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Happy New Year - 2025!
I love the snow - especially the first day. Luckily I am able to stay home and watch my neighborhood turn into a winter wonderland. What I like most is the quiet. I am sure it was not so quiet for parents with children home from school for four days.
We closed the end of 2024 with a bang. MCA was thrilled to participate in the McLean Winterfest Parade. A big shout out and thanks to the McLean Revitalization Committee and the two event organizers, Barbara Zamora-Appel and Maria Foderaro-Guertin, for bringing back this much-loved event. A week later, Supervisor Bierman helped us ring in the holidays with an Open House. MCA also co-sponsored Senator Boysko's and Delegate Sullivan's Town Hall (article below), where the legislators provided insights on what they expect during the upcoming 2025 Legislative Session, predicting that a "Casino Bill" would be introduced and reiterating their opposition.
Not surprisingly, their predictions proved correct, and as we rang in the new year, Senator Surovell introduced Senate Bill982, the unwanted "Casino Bill." Like the bill introduced last year, the 2025 bill adds Fairfax County as an eligible locality and includes site criteria that are met by only one location - the Spring Hill Metro area of Tysons. Supervisor Bierman noted in his weekly Dranesville Dispatch:
As I have publicly and repeatedly stated, and as so many of you have implored me to do, I oppose this bill. .... This new legislation, which like an earlier version lacks labor protections, is actually worse than what was proposed before in that it further restricts the County’s traditional land use authority in order to benefit a specific developer whose past failed promises Dranesville residents are familiar with. So, let’s not kid ourselves: this isn’t about tax revenues or our community’s economic health, it’s about dollars for casino owners—the only rule of casinos is that “the House always wins”—and it certainly isn’t about doing anything for the residents of Fairfax County. You can contact your state legislator and make your thoughts known, too.
We need to make sure that Richmond understands the community's position - NO FAIRFAX CASINO. The next 50 or so days are critical. MCA will continue to send out communications regarding the opposition campaigns that are being organized by the No Fairfax Casino Coalition (MCA is part of the steering Committee). It is important that you take action quickly to impact the path of the Bill. We do not want the bill to pass in the Senate! If you haven't done it already, go to TAKE ACTION, sign the petition and send out letters. More information regarding the upcoming Lobby Day is below. Please send this information to every friend, family member, email list (tennis buddies, book club, etc.) Letter writing and petitions do work! We effectively KILLED THE BILL last year and, with everyone's help, we can do it again this year.
If you are not already an MCA member, please lend us your voice! JOIN NOW!
--Linda Walsh, President
|  | | A few of the MCA Board members who stopped by Dranesville Supervisor Jimmy Bierman's Holiday Open House on December 16th pose with the Supervisor: From left to right, Board member Merrily Pierce, Tysons Committee Vice Chair Ron Bleeker, Dranesville Tree Commissioner (and former MCA Environment, Parks & Recreation Committee Chair) Barbara Ryan, Dranesville Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, Planning & Zoning Committee Chair Bob Perito, Transportation Committee Chair Glenn Harris. |  | | Legislative Town Hall
Virginia state representatives Delegate Rip Sullivan and Senator Jennifer Boysko spent a couple of hours with McLean-area residents on December 16th, discussing the upcoming 2025 legislative session and answering questions. Audience members, who took time off from holiday shopping to attend the Monday evening Town Hall, were treated with holiday tunes as they walked into the McLean Community Center, courtesy of Cooper Middle School's acclaimed band.
After presenting the Cooper MS band and McLean HS's award-winning journalism program with poster-sized copies of resolutions commending the respective organizations that had been read into the official record, the representatives briefly outlined their legislative priorities. They devoted the balance of the evening to an informal Q&A session, fielding questions from constituents on such topics as a Fairfax casino (they're both strongly against imposing a casino on a jurisdiction that has not requested one); climate change; data centers (Del. Sullivan highlighted his support for restricting diesel-powered back-up generators); property taxes; medicaid; school boundary changes (Sen. Boysko, who lives in Herndon, mentioned that her children received an excellent education at a school with large numbers of low-income students); and many others.
| | | MCA: Making the Casino go Away
| | Are You Taking Action to Keep a Casino Out of Fairfax County?
• Lobby Day January 15 – Even if you missed the Monday January 13th noon deadline for reserving a seat on the bus, you can still join us in Richmond. Just send us an email and we will send you the schedule for the day. You will meet up with our group as we assemble in the lobby of the General Assembly Building.
• Answer the calls for action and forward information and links to your friends, families, faith-based organizations, etc.
• Spread the Word – Forward No Fairfax Casino Fact Sheets and Frequently Asked Questions to anyone who may also be concerned about the threat of a casino in our communities. You can find these documents on the No Fairfax Casino Resources Page.
•Donate!
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Are You Getting the Latest Information?
The Patch has also been devoting resources to covering this issue.
