July 10 - 16, 2025
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV N o . 22
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
Plan Now A MINI-JURASSIC PARK To Phase Lincoln Ave. ‘Greening’ Costs Skyrocket Causing City to Revise Approach by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The prospect of massive cost increases has led the Falls Church public works staff to recommend a phased approach to fixing up one of the Little City’s most traveled public streets, a project known as the “Greening of Lincoln Avenue.” Lincoln Avenue, according to researchers of Falls Church’s colorful history, at one time was more prominent than it is today, once a major connecting road leading to western parts of Northern Virginia. It was the subject of an original article in the News-Press by the late Charlie Clark under the headline, “A Theory on Why a Southern Town Has a Lincoln Avenue” (FCNP, March 24, 2003). Long story short, it derives from the fact that a former Union soldier built an important home on the street, where an historical marker at 508 Lincoln identifies “The DePutron House.” The Falls Church City Council at its work session this
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IT WAS A LOT OF FUN at the mini-Jurassic Park organized by the new Paragon Theater crew in the public area of Founders Row last weekend designed to promote the new Jurassic Park movie now showing at the just-opened six-screen theater complex there (Photo: News-Press)
State Emergency Economic Board Faces Uncertainty
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The Emergency Committee on the Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions, the special group organized by the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates to evaluate conditions caused by the Trump administration’s federal worker layoffs and program cancellations, has as one of its leading members Del. Marcus Simon of Falls Church and environs. In an exclusive interview with the News-Press this week, Del. Simon discussed how the committee will move forward over the summer in preparing the General Assembly for
an array of emergency measures it may enact to mitigate the impact of Trump’s cuts not only for persons directly laid off, but for the ripple effects through the wider economy of the layoffs and commensurate declines in revenue. Simon told the News-Press that it is still too early to tell how profound the impact will be, but there are indicators that among the hardest hit areas is the health care industry, with massive cuts to Medicaid funding not only called for by Trump, but enacted in Congressional legislation passed last week and already signed into law. “We in Virginia have enjoyed the benefits of major government fund-
ing surpluses in recent years because of our economic growth, and now we may see those evaporate as the resources will be required to shore up areas of our economy hurt by the Trump cuts,” Simon said. The Emergency Committee has so far held four meetings around the state, in Richmond, Alexandria, Wytheville in southwest Virginia, and Norfolk. At those meetings, the 12 House delegates on the committee have taken in information about the impact of the cuts on local economic conditions along with recommendations for where the state might do best to help in the coming months. The next meeting will be back in Richmond on August 14 and will
be more focused on steps forward to take. By early September, if conditions are as bad as they appear, a special session of the entire legislature may be called to put some dramatic new programs into effect. Already, Simon said, the permanent staff of the House Appropriations Committee has been working on what kinds of emergency bills they may bring to a September special session. Also, analysts at the Weldon Cooper center at the University of Virginia have been tasked with devising strategies. By then, matters may be considerably more drastic as many federal
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