Correction
<bt>A story in last week's Loudoun Connection, March 9-15, 2005, entitled "Going High-Tech" incorrectly stated that Stone Bridge High School is the only high school in Loudoun County to have an SMART Board. In fact, Park View High School also has one.
<sh>Watershed Forum
<bt>Loudoun County residents interested in the quality of the Cub Run and Bull Run Watershed are invited to attend a free Community Watershed Forum from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday, March 19, at Westfield High School, 4701 Stonecroft Boulevard in Chantilly.
The Cub Run and Bull Run Watershed is approximately 60 square miles, and is located in eastern Loudoun County and western Fairfax County.
The forum offers residents a chance to provide ideas and suggestions to remedy the major watershed problems of storm water overflows, stream erosion, habitat degradation, polluted runoff, trash and sedimentation. Participants will also be asked to identify specific water-related problems in their community, and provide suggestions on the kinds of strategies they would most like to see pursued to remedy the problems.
The forum is also offering a special environmental education session for youth concurrent with the main forum. Parents are encouraged to bring their children while attending the main forum or stay with their children to learn about watersheds, animals that live in our streams and stream valleys, and stream monitoring with fun hands-on activities.
Advance registration for the forum is recommended, but not required. Registration is particularly recommended for the children's environmental education session. Contact Bill Barrack at 703-642-5500, (TTY 711) or by e-mail at
cubrun-admin@virginia.edu. Same-day registration will begin at 9:30 a.m. and a light lunch will be provided.
<sh>Park Meeting
<bt>Loudoun County Parks, Recreation and Community Services announces that a second public input session will be held Saturday, March 19, at 10 a.m., regarding conceptual plans for the development of a 91-acre Lovettsville park site. The property has frontage on East Broad Way (Route 673) within the town of Lovettsville opposite the Lovettsville Community Center and also fronts Route 673 along its eastern and southeastern boundaries within the county.
The session takes place at the Lovettsville Community Center located at 57 E. Broad Way in Lovettsville. Contact the Facilities Development Division of PRCS at 703-777-0343.
<sh>Town Meetings
<bt>Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10) is hosting two special town meetings in the coming weeks to help better inform the region on two pressing issues: gang violence and teen substance abuse. A gang awareness and intervention meeting is set for 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 30, Seneca Ridge Middle School, 98 Seneca Ridge Drive, Sterling; and a teen substance abuse meeting will take place 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 4, McLean High School Auditorium, 1633 Davidson Road, McLean. Both meetings are open to the public. Parents and students are encouraged to attend. Senior FBI agents, the head of the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force and representatives from the Loudoun County Gang Response Intervention Team will all make presentations at the gang awareness meeting.
For the meeting on teen substance abuse, Wolf has invited the head of the nation's Office of Drug Control Policy to speak on the trends in teen substance abuse and what parents should look for if they suspect their children are using drugs or alcohol. He also has invited the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving to speak and the author of a new book, ÒSmashed: The Story of a Drunken Girlhood,Ó the true story of a young woman's desperate battle with alcohol in high school and college.
<sh>Federal Funding for Rail
<bt>Plans to extend Metrorail through Tysons Corner and out the Dulles corridor took a step forward March 10 when the House approved the blueprint for federal spending on highway and transit projects over the next five years.
The critically important language giving federal approval for the extension is included in the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU). The Senate is expected to take up its version of the measure this spring.
The House bill also includes $7 million to help pay for the widening of I-66 westbound from the Rosslyn Tunnel to the Dulles connector and $2 million for the Battlefield Parkway extension in Leesburg.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10), working with the other members of the region's congressional delegation, is seeking an authorization of $600 million over five years to pay the 50 percent federal share of the Metrorail extension project. To date, Wolf, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, has worked to secure more than $180 million for the project.
The Commonwealth of Virginia, working with area localities, is responsible for coming up with the other 50 percent of the cost of the project, which will be done in two phases. The first phase extends Metrorail from West Falls Church through Tysons Corner to Wiehle Avenue. The second phase will bring Metrorail from Wiehle Avenue to Washington Dulles International Airport.
