January 28 - February 3, 2016
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d ed 1991 • Vol. XXV No. 49
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Fairfax Water May Seek Alternative Site
In reaction to a major public protest, the Fairfax County Water Authority may be looking for an alternative to a Lee Highway site in the heart of Merrifield. See News Briefs, page 9
Jimmy John’s Opens on Leesburg Pike in F.C. The sandwich shop Jimmy John’s opened its doors Wednesday on Route 7 in Falls Church. The Illinois-based chain is located in the new commercial building at 7121 Leesburg Pike along with Conte’s Bikes, Computer Wingman and an ABC Store.
F.C. Crews a Match for ‘Snowzilla’ Mega-Storm, Recovery Continuing B lizzard B aby
Dedicated Work & New Equipment Mitigated Blizzard
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
to increase teacher compensation and maintain class sizes. “That is a directly related to the School Board’s work plan and the priorities of the community to increase teacher compensation to be competitive and to maintain class sizes,” Jones said. “When you see that dollar amount what you’re really seeing is that 85 percent of our budget goes to staff
A number of factors contributed to the ability of the City of Falls Church, its public works team and citizens, to maintain during possibly the heaviest snow storm, a veritable blizzard, in regional history last weekend. According to City Manager Wyatt Shields, the snowfall totals in the City ranged from 22 to 27 inches, possibly the “largest single snow event” at least in the recent era. “I know of no other with more,” he said. The snow was also accompanied by high wind conditions throughout. But despite all that, there were no power outages reported and by early Monday, a lane for vehicular passage was cleared to every house in the City, making Falls Church the first jurisdiction in the region to accomplish that. New equipment and a new approach have also contributed to minimizing the impact of the storm, known most commonly, or as they say these days, “trending” mostly as “Winter Storm Jonas” and “Snowzilla” (“Snowmageddon” remains the premier moniker for the big one of 2010). The City’s public works staff, totaling 20, was helped in its work by four new dump trucks that were able to both plow and remove snow. The trucks were recently acquired to replace old ones by votes of the Falls Church City Council, two in Fiscal Year 2015 and two more this fiscal year, at a cost of about $90,000 each. They were all delivered in the last year. “Not only were they more reliable, with no major breakdowns,
Continued on Page 4
Continued on Page 5
See Food News, page 23
David Brooks: Stay Sane, America!
In January of 2017 someone will stand at the U.S. Capitol and deliver an Inaugural Address. I am going to spend every single day between now and then believing that neither Donald Trump nor Ted Cruz nor Bernie Sanders will be standing on that podium. See page 14
Press Pass with Cricket Tell the Weather Cricket Tell the Weather leader Andrea Asprelli was introduced to American folk and bluegrass nearly ten years ago, when she was studying abroad in Canterbury, England. See page 24
ENJOYING THE FALLING SNOW, Nicole and and 14-month-old Effie Newman catch snowflakes on their tongues during the Blizzard of 2016 which dropped more than two feet of snow on Falls Church last weekend. See more photos of Falls Church’s time with “Snowzilla” on pages 10 and 11. (Photo: Nicole Newman)
Regional Education Study: F.C. Teacher Salaries #2 in Region by Drew Costley
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial..................6 Letters....................6 News & Notes.10-11 Comment......... 14-17 Sports..................18 Food & Dining......23
Calendar.........26-27 Classified Ads .....28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........29 Business News....30 Critter Corner.......30
The City of Falls Church spends the second highest amount of money on its students in the Washington, D.C. region, according to a report recently released by the Washington Area Board of Education. Falls Church City, which will spend $18,032 per student in fiscal year 2016, is second to Arlington County, which will
spend $18,616 per student in fiscal year 2016. The amount that Falls Church is spending on its students has steadily risen from $16,991 in fiscal year 2014, whereas Arlington County, which has perennially had the highest per student spending rate has stayed relatively flat. Dr. Toni Jones, superintendent of Falls Church City Public Schools, attributed the increase in spending per student to the desire