From the files of the Sun Gazette, we bring you some of the big (or just plain interesting) stories of the year.
JULY:
•• Called back to a McLean residence for the second time on July 7, Fairfax County police fatally shot Jasper Aaron Lynch, 26, who reportedly had thrown a tribal mask at officers and lunged at them with a bottle.
•• The Vienna Town Council on July 11 approved plans by JB Church 145 LLC to redevelop two parcels on 0.62 acres at 139-145 Church St., N.W., and construct a three-story, mixed-use building with 11 residential units, commercial space and a two-level parking garage in the rear.
•• Vienna officials on July 11 donated $2,500 in sales proceeds from the town’s first holiday ornament to the Vienna Public Art Foundation.
•• Following years of declining mulch demand and neighbors’ complaints about the town’s mulching facility on Beulah Road, N.E., the Vienna Town Council voted 7-0 July 11 to eliminate the leaf-mulching program for the next year.
•• The United States on July 16 implemented the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Prevention Lifeline, which replaced a 10-digit number and may be accessed via calls, texts and chats (at 988lifeline.org). The shorter, more easily memorizable number, combined with enhanced federal funding, will serve the public better, officials said July 22 at PRS CrisisLink in Oakton.
•• Vienna Town Business Liaison Committee Chairman Robert Leggett died July 16 at age 80. Leggett was a U.S. Coast Guard veteran who later served as an analyst and senior executive at the Central Intelligence Agency.
•• Fairfax County and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will finance a $6,615,000 stream-restoration project along Scotts Run in McLean, following the Board of Supervisors’ authorization July 19.
AUGUST:
•• Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville) announced Aug. 2 that he would not seek a fifth four-year term in 2023.
•• Fairfax County on Aug. 3 began charging electric-vehicle owners 30 cents per kilowatt hour to top off their vehicles’ batteries at charging stations owned by the county.
•• State and local leaders on Aug. 4 praised plans by Hilton to maintain and upgrade its global headquarters at Park Place II, 7930 Jones Bridge Drive in Tysons, and create hundreds of new jobs there.
•• All seven local General Assembly members fared well in the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter’s “Climate, Energy and Justice Scorecard 2022,” with perfect scores awarded to state Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington-McLean) and Dels. Mark Keam (D-Oakton-Vienna) and Marcus Simon (D-McLean-Falls Church).
•• Vienna Public Works Director Michael Gallagher stepped down Aug. 5 for family reasons and planned to relocate to the Blacksburg area.
•• McLean Community Center officials on Aug. 9 said Daniel Phoenix Singh, who had served as the center’s executive director for 16 months, had resigned July 26.
•• Fairfax County police detectives from the Major Crimes Bureau’s Child Exploitation Unit and Organized Crime and Intelligence bureaus arrested six men during a Summer Traveler Operation – an online sting that sought to identify and apprehend predators who use the Internet to exploit children, police said Aug. 9.
•• Northern Virginia needs to build more affordable housing, promote teleworking, support the Metrorail system and ensure better education funding, top officials from five area jurisdictions said Aug. 25 at the seventh annual Northern Virginia Elected Leaders Summit, held at George Mason University’s Arlington campus.