Fairfax County to Host COVID-19 Remembrance Ceremony — The Northern Virginia Regional Commission will hold a virtual ceremony next Wednesday (June 9) at the Fairfax County Government Center to honor the more than 2,350 people in the region who have died from COVID-19. Local officials will discuss the pandemic’s impact, and the event will conclude with a “last alarm” bell service courtesy of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. [Fairfax County Government]

Reston’s First Homocide Remains a Mystery — 49 years after her death, the family of Gwen Ames is still hoping for answers, as Fairfax County police have yet to identify a suspect in the first murder recorded in Reston. A 17-year-old student at Herndon High School, Ames was killed on June 4, 1972 while walking home from a dance at Lake Anne Plaza. [Patch]

Democratic Governor Candidates Spar in Final Debate — The Democratic candidates to become Virginia’s next governor faced off in the last debate before the Democratic primary on Tuesday (June 8). Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has been leading in polls, focused on attacking Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin, an approach that drew criticisms from his opponents. [WTOP]

Leidos Subsidary Lands NASA Contract — “Dynetics Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Reston-based Fortune 500 government contractor Leidos Holdings Inc., has received a potential $90 million contract from NASA to produce a laser air monitoring system (LAMS) for the agency’s Orion spacecraft, beginning with the Artemis III mission, which plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972’s Apollo 17 mission.” [Virginia Business]

Herndon High School Holds Graduation Ceremony — Herndon High School seniors got to graduate in person yesterday (Wednesday). Attendees included Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who congratulated the Class of 2021 on overcoming the challenges of the last year and said that “we can’t wait to see what your future holds.” [Walter Alcorn/Twitter]

Photo via vantagehill/Flickr

The Reston Association Board of Directors is set to discuss increasing member assessments, potentially by as much as $40, at upcoming work sessions in preparation to draft the 2022 budget.

At a board meeting last Thursday (May 27), CEO Hank Lynch laid out factors, questions, and known expenses that will affect the upcoming budget, which will be discussed and drafted later this summer.

His report led to the conclusion that an assessment increase will likely be needed, along with possible cuts and ways to increase non-assessment revenue. The assessment is currently at $718.

Further discussion about what this increase could look like, including a proposed percentage range that the RA board would be comfortable with, will happen at upcoming work sessions. The first one is set for June 8.

Lynch said that the potential increase isn’t needed to add new items to the budget, but rather, to catch up on projects from the previous year.

“We are not planning, right now, any new programs or services,” said Lynch. “Mainly, we are trying to get things we had in the pipeline last year that we couldn’t do because of COVID up and running this year. We are not looking to do new things for 2022.”

A huge impact on the budget is an increase in operating expenses, particularly staff pay increases, hiring, staff turnover, and RA’s insurance policy.

Lynch authorized a compensation study by the human resources firm Archer Company in 2019. The study concluded that staff pay increases were needed for better retention and recruitment.

Adopting the study’s recommendations would cost an additional $400,000, according to a table that Lynch presented at last week’s meeting. There are also four new positions that have been requested to be filled, which would cost $430,000.

Overall, adding in the statewide minimum wage increase as well as rising costs for staff benefits, Lynch projects that RA can anticipate approximately $705,000 in new staffing expenses for 2022, even with some savings from higher-than-normal staff turnover.

There’s also a potential for an increase in the cost of RA’s insurance policy, bringing the total dollars expected to be added to the operating budget to nearly $850,000.

Without finding cuts or generating more non-assessment revenue, the additional operating expenses would mean a 6% increase, or nearly $40, in annual assessment fees for members, according to Lynch.

That’s four times the increase that was approved last year. Read More

CACI International, one of the country’s largest government defense, intelligence, and cyber security contractors, cut the ribbon on its new Reston headquarters last week.

The corporate headquarters of the nearly $6 billion company is now located in a newly renovated 135,000-square-foot, six-story building at 12021 Sunset Hills Road across the street from the impending Reston Town Center Metro station.

