Falls Church News-Press 7-29-2021

July 29 – August 4, 2021

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FOU N D E D 1991 • VOL. XXXI NO. 24

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New Public Health Mandates May Reach F.C. as a Result of Delta Variant Recent Rise in Covid-19 Infections Has Spurred Fairfax County to Consider Vaccine Mandate

BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

Fairfax County could require all of its 12,500 employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19 when they return to offices this fall. During

their meeting Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion

by Chairman Jeff McKay directing County Executive Bryan Hill to evaluate whether to implement a vaccine mandate for all the county’s

State Reps Head to Richmond To Discuss Federal $ Allocation

BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

The City of Falls Church’s delegation to the Richmond General Assembly that convenes in a special session next week — composed of the redoubtable duo of Sen. Richard Saslaw and State Del. Marcus Simon — will be carrying with them forceful documents from F.C. City officials that spell out priorities for what the City needs and how it intends to allocate the special Covid-19 pandemic relief funding it’s due.

The session, which Simon told the News-Press he hopes will last only a few days, is focused on that issue, as the state has been deployed by the federal government to parcel out its relief funds according to a formula.

Taken together from the Covid relief package, the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) “Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund,” signed

into law by the U.S. Congress, the City of F.C. is slated to get about $18 million, half of which hit its bank account earlier this summer, and half of which will come a year after that.

Following a meeting of the City Council’s Legislative Committee Tuesday, Deputy City Manager Cindy Mester is finalizing a document to submit to Saslaw and Simon to take to Richmond on Monday.

Overarching eligible uses for the funds (as delineated by the federal government) include responses to public health emergencies and negative economic impacts, premium pay for eligible workers, provision of government services to the extent of revenue reduction and investment in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

Prioritizing on the first and fourth of those eligible uses, the City staff focused on two

Continued on Page 5

government employees, who range from library staff and police to solid waste workers.

The recent significant uptick in the number of Covid-19 infections here and elsewhere in the U.S. is due almost entirely to its spread among

unvaccinated persons and the rapid rise of a new variant of the bug, the Delta variant, which is reportedly more virulent, both as contagious and disabling.

This week alone, the region’s seven day average for new daily

infections climbed to 1,028, five times the average in late June. In Fairfax County, the number was up to 67 on Tuesday, compared to three just one month earlier.

Continued on Page 4

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SOME LOCAL BUSINESSES never removed their notices from May that suggested unvaccinated or partially-vaccinated customers should wear masks in the store, such as FedEx in the Broaddale Shopping Center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its masking guidance for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in light of the Delta variant’s spread.

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SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9

Now 30 years of still-continuing consecutive weekly publications of the mighty Falls Church NewsPress, our circulation has never failed to include delivery to every household in the City of Falls Church.. Join us as we reflect on our history and the evolution of Falls Church.

SEE STORY, PAGE 11

George Mason was one of the founding fathers of both the nation and also of Virginia. Those honors are why he became the namesake of a high school in Falls Church, until it was decided Mason’s name will be dropped in favor of “Meridian” effective July 1.

Tonight’s Falls Church News-Press 30th Anniversary celebration will be at the Ireland’s Four Provinces restaurant, 105 West Broad St., in F.C., and will run from 6 – 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 at the door of the event.

SEE STORY, PAGE 3

INDEX

Editorial............................................... 6 Letters................................................. 6 Comment ...................................7,8,15 Crime Report ...................................... 8 News & Notes................................... 10 Calendar .....................................16-17 Business News ................................. 19 Classified Ads ................................... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ......... 21 Critter Corner.................................... 22

PAGE 2 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC OF THE PETITION OF VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY FOR APPROVAL OF A PLAN FOR ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION GRID TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS PURSUANT TO § 56-585.1 A 6 OF THE CODE OF VIRGINIA CASE NO. PUR-2021-00127 On June 21, 2021, Virginia Electric and Power Company (“Dominion” or “Company”) filed a petition with the State Corporation Commission (“Commission”) for approval of a plan for electric distribution grid transformation projects (“Petition”) pursuant to § 56-585.1 A 6 (“Subsection A 6”) of the Code of Virginia and the Commission’s Rules Governing Utility Rate Applications and Annual Informational Filings of Investor-Owned Electric Utilities, 20 VAC 5-204-5 et seq. Specifically, Dominion seeks approval of Phase II of its ten-year plan to transform its electric distribution grid (“GT Plan”), which consists of proposed projects in 2022 and 2023.

Dominion states that fundamental changes in the energy industry have prompted the need for electric utilities across the country to modernize their distribution grids. The total proposed investment associated with Phase II of the of the GT Plan is $669.4 million in capital investment and $109.5 million in operations and maintenance investments.

The Company states that Phase II of the GT Plan comprises 14 projects, including: (i) advanced metering infrastructure (“AMI”); (ii) the customer information platform (“CIP”); (iii) grid improvement projects, both grid infrastructure (2 projects) and grid technologies (6 projects); (iv) cyber and physical security; (vi) telecommunications; and (vii) customer education. The Company represents that many of the projects in Phase II of the GT Plan focus on facilitating the integration of distributed energy resources (“DERs”). The Company further represents that, in preparing the GT Plan, it evaluated each proposed project to determine whether any environmental justice concerns exist.

The Company states that in Phase I of the GT Plan, it has pursued projects focused on the vital objectives of grid reliability and security. The Company states that it plans to continue the non-pilot grid transformation projects in Phase II, including the CIP, physical security, and other projects.

According to Dominion, the primary focus of Phase II involves facilitating the integration of DERs. The Company proposes to deploy AMI and intelligent grid devices that will gather data and then will transmit that data in near real-time over a secure telecommunications network. The Company plans to fully deploy AMI across the service territory, and requests in Phase II to deploy approximately 1.1. million smart meters and associated infrastructure. The Company states that it also proposes to install systems that will manage and use this influx of data—a DER management system and an enterprise asset management system—as well as a system that will leverage the capabilities of intelligent grid devices to improve customer reliability through fault location, isolation, and service restoration functionality.

The Company also plans to deploy system-wide time-varying rates that will be available to all residential customers in 2024. Dominion represents that this plan and timeframe generally aligns with the completion of the new CIP and the system-wide deployment of AMI. The Commission entered an Order for Notice and Hearing that, among other things, scheduled public hearings on Dominion’s Petition. On October 8, 2021, at 10 a.m., the Commission will hold a telephonic hearing for the purpose of receiving the testimony of public witnesses, with no public witness present in the Commission’s courtroom.

On or before October 4, 2021, any person desiring to offer testimony as a public witness shall provide to the Commission (a) your name, and (b) the telephone number that you wish the Commission to call during the hearing to receive your testimony. This information may be provided to the Commission in three ways: (i) by filling out a form on the Commission’s website at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting; (ii) by completing and emailing the PDF version of this form to SCCInfo@scc.virginia.gov; or (iii) by calling (804) 371-9141. This public witness hearing will be webcast at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting.

On October 12, 2021, at 1 p.m., either in the Commission’s second floor courtroom located in the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or by electronic means, a the Commission will convene a hearing to receive testimony and evidence offered by the Company, any respondents, and the Commission’s Staff on the Company’s Petition. Further details on this hearing will be provided by subsequent Commission Order or Hearing Examiner’s Ruling.

The Commission has taken judicial notice of the recent public health emergency related to the spread of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, and the declarations of emergency issued at both the state and federal levels. In accordance therewith, all pleadings, briefs, or other documents required to be served in this matter should be submitted electronically to the extent authorized by 5 VAC 5-20-150, Copies and format, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, 5 VAC 5-20-10 et seq. (“Rules of Practice”). Confidential and Extraordinarily Sensitive Information shall not be submitted electronically and should comply with 5 VAC 5-20-170, Confidential information, of the Rules of Practice. Any person seeking to hand deliver and physically file or submit any pleading or other document shall contact the Clerk’s Office Document Control Center at (804) 371-9838 to arrange the delivery.

