Local Restonians can now get Chick-fil-A delivered directly to their doorstep beginning today (Thursday).

The location in north point Village Center is one of 200 stores selected by corporate headquarters for the operator-led service. Staff will be trained to handle and deliver food directly to homes and businesses in the area.

In a press release, the company noted that the North Point Village Center location was selected because of its “unique location deep within residential areas,” as well as “impressive growth and speed increases over the past two years.”

“This is both an honor and great responsibility. As we undertake this task, we are setting the pace for every Chick-fil-A in the country to more positively impact our communities,” said Larry Everett, the operator of the North Point location.

The service runs daily, except on Sundays, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Guests can place orders using the Chick-fil-A app or place on order for mobile curbside pickup or mobile drive-thru. Customers can continue to use the drive-thru and front lobby to place orders.

Everett’s son Philip and operator of a store in Illinois was also selected for the service.

Mathnasium, a learning center that offers customized math tutoring, officially opened its doors in North Point Village Center today (Monday).

Assessments for placement begin this week at the Reston location (1424 North Point Village Center). The business will be open for instructional hours on October 15.

For now, the business is open for assessments from Monday through Thursday from 3-8 p.m and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. No testing is offered on Sunday or Friday.

To celebrate its opening, Mathnasium has launched a grand opening sweepstakes — which offers up a free six-month membership to the Reston location.

Mathnasium also has a location in Herndon (2485 Centreville Road).

Photo courtesy Mathnasium/Facebook

Most of the new developments around town profiled by Reston Then and Now are village centers with new residents cropping up around them over time, but North Point Village Center is a little different.

Fairfax County’s Historic Imagery Viewer shows how the village grew first with the center being placed later at it’s heart — filling in Reston’s northern frontier.

Not including the Reston Town Center, North Point was the last of Reston’s village centers. In the 1960s, while the other villages were under construction, North Point was a sweeping expanse of untamed wilderness.

Construction on North Point Village started in 1982, and in 1993 the North Point Village Center opened to the public.

The area has changed very little from overhead since 2002, but there’s plenty of turnover on the ground. In December Koko FitClub closed, and a new Thai restaurant opened two months later down the street.

A Reston Now poll earlier this year ranked North Point Village Center as Reston’s second favorite, behind Lake Anne.

Happy birthday to 1-year-old Lauryn, who local firefighters and paramedics in Reston helped deliver last year.

Last year, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue members from Station 39 B-Shift in North Point received a call to help deliver a baby girl at a local home shortly before 11 p.m.

After the birth, the mother and baby were transported to an area hospital, and the paramedics and firefighters continued working for the rest of the night.

Fast forward one year later and the family of baby Lauryn reached out to the members from Station 39 to join in the birthday celebration.

The birthday bash included a “Happy First Birthday Lauryn” sign outside the fire station, two cakes with one of them shaped like a miniature fire truck, balloons and a photo shoot with Lauryn and mom by a fire truck.

“Cake, balloons and Lauryn’s big sister, who was a big help during the delivery, were all part of the celebration,” the fire department posted.

Photos via Fairfax County Fire and Rescue 

Finn Thai Restaurant and Bar is planning to open soon in the North Point Village Center.

An employee told Reston Now that the restaurant is almost finished with the inspections process. If everything goes as planned, the restaurant could open as soon as the middle of next week — right around Valentine’s Day.

An exact date, though, has not been set yet.

The Reston opening will mark the third Finn Thai restaurant. Currently, one location is in Purcellville and a second one is in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Finn Thai will fill the vacant spot at 1466 North Point Village Center, which has been empty since Payless left in 2017.

Photos via Finn Thai website and @GigiBennett_DC/Twitter

(Updated at 4:55 p.m.) Jerry’s Subs & Pizza is set to reopen soon after temporarily closing in the North Point Village Center.

