March 22 – 28, 2018
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 N O. 5
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I����� T��� W��� F.C. P����� C���� S��� N� P��� ��� B��� C������ Implementing any kind of a body camera program in the City of Falls Church doesn’t fit the same need as it does for Fairfax County Police, says City of Falls Church Police Chief Mary Gavin.. SEE STORY, PAGE 5
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Falls Church City Hall is shutting down this Friday for 10 months or so as the renovation and expansion effort kicks into high gear and staff is now finishing its move into temporary office across the City.
Shields, Noonan Agreed Each Would Offer 3% COLA for Their Employees T��� �� S�����?
‘Deal’ for New Budget Was Cut in December, Hiking Schools’ Need
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
SEE STORY, PAGE 4
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Despite our differences, we devote our lives to the same experiment, the American experiment to draw people from around the world and to create the best society ever, to serve as a model for all humankind. SEE PAGE 14
W����’� H������ W��� E������ �� 2�� Y��� The second annual Falls Church Women’s History Walk took place last Sunday afternoon as hundreds of locals turned out to enlighten themselves on the historic contributions of City residents throughout its nearly 70 year history. SEE PHOTOS, PAGE 16
INDEX Editorial.................6 Letters...................6 News & Notes10–11 Comment ........ 12-14 Business News ...15
Calendar .......18–19 Classified Ads .....20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........21 Critter Corner......22
WITH THE OFFICIAL START to Spring on Tuesday, Falls Church residents were eager to welcome in the new season and its warmer temperatures. Mother Nature had other plans, however, and instead we got a boatload of snow. The fourth nor’easter of the month hit the East Coast and turned Wednesday into a snow day in The Little City, cancelling school and closing down the City government. Residents made the best of it, as they tend to do, taking to yards and hills and more around town to revel in the new and still-falling snow. Here, �ive-year-old Bridget Edwards creates a magni�icent Spring snow angel in Winter Hill Wednesday morning. (P���� ��������: K���� E������)
It came to light late in the combined Falls Church City Council and School Board budget work session Monday night that City Manager Wyatt Shields and School Superintendent Peter Noonan met in December and agreed that each would offer a 3 percent cost-ofliving salary increase for all the employees under their watch. The agreement, which is seen as a solid move to enhance concord in the City, in and of itself accounts for the discrepancy in the proposed Fiscal Year 2019 budgets for the City operational and School Board functions, a matter the Council will provide a preliminary vote on at its meeting this Monday night. Both Noonan and Shields confirmed the fact to the News-Press yesterday. Shields said, “We both expressed that it was important and a priority for us” to provide the increase, noting “it was in the context that we knew most peer jurisdictions in our region were planning to provide between 3 and 5 percent salary increases.” It was noted at last Monday’s work session that because the Schools employ more than twice the number of employees — teachers and all others — than the City, the cost of a three-cent salary increase would be $1.050 million for the Schools compared to $480,000 for the City. The differential between the two more than accounts for the fact the School budget request has been for a 2.8 percent increase in the current budget. While that increase is the smallest in many
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