January 4 – 10, 2018
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. XXVI I NO. 46
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I����� T��� W��� $4+ M������ �� P������� T���� P��� E���� �� F.C. Falls Church residents hoping to sidestep new limits on federal property tax deductions in the newly-passed federal tax reform package piled into the City treasurer’s office at City Hall in the final week of 2017 to pay over $4 million in taxes due. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 8
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George Mason High School’s girls basketball team experienced a tough end to the year, losing two straight in a holiday tournament, including a 47-29 defeat to Flint Hill High School in the third-place match.
Tarter Elected to 3rd Term as F.C. Mayor; Council Mulls Fiscal Policy A W����� W���� N����
Fund Balance is Key Issue, With Tax Rate Impacts
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
Council Tuesday. As seemed to make good sense self-evidently, the structure is premised on a dual track approach, one headed by the School Board to oversee and coordinate the construction of the new school and the other under the City Council’s purview to manage the 10 acres for
By unanimous votes with no discussion, the incumbent mayor David Tarter and vice mayor Mary Beth Connelly of the City of Falls Church were re-elected by their City Council colleagues in a pair of 7-0 roll calls to open the new Council term Tuesday night. New elements of the latest Council term involved the location — the Senior Center room at the Community Center adjacent City Hall — and the addition of first-time Council member, Ross Litkenhous, who proved no fading violet in his first-ever meeting with plenty to say about a number of issues. The Council will meet in the Community Center for both its regular business meetings and work sessions for the next year because of major renovations that have begun at City Hall. All offices at City Hall will be out by April 1 pending completion of the renovation, but the Council seemed comfortable it its new temporary digs at the adjacent Community Center, at least for now. It is going to be a busy and contentious year for the Council, even though the civility factor will be a major advantage to all of them this year. With the process for the construction of a $120 million all-new high school underway following a substantial margin of victory for a school bond referendum in November, the Council is looking at the tough decisions associated with the impact the project will have on the residential real estate tax rate in the next few years.
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SEE SPORTS, PAGE 12
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Identity politics is just political mobilization around group characteristics. The problem is that identity politics has dropped its centripetal elements and become entirely centrifugal. SEE PAGE 16
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Local product Jan McInnis shares the origins of her trademark “clean comedy” with the News-Press leading up to her show, the Baby Boomer Comedy Show, at George Mason University later this month. SEE PAGE 17
DESPITE THE FRIGID TEMPRATURE, the crowd came out to celebrate the dawn of a new year at the City of Falls Church’s annual Watch Night celebration Sunday night. Here, during the star’s downward journey, bundled revelers counted down to the beginning of 2018. See more Watch Night photos, page 13. (P����: J. M������ W�����)
Some Council Members Want Czar for School Campus Project
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
INDEX
Editorial.................6 Letters...................6 News & Notes10–11 Sports .................12 Comment ....... 14–16 Calendar .......18–19
Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........21 Business News ...22 Critter Corner......22 Classified Ads .....23
The newly-constituted Falls Church City Council did not waste any time upon convening for its first meeting Tuesday night striking up differences that may or may not become more serious as the new year evolves. On the subject of the organiza-
tion for the City’s most ambitious capital improvement project ever, the construction of a brand-new George Mason High School and dense commercial development of an adjacent 10 acres to help pay for it, City Manager Wyatt Shields and Schools Superintendent Peter Noonan devised a “roles and coordination structure” for pushing ahead that Shields floated to the