keeps the project on track for construction to begin in October or November, RA spokesperson Mike Leone confirms to Reston Now in an email.
This is the third time the RA Design Board has approved the much-discussed project, but final approvals meant reviewing the exact dimensions, materials, and colors that will be used.
While the motion to approve the application passed unanimously, it came with a request for a physical sample of the teal color that would be used for a railing.
Besides colors and railings, there was some discussion at the meeting about fencing as well as the cost of redesigning and maintaining the overlook deck.
However, none of that held up approval, allowing the multi-million dollar pool project to move forward.
Leone writes that RA is already going on to the next steps of the renovation process, including moving through the estimation and procurement phase.
“We have already released the RFP (request for proposal) to potential contractors and are awaiting their submissions due around this time next month,” writes Leone. “With that information, RA staff will be able to generate a final estimate for the project and seek Board of Director approval to move forward with construction.”
He anticipates the RA Board’s approval of the project to come in September with construction to begin shortly after, barring any more contractor or material availability-related delays.
Key design elements of the renovation include ADA access with a ramp into the pool, a redesign of the overlook deck, pool reconstruction, expansion of the parking lot, and repositioning of the spa away from the bathhouses as well as modifying and expansion of said bathhouses.
Lake Thoreau pool was closed last year for renovations that are expected to be completed in the fall of 2022. A grand opening is being planned for May or June 2023, the beginning of the pool season.
A new Herndon family-owned Pakistani breakfast restaurant may be the only one of its kind in Virginia and, perhaps, even the country, according to its co-owner.
Desi Breakfast Club on 3065 Centreville Road might just be the only diner that serves exclusively Pakistani breakfast all day, says co-owner Malik Waleed Ahmad.
“I have customers who come in, and they’re like ‘we go to Dubai and the Middle East and there’s breakfast places, but we’ve been looking here and there’s nothing,'” said Ahmad, who owns the restaurant with his father Zaheer Ahmed and brother Fahad Qadeer.
The family opened Desi Breakfast Club (in Udru, “Desi” means “of local origin”) in early June as a solution to their own breakfast-searching woes.
They also own Charcoal Chicken in Chantilly. After closing late at night, they often would go in search of breakfast, and there would only be one option: the IHOP next door.
“We saw the demand for a Pakistani restaurant to do breakfast,” Ahmad said. “And on weekends, brunch.”
They sensed a particularly acute need for this specific niche to be filled in the Town of Herndon, which has a population that’s about 18.5% Asian, as of 2019, with a growing number of residents from the South Asian subcontinent.
“Indian, Pakistani, Nepali, Bangladeshi…our politics, our cultures, they all may divide us,” Ahmad said. “But food is one thing that unites us all. And we all eat the same food.”
He says because word has been getting around the local community, the restaurant is constantly crowded on weekends with people traveling from across the region to eat there.
In fact, Desi Breakfast Club is currently reservations-only on Saturdays and Sundays.
The menu consists of a mix of stews, flaky breads, samosas, fritters, eggs, and sweets like halwah (a sesame candy).
“The star of the show is Halwah Puri,” Ahmad said, referring to a dish that consists of fry bread, halwah, spiced potatoes, and chickpeas. “It’s the most popular dish. It outsells everything else by a hundred percent.”
All the recipes are ones his father brought from Pakistan when the whole family moved to Herndon 18 years ago. Cooking was always his father’s “hobby,” but, in 2010, he told his family he wanted to open a restaurant. That’s when Charcoal Chicken was born.
“In the beginning, when we first came to America, the restaurant was a means to an end,” Ahmad said. “But it’s a dream come true…We are building something.”
Ahmad, now 28, has lived in Herndon for nearly two decades. He says he grew up eating all of the dishes being served at Desi Breakfast Club, something that he likely has in common with others.
“Back home, every mom [and dad] makes the best food,” he said. “These are my family’s recipes, but I’m sure there are other people who eat this exact same food. They just make it a little differently in their home.”
Every Monday, the restaurant is closed so the family can mix spices and prepare food together. His father helps his brother prepare and manage the kitchen, while Ahmad works in front of the house, interacting with customers.
“It’s rewarding…I get to meet new people every single day. I get to feed people and just see happy faces,” he said. “I even put in 12, 13 hours daily, but I don’t get tired.”
Ahmad tells Reston Now that he encourages everyone to come by, regardless of whether they’ve tried Pakistani breakfast food before, so he can share a little piece of who he is with others.