Pursuant to 5 VAC 5-20-140, Filing and service, of the Rules of Practice, the Commission has directed that service on parties and the Commission’s Staff in this matter shall be accomplished by electronic means. Please refer to the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing for further instructions concerning Confidential or Extraordinarily Sensitive Information.

An electronic copy of the public version of the Company’s Petition may be obtained by submitting a written request to counsel for the Company, Vishwa B. Link, Esquire, McGuireWoods LLP, Gateway Plaza, 800 East Canal Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or vlink@mcguirewoods.com.

On or before August 13, 2021, any person or entity wishing to participate as a respondent in this proceeding may do so by filing a notice of participation with the Clerk of the State Corporation Commission c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118 or at scc.virginia.gov/clk/efiling. Such notice of participation shall include the email addresses of such parties or their counsel. The respondent simultaneously shall serve a copy of the notice of participation on counsel to the Company. Pursuant to 5 VAC 5-20-80 B, Participation as a respondent, of the Rules of Practice, any notice of participation shall set forth: (i) a precise statement of the interest of the respondent; (ii) a statement of the specific action sought to the extent then known; and (iii) the factual and legal basis for the action. Any organization, corporation, or government body participating as a respondent must be represented by counsel as required by 5 VAC 5-20-30, Counsel, of the Rules of Practice. All filings shall refer to Case No. PUR-2021-00127.

On or before September 13, 2021, each respondent may file with the Clerk of the Commission, at the address above or at scc.virginia.gov/clk/efiling, and serve on the Commission’s Staff, the Company, and all other respondents, any testimony and exhibits by which the respondent expects to establish its case, and each witness’s testimony shall include a summary not to exceed one page. In all filings, respondents shall comply with the Rules of Practice, as modified herein, including, but not limited to, 5 VAC 5-20-140, Filing and service, and 5 VAC 5-20-240, Prepared testimony and exhibits. All filings shall refer to Case No. PUR 2021-00127.

On or before September 30, 2021, any interested person wishing to comment on the Company’s Petition may file comments by following the instructions on the Commission’s website: http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case or by filing such comments with the Clerk of the Commission at the address above. All such comments shall refer to Case No. PUR2021-00127.

Any documents filed in paper form with the Office of the Clerk of the Commission in this docket may use both sides of the paper. In all other respects, except as modified by the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing, all filings shall comply fully with the requirements of 5 VAC 5-20-150, Copies and format, of the Rules of Practice.

The public version of the Company’s Application and other documents filed in this case, the Commission’s Rules of Practice,and the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing may be viewed at: scc.virginia.gov/pages/Case-Information.

VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY D/B/A DOMINION ENERGY VIRGINIA

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PAGE 4 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

Unvaccinated People & Those Who Do Not Meet Exemption Criteria May Need Masks

Continued from Page 1

As Fairfax’s immediate neighbor, the City of Falls Church is currently watching what the county is doing very closely, F.C. City Manager Wyatt Shields told the News-Press this week. but no decisions have yet been made here.

That could change as early as next week, however, when the City Council convenes on Monday.

Shields said the Council may echo the Fairfax policy approach, which would be to task the chief executive (in F.C.’s case, Shields) with developing a policy. But given how fast things are moving on this, the implementation of a more rapid response may be forthcoming.

As of now, it is not until the Council’s Aug. 9 meeting that Colin Brody of the county’s health department will, once again, show up for a briefing of the Council on the development of the pandemic in this region. As the City of Falls Church falls within the county’s health district, the policies that impact the county are directly felt in the City.

“These matters are continually being discussed here,” Shields told the News-Press. “Our goal is to keep our employees and the public safe and the City moving forward.”

Decisions about general mandates are the purview of the governor’s office, and the City’s powers are limited to public properties and City employees.

In Fairfax’s case, Hill, the county executive, is now evaluating how to best carry out the policy the Board of Supervisors tasked him with earlier this week. Any mandates will allow for health and religious exemptions, but would require that all who don’t get vaccinated or meet the exemption criteria either wear masks or agree to weekly testing.

“Getting vaccinated is an act of public charity,” McKay said. “It’s not just about protecting you, but protecting everyone that you work with, every county resident that seeks our services, and everyone that works in our community.”

He added, “Keep in mind there are thousands of kids in elementary school who don’t have the luxury of

getting vaccinated. We need to do it for them.”

In a statement to his board this week, McKay said, “In a little less than eight months, the Fairfax County Health Department, along with trusted partners across the community, have vaccinated over 75 percent of people 18 and older against Covid-19.

“This is a major accomplishment that we all should be proud of. In addition, we have made huge strides in vaccinating our Black and Brown communities that were hardest hit by Covid-19 through equity clinics and one-on-one engagement. We know, however, that our work is far from done, as we continue to vaccinate as many people as possible,” he wrote.

He continued, “We know vaccinations save lives. Significant evidence shows that the vaccine is safe and effective against most Covid-19 hospitalizations and death.

“As a local government, we serve residents every day in a variety of ways. None of us wanted to be in this position, but as we are seeing the Delta variant surging in unvaccinat-

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM ity to do so is dependent on people getting vaccinated and feeling safe.

“As the county executive finalizes his return to in-person work for our employees this fall, I move that we thoroughly explore Covid-19 vaccine requirements for all Fairfax County employees, and to consider a requirement mandating face masks and weekly testing for those employees who do not meet exemptions and continue to refuse the vaccine.”

ed communities across the country we, as a county, have to do all we can to protect our community and will work to continue to increase vaccination rates, including that of our employees.

“We must keep in mind that our youngest children remain exposed to Covid-19 because they are unable to be vaccinated. We all know how important it will be to fully reopen schools and our economy. Our abil-

Status Update on Monday, July 26 City of Falls Church Vaccine Data Date

Doses Administered

Monday, July 26

17,780

Monday, July 19

17,695

Monday, July 12

17,640

At Least One Dose

9,524* (65.2% of population) 9,482* (64.9% of population) 9,501 (65.0% of population)

End of June

16,836 15,516

8,768

(60% of population)

8,722

(59.2% of population)

8,608 (58.9% of population)

9,447 (64.6% of population)

End of May

Fully Vaccinated

8,423 (57.6% of population)

9,813 (61% of population)

7,033 (48.1% of population)

*This data point is lower than the previous week because VDH discovered the individuals were outside the City limits, in the Fairfax County part of Falls Church.

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LO CA L

JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 | PAGE 5

Stormwater Assistance One of the Top Preferences for Federal Funding

Continued from Page 1

approaches, long-term transformational impact and social equity and resilience to public health emergencies, with stormwater and sanitary sewer improvements and improvements to public spaces the two top priorities, followed by broadband, assistance to residents and improvements to City facilities next.

The allocation of funds coming out of the Richmond special session will involve collaboration with the F.C. City Public Schools, dissemination of information to the public and a town hall meeting in September.

F.C. Councilman David Snyder, head of the Council’s Legislative Committee, said in a statement yesterday, “The key to state funding is not just the general overall priorities but the formulas used to deliver the funds.

So we are focused not only on the general categories that will be discussed and decided upon in Richmond but also how the funds under each category are actually delivered to localities.”

Mester told the News-Press

that “per capita and direct allocation formulas benefit the City the best,” as well as programs that target vulnerable at-risk communities.

In some cases, she said, funds would simply be allocated, in others there will be a competitive process.

Overall, stormwater assistance is at the top of the City’s list of priorities then heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and other improvements to the schools, small business assistance and workforce development.

