August 9 — 15, 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. 25
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Falls Church City Council member Letty Hardi reported to the Council Monday night that she’ll move to formalized a new parking task force for the City. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
Vote Today at BestOfFC.com! For details, see pages 12-13
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An 18-year-old Falls Church man was arrested after police say he broke into a house on S. Lee St. and stole electronics and credit cards after midnight last Sunday. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
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Michael Lee “Eugene” Walker, a chief engineer for Falls Church’s Hilton Garden Inn, passed away last Friday, July 27, 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 54. SEE PAGE 22
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Falls Church’s Creative Cauldron featured noted Broadway vocalist Kathy Halenda last weekend, who charmed audiences with an energetic reprise of brassy female roles from Mame to Sally Bowles. The theater group’s Summer Cabaret series continues on weekend nights into September. SEE NEWS & NOTES, PAGE 10
INDEX
Editorial............... 6 Letters................. 6 Business News ... 8 News & Notes 10–11 Comment ...... 14-15 Calendar ..... 18–19
Classified Ads ... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ........ 21 Crime Report ......22 Critter Corner....22
Deal Reached to Vacate 7-Eleven, Founders Row OK Vote Monday Mill Creek Says Groundbreaking for New Project to Be Set for Sept. 30
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
The Falls Church City Council is expected to take its final action at its only official business meeting of the month this coming Monday when it is expected to approve a major revision in the already-OK’d 4.3-acre Founders Row project. While it has been years in the making, with significant delays, the Mill Creek developers of the mega mixed-use project at the northeast intersection of W. Broad at N. West Streets in Falls Church say that with a favorable Council vote Monday, they’re prepared to break ground and begin construction by the end of September. In a lengthy briefing and Q-and-A period with the Council at its work session this week,
Sean Caldwell and Joe Muffler of Mill Creek announced that terms have been reached with the owners of the 7-Eleven at the site that will assure its vacation of its site by Sept. 30, resolving the last piece of the land assembly that has included the site of Ken Currle’s popular Sunoco station and other parcels held by the Shreve family. While there is no report on whether the 7-Eleven owners will relocate anywhere nearby, Currle has long-since made plans for a move, having already acquired a similar service station behind the Trader Joe’s just up Route 7 in Pimmit Hills. Mike’s Deli at Lazy Sundae has already reopened, as Lazy Mike’s Deli, at the site of the former Long John Silver’s on Beyer Automotive property in the 1000 block of W.
MILL CREEK’S key representatives, Joe Muffler (left) and Sean Caldwell, for the Founders Row project engaged the Falls Church City Council in an extensive work session on Monday. (P����: N���-P����)
Broad, the legendary Panjshir restaurant is already thriving at its new location in the Lily Shopping Center adjacent the historic Falls Church Episcopal
GMHS Project Update Forum Part of a Busy School Month
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
If you thought that school begins the day after Labor Day, think again. Try tonight, or almost any day since the first of August through the end of this month. Tonight the George Mason High School Athletic Boosters Association and school officials are scheduled to hold a parents’ night for fall sports at the Mustang Cafe on the GMHS campus as football practices have begun and yesterday varsity and JV field hockey matches were scheduled to be held at the Washington-Lee High School in
Arlington. Volleyball, cross country and golf are due to get underway on Monday, and according to the school’s calendar, its varsity football team will be set to open its season next Thursday, Aug. 16, at home against Park View. What’s the rush? A second varsity football game is also scheduled before classes begin, as well as three days for the senior photos that will presumably be in the school yearbook sometime in the spring. Is this seemingly accelerated schedule related to the plans to demolish the existing high
school plant and build an all new high school next July? But the demolition is not scheduled until after the end of the coming full school year and the campus will apparently remain untouched by the new school plans until then. So, anyway, the more traditional new teacher orientation and the pre-school full teacher and staff convocation are slated for Aug. 20 and 28, respectively, still before Labor Day. But less than two weeks after classes commence on Sept. 4 the high school Homecoming Dance is set for Sept. 15. That kind of event normally happens some time in early
and the Bikenetic bicycle shop is doing well at its new W. Jefferson St. location.
Continued on Page 4 November. Off campus, a very busy schedule of events is slated as the process leading up to the first day of construction for the new high school begins next July 19. Last weekend, the public was given another review of that at a “Sunday series” update forum led by Superintendent Peter Noonan and representatives of the chosen design-build team, Jennifer Macks of Gilbane Building with Derk Jeffrey and Bill Bradley of Stantec and Quinn Evans, architects, at the Mason auditorium. Bradley, an “education planning architect” for Stantec, made a compelling presentation on the rationales behind the proposed design of what he said will “not be your granddad’s, or even your, high school.”
Continued on Page 5