January 30 — February 5, 2020
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d e d 1991 • V ol. XXIX No. 50
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Council Gives Preliminary OK to More $ for Library Renovation
Portion of Budget Surplus to Cover Cost of Project Approved in ’16
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
By a split 4-3 vote, the Falls Church City Council Monday gave a “first reading” preliminary approval to a $10.9 million project to renovate and expand the Mary Riley Styles Public Library, needed to bring it into compliance with the Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA) and to provide significant system modernization and community space increases. The vote on final approval for the plan is scheduled for Feb. 10. The price tag is based on a “guaranteed maximum price” negotiated by the City with the selected construction contractor last week of $7.8 million and additional “soft” costs, including the temporary relocation of the library to vacant trailer classrooms at the Thomas Jefferson Elementary. The City having bonded for the $8.6 million for the project approved by City voters in 2016, the difference of $2.3 million will come from the City’s substantial budget surplus of $4.2 million. The issue, one of the most contentious this City Council has faced to date, comes in the context of the larger matter of how to spend the large (for a City of Falls Church’s size) $4.2 million budget surplus resulting from
a combination of factors. They are underspending the last year’s budget, lower than expected interest rate costs associated with the City’s $126 million school bond sale last fall (at 2.71 percent rather than a projected 4.5 percent), and a postponement of the City’s first payment on that debt. The overall plan proposed by the City staff and presented by City Manager Wyatt Shields and Chief Financial Officer Kiran Bawa, and approved by the 4-3 Council vote, includes $2.6 million for the library above the $8.3 billion that voters approved by a 2-to-1 margin in 2016. That amount is composed of $2.3 million from the surplus and $296,717 from a proffer by the Founders Row project. Other components include $400,000 for neighborhood traffic calming (a boost over the $200,000 per year that has been budgeted recently), $389,211 to the City schools based on an informal revenue sharing understanding, $600,000 to a building permits reserve and $150,000 to closing costs and to seed a Community Development Authority for the West End Gateway development project. Despite these proposed expenditures, the City will remain above its target number for a fund bal-
ance reserve, Bawa said, based on a series of $7 million payments coming in the next years from the West End project developers. In a vote which finally came close to midnight Monday, Mayor David Tarter, Vice Mayor Marybeth Connelly, Phil Duncan and David Snyder voted “yes” to give a preliminary approval to the package, while Letty Hardi, Ross Litkenhous and Dan Sze voted “no.” A large contingent of library supporters who spoke during the petition period and stayed until the midnight hour gathered outside the Council chambers once the votes had been cast and expressed cautious optimism that the vote would hold through the second and final round on Feb. 10. “We are in a very fortunate situation” with the surplus Duncan told his Council colleagues before the vote. “We have a deep capacity to do this well.” The impact is significant, Bawa said, because of the size of the school bond issuance last fall, by far the largest in the City’s history, such that the low 2.71 percent interest rate they went for, below the 4.5 percent budgeted estimate, has made a big difference to the City’s overall fiscal situation.
Continued on Page 4
AT LAST SATURDAY’S Falls Church City Council “retreat” at the Henderson Middle School library, the chair of the City’s Economic Development Authority Bob Young (left) chatted with City Councilman Phil Duncan. (Photo: News-Press)
F.C. City Hall Work Still Underway for Added $ by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Made public for the first time at Monday’s Falls Church City Council meeting is the fact, extensively discussed behind the scenes before then, that the work on the City Hall renovation project has yet to be fully completed. F.C. City Manager Wyatt Shields told the News-Press yesterday that the work is substantially confined to HVAC heating and cooling issues, and in the meantime, negotiations between the City and Hitt continue to be ongoing to establish a cost for the
work. Shields said at the City Council meeting Monday that the cost of the change order would be in excess of $450,000 but otherwise, the matter is under ongoing negotiations that he said he’s hopeful will be resolved within a month. Meanwhile, Shields told the Council Monday that the new stormwater task force has established six priority projects around the City with a price tag of about $15 million over 10 years.
Continued on Page 4
Inside This Week Coronavirus Disrupts Local School Exchange Programs
F.C. 2020 Summer Camp Guide
See Story, page 5
See pages 13 — 20
Longfellow Middle School’s decision to restructure its exchange program with Chinese students in response to the coronavirus outbreak could be part of a larger trend of hiatuses in exchange programs in the area, including the City of Falls Church.
It’s time to plan for the summer! Find all the info you need on the Falls Church area’s selection of summer camps and programs inside this issue.
Mustang Girls Basketball Crushes Manassas Park
George Mason High School’s girls basketball team walloped Manassas Park by nearly 50 points Tuesday night, cruising to a 67-20 victory for its fourth straight win. See Sports, page 24
Index
Editorial........................................................ 6 Letters.......................................................... 6 News & Notes.....................................10–11 Comment......................................... 7,12,21 Business News..........................................23 Sports........................................................24 Calendar.............................................26–27 Classified Ads............................................28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword..................29 Crime Report.............................................30 Critter Corner.............................................30