May 16 – 22, 2019
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. X XIX No. 13
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Home Sales Surge in Northern Virginia
Home sales last month in Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Fairfax City and the City of Falls Church reached a 14-year high for April, according to an Northern Virginia Association of Realtors report issued this week. See News Briefs, page 9
Petitions Circulating For F.C. Fall Elections
F.C. Council, School Board Both 7-0 OK’ing Massive West End Projects Authorize Signing for New High School & Big Mixed-Use Plan
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Three seats on the Falls Church City Council and School Board will be contested in November, and the deadline for candidates to file to be on the ballot is June 11. See News Briefs, page 9
F.C.’s Ebert Helps Ailing Artists Continue to Rock Jerry Darby first heard of music producer Jim Ebert in 1984 when the two were teenagers and Ebert briefly played in Darby’s older brother’s band. Little did Darby know that 33 years later, Ebert would play a role in saving his life. See page 13
Mason Girls End Season With Shutout
The Mason High girls soccer team blanked Clarke County in its regular season finale and looks towards the district tournament, starting next week. See Sports, page 12
A CAPITAL BIKESHARE station on E. Fairfax St. between The Falls Church Episcopal and the Lily building shopping center. A total of 10 Bikeshare stations were installed throughout the City which officially welcomed the program with a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday. (Photo: Nick Gatz/News-Press)
Bikeshare Gives Residents Another Way To Get Around the Little City
by Matt Delaney
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial................6 Letters.......... 6, 22 News & Notes.10–11 Sports............... 12 Comment....14–15 Calendar....18–19
Classified Ads... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword........ 21 Crime Report.... 22 Critter Corner.... 22 Business News.23
The City of Falls Church officially opened its Capital Bikeshare stations throughout the municipality on Monday, ushering in the latest step in the City’s vision to provide multimodal transportation options to residents just in time for the Bike to Work Day taking place this Friday across the Washington,
D.C. metro region. A total of 10 stations with 12 bikes docked at each location were identified as ideal spots in the City’s bicycle master plan back in 2015. According to City planner Kerri Oddenino, a ridership analysis with Foursquare determined where Bikeshare stations are most likely to be used, which included higher density residential and commercial areas as well as linking
up with pre-existing bike infrastructure and bike routes. The plan, according to Oddenino, was to distribute the stations anywhere from two to four blocks from each other in those targeted corridors. Currently, eight of the stations are located either along Washington St. or between Washington St. and Spring St.
Continued on Page 5
As expected following the approval granted by the Falls Church City Council the night before, the Falls Church School Board voted 7-0 Tuesday to authorize Superintendent Peter Noonan to ink the first of two “guaranteed maximum price” contracts with the development team of Gilbane, Stantec and Quinn Evans to ensure that construction of an allnew, state-of-the-art George Mason High School will commence with a groundbreaking ceremony on June 14, the day school lets out for the summer. A sizeable assemblage gathered at the Mustang Cafe of GMHS for the almost-ceremonial School Board meeting, culminating an arduous first phase of a process that began with Falls Church voters approving a $120 million bond referendum for the new school in November 2017. The new high school construction is scheduled to be completed for occupancy by December 2020. Present at Tuesday’s party-like special were most members of the Falls Church City Council, many school supporters including past School Board members, City staff and members of the development team, who applauded the vote and ate cake and posed for photos afterwards. It took Noonan three cracks at including by name all those he thanked for their work on bringing forward the project, in the end naming virtually everyone in the room except maybe some of the children on hand.
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