We have proven that our motivated grassroots movement can be effective. Spread the word and amplify our voice of opposition. Let’s KILL THE BILL before crossover on February 4th.
| | | Committee Spotlight: Environment, Parks & Recreation (EP&R)
|  | Committee Spotlight: EP&R
The Environment, Parks and Recreation Committee monitors a broad range of issues associated with preservation of the community's natural resources and quality of life. Areas of interest include: tree preservation; stream and water quality protection; storm water, soil and erosion issues; air quality, noise, light and visual pollution; and numerous parks and recreation issues.
Recent Highlights:
- Presentation by Bill Niedringhaus, Potomac Heritage Trail Association (PHTA) President, and Ed Pickens, an active PHTA member who leads volunteer trail maintenance crews and semi-annual litter clean-ups, on how to obtain a Potomac Heritage Trail designation for a McLean trail;
- Local trail hike (in February!), followed by discussion of possible improvements;
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Presentation by Kiel Stone, Chairman of the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) Board, and Tom Hackman, Dranesville District Representative to the FCPA Board, on the draft Park Authority budget, including funding for the zero waste recycling program and green energy programs, tree removal, and park maintenance;
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Educated MCA and the broader community on how to handle invasive bamboo;
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Presentation by VDOT officials and contractors on the 495 NEXT Revegetation Conceptual Plan;
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Attended Dranesville Celebrates Trees;
For more information or to join the Committee (or chair it :), email MCA President and Acting EP&R Chair, Linda Walsh.
|  | Committees: The Heart of MCA
Budget & Taxation (B&T)
Planning & Zoning (P&Z)
Transportation
Education & Youth (E&Y)
Environment, Parks & Recreation (EP&R)
Tysons
Membership
Liaison to McLean Community Center (MCC)
Liaison to McLean Planning Committee (MPC)
Liaison to McLean Revitalization Corporation (MRC)
Public Safety Liaison
Senior Liaison
MCA's Committees study issues affecting residents of the McLean Area; develop MCA Resolutions and letters on issues of public significance; and organize public citizen information sessions where local elected officials, Fairfax County representatives and others address specific areas of interest.
Each Committee is made up of volunteers, many of whom have considerable experience and expertise on subjects that the Committee oversees.
You must be a member of the MCA in order to join an MCA Committee.
If you're interested in joining a Committee, or if there is an issue affecting the McLean Area that you think the Committee should investigate, contact the Committee Chair. Thank you for helping to keep MCA an effective advocate for the greater McLean community! | | |
Don't Forget to Renew Your MCA Membership
Click the Red Button Below
| | MCA Thanks Planning Commissioner John Ulfelder
A devoted attendee of MCA's Planning & Zoning Committee meetings, where he contributed thoughtful comments while carefully refraining from imposing his views, John Ulfelder is stepping down after ten years serving Fairfax County as Dranesville District Planning Commissioner and the Commission's Parliamentarian.
MCA has drafted a letter formally recognizing Commissioner Ulfelder for his service on the occasion of his retirement from the Commission, and we will be honoring him at our February Board meeting. All of us at MCA hope that he will continue to follow planning and zoning matters and remain active in the community where he has contributed so much.
| | | | MCA Supports Cell Phone Restrictions
MCA has written a letter to the Fairfax County School Board commending FCPS's efforts to restrict cell phone usage during the school day, specifically during classroom instruction. The letter both encourages authorizing exceptions where such devices have an appropriate classroom use and suggests considering expansion of the policy to include all personal technology equipment. | | MCA Supports Increased Public School Funding
In a letter addressed to the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee, Virginia House of Delegates Education Committee, and the Fairfax County Delegation to the Virginia General Assembly, MCA urged
the Virginia Legislature to pass legislation during its 2025 General Assembly Session that updates the K-12 public school funding formula. The letter excerpts key provisions from the July 10, 2023 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commmission (JLARC) report on Virginia’s K-12 Funding Formula, underscoring JLARC's recommendation to update the Standards of Quality (SOQ) formula from a staffing-based to a student-based approach.
| | | MCA Has All Hands On Deck for Hands-Only CPR
McLean area residents worked up a sweat at last Wednesday's hands-only CPR class sponsored by McLean Volunteer Fire Department (McLeanVFD) and MCA (click here for photos). The class, which took place immediately prior to our regular 7:30pm MCA Board meeting, was an enormous success.
Hands-only CPR is a simplified form of CPR that omits rescue breaths and focuses only on chest compressions, which recent evidence has demonstrated is the most important component of CPR. Recommended for use by people who witness an adult suddenly collapse in an out-of-hospital setting, it can help gain precious time for a person experiencing a cardiac event by maintaining blood flow to vital organs. We were promised that it would be easy to learn and perform, and it was. We even had time to practice using AEDs (automated external defibrillators), available in all government buildings and many private offices and gyms, which provide an electronic shock to help restart the heart.
If you're interested in arranging a training classes for your group or organization, contact the McLeanVFD. Given the level of interest in the community and the enthusiasm of those who attended, MCA hopes to sponsor another class in the near future.
We want to thank our instructors -- led by McLeanVFD President Patricia Moynihan and paramedic Lynn Clancy (pictured below left with MCA President Linda Walsh) -- and everyone at the MVFD for providing the training and making the greater McLean area a safer place to live.
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