“We’re very excited about our updated modern facilities and confident that this new building will be key to continuing this vital work for our customers’ important national security missions and groundbreaking technology,” CACI President and CEO John Mengucci said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The building will house approximately 450 employees as well as a Center for Research, Application, Development, Learning and Engagement (CRADLE). The workshop will allow employees and clients to interactively work together on concept design and prototypes.

CACI headquarters was located in Ballston for nearly fifty years, but the company signed a lease with Boston Properties, which owns nearby Reston Town Center, late last year to move into two-decade-old building.

Bearing the slogan “Ever Vigilant,” CACI has become one of the nation’s leading defense contractors since its founding in 1962. In fact, President Joe Biden’s recent nominee for the assistant secretary of defense for readiness job is a former employee.

In attendance at the ribbon-cutting were a number of local officials, including Rep. Gerry Connolly, who represents Virginia’s 11th Congressional district which includes large swaths of Reston and Herndon.

Connolly complimented the company’s foresight and spoke about the region’s continued growth.

“[CACI has] chosen a location that is only going to grow in economic investment and technological importance in the coming years: the Dulles corridor,” he said. “This is maybe one of the most dynamic economic corridors in the United States. It is certainly going to eclipse even downtown Washington as the single most important investment and economic corridor in the capital region.”

He also noted that the building’s proximity to a soon-to-be-opened Metro station showcases why extending the Silver Line was critical to economic growth in Reston and Herndon, a sentiment echoed by Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.

“It’s an affirmation that the long-term development strategy of transit-oriented development makes sense,” Alcorn told Reston Now. “It’s important to have employers like CACI in Reston, where there are multiple transportation options available to workers, visitors, and others using the facilities.”

Building around public transportation, Alcorn notes, allows more people to benefit from economic and development activity.

Del. Ken Plum, who represents Virginia’s 36th House District, says that, as Reston and Fairfax County grow as a economic and technology center of the region, there needs to be efforts to service a diverse workforce.

“We also need to recognize the service workers and others that support [this headquarters],” Plum said to Reston Now. “We’ve also got to accommodate them with appropriate housing and transportation alternatives. It’s all good to cut a ribbon, but we have to recognize the bigger picture…and provide the support structure necessary.”

Even as some workers return to offices with vaccine rates rising, there may be a permanent shift toward more teleworking as opposed to employees coming into an office every day, a possibility anticipated by the renovations and more open work spaces in CACI’s new headquarters, Mengucci said.

Both Alcorn and Plum say a more flexible approach to work spaces could have positive ramifications on everything from public transportation to child care.

“The new normal is recognizing working at home doesn’t reduce productivity,” Plum said. “I think we are seeing an increasing emphasis on that as an option.”

However, bringing more companies like CACI to Reston remains a priority for tax revenue reasons as well as continuing to grow Fairfax County’s economy.

“They’re still very much a role for office space in centralized commercial locations,” Alcorn said. “But people will have more options now, not only about where they live, but also how often they come into work.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out last year’s festivities, the Reston Pride Festival is back and as committed as ever to both celebrating and advocating for the local LGBTQ community.

This year’s event has been divided into two days, starting this Saturday (June 5) with a virtual festival and marketplace that will go from 2 to 6 p.m. An in-person festival with a free public concert will follow two weeks later at Lake Anne Plaza on June 19.

Nathan Hagen, who serves as treasurer for Reston Pride, an independent nonprofit under the CORE Foundation, says the board decided in December to plan virtual events for the festival to guarantee it would take place in some form, regardless of the state of the pandemic.

That certainty felt important after the experience of putting together the 2020 festival, which had been almost entirely booked and planned out when it was put on hold last spring. Organizers initially hoped to push it back to October, but it ultimately had to be canceled.