The Reston location (1432 North Point Village Center) for the chain “closed due to a small fire-related incident that has been resolved,” according to a Facebook message from Jerry’s Subs & Pizza.

The Reston spot “will be reopening soon,” the company wrote, adding that there is no specific reopening date yet.

Candidates interested in running for one of the five spots in the Reston Association’s 2019 Board of Directors election can attend an informational session tomorrow.

The session for prospective candidates will be at RA’s headquarters (12001 Sunrise Valley Drive) at 7 p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 3).

The open seats in 2019 are the following:

• At-Large for a three-year term
• Apartment Owners for a one-year term
• Hunters Woods/Dogwood for a one-year term
• North Point seat for a three-year term
• Lake Anne/Tall Oaks seat for a three-year term

The one-year terms are due to prior mid-term resignations and the appointment of interim replacements in 2018.

Candidates must be RA members, and residents seeking a district seat must live in that district.

The Reston Association Elections Committee wants interested members to fill out a candidacy statement form and return it by 5 p.m. on Jan. 25. The committee will then validate candidates by the end of the month.

The month-long election begins on March 4, with the election results unveiled at the Annual Members’ Meeting in April.

File photo

Finn Thai Restaurant and Bar, a Thai restaurant, is coming soon to North Point Village Center.

The restaurant has one location in Purcellville and a second location in Martinsburg, West Virginia. It will take up space formerly occupied by Payless. (1466 North Point Village Center), which closed in April last year after the company announced plans to file for bankruptcy.

A restaurant representative from the Martinsburg location told Reston Now that the opening day could be several weeks from now. But an exact date was not known yet, the representative said.

Photo by Twitter user @GigiBennett_DC

An Inova urgent care center is now open at 1488 North Point Village Center.

The newest Reston location is open seven days a week and offers pediatric emergency services. On-site exam rooms and x-ray and real-time interpretations by experts with the Association of Alexandria Radiologists are also offered.

The center takes up the former location of Ravel Dance Studio, which left its home of 20 years to relocate to a larger studio at 1763 Fountain Drive.

Other services include treatment for minor illness and injury, lab tests, sports physicals, and flu shots.

The center’s first day of business was on Monday (August 13).

An Inova emergency room center, which focuses primarily on emergency room services through a partnership with Inova Fairfax Hospital, is located just 1.2 miles away at 11901 Baron Cameron Avenue.

Photo by Fatimah Waseem

Editor’s Note: This is just a limited list of  events taking place in the Reston area this weekend. If you have an event you would like to ensure is listed on the website, be sure to submit it to our Events Calendar. Know of other events in the area? Comment below.

Closures are in effect ahead of Christmas weekend, but there are still a few options for things to do in the area:

• Horse-drawn carriage rides continue on Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. at Reston Town Center. Rides depart from Market Street near Clyde’s and cost $5 per person. Children under 5 ride free.
• Have your gifts wrapped by volunteers at Hyatt Regency’s Market Street entrance on Sunday from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Donations will benefit Kids 4 First.
• Enjoy a holiday break brunch at Mon Ami Gabi from Tuesday through Friday. The brunch runs from 11:30 a.m. through 4 p.m.
• Take part in college night skate night at the Ice Skating Pavilion in Reston Town Center every Thursday through March from 6 – 9 p.m.
• Paulina Peavy’s exhibition at Greater Reston Arts Center continues every Tuesday through Saturday, Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Santa will visit Glory Days Grill on 1400 North Point Village Center on saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

North Point Meeting Tonight — The third in a series of Reston Association Board of Directors district meetings is scheduled for tonight. North Point Director John Mooney will host the meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. at Armstrong Elementary School (11900 Lake Newport Road). [Reston Now]

Audio, Video of Police Shooting Released — Fairfax County Police released on Friday the 911 audio and helicopter video of the January hostage/barricade situation in Herndon that ended when an officer shot and killed the suspect. [WTOP]

