Many local dog owners have been fighting for a dog park on the site of the former Westgrove Park Water Treatment Facility. This 21-acre park is surrounded by a fence and trees, and is perfect for an off-leash dog area. There is just one problem: Fairfax County refuses to sign off on the proposal to make it a legitimate dog park. The county recently rejected the proposed off-leash dog park, citing the absence of a Master Plan for the park and a lack of resources. In fact, the county often cites dog owners who let their dogs run free and exercise at this perfect spot. I went down last Friday …

With text messages and Facebook status updates being the only thing many of us read lately, the book sale held by the Friends of Sherwood Regional Library is a welcome solution that also provides a great service to the library. As a child, I spent a lot of time reading because I was usually being punished and could not watch TV or go outside. I would turn on WAVA or Q107 and escape into another world through a book. I read novels by writers such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Clive Barker. I was first inspired to write from my quietafternoons spent reading. Volunteer Tom Hammang loves books…

I love the fall. I love the warm days and cool nights, football and barbeques. The best thing about the fall used to be the lack of bugs, but in Mount Vernon, residents are under attack by the brown mamorated stinkbug.  Last week, I ate a stinkbug when it landed on a piece of fat juicy rib eye steak as it was heading into my mouth. Well, not only do stinkbugs smell bad, they taste horrible. These bugs are everywhere and from the looks of it they won't be going away any time soon. We are literally the last line of defense for the stinkbug raid, so it's time we treat it like it is not a …

As the staff at Mount Vernon Patch began its journey, I felt the urge to get out and learn who the people are that live in this neighborhood. I was initially hired to perform basic data collection for Patch and take photos of local businesses for the Mount Vernon Patch directory. During that time, I enjoyed food from some of Mt. Vernon's best restaurants and I spoke with people from all walks of life. Words like diverse and community were thrown around like a football at Redskins Park, but when I recently visited the local farmers' market, I witnessed something I haven't seen since the …