“COVID wasn’t gone, you know, in October. It was still taking the life of many, many people in our community and around the world, as it still is today,” Hagen said. “…If someone isn’t vaccinated or even if they are and they just don’t feel comfortable being in a public space, we wanted to create a virtual festival that would give them the ability to still feel a sense of community and, more importantly, celebrate Pride.”

Hagen promises that Reston Pride will still be “very much a party,” but the virtual element also enabled organizers to broaden their approach to programming with the addition of panel discussions on issues that LGBTQ individuals continue to face.

One panel will discuss aging in the LGBTQ community, including discrimination in elder care facilities, and another will deal with issues relevant to families, including families with LGBTQ children and queer couples who are interested in starting a family.

“Both of those panels are going to have some dialogue and perspectives from members of our community and from experts in the area, which we’re really looking forward to hear from them,” Hagen said.

The virtual festival will be headlined by actor and The Trevor Project advocate BD Wong, who will also hold an in-person talk at 8 p.m. that day at Reston Community Center’s CenterStage. For Reston Pride, he provided a video about the importance of supporting marginalized groups from his perspective as an openly gay, Asian American individual.

While the in-person festival will primarily focus on entertainment, led by the D.C. band Wicked Jezabel, it will also acknowledge Juneteenth, which falls on the same day, with a dance performance by Yauri Dalencour and opening remarks from Washington Plaza Baptist Church Rev. Michelle Nickens.

According to Hagen, the in-person festival will not have a cap on attendees after Virginia lifted COVID-19 capacity limits starting last Friday (May 28), but activities and vendors will be spread out to minimize crowding, and masks will be strongly encouraged in accordance with county and state guidance.

Because of the spacing limitations, Reston Pride cut off the number of vendors included this year to 45 organizations, including 10 nonprofits. Hagen says the board of directors offered free space for LGBTQ-oriented nonprofits to share their message and drum up support for their causes in recognition of the challenges that many groups encountered over the past year.

Proceeds from this year’s festival will go to future Reston Pride events and programs along with the nonprofit Rainbow Families, which provides education and support to LGBTQ families and prospective parents.

As the only Pride festival in Northern Virginia, Reston Pride’s organizers make an effort to maintain a focus on the local community and the grassroots spirit with which the festival launched in 2018.

“There’s no ‘brought to you by some major, multi-international company’ at Reston Pride,” Hagen said. “Instead at Reston Pride, it’s brought to you by local small businesses, many queer-owned businesses, and we focus on putting the spotlight on community organizations that support and help queer people in our area.”

A full list of festival events can be found on the Reston Pride website. Anyone interested in volunteering to assist with the in-person festival can fill out a sign-up form or email the organizers at [email protected].

Photo via Chip McCrea Photography

Fairfax County Parks Removes Mask Requirements for Fully Vaccinated Visitors — “Fully vaccinated Fairfax County Park Authority visitors will no longer be required to wear masks. Visitors who are not fully vaccinated and children under 12 years old will be required to wear a mask except as outlined in the Virginia Governor’s Order 79.” [Friends of Frying Pan Farm Park/LinkedIn]

Metro Service Increases Proposed — Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld is set to propose sweeping changes to both rail and bus service at a finance and capital committee meeting today (Wednesday). Possible changes include keeping stations until midnight, instead of 11 p.m., starting this summer and increasing the frequency of both trains and buses. [WTOP]

Herndon Office Plaza Sold — New York investment firm Innovatus Capital Partners has acquired the Dulles Executive Plaza office buildings at 13530 and 13560 Dulles Technology Drive in Herndon for $113.5 million. The 384,336-square-foot complex is mostly occupied by Lockheed Martin Corp., which leases half the property through 2024, and the private security company Constellis LLC, which leases 28% of the square footage under a deal that runs through 2031. [Washington Business Journal]

