Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
February 8 - 14, 2024 Fou n d e d 1991 • V ol. XXXIII No. 52
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
West End’s 1st New Building Is Finished
SWISHES COME TRUE
Wellness Center Building Delivery Feted at Event by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
An historic and monumental step forward for the City of Falls Church was marked yesterday at a celebration attended by all the City’s A List leaders and representatives of the development community to signal the completion and opening of the first completed building of the massive 10-acre West End development on the site for the former high school. The building is a six story, 125,000 square foot Class A building dedicated to medical services known as the Wellness Center of Falls Church. It faces directly onto Route 7 just southeast of the City’s academic cam- The MERIDIAN HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM celebrated Tuesday night with a win over Manassas Park on Senior pus that is home to the Meridian Night. See the full Story on Page 21. (Photo: Ryan McCafferty) High School and Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School. Among those present was Bob Young, chair of the City’s Economic Development by Nicholas F. Benton the snowy, icy conditions that an overview of the issues before the Council settled into some Authority, who said in remarks Falls Church News-Press lingered the two weeks before, the Little City and to offer some predictable warm-up exercises, to the News-Press, “This is the The focus was on the five and the Farmer’s Market across suggestions. designed to loosen minds and first office building constructed larger categories of the direc- the street in the parking lot of But when they were disContinued on Page 4 tion for the Council’s upcoming City Hall was teeming and pop- missed after about an hour, Continued on Page 3 year of work rather than on 77 ping, but none of that preventdiscrete work projects, as was ed the seven members of the the approach taken last year. Falls Church City Council from Camps & Schools Guide So it went with this year’s Falls convening a robust “retreat” in Church City Council “retreat” a freshly restored conference Saturday held at the Mary Riley room of the newly-renovatStyles Public Library. The ed Mary Riley Styles Public wider categories were identi- Library last weekend. fied as housing, multi-modal Actually, the opening session transportation, economic devel- of the 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. event opment, environment and gov- involved a lot more people, with ernance. a few dozen representatives of It was a sunny Saturday the City’s volunteer advisory morning in the City of Falls boards and commissions cramSee Pages 9-15 Church, a marked change from ming into the room to receive
Falls Church City Council Retreat’s Overview Approach
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