Jan u ar y 2 9 - Fe b r u a r y 4, 2 0 1 5
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • V o l . X XI V N o . 49
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week New Water Main Due on S. West St.
A week after a water main break shut down traffic all day on East Broad Street in Falls Church, City Manager Wyatt Shields announced that Fairfax Water will replace an aged cast iron water main that runs the length of South West Street in the City this spring. See News Briefs, page 9
Super Bowl Sunday In Falls Church
Find out where to watch the game, where to eat and where to buy your booze in Falls Church this Sunday for Super Bowl XLIX.
Jones Presents Stark Choices to F.C. School Board in Budget Deliberation No Salary Growth, A W inter’s C rane Teacher Layoffs in
Zero-Growth Option by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
available through the end of 2016. Among the advantages of the program, which is most advanced in Virginia in Charlottesville, where Solarize launched a program resulting in 1,182 sign ups, is to provide a roster of vetted service providers and to offer discounts of 15-20 percent to participants. Other completed Solarize
Going beyond the three lowgrowth options she presented to the School Board just two weeks ago, Falls Church School Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones added a grim zero growth option to her choices as the board began its deliberations with its first budget work session Tuesday. The option exhibited no salary increases for anyone in the system and the elimination of four positions that would be little short of catastrophic for the system that is primarily challenged by its need to compete with surrounding jurisdictions for the addition or retention of good teachers. Jones told the board that a math teacher she thought was set to come into the system was lost at the very last minute in September simply because the F.C. schools could not match the salary offer from neighboring Arlington. She presented a spreadsheet showing that enrollment growth continues to be expected to rise faster than for any surrounding jurisdiction, as well. The number this fall is expected to be 2,505, or 95 more than were enrolled by last September 30, and the number will consistently rise to top 3,000 by 2021, according to projections prepared by the Weldon-Cooper Center last fall. Weldon-Cooper has been effectively spot on with its growth projections for the Falls Church system over recent years. The cost-per-pupil data shows the Falls Church system, at $16,991 for 2014, is behind Arlington and even with Alexandria.
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See pages 16-17
David Brooks: How to Leave a Mark
The big debate during the 20th century was about the relationship between the market and the state. Both those institutions are now tarnished. See page 12
Press Pass with Andrea Nardello
Andrea Nardello had a case of writer’s block two years ago when a love song, inspired by her relationship with her now-wife, came to her and cut through her creative stall. See page 21
SET AGAINST A STARK winter’s sky as a backdrop, construction cranes have once again become regular features of the downtown Falls Church skyline, marking $250 million in new investment with the Lincoln and Rushmark mixed use projects for a robust 7.5 percent increase in the City’s $3.5 billion in assessed real estate values, City Manager Wyatt Shields reported last week. The projects, one anchored by a Harris Teeter and the other by a Fresh Market, are now rising out of the ground and are scheduled to be completed early next year. (Photo: News-Press)
City Council Signs City to New ‘Solarize NoVa’ Power Initiative by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index Editorial..................6 Letters....................6 News & Notes.10-11 Comment........12-15 Food & Dining ......18 Sports .................19
Press Pass..........21 Calendar.........22-23 Classified Ads .....24 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........25 Critter Corner.......26
This Monday night the Falls Church City Council voted unanimously to sign onto a regional solar power initiative, Solarize NoVa, of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and its not-for-profit partner, the Local Energy Alliance Program or LEAP, to promote voluntary installation of energy effi-
cient and renewable technologies. A pilot project in Falls Church is being initiated by the two groups to promote home energy efficiency and solar energy. The intent of the program is to reduce the cost and complexity of “going solar” in the region, with a regional goal of reaching 1,000 rooftops with solar installations by encouraging home owners and business to take advantage of tax credits now