Reston Construction Company to Design Gas-to-Gasoline Facility — “Nacero has awarded Bechtel the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract for the first natural gas-to-gasoline manufacturing facility in the United States. Nacero’s 115,000 barrel per day plant in Penwell, Texas…will be the first gasoline manufacturing plant in the world to incorporate carbon capture, sequestration, and 100% renewable power.” [Chemical Engineering]

Remember the U.S.S. Herndon — In the wake of Memorial Day, the Herndon Historical Society tells the story of the two U.S. Navy ships named after the Town of Herndon’s namesake, Commander William Lewis Herndon, a Navy officer who died in 1857 when his ship sank in the Atlantic Ocean at the hands of a devastating hurricane. [Patch]

(Updated at 4 p.m.) A Herndon car wash that discharged green liquid that ended up in Sugarland Run Stream received a formal notice of violation on Friday (May 28) from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, a regional official says.

Flagship Carwash Center of Herndon at 632 Grant Street does have a permit to discharge, according to both a car wash representative and DEQ.

However, the green liquid was being discharged into a storm sewer that goes into Sugarland Run due to a malfunctioning of the car wash’s water reclamation system malfunctioning, says DEQ official Mark Miller, who manages regional enforcement and pollution response for Virginia’s northern region.

Miller says the presence of the discharge in Sugarland Run has been observed multiple times by both DEQ officials and town staff members.

As a result, the business will be notified that it is in violation of its general DEQ permit. The discharge is believed to be a mix of water and car wash detergent, but it is not thought to be harmful to the stream.

“Staff from the town, Fairfax County DPWES, Fairfax County Fire Department, and the Virginia DEQ all performed independent tests on the discharge and did not find any contaminants in the stream that are known to be harmful to the environment,” Town of Herndon spokesperson Anne Curtis told Reston Now by email.

Curtis says DEQ is now in charge of the investigation and is “in contact with the property owner to resolve the illicit discharge.”

This issue was first brought to the public’s attention during a Herndon Town Council work session on May 18. In the work session, Deputy Director of Public Works John Irish noted that town staff were aware of the situation and had recently observed the discharge themselves.

Flagship Carwash Center of Herndon managing member Guy Paolozzi told Reston Now that the business is currently conducting its own investigation to determine why the discharge is green.

Until both the car wash and DEQ complete their investigations, Paolozzi says, the car wash will stop discharging.

Flagship Carwash Center currently has five Virginia locations and 10 locations across the region.

Miller says the notice of violation was drafted and sent out last week. The intent of the notice is to get the problem fixed under a timeline. These types of violations are not uncommon, and they can end with the business fixing the issue without any further consequence.

However, a civil charge (a fine) could be imposed depending on the findings of DEQ’s investigation.

A section of Sugarland Run south from where the discharge has been observed is about to undergo a restoration. The long-running project was first approved in August 2018.

Work includes replanting vegetation, placing in-stream structures, and installing brush mattresses.

Construction and restoration is expected to be completed in early 2022.

Despite an unusually cool Memorial Day weekend, Fairfax County could be in for more routine summer compared to last year, as trends in COVID-19 cases and vaccinations suggest that the worst of the pandemic is in the rearview mirror, at least on a local level.

Three new COVID-19 cases were reported in the Fairfax Health District today (Monday), including two in Fairfax County and one from Fairfax City. However, the Virginia Department of Health subtracted two cases from Falls Church City’s total, so the Fairfax County Health Department’s dashboard shows just one new case.

FCHD spokesperson Tina Dale told Reston Now last week that data reviews sometimes lead to cases being removed because they are determined to be duplicates or to have occurred in another health district.

Even with 78 new cases coming in on Thursday (May 27), just before Memorial Day weekend, case levels are continuing to fall in Fairfax County, which is currently averaging 20.3 new cases over the past seven days. The weekly average hasn’t been this low since March 28, 2020, when it was at 19.1 cases and the pandemic’s initial spring surge was only just emerging.

The Fairfax Health District has now recorded 78,003 total cases, 4,116 hospitalizations, and 1,129 deaths.

