The year 2003 in Dranesville District saw the buildup to a war that brought inconvenience, anxiety and sacrifice to many residents.
McLean and Langley high schools both canceled international trips that had been planned for spring break.
Property tax assessments increased by an average of 15 percent for a total of 52 percent over four years.
Despite the increase, in 2003 Dranesville residents lost trash parkouts at Cooper Intermediate School in McLean and at Great Falls Elementary in Great Falls.
Riverbend Park was closed four days a week and its management combined with Hidden Oaks, another passive nature park.
To save $41,914, publication of the Weekly Agenda, a free public newspaper advertising county events, was ended.
In his eighth year as a Fairfax County supervisor, Stuart Mendelsohn voted against the last budget he would face, as his second term ended. He did not seek re-election.
The McLean Citizens Association (MCA) asked the Board of Supervisors to freeze employee salaries for a year to bring the Pay for Performance Program into line with a sluggish economy that was denying pay raises to employees in the private sector.
The MCA also asked the supervisors to form an office of financial management to institute zero-based budgeting.
The Board responded by lowering the ceiling on one-year pay hikes for county employees from 7 percent to 5.25 percent.
Bob McConahy (R), the only resident of Great Falls to run for Mendelsohn’s open seat, was also the only candidate to endorse a proposed 5 percent ceiling on property tax increases.
The other four candidates — Republican Joan DuBois and Democrats John Foust, Fred Mittelman and Merrily Pierce — all live in McLean.
The proposed ceiling on taxes did not resonate with Dranesville District voters. They elected DuBois to succeed Mendelsohn. She had declined to take the 5-per cent pledge promoted by conservative Republicans.
On May 10, only 1,184 people voted in the two party primaries that winnowed the field of candidates for Dranesville supervisor from five to two.
DuBois won the Republican party canvass with 455 votes; McConahy got 203.
Among Democrats, Foust won 304 votes and 58 percent of the total of 526 cast by Democrats in a seated party caucus at Langley High School. Merrily Pierce won 199 votes, 38 percent, and Mittelman won 23 votes, 4 percent of the total.
In November, 25,093 registered voters went to the polls in Dranesville District, 35.6 percent of the 70,486 who are registered.
DuBois narrowly defeated Foust by 510 votes, or 51 percent; her total was 11,966 and his was 11,456.
She become the fourth consecutive Republican to hold the office of Dranesville District supervisor, keeping three of Mendelsohn’s staffers who perform constituent services and at least two appointees: Kevin Fay, Dranesville’s representative to the Fairfax County Park Authority through 2004, and Frank Crandall, who serves on the Environmental Quality Advisory Council.
DuBois named Nancy Hopkins to succeed her on the Fairfax County Planning Commission, though that term also expires at the end of this year.
Great Falls Park Plan Re-Evaluated
After increased revenue from visitors fees helped pay for a new entrance station at Great Falls National Park, a two-year process began to develop a new management plan. On Jan. 28, when managers asked the public for insight on how to plan for the future, citizens in Great Falls made clear they did not want a second exit and entrance through local neighborhoods. Discussion continues about how trail use will be assigned among hikers, equestrians and bikers. Whether permits will be required, and for whom, remains an open question, and the deadline for citizen comment on three proposed concepts is set for Jan. 15.
More information is available by calling Deborah Feldman, 703-289-2500, or visit the park Web site: [www.nps.gov/gwmp/grfa/gmp].
Sunrise Opens
After a light snow on Feb. 3, Sunrise Village opened a new assisted living center near the intersection of Spring Hill Road and the Dulles Toll Road in McLean. It includes a center for Alzheimer’s patients.
On Dec. 5, also in snow, the Alzheimer’s Family Day Center announced it will move from east McLean to Merrifield.
Colvin Run Elementary Opens
After years of planning and debate, Colvin Run Elementary School opened for the school year in September for grades K-5. Sixth-grade students were allowed to finish elementary school at their existing schools.
The school’s new boundaries were adopted on March 3, and the name was officially adopted on April 24, 2003.
Respite Center Approved for McLean Bible Church
McLean Bible Church proposed to build a respite center where disabled children could spend one night a week to give their families relief from continuous care. Concerns of neighbors in Wolf Trap Woods, McLean Hundred and other residential neighborhoods were addressed during hearings, and the Board of Supervisors approved the proposal unanimously.
Cluster Director Retires
Joan Wilcox, the director of Cluster 1 for Fairfax County Public Schools, retired May 30. On April 24, Dennis Dearden of Grand Junction, Colo., was named as her successor.
Trash Parkouts Eliminated; Citizens Bring Them Back
As of July 1, the new fiscal year, Fairfax County staff eliminated the traditional trash parkouts in Dranesville District during the spring budget process.
But local citizens did not accept the loss quietly. In Great Falls, Garret Preis and Mark Palamaras, with support from Don McCoy and Charles DiBona, formed a new entity, Dranesville Trash and Recycling. They hired trucks, acquired nonprofit status, and rented the parking lot at Great Falls Elementary School on Saturday mornings to continue the service, which allows residents to deliver their trash to the garbage trucks, rather than having the trucks come to them.