Involved are emergency assistance (including rent and utility assistance), human services grants for financial assistance, food and software to assist vulnerable populations (through the Community Services Fund), assistance for sewer delinquent accounts, recreation and parks and daycare, business grants, school mental health services, school testing and vaccinations, personal protective equipment, general government testing and vaccinations, pandemic related HVAC or facility modifications,

STATE SENATOR DICK SASLAW (left) and Delegate Marcus Simon (second from right), attend a Labor Day campaign event in 2019. The two will be going to Richmond for a special session next week focused on how to spend federal relief money. (Photo: News-Press) installation of permanent mail drop boxes, contactless plumbing fixtures for restrooms, pandemic facility security at City Hall and the library, homeless shelter pan-

demic related modifications, contactless traffic signal control and a contactless recycling center.

Also included is essential worker supplemental pay for

front line staff including public safety, public health, maintenance workers and other staff interfacing directly with the public during the pandemic.

PAGE 6 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 

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Vol. XXXI, No. 24 July 29 – August 4, 2021 • City of Falls Church ‘Business of the Year’ 1991 & 2001 • • Certified by the Commonwealth of Virginia to Publish Official Legal Notices • • Member, Virginia Press Association •

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WWW.FCNP.COM The Falls Church News-Press is published weekly on Thursdays and is distributed free of charge throughout the City of Falls Church and the Greater Falls Church area. Offices are at 105 N. Virginia Ave.., #310, Falls Church, VA 22046. Reproduction of this publication in whole or part is prohibited except with the written permission of the publisher. ©2021 Benton Communications Inc. The News-Press is printed on recycled paper.

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E D I TO R I A L

Anti-Vax Foolery Endangers Us All

Once again, ignorance and damned foolishness is endangering all of us. Active resistance to Covid-19 vaccines such as we’ve seen from conservative pundits, including Fox News, and many leading pro-Trump Republicans, has resulted in a new surge of the deadly Covid-19 virus and its latest even-more contageous delta variant, triggering five-fold and higher surges in new infections and hospitalizations in just the last week. These purveyors of conscious disinformation, in the face of medical facts and readily available, highly effective, protective vaccines, must face ruthless legal consequences, including massive class action lawsuits that drive these cruel enemies of innocent people out of business, at least, and into the slammer more appropriately.

It has been well documented that America’s strategic adversaries, once again the Russians in particular, have been actively egging on the anti-vax mentality in the U.S., seeing it as another way of weakening the U.S. by encouraging a raging deadly pandemic to wreak havoc on the national economy.

The growing anger across the American population with this misinformation comes from the obvious reason that we are already being asked to revert to earlier practices of mandatory mask wearing, a genuine nuisance that most of us were willing to cheerfully endure. But that was then. Now it is much less amusing, and many are vowing to resist the latest recourse back to masking indoors, even for fully vaccinated persons. But once again we must emphasize, it is not any political or policy force driving this reversal, but the damned virus itself.

Unless and until enough people get it into their heads the importance of getting the vaccine, we are all still at risk. This is not a walk in the park.

Anyone who has experienced this illness, or has been a family member go through it, knows how brutal it is, far, far more painful than even a powerful flu, and too often deadly for many. Science now knows that even fully vaccinated persons can still carry and spread the virus, especially the potent delta mutation, and can too easily bring it home to kill a loved one.

So, we must be troopers, quit complaining and stand strong against this ongoing threat, setting the kind of example that will inspire others to emulate us.

It’s just the way it is. We may be battle weary, but as in an actual war situation (which this is), if the enemy comes at us with yet another offensive, we have no choice but to rise to the occasion and stand against it. Again, it is necessary to remain focused on the fact that it is this deadly virus that is the adversary, no person or political entity per se.

We are completely sympathetic with the calls, and policy decisions, for mandatory vaccinations, and urge their wider applications.

While we fear the impact on the economy, as long as there remain enough fools opposed to vaccinations, we will all suffer.

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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Use Federal Funds To Build Affordable Housing for Families In Need Editor, As you reported last week, both Virginia and Falls Church city must now decide priorities for one-time expenditure projects to be funded from the American Rescue Plan (ARPA). Virginia will receive some $4.3 billion and Falls Church City around $15 million. I write to support a transformational investment in affordable housing proposed by VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement).

After four months of study, VOICE urges that at least 10 percent of Virginia’s share, $430 million, be used to produce affordable housing for families with incomes below 30 percent of area median income (AMI).

This amount could create over 6,000 affordable units across the Commonwealth.

The need for such housing is immense. In 2018, 70 percent of Virginia’s 246,000 extremelylow-income renters paid more than half of their income for rent, and there was an overall shortage of almost 160,000 units affordable to them.

With Covid, the situation has only worsened since then. VOICE asks that we send hundreds of emails to Governor Northam sup-

1. Keep the news clean and fair.

2. Play no favorites, never mix business and editorial policy.

3. Do not let the news columns reflect editorial comment.

4. Publish the news that is public property without fear or favor of friend or foe.

5. Accept no charity and ask no favors.

6. Give “value received” for every dollar you take in.

7. Make the paper show profit if you can, but above all keep it clean, fearless and fair.

Appreciation for Walt Whitman/Falls Church Historical Connection

Editor, Thanks for the Walt Whitman poem and question whether this could have been referencing our historic Falls Church. Being both a Civil War and Walt Whitman enthusiast, I’ll leave that question to the scholars. But what did strike me is how relevant this is to our times as I think of all the hospital wards filled with Covid patients, exhausted doctors and nurses, grieving families and dying words.

I’m glad I live in this century and not the past, but we still are dealing with life and death situations of our own making or those of a virulent virus. It gives me pause.

Laurie B. Hall Falls Church

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porting this urgently needed proposal before the special session of the General Assembly opens on August 2.

I was a housing economist at HUD who documented the U.S. growth in families with such severe rent burdens from 2.5 million in 1978 to 3.6 million in 1999 before I retired. But since 2000, that number had surged to 7.3 million in 2015. I therefore strongly endorse VOICE’s recommendation and urge everyone concerned about affordable housing to email Governor Northam.

Kathryn P. Nelson Falls Church

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JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 | PAGE 7

My Enduring Friendship with Nick Benton & the News-Press B� D�� B����

I read a fascinating, if discouraging, survey this week comparing the number of friendships we have today versus that of 30 years ago.

The number of those who confess to having zero friends has increased from three percent to 13 percent, while those boasting 10 good friends or more has fallen from 33 percent to 12 percent.

I dare not wade into sociology, psychology, and cultural anthropology to explain these numbers; I just count my every friendship as a true blessing and try to remember that friendships require effort to get outside of ourselves to engage in the lives of other people.

Nick Benton has been a friend of mine for more than 30 years. He is relentless, indefatigable, creative, entrepreneurial, and yes, even opinionated. Nick is also among the most loyal persons I have ever known.

For these three decades, Nick Benton has been fiercely loyal to the citizens of Falls Church.

He has categorized our births and deaths, graduations and weddings, new buildings and old history. Our very sense of community, in this fractured world of social media, remote work, and creeping friendlessness, has been enhanced and reinforced every Thursday by Nick’s Falls Church News Press and his unique voice.

Many have written about the tragic

disappearance of local newspapers around the country. Despite a shaky business environment for the industry, regardless of national trends, Nick Benton has persisted in giving us, every week, a reason to read about this singular Little City. He gives us the glue — along with the school system of world-class excellence — to

“Nick Benton has been a friend of mine for more than 30 years. He is relentless, indefatigable, creative, entrepreneurial, and yes, even opinionated.

Nick is also among the most loyal persons I have ever known.” come together as a community.

Thank you, Nick! Thank you, Falls Church News Press, for giving us an important way to connect with the neighbors around us. Thank you for expanding our own circles of friends. *** It’s always nice when I am able to

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[WRITE FOR THE PRESS]

share good news, and this July delivered some. As many are aware, in mid-July most families began receiving monthly Child Tax Credit payments.

