4-9-2015

Page 1

April 9 - 15, 2015

Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free

Founded 1991 • Vol. XXV No. 7

Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads

Inside This Week Another Challenger To Gross Announces

Community activist Mollie Loeffler, a former chair of the Mason District Council of Community Associations, has declared her plans to run as an independent for the Mason District Supervisor seat currently held by Penny Gross. See News Briefs, page 9

Creative Cauldron Performer Wins Award Alan Naylor, the male lead of last fall’s production by Falls Church’s Creative Cauldron troupe, was presented with the Helen Hayes Award for outstanding male actor in a musical for his role in “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.”

Detailed 400-Page Development Plan For New Land Goes to Secret Confab E aster F unday F.C. Council, Schools

Mull Legal Options on Unsolicited Proposal by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

get, inclusive of the School Board’s request, with the tax rate at $1.345. On top of a significant increase in housing assessed values across the City, and another year of a storm water fee, Councilman Phil Duncan said Monday that he senses there is “something different in the air this time” regarding the tax rate situation. “There is a level of anxiety and concern that is differ-

Members of the Falls Church City Council and School Board crammed into a City Hall conference room Monday night with their legal teams and City staff to discuss the unsolicited proposal last month for the build out of the 39 acres that was annexed by Falls Church as part of the swap that delivered the City’s water system into Fairfax County’s hands last year. During the two-hour behindclosed-doors “closed session,” although the intricately detailed parameters of the proposal, which takes up over 400 pages of briefing books, had been provided to all members of the Council and School Board, those details were not the focus of the discussion Monday night, Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields confirmed to the News-Press yesterday. Instead, the focus was consultations with City, schools and outside legal counsel on how to proceed from this point, given that the Clark proposal came to the City prior to its issuance of any “request for proposal.” (Of the over 400 pages of the submission, only 87 pages were made public this week, specifically lacking in details. Shields told the News-Press that no decision has yet been made when to make the totality of the proposal public.) The development team is operating under the name Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate LLC, with its principal component being the Clark Construction Group that had the point in the same kind of “private public partnership model” construction of

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See News Briefs, page 9

David Brooks: What Candidates Need

I have two presidential election traditions. I begin covering each campaign by reading a book about Abraham Lincoln, and I end each election night, usually after midnight, at the statue of the Lincoln Memorial. See page 14

Mustang Girls Soccer Improves to 5-0

The George Mason High School girls soccer team shut out Madison County, 9-0, Monday and then blanked Manassas Park, 8-0, Tuesday to push their record to 5-0 on the season. See Sports, page 24

THE TRADITIONAL EGG ROLL at the White House has nothing on the annual Easter Egg Hunt in Falls Church’s Cherry Hill Park, held last Saturday. More photos of The Little City tradition inside on pages 26 – 27. (Photo: Larry Golfer)

2 on Falls Church City Council Vow to Keep Current Tax Rate by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

Index

Editorial..................6 Letters..............6, 10 News & Notes.12-13 Comment........14-17 Calendar.........20-21 Food & Dining ......22

Sports .................24 Classified Ads .....28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........29 Critter Corner.......30

Two members of the Falls Church City Council during a work session at City Hall Monday night went on record opposing any increase in the real estate tax rate, a position that would leave the City short by over $1 million in its effort to fund community services and the schools at the levels City Manager Wyatt Shields and School

Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones and the School Board say are needed. The Council is moving toward the April 27 deadline to adopt its budget for the coming fiscal year, and a second public town hall meeting on the subject will be held this Saturday at the F.C. Community Center, 223 Little Falls, at 10 a.m. The current real estate tax rate is $1.305 per $100 of assessed valuation, and last month Shields presented his recommended bud-


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4-9-2015 by Falls Church News-Press - Issuu