April 30 — May 6, 2020
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F.C. Council Votes Steep Budget Cuts as Covid-19 Pandemic Lingers BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
Virginia’s Steady Infection Rate Leaves Area Jurisdictions in Limbo
Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields, in presenting a sharply-contracted Fiscal Year 2021 budget for the F.C. City Council’s preliminary approval,
said he chose not to mitigate the impact by dipping into the City’s sizeable undesignated fund balance reserves because, among other things, “We simply don’t know how bad this will be” as the year unfolds, implying that depending on how bad it gets, it
1st Wave of ‘Microgrants’ for F.C. Businesses Now Imminent BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
By a set of unanimous votes, Falls Church’s Economic Development Authority Tuesday night determined to provide up to $250,000 for emergency microgrants to the City’s small businesses to weather the current severe downturn in the economy due to responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. The plan was first unveiled to the F.C. City Council last week, but Tuesday night’s action extended the total funds available from $100,000 to $250,000 in grants of $2,000 to local businesses. The focus of the Economic Development Authority’s (EDA) program is to get the money into the hands of the struggling small businesses as fast as possible. Bob Young, local developer and chair of the EDA, commandeered Tuesday’s meeting toward
may be needed in a few months. Meeting remotely online Monday night, Shields was also straightforward in cautioning the Council not to expect Gov. Ralph Northam’s ban on economic activity to be lifted too soon. He said that Northam and his regional counter-
parts, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, are “aligned,” overall, in terms of how to respond to the Covid19 pandemic, and that all place “data over dates” in making decisions about beginning to reopen the economy. Northam’s initial
Executive Order 53 “expires on May 8,” he noted, but by the criteria all three leaders agreed to, that would undoubtedly be extended. They are all going by the “Gateway Criteria” laid out in the
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a series of resolute decisions to allow for the program to be implemented almost immediately. News of the program, and applications for those wanting to take advantage of it now available on the City’s website at choosefallschurch.org/EDAgrant began being unveiled the very next day, including with an ad in the NewsPress that appears in this edition. It followed another unanimous vote Tuesday night to authorize a series of public information ads over the next seven weeks in the News-Press. Grant applicants will be asked to provide minimal information. They will be asked to swear to affidavits asserting they qualify for the grants, including the fact that their annual gross receipts range between $50,000 and $500,000 a year, that they’ve suf- CITY OF FALLS CHURCH residents are well aware of those who are risking exposure to the fered at least a 50 percent drop in novel coronavirus while serving their roles as essential workers. Gestures of gratitude such
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as this one on a City doorway have become the norm nationwide throughout the duration of the pandemic. (P����: C������� J���� I�����)
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SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 8
SEE STORY, PAGE 4
Falls Church City Public Schools raised over $100,000 in less than two months since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis to help meet the needs of disadvantaged students and their families who are a part of the school system.
Infrared technology has been a lesser-known part of the crowd-monitoring capacity that Curt Westergard’s business, Digital Design & Imaging Services, uses to detect people with fevers while they’re waiting in lines outside of medical centers.
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Northern Virginia’s own “Rockin’ the Suburbs” podcast from Falls Church’s Patrick Foster and Ashburn resident Jim Lenahan will take their show to Jammin’ Java’s stage next Wednesday. SEE PRESS PASS, PAGE 14
INDEX Editorial............................................... 6 Letters................................................. 6 News & Notes............................10–11 Comment ............................... 7,12–13 Business News ................................. 14 Calendar ....................................18–19 Classified Ads ................................... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ......... 21 Crime Report .................................... 22 Critter Corner.................................... 22