The enhanced Child Tax Credit provides eligible families a total of $3,600 for each child under the age of six, and $3,000 for each child between the ages six and 17.

Payments began going out on July 15, with qualifying families seeing monthly payments of up to $300 per child under six and up to $250 per child 6-17 years old.

Most families who filed taxes in the last two years will receive this tax cut automatically for the next year. The IRS launched a new portal that will allow those not required to file taxes normally to input their information to receive Child Tax Credit Payments. Those interested in learning more about the Child Tax Credit can visit ChildTaxCredit.Gov. These payments, passed as part of the American Rescue Plan, will reach an estimated 100,000 children in our district. Estimates released by the House Appropriations Committee find that 7,500 of those children will be lifted out of poverty, contributing to the larger goal of the legislation to lift half of all American children out of poverty.

I am very proud of the expanded Child Tax Credit, and helped pass it via the House Committee on Ways and Means.

I believe the credit will help rebuild our

economy from the bottom up. Like the larger bill in which it passed, this tax cut has proven so popular that even some of those who voted against it have touted its benefits.

While the initial expansion of the credit in the American Rescue Plan only lasts for one year, it is one of my top priorities in upcoming legislation to make the measure permanent.

These payments will help parents pay for housing, put food on the table, and cover the costs of health and child care — all essentials which every American deserves.

The enhanced Child Tax Credit is a new approach after Republican tax cuts for the very rich driven by trickle down economics. These tax cuts ensure that benefits reach those who need them most.

This is the smart way to build our economy: from the bottom up.

Stormwater/sanitation 37.29% Don Beyer is a U.S. Congressman for the 8th District of Virginia, which includes the Public spaces 25.42% City of Falls Church.

Other 25.42% Not sure 11.86% W���

Last Week’s Question: How should F.C. City prioritize spending its federal relief $?

38% Stormwater/sanitation 25% Public spaces 25% Not Sure

12% Not Sure

FCNP On-Line polls are surveys, not scientific polls.

The News-Press welcomes readers to send in submissions in the form of Letters to the Editor & Guest Commentaries. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 350 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four weeks. Guest Commentaries should be no more than 800 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four months. Because of space constraints, not all submissions will be published.

All submissions to the News-Press should be original, unpublished content. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, grammar and accuracy. All submissions should include writer’s name, address, phone and e-mail address if available.

CO MME NT

PAGE 8 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

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News of Greater Falls Church

By Supervisor Penny Gross

“Wandering” shopping carts are an ongoing problem in the Bailey’s Crossroads area and other commercial sectors of Mason District. Shopping carts, once the exclusive province of grocery stores, are provided as a convenience at many popular shopping centers.

The convenience that shoppers enjoy inside the store was never meant to be a “take home” gift but, unfortunately, some shoppers use the cart in lieu of a car to take purchases home.

Once home, what happens to the cart? It gets left at the corner, or at the bus stop, where it seems to attract other carts, blocks the sidewalk, and some, eventually, may end up in local streams.

A shopping cart is not inexpensive — I’ve heard estimates of $300 and up — so why don’t store owners do more to ensure that their carts don’t leave the parking lot, or make an effort to round up strays in nearby neighborhoods? Seems like cart retrieval actually could become a small business opportunity for someone.

To address the issue of abandoned shopping carts, the Board of Supervisors sought the assistance of the Virginia General Assembly (GA) for enabling legislation that would grant enforcement authority to the county.

In the 2020 session, the GA passed legislation that would allow the county to issue a Notice of Violation to the owner of an abandoned cart.

If the cart remained abandoned for 15 days, the county could remove it and charge the owner up to $300 per cart removed. The legislation further allowed a penalty of up to $500 for any person who “possessed” a cart outside of the premises of the cart owner.

The 2020 legislation does not require busi-

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nesses to collect their offsite shopping carts unless a Notice of Violation has been issued and fines are collected.

It also does not require businesses to have an abandoned cart prevention plan to prevent removal from the premises. Finally, the 2020 legislation does not allow the county to establish a more effective ordinance that meets the needs of Fairfax County and its residents.

The Board’s Land Use Policy Committee considered the pros and cons of a draft ordinance at its meeting on July 20, 2021 and determined that neither the enabling legislation nor the draft ordinance will provide relief from abandoned shopping carts in our communities.

Enforcement would be very difficult — a cart could stay on the corner for 15 days! — and many carts no longer have the store name attached, making ownership hard to prove.

Enforcement probably would require additional staff and equipment — at taxpayer expense — as potential fines would not come close to covering the expenses incurred by the county.

The real solution to wandering shopping carts rests with the store owners and managers. Shopping cart losses can affect the bottom line, so it is puzzling why the responsible parties aren’t doing more to resolve the issue.

Perhaps a friendly chat from their customers (talk with the manager, not the clerk) could move them to action. It’s all part of good business!  Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov.

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CRIME REPORT Week of July 19 – 25, 2021

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Drunk in Public, Roosevelt Blvd, July 19, 6:41 AM, a male, 19, of Falls Church, was arrested for Drunk in Public.

Larceny of Vehicle Parts, Roosevelt Blvd, July 21, between 2 and 7:30 AM, unknown suspect(s) , smashed the front passenger window of a vehicle, rifled through it, and removed all four wheels.

Larceny of Vehicle Parts, Roosevelt Blvd, between 5 PM, July 20 and 7:20 AM, July 21, unknown suspect(s) removed the catalytic converter from a vehicle.

Larceny of Vehicle Parts, Roosevelt Blvd, between 8:30

Drunk in Public, S Washington St, July 23, 10:11 PM, a male, 63, of no fixed address, was arrested for Drunk in Public and Trespassing.

PM, July 20 and 9:36 AM, July 21, unknown suspect(s) removed all four wheels from a vehicle.

Larceny of Vehicle Parts, Roosevelt Blvd, between 8:30 PM, July 20 and 9:30 PM, July 21, unknown suspect(s) removed the catalytic converter from a vehicle.

Driving Under the Influence, N Oak St/ W Broad St, July 23, a male, 30, of Falls Church, was arrested for Driving under the Influence and Refusal.

Robbery, Broad St, July 22, a known suspect took victim’s car by threat of force.

Trespass, E Fairfax St, July 23, 1:54 PM, a male, 63, of no fixed address, was issued a summons for trespassing.

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NEWS BRIEFS Walk-Ins Welcome at FCNP Event Tonight

Fairfax County Schools to require face masks

Tonight’s Falls Church News-Press 30th Anniversary celebration at the Ireland’s Four Provinces restaurant, 105 West Broad St., in F.C., will run from 6 – 8 p.m. and feature brief remarks

by Falls Church Mayor David Tarter, Fairfax Supervisor John Foust, and U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer, Jr. Tickets for $30 remain available through fcnp.com/30thanniversaryticket or at the door, although advanced purchases will help the restaurant prepare for the turnout.

Face masks are now required when students are inside Fairfax County Public School buildings, regardless of an individual’s vaccination status, the school district announced this Wednesday morning.

FCPS shared its plans for mask-wearing and other health protocols in an email to families and staff and on its Return to School webpage.

“Masks are an essential tool in preventing the spread of Covid-19 and protecting those unable to be vaccinated,” the message says. “To ensure a safe start to the school year, masks will be required for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, inside FCPS buildings.”

The announcement comes a week after Virginia’s health and education departments released new guidance giving local school systems discretion to determine their own mask rules, though the state recommended that elementary schools at least adopt universal masking with children younger than 12 still not eligible to get vaccinated.

A statewide mandate requiring all children 5 and older to wear masks while in school expired on Sunday, July 25.

According to a graphic on the FCPS website, fully vaccinated staff will not be required to wear masks when no students are present in a school building, and masks will not be required for either vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals outdoors.

