Sunday, May 12, 2013
First Lt. Robert J. Hess, a Robinson High graduate, died April 23.
WTOP reports Sunday that Fairfax County will fly its flags at half-staff Monday in honor of a Robinson High School graduate who died in Afghanistan. First Lt. Robert J. Hess of Fairfax was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan and will be buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, according to the radio station report. In an email update to residents, Braddock District Supervisor John Cook asks residents to honor Hess by flying their personal flags on Monday as well. First Lt. Robert J. Hess, 26, had only just this month been deployed to Pul-E-Elam in Afghanistan to support efforts of Operation Enduring Freedom when he was killed by indirect enemy fire, WUSA 9 reported. According to NBC Washington, Hess was an Army Blackhawk pilot…
Presented by Patch, the theme is 'Fairfax Is Beautiful.'
UPDATE: The deadline for the first annual Celebrate Fairfax Photo Contest has been extended to May 15. Enter today! Your photo could be on display at Celebrate Fairfax! --- Are you a natural photographer or just enjoy capturing snapshots of the world around you? Celebrate Fairfax is looking for the best photographs of the natural beauty of Fairfax County and announces their 1st annual Photo Contest! In order to enter, you must submit a photo of something beautiful you see in nature around Fairfax County. You have until May 1 to get your entry in! Let the county be your inspiration — the top 75 entries submitted will be displayed during the Celebrate Fairfax! Festival, which will be held June 7-9. Individuals will compete in one of two …
But some officials say more funding for job placement, independent living services should come from the state.
The Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board is working to secure more federal funding for employment services that will help county residents with intellectual disabilities. The idea comes after months of work with TansCen, a consulting firm hired last summer to help the CSB with ongoing budget problems. The cost of enrolling residents in the CSB's employment and day services program, which helps high school graduates with intellectual disabilities find career opportunities and become independent, has become too high for the county to sustain long term. CSB officials are working on short-term solutions to reduce county costs, which would take effect in Fiscal Year 2015. But four recommendations offered this week by TansCen — …
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
The cabbie is an Army reservist war vet who picked up the Clifton man Friday at a Northern Virginia country club when he was assaulted and called a terrorist, he says.
A Muslim Army veteran who works as a cabdriver in Northern Virginia was reportedly assaulted by a Clifton man Friday, who compared the driver to the Boston Marathon bombers, according to a story in Wednesday's Washington Post. The cabbie, Mohamed A. Salim of Great Falls, says Ed Dahlberg of Clifton, who police have charged with misdemeanor assault, became belligerent after Salim picked him up Friday at about 2 a.m. from the Country Club of Fairfax. Salim said in the Post story that Dahlberg attempted to bring an open beer into the cab. Dahlberg is president of Emerald Aviation, Inc., which he founded in 1995. The Emerald website is currently down, undergoing "scheduled maintenance." The cab driver took video of some of their exchange in …
Thursday, March 21, 2013
What will it mean for the local economy?
(Editor's note: In case you missed it, Patch recently spoke with Fairfax County Executive Ed Long and spoke with him about sequestration - an issue that affects thousands in Northern Virginia.) Fairfax County Executive Ed Long is advising Northern Virginians to save their money for potentially dark days, because, he says, the effects of sequestration on Northern Virginia are not yet known. "Prepare for the worst, hope for the best - whether you're a business, a government or an individual," said Long to Patch from his office in the Fairfax County Government Center. "Two-thirds of GDP is consumer spending, but I think that's the prudent thing for folks to do… You don't know what's going to happen, and I think that in these times of …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Tax hike, no employee raises are some of the issues supervisors will tackle in committee meeting for Fiscal Year 2014 spending plan
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will begin the Fiscal Year 2014 budget process during its first budget committee meeting Tuesday afternoon. Supervisors will gather at 1 p.m. Tuesday in conference rooms 9 and 10 at Fairfax County Government Center to begin hammering out the details of County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion advertised budget, which features no raises for employees and a slightly higher tax rate. The committee is also expected to go over the $2.5 billion Fairfax County Public Schools budget for fiscal 2014. School Board members requested $95 million from supervisors, a 5.5-percent increase in transfer, for a total of $1.78 billion. But Long was only able to give schools a 2 percent increase in transfer, or $33.7 …
Friday, March 8, 2013
The Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce held a roundtable Thursday about the implications of the cuts.
(In case you missed it: Sequestration is here, and on Thursday local officials met to discuss what the cuts mean to all living in Fairfax County. Will you be affected?) What will sequestration's $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts do to the Northern Virginia economy? Specifics are hard to come by, but it doesn't look good. Fairfax County executive Ed Long is hoping that the White House will soon put forward a proposal outlining the 10-year implementation of the cuts. "I think the rest of the world is interested in how we are dealing with this issue," said Long. "We know we are going to take a hit, but tell us what is going to be hit and we'll move forward." Congress triggerred the sequester after failing to meet the March 1 deadline …
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Power outages across county fairly minimal so far.
UPDATE 12:30 p.m. The Dominion Power outage map shows only 22 homes in the county currently without power. --- The number of people in Fairfax County without power Wednesday morning is 119 and most of those are in Fairfax Station. According to a Dominion Power outage map, 95 homes near Ox Road and Fairfax County Parkway are without power as of 10 a.m. Wednesday. Dominion Virginia Power officials were expecting widespread outages with this storm, they said yesterday. Additional utility crews and trucks are operating throughout the storm. "We have moved additional crews and contractors into the area so that they are staged near to where we anticipate the most damage from the storm," said Dominion Virginia Power's Le-Ha Anderson. "In addition…
Friday, March 1, 2013
Tighter budgets, diminished real estate values and more...
Sequestration threatens to destabilize the Northern Virginia economy, and some say the effects of the across-the-board cuts to federal programs and contracts will be felt across Fairfax County. "Businesses are in business because they know how to plan for problems and deal with them. But not knowing what to plan for is devastating to them," said Dr. Gerald Gordon, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority to Patch. Localities across the Commonwealth are bracing themselves against the uncertainty of sequestration. It seems unlikely that Congress will reach an agreement on $1.2 trillion in debt reduction by March 1, and the U.S. military will be forced to cut $46 billion and domestic defense spending will be …
Prison inmates will remove signs Tuesday through Friday beginning later this year.
Fairfax County now has the authority to clean up illegal signs placed on roadway medians thanks to an agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation. This week, the Board of Supervisors approved an agreement that has been in the works for months allowing the county to clear signs from public rights-of-way and issue fines to residents who post them. The program, which supervisors signed off on in an 8-2 vote, will cost the county $150,000. Non-violent prisoners on the Sheriff’s Office Community Labor Force will perform cleanup duties four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, starting later this year. Putting up signs on any state road is illegal, including advertisements and – especially – political signs, which all but took over …
Patricia Freeman
12:33 pm on Monday, May 13, 2013
My prayers and thoughts go out to the Hess family today. I thank your wonderful son for giving his life for his country, and hope your memories of him will help sustain you in the days ahead. Trish Freeman and family more ›