November 21 - 27, 2024
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXIV N o . 41
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
Bob Young, SHARP AS A RAZOR F.C. Business Leader, Dies at 82 ‘Hard to Imagine F.C. Without Him,’ Mayor Hardi Says by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Currents throughout the City of Falls Church’s corridors of government, education, economic development and general good will were shaken to learn of the passing this Monday night of Robert A. “Bob” Young, for two dozen years a ubiquitous fixture in the life of the Little City as a first-rate developer of commercial and residential properties but more than that, as an advisor, prophet and doer of much of the good that has befallen the City in this era. A true Renaissance Man in the manner true to what that term was meant to represent, Young brought to the City beginning in the late 1990s and forward the first representations ever seen here of Art Nouveau in buildings he put up, renovated and managed. He was also chair of the Economic Development Authority (EDA) who directed that organization through some of its most creative contributions to the Little City, the most visible being the wayfinding signage that are now landmark parts of the City fabric.
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Holiday Arts & Entertainment Guide
Pages 9-17
“SWEENEY TODD, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” Stephen Sondheim’s popular Broadway musical, was executed flawlessly by student performers at Falls Church’s Meridian High School last weekend, directed by Shawn Northrip with the orchestra conducted by Mary Jo West. The dark theme of the show was subordinated by the superb singing voices of Addison Turner as Sweeney Todd, Mia Schatz as Mrs. Lovett, Gavin Jones as Anthony, Eudora Neal as Beggar Woman, J.P. Tysse as Judge Turpin, Hugo Ratheau as Beadle, Aubrey Marrow as Johanna, Marshall Vogel-Rogers as Tobias, Will Albaugh as Pirelli and Jack Kreul as Fogg. (News-Press Photo)
F.C. Planning Czar Jim Snyder Says He’ll Retire
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields announced this week that long-time City Planning Director Jim Snyder will be retiring this coming January. Snyder has been with the City since 2011 and has played a seminal role in the surge of new commercial and mixed use development that has
enriched the City over the last dozen-plus years. Snyder’s decision will further deplete the City’s talent pool at its higher administrative levels. Earlier this month, the Director of Planning Paul Stoddard announced he will be taking a job with the City of Alexandria and earlier this year Falls Church’s Director of Public Works Zak Bradley left
for a position as the public works chief operating engineer in Arlington County. The “brain drain” among three leaders at City Hall who played instrumental roles in the last decade’s extraordinary developments in the City has left some at City Hall concerned, the News-Press has learned. The talents of the three leaders applied to the major
challenges in Falls Church in the recent past has, among other things, clearly increased their value beyond what the Little City may have been able to offer in terms of compensation. Also, the administrative change at City Hall resulting in the elevation of two new persons to positions as deputy
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