Paced by record-setting performances in the 500 meters, seniors Golden Kumi-Darfour and Skander Ballard led the South Lakes High School indoor track and field teams to Liberty Conference titles in both the boys and girls divisions Friday at the Prince George’s County Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, Md.
The South Lakes girls team scored 138.50 points and placed in 13 of the 15 events to win its fifth consecutive conference title. James Madison finished second with 89 points and McLean was third with 64. Langley scored 49.50 points for fourth, followed by Fairfax (44), Washington-Lee (39), Yorktown (21) and Hayfield Secondary (17).
SLHS boys team finished with 190 points, placing in 14 of 15 events, for its eighth straight conference championship. James Madison, was second with 55 points. Fairfax and Washington and Lee tied for third with 49 points followed by McLean (40), Hayfield Secondary (30), Yorktown (29) and Langley (23).
Fourteen SLHS girls and 15 boys contributed to the team scoring. Kumi-Darfour was unbeatable in all of her events, especially in the 500 meters where her 1:16.55 broke the meet record of 1:17.92 set in 2005.
Kumi-Darfour, along ith senior Monica Lannen, and sophomores Olivia Beckner and Sarah Wolfe, won the 4×800 meter relay (9:43.55). She finished the meet with a win in the 4×400 meter relay with Beckner, freshman Sophie Halkett and junior Jessica Lister.
Ballard also had multiple wins. His 1:07.16 time in winning the 500 meters broke the 2008 record of 1:07.55 set by Nick Vaughn. He also won the 300 meters (35.96), triple jump (43-09.00) and teamed with seniors Nikolai Waithe, Connor Smith and sophomore Alex Wallace in winning the 4×400 meter relay (3:33.28). Ballard was also fourth in the long jump (19-03.50) and seventh in the pole vault (10-06.00).
Additionally, SLHS dominated several events, including:
- Winning all six relays
- Girls 55 meter hurdles (freshman Kristen Williams, 9.82; senior Anas Fain, 7.72)
- Girls 55 meters (juniors Nikayla Hoyte; 7.42 and Timiebi Ogobri, 6.64)
- Boys 300 meters (Hoyte, 42.60; Ballard, 35.96)
- Boys 500 (Ballard, 1st; Waithe, 2nd, 1:08.38; Wallace, 3rd, 1:09.71; Smith, 5th, 1:10.02; senior Chris Byron, 6th, 1:10.69)
- Boys 300 (Ballard, 1st; Waithe, 2nd, 37.14; senior Eric Kirlew, 4th, 38.38; Wallace, 5th, 38.40, Ogobri 6th, 38.47)
- Girls 500 (Kumi-Darfour, 1st; Halkett, 4th, 1:20.99; Lister, 5th, 1:24.29)
- Girls 300 (Hoyte, 1st, 42.50; Jones, 2nd, 42.99; Halkett, 4th, 43.98)
Photo of SLHS indoor track teams by Brenda Wallace
This is an op-ed submitted by Terry Maynard, co-chair of Reston 2o20. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
On Thursday, Feb. 11, the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a seminar called, “The Changing Future of Reston, ” but — as the agenda shows — it’s really about who will pay for the added public infrastructure the intense private development of Reston’s urbanizing corridor will require.
Noting that Fairfax County has identified $2.63 billion in needed transportation improvements because of the expected Metro-related development, the Chamber agenda includes:
During the first half of 2016, the County expects to settle on a plan:
- Who should build the new transportation improvements; and
- Who should pay for them; and
- What revenue sources should be used to pay for it (sic). Potential revenue sources include federal, state and/or county taxes, new or expanded tax districts on existing businesses and residents, proffers or other vehicles, with collections commencing as early as 2017.”
And the panelists? Two developers, the chief of the county transportation staff, and RA’s Chief Executive Officer, all led in their discussion by a developer-paid Reston land use attorney.
It doesn’t take much thought to figure out where this discussion is headed: Developers are looking for ways and rationalizations to shift the infrastructure cost burden to others. And the only significant option within the County’s control is shifting the cost burden to us, its residents. Read More
On Fridays, we take a moment to thank our sponsors and advertisers:
Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, the business community for the vibrant region.
The Harrison, luxury apartments near Reston Town Center.
Berry & Berry, PLLC, Reston law firm specializing in federal employment, retirement, labor union, and security clearance matters.
Reston Real Estate, Eve Thompson of Long & Foster Real Estate specializes in Reston homes.
Becky’s Pet Care, offering friendly pet services in Northern Virginia.
Reston Community Center, Serving Reston’s recreational and cultural needs.
MakeOffices, shared work spaces with five area locations, including Reston.
Oatlands Historic House & Gardens.