The continued decline in cases has supported a gradual easing of public health restrictions over the past couple of months. After lifting its mask mandate for fully vaccinated individuals in most public settings earlier in May, Virginia officially ended all capacity limits and social distancing requirements this past Friday (May 28).

Because of the novel coronavirus’ incubation period, though, the true impact of those changes and the rise in travel and social gatherings over Memorial Day weekend won’t be evident for another two weeks.

Health officials have also pointed to the potential for new, more transmissible variants to emerge as a reason to remain cautious, particularly for people who haven’t gotten vaccinated yet.

“The best way to stop variants from developing in the first place is to stop the spread of the virus,” Fairfax County Director of Epidemiology and Population Health Dr. Benjamin Schwartz said in a recent blog post. “I encourage people who have not gotten vaccinated to consider making vaccination a part of their holiday plans.”

Given the availability of vaccines, the county hopes to avoid another resurgence of the virus akin to the second wave that hit last fall and over the winter, when cold weather kept people indoors and the holiday season led to an uptick in travel and gatherings.

According to the county health department’s new vaccine data dashboard, 675,696 Fairfax Health District residents — 74.7% of all adults and 57.1% of the overall population — have gotten at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, outpacing the federal goal of administering at least one dose to 70% of adults by July 4.

539,394 residents — or 59.6% of adults and 45.6% of the total population — have been fully vaccinated, meaning that at least two weeks have passed since they’ve received all needed shots. That puts the county ahead of Virginia as a whole, which has vaccinated 55.9% of adults and delivered at least one shot to 67.1% of adults.

Chart via Virginia Department of Health

Tuesday, June 1

• Scrawl Books Reopening (10 a.m.) — After being closed for more than a year, Reston Town Center’s bookstore is reopening for browsing and shopping. Scrawl Books took time over the pandemic to completely renovate, so there’s now even more space and reading nooks. Masks will continue to be required in the store.

• Duck Harbor (8 p.m.) — Every Tuesday for the next 12 weeks, 1st Stage in Tysons will present “Duck Harbor,” a live, serialized romantic comedy web series starring actors on both the east and west coasts. Not only that, the actors will only be given their own script so they can react genuinely to what the other character says. If you miss it live, binge-watch it to catch up!

Wednesday, June 2 

• We Are What We Eat (8 p.m.) — Author Alice Waters advocates for “slow food culture,” a preservation of local food origins and traditions. Join Waters in conversation with Kim Severson, a national food correspondent for the New York Times, as they discuss why slow food culture is vital to our societal needs. This virtual event is being put on by Politics and Prose.

Thursday, June 3

• A Transgender Virginian’s Story (7 p.m.) — Join a member of Equality Virginia’s Transgender Advocacy Speakers Bureau for an evening to learn their story. There’ll be time for questions and dialogue. This virtual event is hosted by the Reston Regional Library.

Friday, June 4 

• Fair Oaks Mall Carnival (5 p.m.) — If you didn’t get your cotton candy and ferris wheel fill last year, plenty of local carnivals are back this year, including one at Fair Oaks Mall. So, grab a funnel cake, and jump aboard the whirly-twirly.

Saturday, June 5

• Gardens of Note (10 a.m.) — Enjoy a self-guided tour of five of Reston’s beautiful residential gardens rarely open to the public. Along the way, there will be pop-up musical performances from members of the Reston Chorale.
• Owl Prowl (6:30-8 p.m.) — Reston Association invites people of all ages to the Walker Nature Center for this all-ages program celebrating the natural world. Children must be accompanied by a registered adult, and all adults and children over two years of age must wear masks. Registration has filled up, but there is a wait list available. The cost is $7 for members and $9 for non-members.
• BD Wong at Reston Community Center (8 p.m.) — You may have seen Wong act in the television show “Mr. Robot” or on the big screen in “Jurassic Park,” but he’s also a motivational speaker. He’ll be speaking on racial self-image, the model-minority myth, and LGTBQ rights.

