Monday notes: Groveton man’s murder case; community clean ups; MVHS students praised

November 6, 2017 Community News
Children with collected trash

Volunteers cleaned up Little Hunting Creek on Saturday near Janna Lee Avenue and Richmond Highway. (Ryan Barton photo)

Election Day update

Polls will be open from 6 a.m to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. This past Saturday was the final day to vote absentee, and according to the Fairfax County Board of Elections, there was a more than 16,000-person increase in the number of people voting absentee this year as compared to the 2013 gubernatorial election. 

For more information on sample ballots and voting locations, go to the Fairfax County elections website. 

Volunteers clean up road, stream

Two groups of volunteers spent part of this past Saturday cleaning up parts of the Richmond Highway area.

The Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce held its annual Jeff Todd Way cleanup effort on Saturday morning, with volunteers picking up 30 bags full of trash along 2.4 miles of the road, which is named after a former Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce chairman who died in 2011 died at age 49.

A community fixture in the Mount Vernon area, Todd owned three Roy Rogers restaurants, including the one at the corner of Richmond Highway and the road now named in his honor. 

Cleanup volunteers

The Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce sponsored a cleanup of Jeff Todd Way on Saturday. (Chamber of Commerce image)

Another cleanup was held Saturday at Little Hunting Creek in the Hybla Valley area. More than 25 youth volunteers filled up 40 trash bags, according to Ryan Barton, community impact strategies manager for CPDC.

The group of volunteers was part of a program run by CPDC, the nonprofit developer who owns the Stony Brook Apartment complex. Clean Fairfax provided the supplies for the effort, and volunteers from United Community Ministries also helped out.

Murder case with local ties

The murder case against a Groveton-area man accused of killing a CVS manager in Fauquier County will go before a grand jury later this month, a judge ruled Friday.

Bernard Clark Duse, 76, is accused of shooting Rex Olsen, 54, on July 26 outside of a Warrenton, Va., CVS where the two men worked. Duse, who lives on Groveton Street (see map) near Route 1, allegedly ambushed Olsen at the end of his shift. Prosecutors say the two men had a strained relationship due to a civil case Duse had brought against CVS.

Read more on Fauquier.com.

Mount Vernon students praised

Two Mount Vernon High School students are being commended for coming to the aid of a woman injured near the campus last month. 

Joshua Meñez and Vanessa Espinoza were walking to band practice when a woman walking her dog fell and suffered serious injuries. The two students rushed to her side, called 911, secured her dog and checked her breathing and pulse. The woman was hospitalized and is now recovering.

Read more on ConnectionNewspapers.com.