Bento House, Japanese restaurant in Reston.
Lake Anne Nursery Kindergarten, educating Reston’s young minds for more than 50 years.
Boofie O’Gorman, Top Producer Realtor at Long & Foster Reston.
Goldfish Swim School, specializing in children’s swim lessons year-round.
Small Change Consignment, serving Reston’s kids for more than 30 years.
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, full-service Realtors with a new office in Reston Town Center.
VITA, luxury apartments at Tysons Corner.
A Cleaning Service, professional residential and commercial cleaning.
BASIS Independent McLean, Independent school for K-12 located in McLean.
Sunday’s 33rd annual Capitol Steps Benefit for Cornerstones raised $230,500 to aid Cornerstones’ programs for the disadvantaged and affordable housing stock.
A sold-out crowd of more than 600 guests attended the show — which pokes fun at both sides of the aisle and all things Washington — at the Hyatt Regency Reston.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, among the VIPs in attendance, said Cornerstones is part of why Fairfax County has reduced its homeless population significantly — even during the economic stress of the last decade.
“During my tenure as Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I was proud to work with my colleagues on the board along with community partners like Cornerstones to develop and implement our 10-year plan to prevent and end homelessness,” he told the crowd.
“Our efforts are producing tremendous results. Contrary to what most communities experienced during the Great Recession, Fairfax County turned the tide and experienced a significant decline in homelessness. In fact, over the last seven years, we’ve reduced the homeless population in Fairfax County by 34 percent.”
Cornerstones’ next major fundraiser is the Best of Reston Awards Gala on April 7.
This is an opinion post by Reston resident Terry Maynard, who serves as the Co-Chair of Reston 2020. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.
The newly re-elected County Board of Supervisors is at it again: They are proposing a “Priority 1” zoning ordinance amendment (ZOA) that would allow development density in a number of areas in the County to increase to a floor-area-ratio (FAR) of 5.0 plus a 0.5 bonus density for meeting key County priorities. The ZOA includes all of Reston’s Metro station areas (TSAs) and Lake Anne, a Commercial Revitalization Area (CRA).
In fact, the ZOA proposal covers an entire alphabet soup of about 20 urbanizing and redeveloping “Selective Areas” across the county: TSAs, CRAs, CRDs, CBCs, PDCs, and PRMs. Together, the County calls all these “Selective Areas” and the ZOA makes no distinction among them. That’s a potential half billion gross square feet (GSF) of new development and redevelopment added to the County’s current roughly one billion GSF of total existing development of all kinds.
And the “Selective Areas” cover only about five percent of the county’s total 400 square mile area. If you are interested to learn about this proposed ZOA, there are opportunities for you to hear more and provide your comments as early as this Wednesday, Jan. 13. Read More
This is an op-ed by Reston resident Irwin Flashman. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.
The RA Board is set to vote in its Dec. 17 meeting on two amendments to Board Resolutions which would prohibit the release of the names of persons who vote in Board elections or referenda. The Board has characterized this effort as one to, “protect the confidentiality of members who vote in association elections.” The Board’s press release on the matter really urges members to say, “Yes, protect my confidentiality!”
This so-called issue of “expectation of privacy” is a huge red herring. The existing Resolutions already prohibit the release of the content of the ballot, that is, how someone voted.
The real issue is one of access to the actual voting members of the RA. There are more than 21,000 member households in the RA. In the short campaign period for Board elections, it is impossible for a candidate to knock on the doors of the more than 5,000 households in a district, or even more for a candidate at-large.
Political parties do not attempt to reach all voters in their campaigns. They first go after assuring that their own members likely to vote will, in fact, go to the polls. Then, they urge their own occasional voters to vote. Afterwards, they target the undecideds and others whose vote may be swayed toward their candidates. Yes, there are methods for reaching the entire electorate, but they are not nearly as effective as pressing the flesh and talking with voters.
You can spend significant sums of money on robo calls, or have a mass mailing to 21,000 households at a cost of well over $10,000 per mailing, when you count the cost of stamps, paper, envelopes, design, printing and manpower to put it all together.
Searching for a new home? Check out these open houses this weekend. For complete real estate information, visit Reston Now’s Real Estate section.
1519 Autumn Ridge Circle
3 BR, 3.5 BA TH
$419,900
Open Sunday 1 to 3 p.m.
11719 Newbridge Court
3 BR, 3.5 BA TH
$435,000
Open Sunday 2 to 4 p.m.
11579 Embers Court
3 BR, 2 BA SFH
$379,000
Open Sunday 12 to 3 p.m.
1564 Regatta Lane
3 BR, 3.5 BA SFH
$874,900
Open Sunday 2 to 4 p.m.