Sunday, June 6

• Heritage India Festival (12-7 p.m.) — The D.C.-area’s premier South Asian cultural, arts, and commerce festival is back this year at the Dulles Expo Center. There will be shopping, performances, and food. The festival is mostly indoors and will following all state and local COVID guidelines.

More than a year after closing to indoor shopping, Scrawl Books is reopening its doors today (Tuesday) so customers can once again browse the shelves to their heart’s content.

However, the Reston Town Center shop will look a little different from what loyal patrons remember.

Like its brethern around the country, Scrawl quickly pivoted to exclusively online events and services in March 2020 after the novel coronavirus forced a shutdown of the kind of in-person, cozy gatherings on which bookstores normally thrive.

Offering free delivery in the local area and curbside pick-ups throughout the pandemic, the shop also took advantage of the unanticipated closure to get in a renovation that owner Rachel Wood believes will improve customers’ experience now that they’re able to venture inside.

“It was difficult to close the doors to customers,” she said. “Fortunately, we were able to work through the transition, and use the time to renovate our space and evaluate our inventory to ensure that Scrawl is offering a comfortable experience and relevant selection for all of our readers.”

The store still occupies its familiar space at 11911 Freedom Drive next to Chipotle in the northeastern corner of Reston Town Center, but the interior walls have been removed, creating a more spacious venue, according to Scrawl Books manager Molly McMahon.

While Scrawl started letting customers book browsing appointments in May, today marks its return to full indoor services without time or capacity limits. The store’s regular business hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays will take effect immediately.

Wood says the timing of the reopening was driven primarily by the arrival of summer weather and the promising trajectory of Fairfax County’s vaccination rates. As of May 27, more than 74% of adult residents had gotten at least one shot, putting the county well ahead of President Joe Biden’s target of 70% by July 4.

“As the weather gets nicer and vaccination numbers continue to rise, I feel confident that we can provide a safe environment for book lovers to browse our shelves,” Wood said.

Though Virginia lifted its capacity and social distancing requirements for businesses on Friday (May 28), Scrawl will continue taking some precautions to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Masks are still required in the store, since “many of our best readers are young children,” who aren’t able to get vaccinated yet, Wood says. The staff also plans to keep the shop doors open so that fresh air can flow inside as much as possible.

In addition, curbside pick-up and delivery options will still be available, and the store has a combination of virtual and in-person events on its calendar, from an outdoor storytime with local artist and author Joan Waites to a virtual Wine Wednesday tomorrow and a virtual book launch for “In the Heights: Finding Home” featuring writer Quiara Alegría and composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Local bookworms can also get their literary fix at Reston’s Used Book Shop, which has been open daily with evolving rules since September.

Photo courtesy Scrawl Books

COVID-19 Capacity Limits End in Virginia — Virginia officially lifted all capacity and social distancing requirements instituted for COVID-19 on Friday (May 28). Masks are still required in some settings, including in schools and on public transit, and the Virginia Department of Health says people who are not fully vaccinated should still wear a face covering and practice social distancing in public settings. [Fairfax County Health Department]

Police Investigate Fatal Great Falls Car Crash — “Around 10:53 p.m., Salavdro Alvarez Perez of Maryland, 24, was driving alone and heading east on Georgetown Pike when his 2021 Toyota Corrolla left the road, hit a fence and mailbox, then flipped over, according to police. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives from the Crash Reconstruction Unit believe alcohol may have contributed to the crash and are investigating whether speed was also a factor.” [Patch]

Amanda Drive in Great Falls Reopens Tomorrow — “On or about Wednesday, June 2, 2021, drivers will experience traffic pattern changes on side streets between Utterback Store Road and Riva Ridge Drive as Amanda Drive reopens to traffic at Route 7. All residences, businesses and other public facilities will remain accessible…As a reminder, the Route 7 speed limit has been reduced to 45 miles per hour in active work zones between Reston Avenue and Jarrett Valley Drive.” [VDOT]