Va. Redistricting Group Still Seeking Input Following an in-person public hearing for the Northern Virginia region at George Mason University Tuesday, the Virginia Redistricting Commission tasked with advising on changes to the state’s electoral boundaries, is still seeking public input and will hold a full meeting in Richmond next Tuesday in conjunction with the convening of a special session of the legislature.

All meetings, including last Tuesday’s and next Tuesday’s, will be broadcast or archived on the commission’s Youtube site.

Tuesday’s meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in the Pocahontas Building, 900 E. Main, near the state capitol.

Anti-Transgender Suits Dismissed in Court Tuesday afternoon, a judge in the Lynchburg judicial circuit dismissed high-profile lawsuits brought by the Christian Action Network challenging the Virginia Department of Education’s model policy protecting transgender students. In response, Karl Frisch, the Fairfax County School Board’s Providence District representative and first openly LGBTQ member, released the following statement: “Hate and bigotry have no place in our schools. The court was right to dismiss these misguided lawsuits, which amounted to little more than a cruel attempt to turn the clock back and strip transgender students of critical protections. Adopting policies that align with the Virginia Department of Education’s guidance helps demonstrate our commitment to the success and safety of all students.”

Creative Cauldron Presents Indigo Boulevard & No Part of Nothin’ Creative Cauldron continues the 2021 Summer Cabaret and Concert Series in an all outdoor format with adherence to social distancing protocols on a pop up stage in Cherry Hill Park.

Performances are scheduled for every Friday and Saturday through August and feature a talented array of performers and bands. Friday July 30, in a homecoming of sorts, Falls Church City’s own Indigo Boulevard take the stage, and on Saturday, bluegrass pickers No Part of Nothin’ bring their celebrated country covers and originals to Cherry Hill Park. Tickets for outdoor concerts are $30 General Admission, and all concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in Cherry Hill Park at the Falls Church Community Center.

Patrons are welcome to bring lawn chairs and picnics, and parking is free.

JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 | PAGE 9

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Since 1991, the News-Press has been on a mission to provide independent and honest journalism to the Falls Church community. We recognize and appreciate the support the City, its businesses and residents have shown us for the past 29 years.

Never before has the fight to ensure a free press been more important.

Visit FCNP.com/members to become a member of the News-Press today

PAGE 10 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

C�������� N��� � N���� Juror Qualification Process To Begin This August The Arlington Circuit Court, which includes the City of Falls Church, will soon begin its annual juror qualification process. Juror questionnaires will be mailed in early August to randomly selected residents of Arlington County and Falls Church. Questionnaires are used to qualify residents for jury duty which will begin January 1, 2022 and will end December 31, 2022.

Questionnaire recipients are selected from registered voter rolls provided by the State Board of Elections. Jury Commissioners appointed by the Court review the questionnaires to determine eligibility for service according to criteria established by the General Assembly. For more information about jury duty, visit the Jury Duty page at courts.arlingtonva. us/circuit-court/jury-duty.

Some facts about jury service: Normal term of service is one day or one trial; the average length of a trial is 1 or 2 days, but some can last longer; jurors must be available between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. during their service period; subject to change by the Court; jurors receive $30 each day they report for reimbursement of expenses.

Gardening With a Cause This Season Grow a Row, a communitywide effort in Northern Virginia to grow fresh, donatable produce, has partnered with Fresh Food

Connect to engage home gardeners in food insecurity relief through the use of a mobile app that coordinates donations from local gardens to non-profit groups working to address hunger relief on a local scale.

In zip codes across the country, home gardeners will be able to easily arrange for extra produce to be picked up from their doorstep or delivered to local organizations providing free groceries. Grow a Row, based in Falls Church, supports backyard and community gardeners in Northern Virginia with free seeds, plants and mentorship with the aim of boosting donations to food banks and food pantries.

Visit growarowfc.com to learn more about Grow a Row and their efforts and visit freshfoodconnect.org/gardeners-2021 to sign up for the app.

Fairfax Parks Deems Justice Park Plan “Unacceptable” In a statement released July 20, the Fairfax County Park Authority stated that the “[Fairfax County Public Schools] proposal is simply not acceptable” for its plan to expand public parking access outside Justice High School. The proposal, as it was originally constructed, would have carved out some land in the adjacent park to make room for more parking space.

The statement continued “... we believe the schools are working to find a solution that meets the school’s and community’s

A NEW MURAL on the side wall of the Bike Club, owned by Phuoc Pham, was created by student artist Shelby Bavin, with help from her boyfriend Ryan Reyes. (P���� ��������: S���� ��� S����) needs. We do not know the details of the alternatives; however, we stand ready to work collaboratively with the school system to consider possibilities.”

F.C. VFW Post Earns National Award Falls Church VFW Post 9274 recently received an All American Recognition award from the National VFW for its leadership

and membership growth. “All American,” a national award, one of the highest a post can receive, distinguishes it as one of the very best in the country.

“Having recently received all state was an achievement in and of itself, but to learn we have earned All American as a Nationally recognized top post is an honor beyond words” said Post Commander Aiden WestCruz. The VFW Post is entering

its 75th year in 2022 and has substantially increased its membership over the previous year as well as donations and local participation in community service events.

Post 9274 is among the youngest of the VFW Posts in regards to its member demographics.

Over 30% of its Members and Leadership Team have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other recent engagements.

For More Information About Careers, Education, Medical Benefits and More Call/Text: Staff Sergeant James TureKruse

(571) 274-3217 Or visit: AIRFORCE.COM

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 | PAGE 11

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FALLS CHURCH NEWS­-PRESS’ FIRST 30 YEARS

By Nicholas F. Benton

After 30 years of still-continuing consecutive weekly publications of the mighty Falls Church NewsPress, our circulation has never failed to include delivery to every household in the City of Falls Church.

This report is an updated revision of one I wrote for the newspaper’s 25th anniversary five years ago. The outlook remains the same as then, and for many years before that. In the last five years, we’ve gone through a one term presidency of the nation’s worst ever and a violent insurrection in January. Who knows what else is in store? But we survived five years of the media being relentlessly attacked by the president of the U.S. as purveyors of lies and “fake news” when in fact it was the perpetrator of those attacks who was, and is, doing the real lying, outrageous lying that has poisoned the political landscape of the U.S. Over the period of these last five years, as owner-editor of the NewsPress who has written every editorial since Day One on March 28, 1991 and a weekly national political affairs column every week without fail since early 1997, I have been relentless in my exposés and sharp criticisms of this immediate past president.

Ten of my national affairs columns published consecutively this spring have just been published as a separate pamphlet, “The January 6, 2021 Capitol Sacking: Putin’s Role.”

It makes a very compelling case of what is referenced in the title, and I commend it to all.

Having been fighting the good fight for the moral and ethical role of an independent media under the Trump cloud these past five years, and able to stay in business as the Covid-19 pandemic has taken its terrible toll, we come to our 30th anniversary battle worn, but proud and happy to still be here, working on consecutive weekly edition number 1,575 and counting.

So, what follows here is, with revisions for dates and numbers, how I characterized our powerful little newspaper’s role and impact in March of 2016: It’s with a profound sense of humility and appreciation that I am writing this short history of the Falls

TWO OF THE YOUNG NEWS-PRESS' lions from its first year holding forth at the 1992 Memorial Day Parade and Festival: Nate Martin (left) and Danny O"Brien.

Church News-Press’ first (now) 30 years.

1. THESE LAST 30 YEARS

In the midst of our challenging first year of publication, in December 1991, the News-Press was honored by the Falls Church City Council, being named “Business of the Year” for 1991. At an event to honor local businesses with a series of awards, including ones for businesses marking their 25th anniversaries in the City, when it was announced that the News-Press was winner of the “Business of the Year,” I came forward to accept, being duly touched by the honor, and said that while I was overwhelmingly grateful, the award I really wanted was one for 25 years of service in the City. So you can see why the 25th anniversary held such

special meaning for me. Some may judge what follows here as a bit of a tooting of our own horn, but I intend it as a crowing with happiness for all that has happened.

