Reston Citizen

A small, historic church in Reston was recently billed $6138 for sewage covering ten years. As reported in the Reston Times, the church discovered the bill when applying for a day care center expansion. Fairfax County requires all bills be payed before new permits can be granted.

The church was founded in 1863, and is now facing declining membership. Official membership is 70, but according to Cartersville Baptist Church attendance on Sundays is about 40. The daycare center would provide the church with more money and members.
Being a small church, they don’t have money to pay $6000 in a lump sum. But Fairfax Water, the agency that handles sewer bills, is considering letting the church pay in instalments. The Board of Supervisors might also wave the requirement of having zero bills before a new construction permit is issued, but only for this specific circumstance.

The Northern Virginia Technology Council will be hosting Rudolph Giuliani on the morning of Friday, September 21st. NVTC has hosted a series of presidential candidates making presentations. The event is geared to technology company executives but is open to the general public.

The program is a breakfast to be held at the Hyatt Regency at the Reston Town Center. Registration and networking is 7:00-7:45am, with the program at 8:00-9:15am. Cost for non-members is $105. You can visit the NVTC website for more information.

It’s amazing all the different views people can get on the few buildings at the Reston Town Center. This displays the recently completed lofts, and relatively new condos.

Weather for Tuesday September 18th: Sunny, with a high near 73. Northeast wind between 3 and 9 mph.

Photo by c and b photos

Marie Huhtala doesn’t consider herself a no growth politician, but was motivated to join the race for supervisor of the Hunter Mill district because she felt Fairfax County mishandled the now canned Wiehle Avenue development.

She believes that at 60,000 people Reston is built out despite the fact that Robert E. Simon envisioned Reston having 80,000 citizens. The Reston section of the Dulles Technology Corridor is composed of more parking lots than buildings, but Marie Huhtala considers that “dense.” While she may not want to be labeled as an anti-growth candidate, she appears to not want any new growth in Reston.

I emailed her a question about her views Transit Oriented Development, and she went on to use an entire paragraph to explain to me what TOD was. Of course since I asked her views and not for a definition I felt that she answered back in a condescending manner. We already have enough politicians that would rather beat around the bush on questions.

She also appears to not know about the current state of Southlakes. She says “School over-crowding is a direct result of too much density.” But Southlakes Highscool will have over 800 open seats when renovations are completed in 2008.

Why is Marie Huhtala running? It appears her main goal is to bow to the needs of anti-growth residents and prevent Reston from reaching it’s goal of diverse housing options, high density housing to maximize open space, and and it’s continued growth. If the people of Reston choose to elect a no growth supervisor, that’s fine, I just want to see a candidate with solid views.

Suspicious Death of Infant

Utterback Store Road/Neha Court
Police were called to the intersection of Utterback Store Road and Neha Court in the Great Falls area to investigate the report of an infant’s body found in the container portion of a garbage truck. Officers arrived on the scene on Saturday, September 8 shortly after 9 a.m. They were met by the driver of the truck, who led officers to the body. Specific information about the truck’s route, as well as, the number and location of collections are part of the on-going investigation. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is now the lead agency in this investigation.

Abduction/Arrests

Glade Drive 12000
An 18-year-old Reston-area woman was sexually assaulted on Saturday, September 7 around 9:30 p.m. near Glade Drive. The victim was walking alone when she was attacked by two men. The attackers dragged the victim into a wooded area nearby. She was held against her will and was assaulted by both men. The two men fled in an unknown direction. On Sunday, September 8 around 1:30 p.m. the victim saw her alleged attackers in the 12000 block of Glade Drive. She summoned police and the two men were taken into custody. Milton Murillo-Rodriguez, 31 and Elvis Mejia-Galdamez, 27, both with no fixed addresses, were charged with abduction with intent to defile. They were transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

Graffiti/Bias Incident

Bennett Street 700
On Monday, September 10 around 3:44 a.m., school security personnel discovered graffiti at Herndon High School, located at 700 Bennett Street. Racially motivated words and symbols were spray painted on school property.

Larcenies

Colts Neck Road 2000
Digital camera stolen from residence

Colvin Run Road 10100
Prescription drugs stolen from hospital
Read the rest of this entry »

Another picture of the Reston Town Center. The yellow line creates a well balanced image, and works well with the yellow sunset.

Weather for Monday, September 17th: Sunny and chilly, with a high near 67. Calm wind becoming northeast around 6 mph.

Photo by: I Am Adam

Friday

Talbots Reston Town Center at 6pm: Informal modeling of “unforgettable” fall looks, fashion giveaways and light refreshments at Talbots Missy and Petite.

Saturday

Reston Town Center Pavilion at 10am to 6pm: Learn about the worlds coffee producing regions, sample 27 Starbucks coffee flavors , and listen to live music. [more]

Sunday

Whole Foods Market at 10am to 5pm: Take a culinary trip around the world as Whole Fields shows foods from all the countries represented by their team members. [more]

Walker Nature Center at 1pm: Help Reston Association clean the Snakeden River Branch. [more]

If you would like to announce an event then use our contact page. All events are free unless noted.

On Thursday, September 13th a man had a domestic dispute, and was later found stabbed to death. The police arrived shortly after 11pm, and the suspect fled the scene. Upon entering the house it was discovered the man had been stabbed three times. A murder warrant was obtained for the victims son.

On Friday Mohamed Adde turned himself in at the Reston District police station. The incident happened at the apartment building of 11911 Winterthur Lane.

Cathy Hudgins faces three opponents this election. Two of whom appear to be slow growth advocates, or at least pander to those voters.

Spike Williams advocates limiting density outside of areas walking distance from metro stations. Marie Huhtala believes Reston is “built out” and thus wants to see any future density adding road or other infrastructure improvements. And lastly we have Geraldine Butkus who is a rail advocate and calls herself a conservative. Assuming this conservative label also applies to future construction we can assume all the opponets are slow growth.

But looking at the numbers Cathy Hudgins has nothing to worry about. She has brought in two times more than all the candidates combined in the money race. Butkus has raised no money, or at least has reported raising no money. Huhtala has brought in more than $10,000, and Williams has raise more than $2500. Hudgins has raised nearly $30,000.

Hudgins has more than 75 donors. Huhtala has 43 donors (two who’ve contributed about 20%), and Williams has only two listed donors.

Governor Kaine and a host of Virginia politicians from all parties where at Congress to announce $300 million dollars in cuts to bring the troubled Silver Line project in line with federal cost requirements.

Kaine said “The good-faith challenge was: ‘You’re close, but you’ve got to take some costs out of this project,’ ” and added “And we took them up on that challenge. Protesters at the event wanted a tunnel option to be added for the Tysons Corner segment.

Features removed from the budget include a parking garage a Wiehle Avenue, tiles on station floors, and expansions of Route 7. The parking garage at Wiehle station would be built by a public/private partnership, which probably means a private company would run it. The Route 7 widening and utility relocation would be moved out of the rail budget, and paid for by the standard road budget.

These changes bring the project well within federal cost requirements. The Federal Transit Administration will be footing $900 million of the bill, and the administration has stringent requirements for cost efficiency.