In McLean, John Theon and Dennis Lucey did the same thing, with help from Don Morton and Richard Poole. They continued trash pickup at Cooper Middle School, also on Saturdays, and Poole’s McLean Trees organization continues to collect newspapers, magazines and white office paper, to be recycled and sold. With the proceeds, new trees are purchased and planted in McLean.
Decision Point Arrives for Tysons II
The owners of Tysons II/The Galleria pressed Fairfax County for a decision on their proposal to build out the 57.5-acre property on the west side of Route 123, which includes the existing Ritz Carlton Hotel and Galleria Shopping Center.
The owners, the Lerner Corp., want to add 2.2 million square feet of office, retail, and residential space, including eight new buildings, one of them a high-rise with 540 residences. To sweeten the deal for Fairfax County, Lerner offered 4.5 acres to be used for construction of a Metro stop.
The measure went before the Fairfax County Planning Commission on March 26, with discussion beginning after midnight and continuing until 1:40 a.m. Three McLean residents waited four hours for a chance to speak: Adrienne Whyte, Bill Byrnes and Clark Tyler, all members of the McLean Citizens Association (MCA).
On a motion by then-Providence commissioner Linda Smyth, the proposal was turned down. The Board of Supervisors later approved it, but not before Tyler had resigned from the MCA over what he said was a hasty decision that did not fully consider the project’s impact on Rail to Dulles. Smyth was later elected Providence District supervisor.
Soccer Fields Become Controversial
Residents in neighborhoods near Spring Hill and Lewinsville Parks raised questions about a process used to create more soccer fields in McLean.
At Lewinsville Park, they appealed a decision that would allow Marymount University in Arlington County to use a field in exchange for the money to install artificial turf. In a unanimous decision, the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) reversed the decision of a county zoning administrator, who had ruled that use by Marymount would not violate a county requirement that parks be for “exclusive” public use.
The BZA ruling was then appealed to a higher court by the Board of Supervisors. While in litigation, taxpayers will pay the costs of the attorneys representing both sides: the Board and the BZA.
A new master plan was adopted for Spring Hill Park, adding a Babe Ruth baseball field, relocating one soccer field and making several others official. But outdoor lights for the soccer field were removed from the proposal, at the request of neighbors.
Capital One Opens Doors
On April 9, Capital One opened a new building adjacent to the Capital Beltway in Tysons Corner.
SHARE Gets New Truck
In May, SHARE got a new truck, paid for by the McLean Citizens Foundation. The truck will be used by volunteers to pick up donated furniture and deliver it to needy families in the McLean area.
Tysons Plans Expansion
Tysons Corner Mall announced it will add 40 retail shops, 20 restaurants and 18 theaters.
Isabel, You Were Swell
Hurricane Isabel arrived on Sept. 18 to rip up trees, interrupt the power supply, and raise doubts about the county water supply. Schoolchildren got two days off from school.
Growing Pains
Both the Langley and Potomac Schools in McLean planned expansions.
Artificial Turf Installed
An artificial turf field was dedicated at Lewinsville Park on Sept. 30, as two county entities argued a lawsuit about who will be permitted to play there. McLean Youth Soccer took out a bank loan to pay for the turf while the matter is litigated.
Crime Hits Home
Kathleen Gregg, the wife of a U.S. senator from New Hampshire, was abducted from their McLean home on Oct. 7 and forced to withdraw money at Wachovia Bank on Chain Bridge Road. The two men who abducted her were captured later in another state.
A woman from Great Falls was abducted from a 7-Eleven on Old Dominion Drive and forced to drive to a McLean bank to withdraw money for her abductors.
The Name’s the Same
On Dec. 1, the McLean Chamber of Commerce voted down a proposal to add “Tysons” to its name.
Bush Raises $1 Million at Lunch
President George W. Bush visited McLean for lunch on Dec. 11 and raised $1 million for his re-election campaign.
On Dec. 14, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured in a “spider hole” near Takrit, Iraq.
Palladium Tops Out
The Palladium’s 69 residences reached their height in a ceremony on Dec. 12.
Untimely Deaths Bring Grief
The untimely deaths of local residents brought grief to McLean and Great Falls.
On Jan. 27, Great Falls Republican Women president Colleen Johnson Karmol, 47, died unexpectedly at her home in Great Falls, the victim of a heart defect. On Mar. 15, Cynthia Paulson committed suicide in Great falls after hitting Ya Wen Su, 28, of Chevy Chase as she rode a bike on Wiehle Avenue in Reston. Su lost a leg in the accident.
On May 17, Haycock Elementary School fourth-grader Christine Anne Shedlock died of a heart condition.
On May 28, George and Marilyn Hardman died at their home on Bellview Road in McLean. Police ruled that George Hardman killed his wife before injuring himself and jumping from a window of their two-story home.
On Nov. 27, a woman killed herself at Great Falls National Park, first inflicting knife wounds and then leaping into the river. A swiftwater rescue team from Company 12 in Great Falls arrived in minutes, but the woman was already dead.
On Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, Great Falls Realtor Pamela Gregg Smith died two days after suffering head injuries from a fall down a flight of stairs in her home.