I hope readers will enjoy perusing the front pages from those first five years (published by us as a separate volume on our 25th anniversary and still in print). There was a lot of contention in those early days of the News-Press dealing with a divided City Council, the disposition of land that was eventually sold to the University of Virginia for a dollar, the eviction of the food for the needy distribution program out of the old high school site in the dead of winter, the “Taco Wars” over the proposed location of a Taco Bell where a long-abandoned old gas station used to be (which is indicative of how tough development of any sort was in those days), and major triumphs such as the Chamber of Commerce’s endorsement of the

School Board budget request, which I take particular pride in helping to engineer as president of the Chamber at the time, and which I believe was a watershed moment for the City to fundamentally change the relationship between the City’s businesses and the wider community, opening the way for the kind of much more robust development that began in the early 2000s.

(To set the stage for all this, the City of Falls Church is an independent jurisdiction with its own taxing authority under Virginia law that sits on 2.2 square miles inside the Washington, D.C. Beltway, sandwiched between Fairfax County with a population of over a million, and Arlington County with 230,000 or so. Falls Church had a population of 9,500 in 1991, was 13,300 in 2016 and estimated to be over 15,000 now.

Almost everyone here works for the federal government or institutions trying to influence it. The CIA head-

quarters is right up the street, and the Pentagon is a few miles south.

It is more than five miles on the interstate highway, I-66, that runs by Falls Church to the Potomac River and the Washington, D.C. border, and there are two Metro subway stations next to it that hook it up to the entire region. Falls Church has the highest percentage of persons with college or advanced degrees of any jurisdiction in the U.S., and the highest household income, as well, although that is due to a lot of two-income households and few are filthy rich, as far as I know. The demographics trend to white, older and politically progressive, but not entirely so on any of those three at all. It is getting younger as the reputation of the schools is drawing younger families and record enrollments in the school system. Overall, this is a tough audience to play for, and that has been a big part of the challenge and the fun).

PAGE 12 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

The past 30 years owning, operating and participating in the process of producing almost 1,575 consecutive weekly editions of the mighty Falls Church News-Press, have been far and away the happiest and most fulfilling of my life. It has not always been sweetness and light, as an independent newspaper and opinionated editor must expect to take the brunt of a lot of disdain from those who don’t always agree with it, but that is far more than offset by the unexpected kindness and appreciation often expressed

ian High just this year) in 1992. The first, a lad named Nate Martin, has just this year turned 45, if he doesn’t mind my saying so, still adoring his high school sweetheart, and sharing two children with her. He was first in the long list. Among them along the way have been Andrew Turner, who came on board in 1993 and now after finishing college worked in Budapest and London as a tax accountant for major multinational corporations (and who started by helping me to send out bills to our advertisers every week).

FCNP TU R NS 3 0 Edwards, Bill Johnson, Joe Driver, Paul Greenberg, Brian Boyle, Vicki Rhoden, Drew Maier, Teddy Wiant, Nathan Hamme, Joel Hardi, Isaac Blake, Jason Motlagh, Michael Cary, Adam Chandler, Beau Fay, James Tatum, Chris Geurtsen, Sean Nannery, Dan Arnaudo, Paul Arnaudo, Andrew Goetting, Eric Jacobs, Mo Sadeghi, Alaina Sadick, Josh Singer, Sean Snider, David Sprankle, John Humphries, his sons David and Robbie, Drew Maier and Nate Taylor.

In the latter 1990s, Blackwell

IN DECEMBER 1991, less than a year into its publication, the News-Press was named the F.C. Business of Year by the City Council in what was a controversial vote at the time. Here, founder Nicholas Benton receives the award. by complete strangers in a checkout line at a local supermarket, for example, and the satisfaction of knowing one is doing one’s best to provide a vital public service. I am confident the newspaper has accumulated far more fans than detractors over the years.

Compared to that “Business of the Year” ceremony in 1991, there have been so many rewards and achievements that the paper has been responsible for, far too many to count. We’ve taken great joy in being able to host holiday parties every year that have drawn hundreds each time from all walks in Falls Church, and complimentary summer social mixers at our office in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce.

Among the most cherished rewards have been those who have worked with me on the newspaper, beginning with Danny O’Brien (more on him below) and with the first hire of a part-time student in 1992 in what became a long succession of students from the local George Mason High School (whose name has been changed to Merid-

Jody Fellows started with us as a senior in high school in 1996, and after finishing college, starting in 2001 for 18 years to 2020 worked as the managing editor of the News-Press, with Megan and three kids added in the process. He took on more and more responsibilities for the paper as the time went on. Lucas Hardi, who did cartoons for the News-Press, is now a gifted video game design artist with three kids, whose wife, Letty, is now on the Falls Church City Council.

Simon van Steyn, who wrote colorful Critter Corner captions for the News-Press, is now an accomplished video production specialist for the State Department. Peter Laub is now an administrator at Meridian High after teaching English for a number of years, stepping into the shoes of the legendary Michael Hoover, who was such an important part of the News-Press as a columnist and occasional reporter. Also over first decade or so, the many memorable figures included Patricia Blystone, Julie Day, Jackie Droujinsky, Paul Donio, Peg Jones, Jenny

Hawthorne came to us as a man at age 75 who was angry as a wet hen when he’d been laid off by a rival newspaper because he couldn’t keep up with its computerization demands. He became the best advertising salesman we ever had, at least up to the last couple years, and worked for us until a couple of months before his death 13 years later at age 88. Blackie, as everyone knew him, had an incredible story to tell about his active service in World War II that he told in an interview for us, that when his fighter plane was hit over Germany and was going down, a co-pilot ran up to him with panic in his eyes to report that he didn’t have a chute. Blackie could not accommodate him and jumped as the plane veered in to crash. He had been secretly haunted by that all this life since until he told us his story.

In the late 1990s, the NewsPress sponsored participants from its staff, beginning with me, in annual AIDS Rides, when over 2,000 people signed up to ride bikes from Raleigh, North Carolina to D.C. to raise money for AIDS research

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

and treatments. We convinced the organizers of the rides to re-route the bikers through the City of Falls Church, which became the only jurisdiction along the route to turn out a large police contingent to ensure safe rides through the City.

The News-Press has enjoyed sustained contributions from our local politicians who’ve provided exclusive periodic, if not weekly, reports to our readers, from U.S. Reps.

Jim Moran and Don Beyer, who wrote a column as Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor in our very first edition, Fairfax Supervisor Penny Gross to State Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple and Dick Saslaw, Delegates Bob Hull, Kaye Kory, Jim Scott and Marcus Simon.

In 2001, the late Falls Church City Manager Dan McKeever, such a seminal influence in getting the City to move forward, undertook a City-wide survey asking where people got their news about the City.

The results, which was pushed that August, showed that overwhelmingly the citizens got their news from one of two sources: the NewsPress or the City’s own Focus newsletter, mailed to every household every month. The drop-off was incredibly dramatic after that, including all radio, TV (including Falls Church Cable) and Internet sources.

As a result, starting in July 2002, the City contracted for two full pages in the News-Press each week, providing far more expanded news and information than its Focus newsletter could and at a fraction of the cost.

That happy arrangement continued until 2008 when fiscal and political pressures on the City Council killed it. We’d love to see it back.

In 2005 I granted a gifted young writer, Darien Bates, time to do extensive research into the real story of the struggle to integrate the Falls Church Schools in the 1950s, and it became a lengthy and extraordinary, landmark two-part report. Two of our talented sports writers, Mike Hume and Alex Prewitt, have gone on to big-time jobs covering sports at the Washington Post and Sports Illustrated.