“When you come eat with us, it’s like you’re eating at home. Our home,” Ahmad said. “I’m happy that all the food that I ate growing up and enjoyed, I get to share with everyone and my community.”
Monday, July 19
- Hidden Treasures (1 p.m.) — Trying to decide what family possessions to keep and which ones to give away? Get some (virtual) help from local Matthew Quinn, an antiques expert and a guest appraiser on Antiques Roadshow.
Tuesday, July 20
- Stories and Songs from Haiti (11 a.m.) — Celebrate Haitian art, song, and culture with a family-friendly performance from Inez Barlatie at Wolf Trap. With themes of community and gratitude, she’ll lead a morning of dancing and singing.
Wednesday, July 21
- Historic Desserts (6:30 p.m.) — Make 19th-century desserts over an open hearth at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly. Cooking like people would in the 1800s will be challenging, but at least there will be a sweet treat at the end!
Thursday, July 22
- An Evening with Frank Lloyd Wright (6:30-9:30 p.m.) — Tour Alexandria’s Frank Lloyd Wright Pope-Leighey House with the sun setting. While ehese evening tours are offered rarely, bring a picnic, grab a drink (included in the ticket), and watch on the front lawn as the sun dips below the horizon.
- Nepalese Indian Cultural Nights (7:30-8:30 p.m.) — Head on over to Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon for a night of Nepalese Indian culture, complete with music and dancing.
Friday, July 23
- Rock the Block in Fairfax City (6:30-9:30 p.m.) — Fairfax City’s Rock the Block is back for 2021 and this week’s performance is from Trial by Fire, a Journey tribute band. Bring a picnic, a blanket, and never stop believing in the power of rock.
- Christmas in July (6-8 p.m.) — The weather outside may be frightfully hot, but Santa is here for a summertime bash. Head over to Sully Station and Funland Fairfax for a Christmas in July celebration with the big guy himself.
Saturday, July 24
- Fairy Festival (10 a.m.) — Put on your best fairy outfit and take a stroll along a wooded trail near Reston’s Walker Nature Center in search of hidden fairies. If you are feeling particularly magical, make a house for the fairies. The best one wins a prize and everyone will receive a fairy gift bag as well!
Sunday, July 25
- Sunday Art in the Park (7 p.m.) — Relax on a Sunday night in Reston Town Square Park with a performance from Bryan Jones, a professor of voice at Shenandoah University. He’ll be performing a collection from the “songsbooks of our country.”
Via Cliff/Flickr
America won’t celebrate its 250th birthday until 2026, but Fairfax County has decided it’s not too early to start planning the party.
At the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday (July 13), Gunston Hall Executive Director Scott Stroh presented a report on behalf of a seven-person work group with recommendations for how the county could observe the U.S.’s semiquincentennial anniversary.
Recommendations touched on thematic, organizational, and practical considerations, among them adopting the word “commemoration” to describe the anniversary, making sure it reflects the “fullest American story,” and issuing a countywide survey of residents about what they want out of the occasion.
Additionally, the work group recommends having an organizational structure, a marketing and promotional plan, and a preliminary multi-year budget set by the end of the year.
“This commemoration offers an important and compelling opportunity to celebrate our accomplishments and progress as a nation and community, but also opportunities to foster cooperation, facilitate conversation, and inspire actions so that all can equally enjoy the benefits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Stroh said. “Fairfax County is distinctly positioned to lead this effort in Virginia.”
July 4, 2026 will represent 250 years of American independence from Britain, which is generally marked from the full adoption of the Declaration of Independence and formal start of the Revolutionary War. Both nationally and in Virginia, committees, organizations, and work groups are taking shape to start preparations for the anniversary.
Fairfax County is the only municipality in the Commonwealth to have initiated this effort to date, according to materials provided to the board.
“I’m glad we are leading by example,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said.
The board established Fairfax County’s work group in October 2020. It includes representatives from Visit Fairfax, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the Fairfax County History Commission, and the City of Fairfax Regional Library.
Going forward, the work group suggested that it could become a “more formal planning entity,” one with a larger membership that’s more diverse and more representative of the county as a whole.
Stroh anticipates the planning and the commemoration itself will be paid for through a variety of methods, including county funds, grants, state money, and private support.
