This is an op-ed by William L. Winter, Executive Director of the American Press Institute from 1987 to 2003. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.

The many voices now calling for action to save Reston’s historic, Marcel Breuer-designed American Press Institute (API) building from demolition are singing in close concert with the city’s founding principles. This unique planned community called Reston was intended to be, and has, since its creation in the 1960s, been true to its founding principles of “Live, Work, Play, and Get Involved.”

As Reston has grown and matured, its leaders and most prominent institutions have worked hand-in-hand with residents to make sure the community is, in all ways possible, a special place. Reston today thus is a careful reflection of the city’s founding principles. Its parks, schools, golf courses, and other public venues exist comfortably and in careful balance with residential and commercial development, and echo founder Robert E. Simon’s call for a community of, by, and for those seeking immersion in the very best life that a true “community” can offer.

There can be no doubting that the historically and architecturally significant API building on Sunrise Valley Drive has contributed greatly to Reston’s feel of distinctiveness. To have within its borders a classic structure created by the famed designer of the Whitney Museum (now the Met Breuer) in New York City, the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the headquarters of the U.S. Departments of HUD and HEW in Washington, D.C., and many other noted structures around the globe gives Reston an air of style, class, and grace — a sense that the community truly understands and appreciates the best work of the world’s most talented individuals.

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Golden Kumi-Darfour, Skander Ballard and John LeBerre closed out their high school track and field careers with all-state honors at the Virginia 6A State Championship June 3-4 at Todd Stadium in Newport News.

Kumi-Darfour finished fourth in the 800 meters with a season-best time of 2:12.93. She anchored the SLHS 4×800 team of freshman Sophie Halkett and sophomores Olivia Beckner and Sarah Wolfe that finished seventh (9:28.68). Beckner also placed in an individual event, finishing third in the 1,600 meters with a personal best time of 4:58.24.

Ballard ran a 48.37 for third in the 400 meters and teamed with LeBerre, junior Ashton Reinhold and senior Nikolai Waithe for sixth in the 4×400 meter relay (3:24.49).

LeBerre also teamed with sophomore Alex Loukili and juniors Peter Sepulveda and Jack Watkins for seventh in the 4×800 meter relay (8:08.49) and finished fifth in the 800 meters with a 1:55.11, a personal best. Read More

This is a commentary by Reston resident Ed Abbott. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now. If something is on your mind, Reston Now will print well-organized letters to the editor. Send them to [email protected].

Many years ago, I served in Admiral Rickover’s nuclear navy. He drilled the idea of responsibility into the heads of all the sailors and officers in his program. He said, “Responsibility is a unique concept. … You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished.”

“You may delegate it, but it is still with you. … If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.”

Let’s apply that same concept of responsibility for Reston Association’s Tetra project to statements made by several Board members during May 26, 2016 Board meeting.

As you may recall, that was the meeting where the Board approved an additional $430,000 for the renovations for the “Lake House” building (formerly the Tetra building).

The original estimate in the pro forma was $259,000. The total now for the renovation is almost triple the original estimate.

I will start with RA CEO Cate Fulkerson. In her presentation, she addressed the failure of the pro forma cost estimate to accurately predict the actual costs.

Ms. Fulkerson said, “I own that mistake with my staff.” (Emphasis added.) She admits that she was responsible for the estimate but goes on to implicate her staff. She is responsible for the work of her staff and therefore responsible for whatever mistakes they made. She cannot diminish her responsibility by blaming her staff. Read More

This is a commentary from Reston resident Terry Maynard. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.

As RestonNow readers know by now, RA has at least a $451,000 budget shortfall in its operating income and capital investment for renovations of the Tetra property to bring it up to County code and other standards that make it usable for its intended purposes.

If I am reading the Board of Directors and Fiscal Committee agenda packages for this week correctly, the so-called Lake House Working Group is asking for an additional $428,000 for renovation of the property in addition to the $259,000 —  increasing the projected renovation costs by 165 percent — apparently budgeted for Tetra property renovations this year although it is unclear that the previous sum was ever approved by the Board of Directors. (See the “Lake House” presentation to be given to the Board in the agenda packet, p. 11.)

That’s a total of $687,000 in renovations to be put into a building that, at a $2.65 million purchase price, was already a $1.5 million above fair market value. So if the supplementary capital budget is approved, through this year RA will have spent $3.35 million for a building worth about one-third of that. And that will probably not be the end of what of the investment needed to make the Tetra property usable. Read More

Wouldn’t it be fun if your dog can hit the bars with you?

Nova Pets Alive and World of Beer are hosting an event just for you and Fido.

Join them for Yappy Hour on Monday, June 6 from 3 to 7 p.m.