In July 2010, we celebrated the publication of the 1,000th consecutive weekly edition of the News-Press, inviting citizens and dignitaries to offer their support and congratulations. Every leading official in the state, from both our U.S. Senators, the governor, our area congressmen and state legislators, not to mention local officials, put their names to that, along with hundreds of prominent Falls Church citizens.

Other important contributors to the paper in the last decade included Leslie Poster, Natalie Bedell, Drew Costly, Jonathan Harper, Dean

Edwards, Diana Glazer, Eamonn Rockwell, Nancy Davis, Danielle Manigault, Joe Fridling, Donna Talla, Scott Greene, Lou Emery, Roberto Flores, Deborah Smyth, Marilyn Austin, and Helen Walters.

In the last year, we’ve had the benefit of a small but highly competent staff that has remained intact through the pandemic: Nick Gatz, Matt Delaney, Melissa Morse, Ted White, Julio Idrobo and me. The current team is rock solid and unmatched. Nick Gatz is now our longest tenured besides me since the departure of Jody Fellows in 2020, having been a loyal, reliable and immensely talented design and technology chief since 2007. His myriad contributions continue to be amazing. Melissa Morse is in her second lengthy stint as our enormously valued ad sales and office czar, now continuing to work remotely from new digs in South Georgia. Matt Delaney is a gifted writer and team player getting it all done. Ted White graces us weekly as our backstop proofreader and Julio Idrobo has been the most reliable and conscientious deliverer of our goods to Falls Church doorsteps in our history.

Over the years, our exclusive columnists have made major contributions, too, from Tom Whipple’s groundbreaking Peak Oil column to Wayne Besen’s Anything But Straight and Our Man in Arlington columns from Dick Barton and in recent years, Charlie Clark. We’ve also been home to exclusive columns by U.S. Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir and the late Helen Thomas, the legendary White House correspondent who finished out her public career with a weekly column written for the News-Press that appeared for over a year prior to her passing in 2013. In January 2016, we published the insightful and articulate columns of Falls Church’s truly promising operatic talent Samuel Waters in the weeks before his death at age 22 from cancer.

While we enthusiastically backed Falls Church’s “Favorite Son” Don Beyer over his two terms as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in the early 1990s and race for governor in 1996 (and now in his election and outstanding service to the U.S. Congress), since the statewide election of Mark Warner as governor of Virginia in 2000, the eastern half of Fairfax County, combined with Falls Church and the predictably progressive Arlington and Alexandria have provided more than the total margins of victory statewide in the elections of now-Senator Tim Kaine for governor, the Falls Church area’s Jim Webb for the U.S. Senate, Warner for the U.S. Senate, Kaine for the U.S. Senate, Terry McAuliffe for governor, U.S. Presi-

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dent Barack Obama twice (breaking a streak of successive GOP wins in presidential primaries dating back to 1964) and current President Joe Biden for president in 2020. The News-Press has been smack in the middle of where these margins were achieved in every case, relentlessly and without apology championing progressive values.

Among our most vital supporters over the 25 years was the late Robert S. “Hap” Day, for many years the ex-

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to Number One three times. In that context, I was named an “OUTstanding Virginian” by Equality Virginia in 2012, and a “Capital Pride Hero” by the Washington D.C. Pride Festival organization in 2014. I have since added new three new books, a short biography of my great great grandfather, Union solider John Avery Benton, an edited version of my “Extraordinary Hearts” columns and titled, “Education of a Gay Soul,” and last week the aforementioned

II. THEN AND NOW Compared to 1991, three things are notable about the City of Falls Church that, while naturally we wouldn’t presume to take significant credit for, still I take enormous satisfaction from knowing the newspaper’s role helped contribute to all of these. We’ve stood editorially steadfast, unyielding and foursquare behind all of these developments.

AT THE NEWS-PRESS' weekly radio show on WFAX in the Little City, editor Benton (center) with frequent guest and friend, F.C. accounting firm chief, Michael Diener (right). ecutive director of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce, an important personal friend and organic liaison between the News-Press and the Chamber. The two of us began the tradition of a weekly “power lunch” on Mondays before my first edition was published that has carried on to this day, lively weekly lunches currently at Anthony’s, and we also shared duties doing a weekly radio and then TV show on Falls Church Cable TV that ran roughly until “The Commander” passed away at age 93 in December 2013.

Also especially vital have been friend and CPA Michael Diener and my ex-wife and ongoing treasured companion (and our legal counsel) Janine Schollnick Benton and her mother, the irrepressible London Eastender Eileen Hecht Levy.

Between October 2010 and September 2012, I authored 100 weekly “Gay Science” columns that were published on our website and reprinted in a Washington, D.C. gay community paper that have now been compiled into a single book, “Extraordinary Hearts.” Following a rave review by gay pioneer icon Larry Kramer, it was in the “Best Seller” ranks among “gay studies” books on Amazon.com, making it

pamphlet on the Capitol sacking, all published by BCI Books, the book publishing arm of Benton Communications, the official corporate entity that publishes the News-Press each week.

The Falls Church News-Press has been named Business of the Year by the Falls Church City Council in 1991 and 2001, I was named Businessman of the Year in 2007, the Pillar of the Community by the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce in 1993 and 2003 and the grand marshal of the annual Falls Church Memorial Day Parade in 2001. The paper has been named to the Media Honor Roll of the Virginia School Boards Association, nominated by the local School Board, going on a dozen times.

Over the course of the 30 years, I have written every editorial in every edition of the paper, and since 1997 have also written a national affairs column for every edition every week, over and above my contribution of articles and photographs about local and regional events in every issue from No. 1 to now. Oh yes, not to forget that since 1997, I have also contributed a hand-drawn “Nick Knack” cartoon every week from then until very recently.

First, the City has sustained itself as an independent jurisdiction despite the cries from some quarters at all points in the process that it should relinquish its independence and become absorbed into the much larger Fairfax or Arlington counties.

Whatever the powerful interests in those neighbors that have coveted an ability to control the political process in Falls Church, they’ve been held at bay to the benefit of everyone in the City in terms of quality of services and the attention to individual needs, including for students in the schools.

Second, the City’s school system has continued to grow and flourish.

After a severe fall-off in attendance at the City schools that bottomed out in the mid-1980s, the schools’ rebound since has benefited, we believe, from the unflinching support they’ve been provided in many ways from the News-Press, including editorial support for its annual budget requests from the City, and they have enjoyed an unbroken growth in enrollment and quality ever since, including the completion of an amazing state of the art high school that will be fully occupied for the first time next month.

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the many ways the News-Press has sought since its inception to support the young people in Falls Church through supporting its schools.

For one, I being as an openly gay man and gay rights pioneer from “back in the day,” founded the “Nicholas F. Benton Diversity Affirmation Education Fund” of the Falls Church Education Foundation with two large personal contributions halfway through the last decade, which were used to sponsor antibullying and empathy-enhancing “Challenge Days” at George Mason High School for a number of years.

For another, starting in our second year, the News-Press offered an annual scholarship to George Mason seniors who won essay contests about their plans to pursue careers “enfranchising the disenfranchised.” For a number of years, we also hosted annual “Day at the Ball Game” events, offering free hot dogs, peanuts and soda to everyone in the community to come out and support the high school’s baseball team for a day.

Third, the City’s tax base has been expanded, to afford the schools and much more, since the NewsPress has been on the scene, and I served two consecutive terms as the president of the local Chamber of Commerce in the early 1990s. I founded the News-Press almost as a collaborative effort with the Chamber, as I’ve already mentioned, and you will read still more about below, and my paper has supported most of the major new projects in the commercially-zoned areas of the City.

This followed years of almost no significant development in the City, and some legendary accounts of how major development was opposed. The reader will see from the front pages of the first years of the News-Press that we advocated for an economic development use of City-owned property by the West Falls Church Metro in the form of a baseball stadium that would also provide the schools with a first-rate athletic facility. It was killed and soon after, the land was sold to the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech for $1, but now it is on the verge of being folded into a massive 40-acre mixed use development, including 10 acres of City-owned land the site of the just demolished old high school, the Virginia Tech occupied seven acres and 23 acres owned

by WMATA at its West Falls Church Metrorail station.

