July 26 — August 1, 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 NO. 23
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Three variance requests by Don Beyer Motors needed to construct a new motor vehicle showroom at 1119 and 1121 W. Broad were approved last week. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
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Anti-semitic flyers from a branch of the Ku Klux Klan were found on the property of multiple residences along Marshall St. in the Fairfax County section of Falls Church earlier this week.
Trade War Worries Compel Project Developers to Buy Materials Early
F.C. Council Ratifies New School Contract In Unanimous Vote
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
SEE STORY, PAGE 11
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The verdict on the most galling week of an outrageous presidency is in, and it shouldn’t come as the shock that it does: Republicans forgive Donald Trump his surrender to Vladimir Putin, his siding with Russia over the United States, his puppy-dog performance in Helsinki — all of it. SEE PAGE 16
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Moving by yourself halfway across the country to try and make it in the music business is not an ideal scenario, but Amanda Shires found her way, against all odds. SEE PAGE 23
INDEX
Editorial............... 6 Letters................. 6 News & Notes12–13 Comment ...... 14-16 Crime Report ......15 Business News . 17
Calendar ..... 18–19 Classified Ads ... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ........ 21 Critter Corner....22
CHET DELONG, vice chair of the Mary Riley Styles Board of Trustees, presented his board’s decision to save time and money by closing the library during its renovation and expansion to the F.C. City Council this Monday. (P����: N���-P����)
Library Board OKs Closing Facility During Construction
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
The Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s board of trustees voted at its meeting last week to opt for a money and time-saving option to close the library during its renovation and expansion next year, except for certain functions that will be temporarily relocated. In the F.C. City Council’s vote Monday night to go ahead with the project, two critical design issues favored by the library board remained and were the subject of a robust discussion that led one Council member to vote “No.”
The issues remain unresolved for the time being, with Council members split on their personal preferences on the two matters Monday. The issues debated were the alternative options for the location of the front entrance to the new library, on the one hand, and whether the children’s programs should be centered on the main floor, or a lower level of the new structure. Council member Letty Hardi, with three children in the City schools, was an impassioned advocate for keeping the children’s programs on the main level, and the non-binding consensus of her colleagues, along
with the recommended preference of the library board, to pursue the other choice apparently prompted her “No” vote when the roll call occurred at the end of the discussion, although she made no specific comment on her vote. There are three community information sessions that have been scheduled for next Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 1 and 2, in the library conference room (Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Thursday at 9:30 a.m.) at 120 N. Virginia Ave., and Saturday, Aug. 4, at the Farmer’s Market at 9:30 a.m.
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With leaders of the City of Falls Church placing heavy expectations on the realization of major economic development projects in the coming years, the impact on them by possible trade wars being kicked off by President Trump has many of them quietly worried. It has not yet risen to the level of a major concern, except that the Gilbane Building Company, chosen this month to build the new George Mason High School it wants to start by next summer, indicated to the F.C. City Council Monday that it will begin to stockpile the materials needed for the project this fall. That may be a wise approach in any case, but now the impact of a trade war on cost and availability of timber, steel and other basic building blocks of construction is increasingly looming in people’s minds. In the case of Gilbane, it has until early next year to lock in a “guaranteed maximum price” for the high school project, and that price includes, of course, the cost of materials. It’s not only the school project, but there’s also the matter of the l0-acre economic development component of that project, the 4.3acre Founder’s Row mixed-use project by Mill Creek that is due for a groundbreaking (assuming it gets Council approval for its recent modification requests), the 2.8-acre Broad and Washington mixed-use project, the envisioned development of assembled Beyer Automotive properties on W. Broad, and WMATA’s plans for
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