Satirical Musical Gets Good Review — “Urinetown: The Musical” has “ink-black comedy, boundless energy, a dream cast and a brilliant musical score,” a reviewer says. It is playing at NextStop Theatre Company (269 Sunset Park Drive, Herndon) through June 25. [DC Metro Theater Arts]

Ice Cream Social This Afternoon — Reston Association will host an ice cream social at 4:30 p.m. today at North Point Recreation Area (11515 North Shore Drive). [WebTrac]

File photo via Mark Majoros/RA

Arlene Krieger and John Mooney, the two candidates in the race for the North Point seat on the Reston Association Board of Directors, made their cases Wednesday during a candidate forum at the Lake House.

The venue itself was a major topic of discussion during the event. The Lake House has been the subject of a great deal of community debate since its controversial purchase and costly renovation by Reston Association.

Krieger, a longtime community activist, said Reston Association’s board should have recognized from the start that it lacked the expertise to make such a deal.

“It is very, very foolish to initiate a plan when you have no idea what you’re doing and you don’t even know that you have no idea what you’re doing,” she said. “This thing should never have been taken on by this particular group of people. We need to recruit from the community experts who know what they’re doing, [and] we need to include them from the first day anything is planned.”

Mooney, a senior manager in Arlington County for 17 years, said major deals such as the Lake House purchase require an ability to do proper analysis from the get-go.

“[It’s about] making sure that we have the analytic capacity within Reston Association to deal with complex issues, to do upfront, thorough investigation of the issues so that we don’t make false starts and big mistakes,” he said. “We need that both for the renovations and the programming for income, we need advice on both of those.”

Mooney made similar statements when asked about the Lake Newport soccer field renovation project, which has been tabled indefinitely by the RA board after strong outcry from the community.

“When a community process becomes very divisive, so that fruitful dialogue can’t occur, the board needs to decisively and quickly stop the process,” he said. “We need careful and thorough analysis of complex proposals before endorsing them. … I think that could have been analyzed better, and to me it indicates an improvement the Association can make.”

Krieger said the community has “totally and completely made up its mind” on the soccer project, and RA stumbled out of the starting blocks by not including them in the discussion from Day One.

“The mistake Reston Association made again is that they started a project 10 months before the community and the affected parties knew about the project,” she said. “They once again underestimated the power of the community, and that’s why they got themselves again in so much trouble.”

Krieger said the community should always be involved from the outset of a project, and that she would work to create an ad hoc telecommunications committee in the attempt to better that communication. While Mooney agreed that community dialogue is important, he said it’s also important to remember that some projects need to be vetted before involving residents.

“[The community wants] the board to winnow issues down, to structure issues, so the community doesn’t waste time,” he said. “Then you engage the community fruitfully, otherwise the community becomes frustrated and will walk away from the whole process.”

Both Krieger and Mooney have been involved in the fight against redevelopment at St. Johns Wood, though that was a source of disagreement for them in Wednesday’s forum. Mooney cited his work on a critical analysis of the proposal that helped bring it to a stop; Krieger, though, said Mooney didn’t do as much as he claims.

“The reports were a composite of everyone else’s research,” she said. “The only original thing that John did [was when] I assigned John to do a traffic study at the Sept. 14 meeting. I figured out how to get this before the Board of Directors, nobody else could figure that out.”

Mooney said he was “astounded” by Krieger’s claims.

“What I did was not a composite of other people’s work,” he said. “It was the result of 80 hours-plus of careful analysis of the Reston Master Plan and the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan and identifying in very particular, quantified ways how this did not comply with the Reston Master Plan.”

The candidates also answered questions on assessment rates, transparency, potential golf course redevelopment and more. The forum can be viewed in full on the Reston Association YouTube channel.

The candidate who wins the race will serve the remaining two years of a term being vacated by Dannielle LaRosa, who announced in December she would step down. Voting will continue through April 3.

