<sh>Driving Fatality
<bt>A 36-year-old McLean man died after crashing his vehicle into a tree around 11 a.m. on Friday, June 17. Thomas Meisel, of 6000 block Orris Street, was driving northbound on Dolley Madison Boulevard in the Langley area when he drove off the roadway just south of Waverly Way. The 2004 Toyota Tundra struck a sign, rotated counter-clockwise and struck a tree broadside. The tree was uprooted, the car rotated clockwise and struck another tree head on. Meisel died at the scene from injuries sustained in the crash. No other cars were involved in the crash. Preliminary investigation has determined that Meisel was not wearing a seatbelt. This was the 22nd fatal crash in Fairfax County this year.
<sh>Georgetown Pike Closure
<bt>The Virginia Department of Transportation has granted a permit to Miller and Smith to close a segment of Georgetown Pike to through traffic for seven days beginning Monday, July 11. The road will be closed to all but local traffic between Swinks Mill Road and Spring Hill Road with a detour directing traffic onto Old Dominion Drive for approximately 1.2 miles. Residents along Georgetown Pike in the detour area will be able to access their homes.
The road is being closed for the placement of two new 30-inch drainage pipes under Georgetown Pike to correct a flooding and icing problem in that stretch of the road. A seriously undermined guardrail will also be replaced. The cost of the project is being paid by Miller and Smith under a design approved by the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and includes stream bed stabilization on Scotts Run to the north. The new pipes will replace a single, crushed, 18-inch drain which is unable to carry stormwater successfully under the road.
The closure has been scheduled to follow the end of the school year and the July 4 holiday, when many residents begin summer vacations. The contractor will work from dawn to dusk to complete the work with the minimum possible disruption. Night work is not contemplated.
Technical questions about the project can be directed to William C. May, vice president of Miller and Smith at 703-821-2500, ext. 233.
sh>Tysons Committee To Meet June 27
<bt>The task force charged with coordinating the transportation and urban design study of the Tysons Corner area has scheduled its next meeting for Monday, June 27, 7:30 p.m., at the Tysons-Pimmit Library, 7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors appointed the task force to help coordinate public input into the ongoing transportation and urban design study. Recently, its mission was expanded along with its membership.
The study, being conducted by outside consultants, is designed to analyze how best to redesign the Tysons Corner area, in the light of the planned Metrorail line that will add four stops to Tysons Corner.
The task force, chaired by former Board of Supervisors Chair Kay Hanley (D), will assist the consultants in gathering public input about what area residents would like to see in a new Tysons Corner.
The June 27 meeting will be the first since Hanley’s appointment as chair. For more information about the task force and study, visit http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/tysonscorner.
<sh>Robbery Leads to 4 Arrests
<bt>Fairfax County Police arrested four area men Thursday, June 16, in connection with robbery that occurred earlier that morning in Tysons Corner. According to police reports and an affidavit for a search warrant, around 2 a.m., the suspects allegedly approached a D.C. man walking in the 2100 block of Haney Lane. The suspects held the victim on the hood of his car and stole his wallet, cash, Virginia Operator’s License, cell phone, and car keys at gunpoint. According to the affidavit, the suspects also opened the victim’s car and stole his speakers and subwoofer.
After the victim contacted the police, said the reports, K9 units tracked the scent of the suspects and found them, along with several other people, at 2106 Haney Lane.
The suspects include Roger Eugene Bush, 37, of Manassas; Dallas Christian Hicks, 20, of Tysons Corner; Dana Sylvester Whitney, 28, of Fairfax; and David Lee Thompson, 22, of Falls Church. The four men are charged with robbery and use of a firearm in commission of a felony, said police reports. They are being held without bond.
<sh>Fourth of July Sober Ride
<bt>Free cab rides will be offered in Northern Virginia on July 3 and 4. Independence Day ranks as the second deadliest of holidays regarding drunk driving deaths. Offered by the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), the Independence Day Sober Ride program will be in operation from 4 p.m. July 3 to 4 a.m. July 4. Area residents can call toll-free 1-800-200-TAXI and be afforded a no-cost safe way home, up to a $50 fare.
<sh>Portrait Competition
<bt>The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery announces the first-ever Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006. Named for Virginia Outwin Boochever, a former Portrait Gallery volunteer whose gift has endowed this program, this competition aims to launch a new direction for the Gallery as it welcomes figurative art into the 21st century.
The inaugural competition will run from June 1 through Sept. 6. Entries will be accepted online at the gallery’s Web site and will be initially judged using an online jury system. Jurors include the artist Sidney Goodman; Thelma Golden of The Studio Museum in Harlem, N.Y.; independent scholar and curator Trevor Fairbrother; and art critic and scholar Katy Siegel.
Painted and sculpted portraits are being accepted. All finalist portraits will comprise the lead exhibition for the Gallery’s July 2006 reopening. The grand prize of $25,000 will include a commission to create a portrait of a remarkable living American for the Gallery’s permanent collection. Other cash prizes will be awarded for selected works. Additionally, entrants may be featured on “Portrait of an Artist,” an online diary which will allow millions of Americans to come face-to-face with the artists’ work, or even win a People’s Choice Award.
For more information, visit www.npg.si.edu.
<sh>Host an East European or Middle Eastern Exchange Student
<bt>Local families can take in high school-age foreign exchange students next year through two grants from the U.S. Department of State. Aspect, one of the larger and most respected high school exchange student programs in the United States, has been awarded grants for the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program and the Partnership for Learning Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program.
The goal of FLEX and YES is to provide an opportunity for international high school students from Eurasia, the Middle East and Asia to experience life in a democratic society and learn about volunteerism and free enterprise. Foreign exchange students who participate in the two programs come to Northern Virginia to live with host families, attend school and engage in activities to learn about American society and values. They, in turn, educate Americans about their own countries and cultures.
The FLEX program is funded by Congress under the Freedom Support Act and administered by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. FLEX participants are high school students, ages 15-18 who come from the countries of the former Soviet Union — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs also funds the YES program, which provides full scholarships for a year or semester of living and studying in the U.S. to a select group of young people, ages 15-18 from Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen.
The Aspect Foundation is also looking for families to host regular exchange students for the upcoming school year in the United States. These students come from Western Europe, South and Central America and Asia.
To learn more or to host a student, contact Robert Rawls at 703-409-9776, 703-433-0362 or coyote1437@yahoo.com.