12025 New Dominion Parkway
1 BR, 1 BA Condo
$424,900
Open Friday 6 to 8 p.m.
1575 Inlet Court
5 BR, 3.5 BA TH
$584,900
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
11534 Hemingway Drive
4 BR, 3.5 BA TH
$697,500
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
11770 Sunrise Valley Drive
2 BR, 2 BA Condo
$325,000
Open Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
While some of the thick morning fog has gone away, the National Weather Service is telling drivers to be careful through Wednesday afternoon.
The NWS has issued a Dense Fog Advisory for Northern Virginia and most of the Washington, D.C., area until 2 p.m. In Reston, foggy areas can get even worse around the lakes.
From the NWS:
DENSE FOG ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON…
* VISIBILITIES… ONE QUARTER MILE OR LESS AT TIMES.
* IMPACTS… AREAS OF DENSE FOG WILL CAUSE SUDDEN AND GREAT REDUCTIONS IN VISIBILITY… RESULTING IN HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS.PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A DENSE FOG ADVISORY MEANS VISIBILITIES WILL FREQUENTLY BE REDUCED TO LESS THAN ONE QUARTER MILE. IF DRIVING… SLOW DOWN… USE YOUR LOW-BEAM HEADLIGHTS… AND LEAVE PLENTY OF DISTANCE AHEAD OF YOU.
Meet Gracie, our Pet of the Week who is in need of a new home.
Here is what the people at Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue say about this gentle giant:
Gracie is quite the snuggle bunny and she loves attention. She is a little shy at first; she puts her head down and rolls her big brown eyes up at you and warms your heart.
Gracie joined us early in September and was quite skinny and had a very bad haircut. She has gained some weight since coming in but needs to continue to fill out.
As her coat grows, her markings become more beautiful. Gracie loves walking and nuzzling your hand as you go … she wants to make sure you are still with her and loving her. She has a great disposition and looks forward to a loving home to spend the rest of her life.
All Great Pyrenees require a fenced-in back yard. If you have questions about the breed or our adoption policies and procedures, please go to our website at www.agprescue.org.
Our adoption application is online. http://agprescue.org/adoption-application/
Are you and Gracie a match? If so, let us know and our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, will send you $100 in Becky’s Bucks, as well as some treats.
Want your pet to be considered for the Reston Pet of the Week?
Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet.
Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks.
Becky’s Pet Care, the winner of three Angie’s List Super Service Awards and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year, provides professional dog walking and pet sitting services in Reston and Northern Virginia.
An estimated 1.15 million D.C.-area residents will travel 50 miles or more for the Thanksgiving holiday. Will you be among them?
According to AAA Mid-Atlantic, holiday travel will be virtually unchanged this year, down 0.2 percent compared to 2014.
That’s despite lower gas prices and better weather — it’s supposed to be mostly sunny and cool this week. Last week at this time there was a predicted snowstorm.
About 90.5 percent of all D.C. area travelers will travel by car, compared to 7.3 percent traveling via air and 2.2 percent via other modes of transportation.
Meanwhile, a new study shows Tuesday is the new Wednesday for Thanksgiving week, meaning the worst pre-holiday traffic around DC is on Tuesday.
Will you be among those traveling outside of D.C. this year?
This is an op-ed by Reston resident Jonathan Damm. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
On Thursday, Rep. Gerry Connolly [D-VA 11th] was among 47 Democrats to join House Republicans to vote yes for H.R. 4038 — a bill sponsored by Republicans, which they called: the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015, or the American Safe Act of 2015. I prefer to call it the Anti-Refugee Act. But 137 House Democrats stood firm and voted no.
Until yesterday, I admired Rep. Connolly and respected his body of work. Tragically, this one vote makes it absolutely impossible for me to vote for or support him in the future, notwithstanding his past work on behalf of the 11th District. I feel he has betrayed our fundamental Democratic values by siding with those who devised this hasty legislation on behalf of those more inclined to react out of fear to the terrorism in Paris. But we are better than that. As our national anthem reminds us, we are the home of the brave.
Of course, like most citizens, I expect the federal government to take reasonable steps to protect us against the very real threats that exist in the world. But voting to add a layer of unnecessary delay and burden to the process for refugees entering our country was completely unnecessary. Read More
This is an op-ed by Connie Hartke, President of Rescue Reston. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
One year ago, we received notice that those who would turn our planned community into “Potterville” were back and ready to set a hearing date with the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals. We imagine they thought this community would be too busy with holidays to take much notice.
We proved them wrong! In 12 months we accomplished the following:
- raised funds for legal representation
- held a press conference
- held a rally with over 300 supporters
- held a smaller rally in front of the Reston Northwestern Mutual office, where supporters, including Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and Del. Ken Plum, spelled out “NO.”