In general, the board seemed pleased with the report, but it didn’t take any action beyond accepting the report. Instead, a board matter outlining possible next steps will be proposed when the board next meets on July 27, McKay said.
McKay emphasized that the commemoration should be inclusive and tell a “fuller American story.”
“I think many of us have heard of this notion of erasing history or redoing history,” McKay said. “In fact, [it is] quite the opposite. We are trying to bring to light the entire history and how we do better in the future.”
Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk made similar comments, saying his daughter recently remarked on many of America’s founders being slaveholders.
“That is a contradiction. That is a flaw,” he said, while reading off a portion of the report that positions commemoration as a chance to assess how the country is still striving to match its ideals with its actions.
“[This commemoration] is more than a chance, it’s an opportunity to actually do this,” Lusk said.
The Labor Day deadline for “substantial completion” of Silver Line Phase 2 won’t be met, Metro staff acknowledged at a Board of Directors safety and operations committee meeting today (Thursday).
The presentation confirmed what the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) told Fairfax County earlier this month.
At this point, it remains unknown when the project will be substantially completed and able to be turned over to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The expected delay will likely push the opening date even further back.
“There hasn’t been a new substantial completion day published [by MWAA],” said Andy Off, Metro’s vice president of project implementation and construction. “But we are confident it’s going to get moved past Labor Day.”
The latest delay of the $2.8 billion public transportation project stems from the need for more testing and work to tie Silver Line’s first and second phases together. That will require another shutdown of Wiehle-Reston East Metro station, much like the one that happened late last month.
“There are specific tests that were not completed over that weekend that necessitated a further shutdown,” Off said. “We are currently working with MWAA to schedule that.”
Reston Now reached out to MWAA about when that station shutdown will happen but has to hear back as of publication.
Off assured committee members that the delay has nothing to do with concrete issues or any other major safety concern.
“Right now, it’s really an IT project as it relates to our signal infrastructure,” Off said.
Once the Wiehle-Reston East outage gets scheduled and the work is completed, Off said there will be a better idea of a substantial completion date, with “fall” being as specific as he can get at this juncture.
Metro will need about six months from substantial completion to complete testing and “pre-revenue activities,” including trainings and further testing, which is contractually obligated to take no longer than 90 days, according to a presentation to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors transportation committee last month.
A Labor Day hand-off would have put Silver Line Phase 2 on track to open in the first quarter of 2022, but now, operations likely won’t begin until later that year. The project will extend Metro from Reston into Loudoun County with six new stations.
At the WMATA board committee meeting, officials emphasized that this delay is unrelated to any problem. There’s simply a need for more testing time.
“It’s not unusual to have several tests planned and just not have the amount of time as you need,” rail safety expert Devin Rouse, who’s on the Metro board, said. “If anything significant does come up, that’s a discussion we really need to have. At this point, this is normal for these types of projects.”
While officials have downplayed this particular delay, it follows a long line of Silver Line Phase 2 holdups that have frustrated residents and businesses waiting for the multi-billion-dollar public transporation project, which was initially set to open in 2018.
Crossfield Elementary School in Herndon is in the early stages of planning a $31 million renovation and addition.
The project will include renovations of the existing building, plus library and main office additions, a Fairfax County Public School spokesperson told Reston Now in an email.
In total, the renovations and additions will encompass 101,000 square feet of space and is estimated to cost about $31 million. It’s expected to be completed late 2024 or early 2025.
The project is currently in the design phase, with this portion of the project being funded by the 2019 School Bond referendum.
It’s likely to remain in this phase for at least a while longer. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved an extension of the review period for the project’s submitted 2232 application during its meeting on Tuesday (July 13).
The 2232 process is required for public facility projects to ensure they are in line with the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan.
Since the application hadn’t been approved within the 60 days of its submission, an extension was needed. This is a standard practice for a public facility project, according to a county official.
After the design phase, it will head to permitting before construction begins.
The elementary school on Fox Mill Road opened in 1988 and is named after A. Scott Crossfield, an aeronautical pioneer who lived nearby the school.
A test pilot in the years leading up to space exploration, Crossfield made history in 1953 when he became the first pilot to break Mach 2, flying twice the speed of sound.
After his retirement, he lived in Herndon and down the street from the elementary school that bore his name. Nearly every year, he attended the school’s sixth-grade graduation. In 2006, at the age of 84, Crossfield was killed when the plane he was flying crashed.