The Water Mine Opens After Weather-Related Delay — The Water Mine in Reston officially kicked off the summer 2021 season on Memorial Day (May 31), but the opening was delayed until noon due to “low temperatures.” The water park will be open on the weekends until June 12, when operating hours expand to seven days a week. [Fairfax County Park Authority]

Extent of In-Person Learning Varies Across D.C. Region — About 60% of the roughly 700,000 students in the D.C. area have been learning entirely online since March 2020. The number of students who have received some in-person instruction over the past year ranges from nearly 60% in Arlington and about half of all students in Fairfax County to just 28% in D.C. and Prince George’s County. [The Washington Post]

Before Reston Now takes a break from publishing for Memorial Day weekend, let’s take a look back at the biggest stories on the site in recent days.

1. Ghost kitchen Willie T’s Seafood Shack opens today in Reston
2. Free music concerts are coming back to Reston this summer
3. Fairfax County entomologist MC Bugg-Z’s cicada rap is the song of the summer
4. New Korean fried chicken restaurant to open in North Point Village by July 4
5. Silver Line Phase 2 will open no earlier than February 2022, MWAA says

If you have ideas on stories we should cover, email us at [email protected] or submit an anonymous tip. Photos from around the Reston and Herndon area are also welcome, with credit always given to the photographer.

Feel free to discuss these topics, your socially distanced weekend plans, or anything else that’s happening locally in the comments below.

Photo by Erin Lesnick/RCC

Herndon is moving forward with another capital improvement project.

The Herndon Town Council voted 6-0 on Tuesday (May 25), with Vice Mayor Cesar del Aguila absent, to award a contract to the Ashburn Construction Corporation for the Elden Street and Monroe Street Intersection Improvement Project.

The intersection project is similar to other projects in the town’s Capital Improvement Program in that it will include brick crosswalks and sidewalks as well as ADA compliant curb ramps. The project will also bring a new traffic signal and storm drainage improvements.

Ashburn Construction Corporation beat out one other bidder to win the $1.1 million contract.

Half of the funding for the construction costs is available for reimbursement through revenue-sharing funds collected from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. The NVTA funds come from the 30% local distribution revenue given to localities for transportation projects through House Bill 2313, which was passed in 2013.

According to the Town of Herndon’s Fiscal Year 2021-2026 CIP, this project will link the East Elden Project, the Downtown Streetscape Project, and the Elden-Monroe private development project, a reference to the now-completed Junction Square mixed-use development.

The East Elden Project is being designed and constructed by the Virginia Department of Transportation, which plans to widen Elden Street into a six-lane divided section between Herndon and Fairfax County parkways and a four-lane section from Herndon Parkway to Van Buren Street. The project will also include streetscape and median enhancements.

The Elden/Monroe project will provide a transition when the street narrows down to two travel lanes west of Van Buren Street and approaching Monroe Street, according to the CIP.

The Downtown Streetscape project entails widening and enhancing streetscapes with brick sidewalks, grated tree wells and other features. Construction on the project’s third phase is expected to begin this year for an anticipated completion in 2022.

Image via Town of Herndon

As Memorial Day approaches on Monday, May 31, a few community and government facilities will be closed or have altered schedules.

Fairfax County Government:

• County government offices will be closed on May 31.

Fairfax County Courts:

• The Fairfax Circuit, General District, and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District courts will be closed all day on May 31.

County Libraries, Recreation Centers, Parks:

• All Fairfax County library branches will be closed.
• All Fairfax County RECenters will operate at their regular hours.
• Colvin Run Mill and Sully Historic Site grounds will be open from noon to 4 p.m. for strolling, but all the buildings will be closed.
• The E.C. Lawrence, Hidden Oaks, Hidden Pond, and Huntley Meadows nature centers  will be open from noon until 5 p.m. on May 31.
• The Riverbend Park visitor center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Green Spring Garden’s horticultural center will be open from noon to 4:30 p.m., and its historic house will be closed.