Candidate forums in the races for the Hunters Woods/Dogwood District and an At-Large seat will take place tonight, at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. respectively, at RA Headquarters (12001 Sunrise Valley Drive).

(Updated at 3:58 p.m.) Reston Association North Point Director Danielle LaRosa said she plans to resign from the board to spend more time with her family.

LaRosa will remain until her replacement is chosen. Her last day is April 11, and by the time she leaves, she will have served a total of three years on the board.

LaRosa announced her resignation in an email to the RA’s CEO, Cate Fulkerson, and other members of the board on Thursday.

“Due to family commitments, coupled with the number of board and committee meetings, I feel that my resignation would be best for my family and for North Reston as a whole,” she said in a statement. “I have loved being a member of this board and I will treasure the conversations that I’ve had with my neighbors as we’ve worked to better our community.”

LaRosa’s replacement will be responsible for handling issues such as the proposed St. Johns Wood development.

Mike Leone, the RA staff’s director of communications, said that LaRosa realizes that as a representative of her neighborhood, she feels whoever fills her position should be someone who can pay full attention to such projects.

“She feels [St. Johns Woods] is an important project that requires a lot of time and attention, given its importance to the North Point District,” Leone said. “Since she feels she needs more time for her family, she feels personally that it’s important that whoever fills that position has enough time and commitment to attend all meetings, like the Design Review Board, Planning and Zoning, and other meetings within the governing body, since they are so important to that project.”

In addition to being the representative for North Point, LaRosa also served as the board’s treasurer. However, Leone said important positions such as president, vice president, treasurer and secretary are decided each year during a newly-installed board’s first official meeting. Therefore, LaRosa will continue to serve as the treasurer until a new one is decided after the election in April.

“Right now, her decision to resign leaves the [treasurer] position to be filled as well, but it won’t necessarily be the person who succeeds her,” Leone explained.

LaRosa’s resignation means there will be a total of four seats on the nine-member Board of Directors up for election in the spring.

In addition to North Point, the Hunters Woods/Dogwood District representative, an at-large board member, and the Apartment Owners representative are also up for election. Those positions are currently filled by Lucinda Shannon, Jeff Thomas, and Board President Ellen Graves, respectively. Their three-year terms are up on April 11, 2017.

In order to run for a seat on the board, a potential candidate must write a candidate statement and obtain signatures of support from at least 25 different households within their district, or in all of Reston if running for an at-large position,

Candidates must reside within the boundaries of the Reston deed, and may not have any outstanding balances owed to the association.

An information session for interested candidates will be held at RA Headquarters (12001 Sunrise Valley Dr.) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017.

The deadline to submit completed candidacy forms is 5 p.m. on Jan. 27, 2017.

Voting by RA members will take place in-person and by mail-in ballot between March 3 and April 3, with results being announced on April 11.

Visit the board’s election page for more information on running.

Photo: Danielle LaRosa / Credit: RA

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The new Glory Days Grill at Reston’s North Point Village Center is still in the permitting phase and will not open until early 2015, a company spokeswoman said.

The sports-themed restaurant signed a lease for the space, empty since Blockbuster Video closed in 2011, last October. Initial estimates were that the new location would open in Summer 2014.

But Glory Days says that the process has taken longer because of an addition they plan to build on to the North Point space.

Glory Days Grill will soon begin construction at 1400 North Point Village Center, including adding a one-story addition to the space.

According to Fairfax County permits, the company has the go-ahead to bump out the corner storefront that used to house Blockbuster Video. The plans have also been approved by Reston Association’s Design Review Board.

The space has been empty since Blockbuster closed in March of 2011.

Glory Days announced last October that it would open the North Point location, and a spokeswoman said then it likely would not open until at least summer 2014. The company is just now getting started on permitting and construction. The Glory Days website says the Reston location will open in 2014.

Glory Days is a regional chain of sports-themed restaurants. There are 22 locations, including one at Fox Mill Shopping Center in Herndon.