(Updated at 9:20 a.m. on 7/15/2021) Fairfax County is convening a “Confederate Names Task Force” specifically charged with making a recommendation about renaming the county’s portions of Lee Highway and Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway.
The Board of Supervisors approved the appointment of the 30-member task force on Tuesday (July 13).
The task force’s mission is to review the names of Lee Highway (Route 29) and Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway (Route 50) to determine if the roads should be renamed and, if so, what the names should be. A county-appointed facilitator will also work with the task force.
The roadways currently bear the monikers of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
This is a direct result of the work done by the county’s history commission to identify and inventory every place in the county named after a Confederate. The 539-page report noted that there were about 157 streets, parks, monuments, subdivisions, and public places in the county bearing names with ties to the Confederacy.
The most prominent were Lee Highway, about 14 miles of which runs through the county around Merrifield, Fairfax, and Centreville, and Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway. About 8.5 miles of that roadway runs through the county, including Chantilly and near Fair Oaks Mall.
“In Fairfax County, our diversity is our greatest strength and it’s important that we honor and celebrate that diversity,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said in the press release. “We cannot ignore what the Lee and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway names represent in our community and especially to our African American neighbors. The Confederate Names Task Force, which includes a diverse group, will examine and make recommendations on how both roadways can better reflect our values as we chart a positive path together for the future.”
The task force will meet monthly, starting later this month or early August, according to the agenda for the board meeting. The meetings will be open to the public, and the task force will seek input from the public prior to making a decision.
The group is expected to provide a recommendation to the county board by “the end of calendar year 2021.”
The task force is chaired by Sully District Planning Commissioner Evelyn Spain, who will be joined by 29 other members, including historians, civic organization leaders, homeowners’ association members, residents, professors, and faith leaders.
Spain says reevaluating the use of Confederate street and place names is necessary if Fairfax County wants to be inclusive and respectful of its increasingly diverse population.
“Naming highways after Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson celebrates men who fought a war against the United States to perpetuate slavery,” Spain said in a statement. “One Fairfax requires us to look at these issues through an equity lens to understand how these names have negatively impacted our community and people of color as well as how Confederate names adversely impacts them today…I’m honored to be a part of the Confederate Names Task Force as we work toward building a more inclusive and equitable Fairfax County.”
If the task force recommends changing the names of the roads, the county will have to undergo a somewhat complicated process to actually make it happen — much like it was when Arlington renamed its portion of Route 29 and Alexandria renamed Route 1, which had been named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
If changes are recommended, the task force would need to provide two to five alternate names for each road. Then, the county board and task force will hold at least one public hearing to allow for comment about the potential change.
After the public hearings, the board will then vote on whether to take the task force’s recommendation. A timeline laid out back in May projected that could happen in early 2022.
If the board votes to change the highway names, it would then submit a resolution to the Commonwealth Transportation Board requesting the changes while also committing to paying for the signage.
If that’s approved by the Commonwealth, the board has to pass a budget item for the cost of the signs, and an interdepartmental working group would set up a timeline for the actual switching out of signs and, finally, officially changing the roads’ names.
The working group will also coordinate with other jurisdictions on their name changes.
via Fairfax County
Fairfax County will conduct a “comprehensive review” of the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At today’s (July 13) Board of Supervisors meeting, Chairman Jeff McKay proposed as a board matter to have County Executive Bryan Hill review how county agencies responded to the challenges of the pandemic, how operations were affected, and how operational changes impacted the community.
The review will take place in two parts. The board directed staff to deliver a report with conclusions, recommendations, and areas of improvement in February 2022, and a follow-up is anticipated since the pandemic is still ongoing.
The motion passed unanimously.
“We did an amazing job [dealing with the pandemic],” McKay said, but he acknowledged that a review is needed since “there’s much to be learned about the county’s response and how we can improve upon that for the future.”
McKay also noted that a review is already essentially under way, but this formalizes the process and sets a deadline on it.
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn agreed with the effort and asked the county executive not to pull any punches.
“I ask the county executive not to shy away from identifying challenges…[particularly] those in the labor market that were attributed to the pandemic and what happened after,” Alcorn said.
As noted in McKay’s comments, more than 75% of Fairfax Health District residents 18 years or older have received at least one vaccine shot. That’s above both national and state averages.
However, the county continues to face some challenges in convincing those who are still hesitant to get vaccinated.
