Senator Kaine Gets Up Close and Personal With Herndon Businesses

Sen. Kaine spent a few hours Friday touring downtown and talking with small business owners.

Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) spent around three hours Friday touring downtown Herndon with Mayor Lisa Merkel, Fairfax County Supervisor John Foust and others.

In particular, Kaine wanted to meet many of Herndon's small business owners.

The morning started off with a visit to Old Town Hall. Then, Mayor Merkel took him on a walk around downtown, where they visited the businesses of Green Lizard Cycling, Soliloquy Bridal Couture, and Maude Salon, as well as ArtSpace Herndon and the real estate development company Stout and Teague, which just moved into the space above Main Street Bank three weeks ago.

Sen. Kaine was interested in learning about the Town's plans for more "green" development around the coming Silver Line, as well as hearing many of the stories of how some of Herndon's small businesses came to be, such as Soliloquy Bridal, which owner Miriam Liggett calls her "dream come true."

Of course, no tour of downtown Herndon would be complete without popping into Jimmy's Old Town Tavern.

Owner Jimmy Cirrito was overjoyed to give Sen. Kaine, Supervisor Foust, Mayor Merkel and others a tour of the space next door, which he is currently renovating to become "Jimmy's Buffalo Wing" by the start of 2014. The expanded space will mean a bigger kitchen - and therefore faster food service - for the restaurant, a larger ladies' room, and a patio and more tables for his famous buffalo wing menu.

At one point, Cirrito became emotional when he broached the subject of the immigration law that Kaine and others helped pass in the U.S. Senate yesterday, and will now move on to the House of Representatives.

Cirrito said, one year ago around this time, Homeland Security had contacted him with suspicions that a handful of his employees were working for him illegally, and asked him to submit their documents for their review.

Cirrito complied, and Homeland Security came back and told him that all of the employees' documents were fake, and forced him to terminate their employment.

Cirrito said it dealt a blow to the restaurant, because those employees were some of the best on his team - they always showed up on time, worked hard, and never complained. He said, many of the American employees he replaced them with did not take their jobs as seriously, and moved on from the job quickly.

"The job just wasn't on their [ultimate] career path; they didn't want it as badly," he said. "It was one of the most heartbreaking things of my life, having to let them all go."

Cirrito said, recently, one of those employees he had to let go came back to him, after just having received her Obama Dream Act card, allowing her to work for Cirrito legally. Cirrito said, he hired her back in an instant.

Cirrito then took Sen. Kaine back to the kitchen to meet her, and she proudly showed him her card.

"I'm so happy you shared that story with me," the Senator said.

Sen. Kaine then stayed and dined at Jimmy's for lunch with Mayor Merkel, other members of the Town Council and a few Herndon locals.

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