January 31 – February 6, 2019
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 • VOL. XXVIII NO. 50
F���� C����� • T����� C����� • M��������� • M�L��� • N���� A�������� • B�����’� C���������
I����� T��� W���
WMATA Tears Up Subsidy Restriction Deal, Sets New $ Hit on F.C. & Others 11.8% Funding Hike Slated for City But Cost Could End Up Being Higher
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
F���� C����� 2019 S����� C��� G����
Nevermind the temps in the single digits, planning time for summer fun is here! Inside, find all the information you need on the Falls Church area’s selection of summer camps and programs. SEE PAGES 13 – 20
C������ P����� N�� G�� C������ O�������� The Falls Church City Council unanimously passed a new ordinance Monday that prohibits the carrying of a loaded rifle or shotgun on City streets, roads and highways. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
M������ B��� D��� P��� V���, C������
With wins over Park View High School and Central High School, George Mason High School’s boys basketball team has stayed hot in 2019. SEE SPORTS, PAGE 22
INDEX
Editorial............... 6 Calendar ..... 26–27 M���� G���� R����Ads�� ... 28 Letters................. 6 Classified Comics, Sudoku & News &C����� Notes 10–11 C����� T�� Comment ..... 12, 21 Crossword ........ 29 Sports ............... 22 Crime Report .... 30 Business News . 25 Critter Corner....30
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is planning to obliterate all pretenses of holding the line on agreed-upon additional subsidies from local jurisdictions, the Falls Church City Council learned at its meeting Monday night. F.C. City Manager Wyatt Shields told the Council that Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is proposing to increase the annual subsidy from the City by a whopping 11.8 percent, amounting to a more than $700,000 annual increase, or up roughly two cents on the real estate tax rate (currently at $1.355 per $100 of assessed valuation) for property owners in Falls Church. The demand, which will come if the WMATA board approves its draft budget at its upcoming Feb.
28 month meeting, blows past the three percent annual cap on local jurisdiction subsidy increases that WMATA agreed to just last summer, when the jurisdictions of Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia agreed to pour $500 million into WMATA’s ailing Metro rail system. Even with that cap, the City of Falls Church was prepared to foot the bill for an extra $400,000 this budget cycle, given the need to catch up on $124,000 of some delayed payments from last year, and the City Council was notified of that by Shields last November. Even with that hit, Shields said that if other elements of the City budget fall in line, including the annual transfer to the City schools, the Fiscal Year 2020 budget could require no additional real estate tax rate increase. The latest news from WMATA, however, could wipe out such
FALLS CHURCH CITY Manager Wyatt Shields (right) confers Monday before going into a closed City Council session with members of the Alvarez and Marsal consulting team retained by F.C. to hammer out terms for the development of the West End Economic Development project. The fourth closed session this month pertained to the contract terms with the team of EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency. Shields told the NewsPress an announcement on a positive outcome of these sessions will probably come this Monday. (P����: N���-P����) plans. Shields told the News-Press in comments Wednesday that the projected 11.8 percent increase could be very disruptive to the budget.
The latest round of WMATA’s proposed “operating subsidy allocation” increases, rounding out
Continued on Page 4
F.C.’s 1st African-American Mayor, Dale Warren Dover, Dies at Age 69 Former City of Falls Church Mayor Dale Warren Dover died Monday, Jan. 14, at the age of 69, in Alexandria, Virginia, succumbing to a battle with cancer. A Falls Church colleague described him as “a scholar, athlete, coach, diplomat, linguist, juris doctor, mayor, youth advocate, father, grandfather and friend, a renaissance man to all who knew him, committed to forging a pioneering life path, with an eye towards disrupting the status quo, demanding excellence
and righting injustice — all while entertaining his audiences great and small.” Dover served as the first African-American mayor of Falls Church from 1990–92, and was on the City Council from 1990–94. The Falls Church City Council honored the memory of Dover with a memorial resolution passed last Monday night. “Dover’s legacy lies in his service to his country and community, and his contributions to the City of Falls Church are
greatly appreciated,” the resolution stated. “The City Council recognizes with great admiration and appreciation the contributions of Dale Warren Dover over the course of his life and career, and offers sincere condolences to his family.” Dover was born Aug. 2, 1949 in New York City to Thomas Alfred Dover of Boston and Virginia Elizabeth Carter Dover of Frostburg, Maryland and was
Continued on Page 5
Dale Dover.