Author: Scott McCaffrey

A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.

News

Halloween bonfire organizers in Madison Manor pass the torch tonight after 41 years

By Scott McCaffrey
Bonfire at Madison Manor Park (courtesy bonfire organizers)

An annual Halloween bonfire scheduled tonight (Friday) in Madison Manor will represent a passing of the torch for the four-decade-old community tradition.

Hundreds are expected to turn out for this year’s blaze, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at Madison Manor Park (6225 12th Road N.). It will be the last hurrah for organizers James Riley and Brice Henderson, who have been hosting the fires since 1984.

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News

Arlington Economic Development director plans departure, prompting search for successor

By Scott McCaffrey
Arlington Economic Development director Ryan Touhill (screenshot via Arlington County)

For the second time in three years, Arlington is on the hunt for a new economic development director.

Ryan Touhill will be departing Arlington Economic Development (AED) in early November. Katharine Ange, currently deputy director, will serve as acting director during the search for a successor.

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News

Parks advisory body endorses phase-out of gas leaf blowers

By Scott McCaffrey
A person operates a leaf blower (via Callum Hill/Unsplash)

A key county advisory panel likes the proposal to ban gas-powered leaf blowers countywide, but doesn’t want to get too far into the weeds on specifics right now.

Members of the Arlington Park and Recreation Commission on Oct. 28 agreed to send a letter to County Board members, expressing support for the concept of outlawing gas blowers.

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News

Falls Church will consider banning gas-powered leaf blowers in 2026

By Scott McCaffrey
A leaf blower at the US Air Force Memorial in a past year (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Falls Church officials plan to start looking into options for limiting or banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers within city limits.

Among the issues remaining to be determined, likely early next year, is whether city leaders already have the power to enact a prohibition — or if they must wait for approval from the state government.

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News

Falls Church fund for emergency financial assistance could get $45K boost

By Scott McCaffrey
Job seekers at a Crystal City career fair (file photo by Jay Westcott)

The Falls Church City Council is considering a major increase to a pool of funding to support local residents facing short-term financial difficulties.

City staff originally proposed adding $20,000 to $25,100 previously allocated for an assistance fund that provides eligible households with up to $1,000 in support per year.

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News

Local election officials address possible postal problems during early voting

By Scott McCaffrey
Falls Church's voting dropbox at City Hall (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

Election offices in Arlington and Falls Church are on the lookout for any glitches with the U.S. Postal Service handling official election-related mail.

A relatively small number of ballots from the office of Falls Church registrar David Bjerke were mailed but had not yet reached residents who requested them, Bjerke reported at an Oct. 23 meeting of the Falls Church Electoral Board.

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News

Arlington commercial real estate tops N. Va. for cost in some areas, despite high vacancy rate

By Scott McCaffrey
Rosslyn skyline from the Potomac River (via Arlington County)

Despite high office vacancy rates, several of Arlington’s major commercial corridors have some of the highest commercial real estate prices in Northern Virginia, new data shows.

Rosslyn, Ballston, National Landing and Clarendon/Courthouse/Virginia Square were the only sub-corridors of Northern Virginia with asking rates above $40 per square foot in third-quarter figures reported last week by Savills Research & Data Services.

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News

Change-of-governance debate might again pit County Board members against state legislator

By Scott McCaffrey
Del. Patrick Hope 2025 campaign kickoff (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

The 2026 General Assembly session could bring another political tug-of-war between some County Board members and a state legislator representing the local community.

The past two years saw debate over the appropriate sequence of events in tackling any major change to Arlington’s governance structure.

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Around Town

Workshop offers teens, tweens tips and techniques for Halloween transformations

By Scott McCaffrey
Olivia Wolfe transforming herself into a Halloween jack-o-lantern (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

They entered as a typical group of Arlington teens and tweens. Within 90 minutes, they had been transformed into, among others, a monster, princess, a pumpkin and a unicorn.

The metamorphosis came courtesy of Encore Stage & Studio, which on Oct. 25 hosted its first-ever Halloween-makeup workshop at Cherrydale United Methodist Church.

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News

Plan to keep DCA’s ‘Fly Quiet’ effort in-house draws flak from regional noise panel

By Scott McCaffrey
An airplane takes off from Reagan National Airport (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

A decision to keep noise-mitigation efforts at Reagan National Airport in-house, rather than outsource them to independent experts, is drawing criticism from an advisory panel.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (WMAA) announced its decision on “Fly Quiet” efforts at the Oct. 23 meeting of the Reagan National Community Working Group, which works to reduce the impacts of noise from airport operations.

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Schools

APS to offer parents more info on how students are using school-distributed devices

By Scott McCaffrey
Students at computer (via Anastassia Anufrieva/Unsplash)

Arlington Public Schools is expanding an initiative that provides parents with information on how, and for how long, their children are using school-distributed devices.

In November, APS will move from an opt-in to an opt-out model for the Lightspeed Parent Portal, which provides families with weekly summaries of web-browsing activities for students in grades 2 to 12.

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