From the files of the Sun Gazette, we bring you some of the big (or just plain interesting) stories of the year.
MAY:
•• A $55 million commitment from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund will allow construction of hundreds more affordable-housing units at the Dominion Square West development in Tysons, Fairfax County officials announced May 3.
•• Two teams from Longfellow Middle School competed with 139 top middle-school Quiz Bowl teams – and one Longfellow teams took home the top prize – on May 7 at the 2022 Middle School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, Ill.
•• U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced May 12 that Benjamin Choi of McLean, a senior at the Potomac School, has been named a 2022 U.S. Presidential Scholar.
•• The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, state and federal representatives and other officials gathered May 12 at the Merrifield Center to rename the facility the “Sharon Bulova Center for Community Health” in honor of Bulova, a longtime member and former chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
•• The McLean District Station Community Advisory Committee on May 16 honored Fairfax County police Pfc. Matthew Bedekovich as the 2021 Officer of the Year.
•• The Virginia Department of Transportation on May 24 issued a stop-work order for a Washington Gas pipeline-installation project on Georgetown Pike after receiving complaints from the Great Falls Citizens Association.
•• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and First Lady Suzanne Youngkin on May 26 honored Jill’s House, an overnight-respite-care facility located just north of Tysons, with a Spirit of Virginia Award. Jill’s House serves children with intellectual disabilities and their families.
•• John Schoeberlein, who served as Vienna’s steady-as-you-go town manager for 26 years before retiring in May 2011, died May 30 at age 74.
•• Former Great Falls resident and longtime environmentalist and animal lover Robin Ould Rentsch died May 30 at age 83.
JUNE:
•• The McLean Area branch of the American Association of University Woman on June 2 presented three female Langley High School students with STEM Achievement Awards. Jenna Cai received an award for math, Abhaya Tyrka for science and Eliana LaFleur for computer science.
•• Because its fireworks vendor would not be able to have adequate staffing, Vienna officials announced June 3 that the town would hold its Independence Day Celebration at Yeonas Park three days early on July 1.
•• Fairfax Connector officials, in a June 14 presentation to the Board of Supervisors’ Transportation Committee, said that by year’s end they aimed to begin a pilot program featuring electric buses on eight routes in central Fairfax County and would gear up for a similar effort in the county’s southern reaches.
•• Fairfax County police searched for a Washington, D.C., rap artist who allegedly fired several shots from a handgun inside Tysons Corner Center on June 18. The suspect, Noah Settles, 22, turned himself in at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on June 22.
•• A grand jury on June 21 indicted Usman Shahid, 18, of Fairfax in connection with a June 7 vehicle collision in Oakton, which killed two female Oakton High School students who were walking on a nearby sidewalk. Shahid faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
•• Fairfax County supervisors on June 28 appropriated $1 million to establish the Fairfax Founders Fund, a grant and technical-assistance program that will bolster promising startup companies in the county that are focused on emerging technological industries.