Public Transit:

• Fairfax Connector buses will operate on a Sunday service schedule. Check the link for details on specific routes.
• WMATA Metrorail service will operate from 7 a.m.-11 p.m. on Saturday and from 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on Sunday and Monday.
• WMATA Metrobus will operate on a Sunday service schedule.

County Trash and Recycling:

• There will be no change in the county’s trash and recycling collection.
• The recycling and disposal centers at the I-66 Transfer Station and I-95 Landfill Complex will be open.

Reston

• The Reston Community Center Hunters Woods will open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Reston Community Center Lake Anne will be closed all day Monday.

Herndon

• The town offices and Herndon Community Center will be closed Monday.
• Recycling normally collected on Monday will be collected Tuesday, June 1.
• The farm at Frying Pan Farm Park will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the indoor arena will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The visitor center at the park will be closed Monday.

As a head’s up for anyone planning to renew their driver’s license soon, all DMV offices will be closed Monday.

After a year off, the two-decade-old Ride of the Patriots in Fairfax is back and ready to rumble.

With the 2020 iteration canceled due to the pandemic, the Memorial Day weekend event and ride is returning to the D.C. area, but it will be scaled down a bit compared to previous years.

It will take place Friday (May 28) through Sunday (May 30) starting at Patriot Harley-Davidson on Fairfax Boulevard in Fairfax.

There will be vendors, food trucks, an appearance from the “Saluting Marine,” and a gathering of bikers.

There will also be two rides, each limited to 225 riders. On Saturday, the ride will begin at 11 a.m., and on Sunday, it will depart from Patriot Harley-Davidson at 11 a.m. to join up with AMVet’s Rolling to Remember in D.C. Registration to ride cost $25.

First held in 1999, the ride’s purpose is to remember and commemorate military veterans, particularly those who fought in the Vietnam War and those who remain missing in action. In recent years, there’s been a focus on veteran suicide.

An average of 17 veterans die by suicide per day, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

In previous years, upwards of 12,000 bikers would join in on the festivities from across Northern Virginia and even the country. But this year, there will be significantly fewer participants.

Kevin Hardy, the event’s organizer since 2017 and marketing director at Patriot Harley-Davidson, thinks there will be about 300 to 400 bikes this year.

Hardy says the constantly changing COVID-19 health regulations over the last few months made it tough to plan for more than that. He’s excited, though, that the end of most capacity limits starting May 28 will allow Ride of the Patriots to happen again this year.

“You don’t want to not have it for two years. I’m a big believer in things being front of mind,” Hardy said. “If you don’t [hold the event], it kinda fades away with time.”

Rolling Thunder, the similar, long-running Memorial Day weekend event, officially ended in 2019, leaving smaller events like Ride of the Patriots to fill the void.

Hardy believes bringing awareness to veteran issues remains of the utmost importance. He also has a personal connection to the topic, with his father being a retired military colonel who served in the U.S. Army for 27 years.

“I think there’s a lot of change going in America today and a lot of what [these veterans] did enabled people to speak their mind and protest certain things,” Hardy said. “A lot of what America is and those rights were fought for by veterans.”

After starting in Fairfax, the Ride of the Patriot will proceed down Route 50 towards the District.

The Fairfax County Police Department confirmed to Reston Now that they will temporarily close Route 50 between Patriot Drive and I-495 “to allow safe passage” for the riders starting around 11 a.m. on Saturday and at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

The hope is that next year’s event will be back to 2019 attendance levels with thousands of bikers making their way down Route 50 to pay their respects to those who have served.

“We’ll be ready to go in 2022 for thousands and thousands of bikes heading from here to D.C. in honor of veterans,” Hardy said.

Photo courtesy Kevin Hardy