- had over 500 supporters attend the Jan. 21 BZA hearing
- held our First Annual Golf Tournament and Nature Hike — at Reston National Golf Course
- elevated this land use battle to national attention
- received a victory in Fairfax County Circuit Court. On Friday, Nov. 6, when the judge told the owner-investors of RNGC that they must follow established County zoning procedures in any effort to convert this tract of land to other uses.
We did it! This community pulled together, including teamwork between our local county government, Reston Association and this grassroots organization, Rescue Reston.
This victory is not the end by any means. We will find out in the next few weeks whether the owner-investors will appeal that decision to the Virginia Supreme Court, but even without an appeal we expect them to continue their battle against us through other avenues.
Rescue Reston has received thanks from so many. Would you buy us the electronic version of a cup of coffee? With so many of you contributing, even the smallest donation will add up and we need your contribution no matter where you live–someday your community may need the legal precedent that is being set in Reston and Fairfax County.
You can find ways to contribute on our web site, www.rescuereston.org, or write a check today to Rescue Reston, 2198 Golf Course Dr, Reston, VA 20191. We even have a shopping link for Amazon – see the fundraisers tab.
Show your appreciation the one way that really makes a difference: a donation to ensure we can maintain legal strength and backing to preserve designated open space at Reston National Golf Course, a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program Golf Course.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Photo: Rescue Reston supporters spelling out “NO” in front of Reston National Golf Course owner Northwestern Mutual offices/file photo
Three fourth-quarter touchdowns earned South Lakes High School a 35-28 victory over Oakton in the Virginia 6A North Region football playoffs on Friday.
The sixth-seed Seahawks (9-2) now advance to play at No. 3 Westfield (10-1) 7 p.m. this Friday. Westfield, a 44-20 winner over Washington-Lee, has not lost since Sept. 11 against South County.
In Friday’s game, the Cougars and Seahawks went into halftime tied at 14. After a scoreless third quarter, Oakton got the ball deep in South Lakes territory twice, where wide receiver Jarrett Bacon scored on runs of 13 and 8 yards to put Oakton up 28-14.
But South Lakes came back with three straight touchdowns, two of them by Marvin Grunchie, who two caught 15-yard passes from QB Devin Miles. Spencer Alston also scored on 2-yard run.
Grunchie finished the game with seven catches for 114 yards.
It was South Lakes’ first playoff game since 2010.
A long list of property crimes leads this week’s police report from the Fairfax County’s Police’s Reston District Station:
LARCENIES
- 1800 block of Cameron Glen Drive, license plate from vehicle
- 2200 block of Castle Rock Square, purse from business
- 10100 block of Cedar Pond Drive, wallet from residence
- 2000 block of Colts Neck Road, credit card from residence
- 12600 block of Old Dorm Place, license plate from vehicle
- 2000 block of Colts Neck Road, bicycle from residence
- 9900 block of Georgetown Pike, beer from business
- 1300 block of Pavilion Club Way, cash from vehicle
- 11700 block of Plaza America Drive, property from business
- 12000 block of Market Street, property from residence
- 11400 block of Washington Plaza, phone from business
- 2400 block of Centreville Road, phone from business
- 9900 block of Georgetown Pike, merchandise from business
- 2100 block of Green Watch Way, property from vehicle
- 9200 block of Hidden Creek Drive, jewelry from residence
- 2500 block of John Milton Drive, property from residence
- 2000 block of Wethersfield Court, jewelry from residence
STOLEN VEHICLES
1800 block of Cameron Glen Drive, 2015 Kawasaki motorcycle.
Ready to look at some homes? There are plenty of open houses in Reston this weekend. For more listings and complete real estate information, visit Reston Now’s Real Estate section.
11807 Breton Ct #21D
2 BR, 1 BA Condo
$229,999
Open Saturday 2 to 4 p.m.
Jennifer Linda Powell – (703) 564-4000 *
11907 Blue Spruce Road
5 BR, 3.5 BA SFH
$740,000
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
10968 Harpers Square Court
3 BR, 2 FB, 2 HB TH
$424,900
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
11623 Hunters Green Court
4 BR, 2.5 BA TH
$484,950
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
1547 Church Hill Place
2 BR, 2 BA Condo
$326,800
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
11775 Stratford House Place
3 BR, 2.5 BA Condo
$549,900
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
12039 Lake Newport Road
5 BR, 3.5 BA SFH
$699,990
Open Sunday 1 to 3 p.m.
12207 Hounds Lane
5 BR, 3.5 BA SFH
$724,500
Open Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
* – Sponsored (paid) listing