When it comes to addressing COVID-19’s economic impact, the county has provided assistance with rent, food, and other basic needs to more than 10,000 households and helped get permanent housing for 400 individuals who were experiencing homelessness when the pandemic began, according to McKay’s board matter.
The county has also distributed more than $52 million in small business relief funding through the RISE program and is offering $25 million in their PIVOT program.
While half of the RISE grants went to minority-owned businesses, those particular businesses still suffered “acutely” during the pandemic. What’s more, the Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce recently called out the county for their belief that they were neglected in the development of some of the grant programs.
McKay said that getting a comprehensive report on Fairfax County’s COVID-19 response will help the county government “ensure we maintain the level of service and functionality our community expects” in any future large-scale crisis or emergency.
via Machvee/Flickr
While Fairfax County’s COVID-19 vaccination rate has only incrementally crept up over the last several weeks, county officials believe their campaign to get as many people vaccinated as possible still has a ways to go before it hits a ceiling.
About 75.5% of people over 18 have had at least one vaccine shot in the Fairfax Health District, which includes the county and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church. About 67% of all residents over 18 are considered fully vaccinated.
Both those numbers are above the national and state rates, but they have only gone up a couple of percentage points over the last month.
“Vaccination numbers are increasing more slowly than previously but we would not define it as ‘plateauing,'” Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, Fairfax County’s director of epidemiology and population health, told Reston Now.
Schwartz says national data suggests that about 15% of the population say they definitely do not want to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but that percentage is “likely much lower here.”
“So there still are many in the county who are open to getting vaccinated,” writes Schwartz. “The challenges are addressing people’s concerns about the vaccine and making vaccination easy for people who may be less motivated [and] for whom vaccination just isn’t a priority.“
Messaging is key, says Dr. Amira Roess, a professor of epidemiology at George Mason University, when it comes to local jurisdictions concentrating their efforts on helping those folks get vaccinated.
“75% of folks being vaccinated is really good…and higher than the national average,” Roess said. “But…we have to shift to look at which groups have lower vaccination rates…find out why they haven’t gotten vaccinated and what are their questions.”
County data shows that, in terms of age, those over 55 years old have gotten their vaccine at a higher percentage than those in their 20s and early 30s. About two thirds of adults from 25 to 34 years old have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine compared to more than 80% of those over the age of 55.
While older folks becoming eligible for the vaccine earlier due to their increased vulnerability to the virus is likely a factor in that difference, it remains a concern that younger residents are less likely to get the vaccine than the county average.
To address that gap, county officials say they are doing targeted outreach at venues like barber shops, fraternities, sororities, and hair salons as well as placing ads on Tiktok and other social platforms.
Additionally, the county enlisted MC Bugg-Z of cicada rap fame for a new hip-hop song and video about the need to get vaccinated.
Health data also indicates that Black and Latinx county residents have gotten vaccinated at lower rates than white residents.
Roess says it’s on officials to better understand the concerns that have produced racial and ethnic disparities in who has received the vaccine.
“For a lot of African-American populations, they are part of this culture, this decades-long experience of being experimented on in really unethical trials,” Roess said. “So, there’s some real legitimate concerns there because of the history.”
She also notes that many folks work all day and are only available at night.
Fairfax County officials say over 300 sites currently offer the vaccine, including pop-up clinics every day of the week at schools, libraries, and apartment complexes. The county also employs 18 “vaccine navigators,” who go out into communities, food distribution events, and places of businesses to address concerns and help people sign up to get the vaccine.
However, in recent weeks, some services that were previously offered have ended, including a free shuttle service to the Mount Vernon Square vaccine equity clinic as well as several community clinics.
In addition, the clinics are only open to 7:30 p.m. at the latest. Most close between 5 and 7 p.m.
With nearly all COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations now occurring among unvaccinated people, health officials are racing to expand vaccinations to counter the growing prevalence of variants that could spread more easily and cause more severe illness.
Of particular concern is the Delta variant, which is thought to be more contagious. As of Friday (July 9), Northern Virginia had reported 617 infections stemming from variants of concern, including 23 cases linked to the Delta variant.
Roess says the fear of the Delta variant may lead to more people getting vaccinated, but it could already be too late.
“It’s a…race between the Delta variant spreading and the vaccination rate,” Roess said. “What we might end up seeing is that by the time [more] people end up getting vaccinated, they are already exposed or infected by the Delta variant.”