There will be beer, treats and fun while supporting Nova Pets Alive, a nonprofit that supports animals and their companions in Northern Virginia.

World of Beer is located at 1888 Explorer St. at Reston Town Center.

Can’t make it on June 6? Nova Pets Alive will also host Yappy Hour at World of Beer on July 4, Aug. 8 and Sept. 5.

South Lakes High School’s theater department has earned six Cappie award nominations for its production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

The Cappies, “Critics and Awards Program,” is a program where high school theater and journalism students are trained as critics. Students attend shows at other schools, write reviews, and publish those reviews in local newspapers. The nominees are selected by the vote of high school critics from 57 schools around the Washington, DC area.

South Lakes nominees include: Comic Actress in a Musical (Mely Megahed); Comic Actor in a Musical (Jalen Robinson); Featured Actor in a Musical (Jacob Kemp); Female Featured Dancer (Izzy Edgerton); Set Design; and Orchestra.

Two Herndon High performers were nominated for their roles in Legally Blonde: The Musical. Allie Lytle earned a nod for Lead Actress in a Musical for her performance as Elle Woods. Isatu Fofanah was nominated for Comic Actress in a Musical for her performance of Enid Haupt.

The 16th Annual Cappies Gala will take place on Sunday, June 12 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Photo: SLHS’ production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”/Courtesy SLHS 

Seniors Skander Ballard and Golden Kumi-Darfour’s record-setting performances paced the South Lakes High School track teams to Liberty Conference 6 titles.

Seahawks scored in 33 of 34 events in leading the girls team to its sixth consecutive title and the boys team to its third straight and eight out of the past nine. The SLHS track and field program now has 26 conference/district titles over the past eight years. Read More

The South Lakes boys lacrosse team continued its run through the post season with a 15-7 victory over Stonewall Jackson in the Virginia 6A Northern Region tournament at Herndon High School Tuesday.

It was the Seahawks 13th straight victory. The only defeat for the 14-1 team this season was March 31 (a 12-6 loss to Stone Bridge). The Seahawks defeated Yorktown 8-5 last week for its first ever Liberty Conference title.

The Seahawks move on to play Centreville (11-5) Thursday night at South Lakes, 7 p.m.

Read more about the team’s turnround from last year’s 5-7 squad in this Washington Post story.

This morning Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld outlined the agency’s plan for working through Metrorail’s deferred maintenance backlog.

The “safety surge,” dubbed SafeTrack, “accomplishes in one year, work that otherwise would take about three years to complete.” It comes at a time when major Metro track problems and electrical fires seem to be increasingly commonplace.

The plan involves fifteen long-duration track outages between June 4 and May 8, 2017, to allow for extensive track work.

The goal: to achieve “safety and state of good repair of basic track structure.”

So what can Reston riders expect? First, there will be a moratorium on early system openings and closings — the system will close at midnight, seven day a week.

There are no outages planned for the new Silver Line track that opened in 2014. However, work on older portions of the Orange and Silver line will cause delays.

The following track outages will affect Reston Metro riders, according to WMATA.

Aug. 20-Sept. 6
Eastern Market to Minnesota Ave/Benning Road 
Impact: Entire line segment shut down
Service Reductions: Three lines affected. Orange and Silver lines running every 10 minutes, Blue Line running every 12 minutes.

Nov. 2-12
West Falls Church to East Falls Church
Impact: Continuous single tracking
Service Reduction: Trains on Orange and Silver lines each running every 16 minutes, but with additional trains from East Falls Church to New Carrollton

Nov. 12-Dec. 5
East Falls Church to Ballston
Impact: Continuous single tracking
Service Reduction: Trains on Silver Line running every 18 minutes, Orange Line trains from Vienna to Ballston running every 18 minutes

March 6-14 
West Falls Church to East Falls Church
Impact: Continuous single tracking
Service Reduction: Trains on Orange and Silver lines each running every 16 minutes, but with additional trains from East Falls Church to New Carrollton

In order to maximize productivity, all of the track outages will be continuous and will affect rush hour service. For the line segment shut downs, buses will replace trains around the station closures.

The safety surge will not only affect Metro riders, it’s expected to affect those who drive as well, in the form of additional traffic.

Metro's GM says road projects may have to adjust in areas when huge Metro projects are taking place. #wmata @nbcwashington

— Adam Tuss (@AdamTuss) May 6, 2016

https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/728608476956639232

Here’s what Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) had to say about the plan.

Metro Plan painful medicine that reflects damage from yrs of neglect that cannot be undone overnight. Full statementhttps://t.co/KvKVZtKwVy

— Rep. Gerry Connolly (@GerryConnolly) May 6, 2016

After the jump, the full press release from Metro.

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