<sh>Fatal Accident
<bt>A two-vehicle accident Friday, March 11, on Ryan
Road has taken the life of an Ashburn woman, according to the Loudoun County SheriffÕs Office.
The accident occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m. when a 2002 Cadillac Escalade pulled out from Forest Run Drive onto eastbound Ryan Road where it allegedly struck a 1994 Jeep Wrangler driven by the victim. The Jeep lost control and flipped onto its roof and slid to a stop along Ryan Road.
The victim, Kim Renee Parnell, 46, was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim's son, a 17-year-old boy, was a front-seat passenger in the Jeep and was uninjured. He was wearing a seat belt while the victim was not wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident.
The driver of the Escalade, Ingrid Fulton, 42, also of Ashburn, was not injured in the accident. She is facing charges in the accident. She had two 7-year-old boys in the vehicle who were also not injured. All three were wearing their seat belts.
This is the second fatality on Loudoun's roadways in 2005. At this time last year there had been a total of eight traffic-related fatalities.
<sh>Helpful Hints Guide Available
<bt>As St. Patrick's Day approaches, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Loudoun County asks everyone to help keep the roadways safe by designating a sober driver before celebrations begin and to buckle up.
To provide party planners safe hosting tips, MADD has created a free Safe Party Guide in Spanish and English, which is available at www.madd.org. The guide provides practical ideas such as offering a variety of non-alcoholic
beverages for designated drivers; limiting salty snacks, which can make guests thirstier; never serving alcohol to those under the legal drinking age of 21; asking guests to appoint a designated driver before the evening begins; and
not letting guests mix their own drinks.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 72 people were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes during St. Patrick's Day in 2003, representing 46 percent of all traffic deaths for
that period.
Visit www.madd.loudounva.org, or www.madd.org or call Loudoun MADD at 703-771-8127 or 1-800-GET-MADD.
<sh>Arrests for Forged Documents
<bt>Three Ashburn men have been arrested on charges related to making and selling false identification cards, social security cards and alien registration cards, more commonly known as "green cards,Ó according to the Loudoun County SheriffÕs Office.
Charged in the incident are Milton Santana-Alverez, 25; Pedro Perez-Cano, 31; and Elias Sanchez-Del Angel, 32. A fourth man, whose name is unknown, is from Alexandria and is facing an immigration violation.
The arrests stem from a nearly month-long investigation after an officer from the Fairfax Police Department learned of the operation.
The men are alleged to have been making the illegal documents in a townhouse located in the 20670 block of Southwind Terrace in Ashburn.
Since February officers conducted two separate buys of the illegal documents from the suspects. A third buy was conducted Thursday, March 10, when the suspects were taken into custody and a search warrant was conducted on the residence.
Items recovered from the home during the search include several false identification cards, computer equipment, manufacturing equipment and several thousand dollars in cash.
Members of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, Fairfax Police Department, the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force, the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took part in the investigation.
Santana-Alverez has been charged with two counts of forging public records, two counts of uttering false documents, four counts of possessing/selling false identification and one immigration violation.
Perez-Cano has been charged with two counts of forging a public record, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery and uttering of false documents, and two counts of possessing/selling false identification.
Sanchez-Del Angel has been charged with possession of false identification and an immigration violation.
All four men are being held without bond at the Loudoun Adult Detention Center.
The case remains under investigation and federal charges are pending.
<sh>Upcoming Meetings
<bt>Wednesday, March 16
* 5:30 p.m., special School Board meeting to discuss heating, ventilation and air condition renovations at Sugarland Run and Rolling Ridge elementary schools, School Board conference room, 102 North St., N.W., Leesburg.
* 6:30 p.m., LCPS legislative/policy committee meeting, School Board conference room, 102 North St., N.W., Leesburg.
* 7 p.m., LCPS technology steering committee, School Board conference room, 102 North St., N.W., Leesburg.
* 7:30 p.m., Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents, Stone Bridge High School, 43100 Hay Road, Ashburn.
Thursday, March 17, 7:15 p.m.
LCPS Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee, Stone Bridge High School, 43100 Hay Road, Ashburn.
March 21-25
Spring Break. All school closed.
March 24-25
School and administrative office closed.