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News Briefs
Dranesville Virtual Town Hall on Unified Sanitation Districts
Tuesday, May 27 at 6:30 pm
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Fairfax County is considering a new waste collection system through Unified Sanitation Districts (USD). Under USD, the county would manage waste hauling contracts directly with collectors, starting with services for single-family homes. Residential waste collection (trash, recycling, etc) would be done by private collectors and managed by the county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES). The Department of Public Works and Environmental Services will be hosting a virtual town hall to discuss the proposed USD with the Dranesville District on Tuesday, May 27 at 6:30 p.m. To learn more and access the dial-in information visit: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dranesville/unified-sanitation-districts-dranesville-town-hall
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Walker Road Bridge Closure Schedule
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VDOT has informed Great Falls Citizens Association (GFCA) on the upcoming Walker Road Bridge closure schedule in association with the bridge expansion project. The current plan for the following weekend closures:
These weekend closures are needed to complete foundation work, including driving piles, in preparation for placing the bridge structure that is planned in July. Message boards will be placed at the site beginning May 19 to notify the public of the upcoming weekend closures, and VDOT will also send out public notifications. The contractor will be on site this weekend (5/17 and 5/18) and will have one lane of alternating traffic via a flagging operation.
Great Falls Citizens Association Town Hall with Delegate Rip Sullivan and State Senator Jennifer Boysko Wednesday, May 28 Grange at 6:30pm Join our local state legislators, Sullivan and Boysko, to learn about the new laws passed at this year’s General Assembly that will affect our community and ones that were not passed and the next steps. Bring your questions and hear what both our state representatives have to say about recent legislation on safety, environment, data centers, land development and more. Our representatives would like to hear from you and know your questions. Please respond with this link to add your voice and comments. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfm3Irtv79XY_SZ54CotTzyY1o4Tr_Q9xvJ7a08U-TNhT04OQ/viewform
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Interactive FCPS School Boundary Community Engagement
Meeting: May 19 6:30PM at Herndon HS
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GFCA Members: Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has accelerated the community review of its initial boundary change options/scenarios. This is FCPS’ Phase 2 (Part 1 of 2). There is an opportunity to participate in-person, or virtually, Monday, May 19, 6:30-8 PM, at Herndon High School. You must register at FCPS Comprehensive Boundary Review webpage. FCPS has an interactive “FCPS Boundary Review Scenario Explore” tool. You can try it on-line now. You can enter your street address and view how the proposed “initial”boundary change scenarios would impact where your students will go to school. These initial scenarios include fixing “attendance island” schools, “split feeder” schools, and “overcrowded” schools. FCPS plans to update the boundary change scenarios over the summer of 2025. The GFCA Special Committee on School remains concerned that FCPS is not correctly forecasting the potential number of additional students coming from new housing developments (apartments, townhouses, and condos) 3-to-5 years from now. Not having the correct data could lead to unnecessary or poor boundary change decisions. As FCPS proposes to fix “attendance island” schools, “split feeder” schools, and overcrowded schools, Langley HS could reach 100+% capacity. That could force the need to adjust Langley HS boundaries. |
TRN Breaking News: Leigh Mill
On April 29th, Supervisor Bierman contacted GFCA to tell us that the Virginia Department3 of Transportation (VDOT) has agreed to limit the size of trucks allowed to travel on Leigh Mill Road to forty feet in length. This is very welcome news to all who regularly drive on Leigh Mill Road. There are four ninety degree turns on this very narrow historic road and the safety of drivers and the one lane bridge have often been compromised by long tractor trailer trucks using this route.
The morning of the recent tank truck accident at the Leigh Mill bridge, GFCA contacted Supervisor Bierman’s office to request that he schedule a meeting for GFCA with VDOT to request this restriction. He immediately set that in motion. He also requested that Senator5 Boysko and Delegate Sullivan attend the meeting. After some scheduling delays, Supervisor Bierman received notice today (April 29, 2025) that the meeting was no longer necessary because they have agreed to his request.
The following is from the email confirmation sent to Supervisor Bierman:
“As you noted in the original email below, the primary reason for the meeting was to discuss the concerns with truck use and the potential to restrict large trucks from Leigh Mill Road. After the incident on April 3, VDOT began an investigation of the site, and we have determined that a restriction on trucks over 40 feet in length is appropriate at this location. The restriction will be implemented in the field once the signs are fabricated and sign placement has been scheduled. We expect that the sign fabrication will take approximately 90 days, and placement will occur this summer."
Thank you Supervisor Bierman!
New Unified Sanitation Districts
Transforming Residential Waste Collection
The Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) has been conducting a marketing campaign about Unified Sanitation Districts. They have published a website covering frequently asked questions that seems to be regularly updated with new information.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/recycling-trash/unified-sanitation-districts
Matt Adams, lead on the project, spoke again about the program on the EnviroPod podcast. He noted that working out all of the details of the Unified Sanitation Districts (including the district boundaries, services, and contract models) will likely take the full 5-year period. They are deferring some of the detailed analysis until the county decides to move forward with this model, which is planned to be voted on by the Board of Supervisors, after the June 24 public hearing.
The public hearing will be at the Fairfax Government Center Board Auditorium, located at 12000 Government Center Parkway on Tuesday, June 24. Instructions on ways to provide testimony in person, in writing, by phone or by video is available at: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/clerkservices/ways-provide-public-hearing-testimony
DPWES is also encouraging anyone with comments to submit input to USDfeedback@publicinput.com. The website states that DPWES will review the input and share all feedback with the Board of Supervisors prior to the June public hearing.
PLEASE NOTE: On June 9, the Environment and Parks Committee will present a zoom program all about the Unified Sanitation Districts with Matthew Adams, DPWES lead on the waste collection initiative. Please message environment@gfca.org for the zoom link.
Upcoming events
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Our goal is to preserve the semi-rural character of our community while addressing practical concerns like traffic, zoning, retail, schools, parks and the environment where problems arise and solutions must be found. Since Great Falls is not an incorporated municipality like the Town of Vienna, or City of Falls Church, we lack a town/city government to represent our local interests. The GFCA acts in an unofficial capacity to represent the voices of the citizens of Great Falls on these matters, and works with county, state, and national government to get things done. On Great Falls issues, no other organization has GFCA’s influence with elected leaders at the County and State level, or is as respected by them. Our charter calls for GFCA to "serve as a community organization to promote all aspects of community interest accruing to a common good and, in general, to preserve the historic, low density, semi-rural character of Great Falls and its natural resources."
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