With the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors just having signed off on this plan, the combined properties will become developed into one of the wider Metro region’s most dynamic, especially if adjacent lands owned by Beyer Automotive and Federal Realty are also incorpo-

rated into it.

The City of Falls Church’s evolution to a pro-development posture and advocate to bring about its current potential has been an indispensable part of my and our newspaper’s responsibility to promote the resources for the City’s public infrastructure and schools (it is hard to imagine that no child who entered the Falls Church Schools since 1991 ever knew his or her home town without its own newspaper). It took time.

For example, if one were able to set side-by-side what so many commercial properties in the City looked like when the News-Press started in 1991 compared to now, I think the point would be made. To name a few, the Spectrum (including Solace Outpost) was an empty lot partially covered by a dilapidated surface parking lot. The Byron and its ground floor retail was a Red Lobster placed as a stand-alone building surrounded by a sea of asphalt parking on all sides. The Broadway was built on a lot that was home to a former Ad Com art supply building that shut down to become an eyesore for over a decade. Pearson Square was seven mostly-undeveloped acres with a small string of shops and a duck-pin bowling alley that had burned down. The Read Building replaced an old auto repair shop. The Northgate replaced an old funeral home that had shut down.

The Hilton Garden Inn sits on what was a weed-infested parking lot and the Kensington on the site of a freestanding Burger King. The nearlycompleted Founders Row was a gas station and a 7-Eleven.

Other new projects have transformed similar properties, like the Lincoln at Tinner Hill replacing an old car dealership and the 300 West Broad with its giant Harris-Teeter, replacing the old U.S. Post Office and Anthony’s Restaurant, both of which successfully relocated. In the queue for development soon are Insight Properties’ development at Broad and Washington, promising a mega Whole Foods market, Atlantic Realty’s One City Center project above Ireland’s Four Provinces across the street, and Mill Creek’s Founders Row 2 across the street from its current Founders Row. Still, much more is yet to come. Several valued small businesses and restaurants have also persisted through all this.

Moreover, in terms of the community itself, it must be added that we took great heart in our newspaper’s role as a catalyst with others to successfully thwart an effort by those who sought to turn the historic Falls Church Episcopal – located in the center of the City dating back to the George Washington era – into

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an exclusionary arch-conservative mega-church. After years of trying to bully the City Council into deeding over a public street, those forces engineered a vote of the church’s large congregation to defect from the national Episcopal denomination in opposition to its election of an openly-gay priest to standing as a bishop in 2005. Those defectors claimed the property and occupied it for six years before the courts finally found in favor of the Episcopal diocese and they were ordered out. The News-Press kept the spotlight on these developments throughout and provided ongoing editorial encouragement to the flock of “continuing Episcopalians” who set up worship across the street until they got their church back, such that when they were allowed to reclaim the property, they’d sustained the capacity for a robust revival that continues now.

The “continuing Episcopalians” prevailed over many challenging years and have just called a new rector who is in a committed same-sex relationship, a great irony given it was objection to such relationships that spurred the original defection.

All along, for example, we’ve been a tireless proponent of affordable housing and are happy for some real progress in that area that has begun to be made. Also, in the last year’s heightened awareness of persisting racial and other social inequities in our culture, we’ve stood foursquare behind local efforts to address them, including the School Board’s difficult decision to change the name of two public schools here because earlier names were for persons who owned slaves. We also cosponsored a 2019 forum on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots on LGBT issues with the Social Action Committee of Falls Church and Environs.

We’re very proud of the role we’ve played editorially advocating, informing and educating the public on behalf of all these developments, at the same time as encouraging efforts to allow the existing displaced businesses to continue to prosper, even if in new locations.

III. HOW THIS ALL STARTED I was born with printer’s ink in my veins. I published my first newspaper when I was eight years old.

I wasn’t just a writer, I produced a newspaper with headlines and layout. With my mom’s help, I got my hands on the precursor to the mimeograph machine, a “hectograph” gelatine sheet that, with the right kind of pencil, could reproduce up to 10 copies, each a little fainter than the last, like the one that my first-

through-fourth grade teacher used in the two-room school house where I attended in my early years.

My beautiful mom obtained the hectograph for me when we drove together to the county seat and went into the school supply building. The lady there told us that none of their supplies were for sale to the public. Mom told me to go wait outside. About 10 minutes later, she emerged with the hectograph.

When I produced copies of my Benton Star, I went around and sold them to the neighbors for a dime. I still have a dim copy framed in my office that my mom saved for me.

I did other “in house” newspapers and realized that my motive was to augment my mother’s unrelenting efforts at harmony in our home, which wasn’t always easy to say the least.

I became editor of my high school and college papers, and began working for my home town daily paper as a sophomore in high school. Out of graduate school (the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif., Class of 1969), I became the principal writer for a legendary pioneering counterculture weekly, the Berkeley Barb as the anti-Vietnam War movement raged, wrote the editorial for the first edition of the Gay Sunshine newspaper as the gay liberation movement raged, and co-produced a couple editions of my own newspaper, The Effeminist, as the gay and feminist movements raged.

I consider it vital to add that my predisposition to newspapers was matched for me by sentiments which led to my decision to attend and graduate with honors from a progressive graduate theological seminary. The inclusive and universal values affirmed and taught there have formed the basis of my personal identity for my entire life, and I’ve always thought of newspapering as my vocation, or calling, rather than simply a profession.

Fast forwarding through some unhappy years, in October 1987 I incorporated my own news service in Washington, D.C., which became the corporate context that I utilized when I made the decision in early December 1990 to launch the NewsPress with the involvement of one other person, a 20-year-old sidekick with no newspaper experience but a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement. I had been seriously thinking of doing it for a couple years before that after moving to Falls Church in November 1985.

In 1987, I attended the first ever class offered in television production offered by the Falls Church Cable Access Corporation and made a cherished friend there, H. Robert

FCNP TU R NS 3 0 (Bob) Morrison, who was happy to work with me to produce the FCCAC’s first ever public access program, “Eye on Washington,” which completed over 50 half-hour editions with me as the host and Bob as the affable and talented producer.

In the spring of 1990, we decided to produce the first ever “Election Night Live” show for the FCCAC to give the City’s public swift and first hand results of the City Council elections in early May with a live format that included interviews with the candidates and others.

Meanwhile, I periodically had lunch with Bob Morrison in the cafeteria of the National Geographic Building in Washington, D.C., where he worked, to talk about the idea of starting a Falls Church newspaper.

Then in November 1990, the City’s then Public Information Office director Barbara Gordon (who went on to serve in a number of positions at City Hall into the mid2000s, including a stint as Assistant City Manager) decided to do a lengthy write up of the previous May’s “Election Night Live” in the City’s monthly newsletter, The Focus,” that at the time was mailed to everyone in the City.

I took the notoriety that article provided as my cue to launch my newspaper, which began in earnest in early December. I was invited to speak before various groups about it, and to meet with important local leaders, and the key breakthrough came when I was invited to speak to the monthly meeting of the board of directors of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce in late December.

Much to my surprise, at the initiative of its executive director “Hap” Day, who went on to become a famous friend of mine, the Chamber board wasted no time voting unanimously at that very meeting to provide a ringing endorsement of my effort.

I then bought a mailing list for all the members of the local Chamber, about 230 labels, and enclosed in envelopes to them all a cover letter and a stamped return postcard with two boxes to check, one indicating an interest in advertising were a newspaper to be founded, and another indicating no interest. The response was, by all standards, extraordinary. Over 60 percent of the postcards were mailed back to me with the box checked expressing interest.

I literally took that pile of postcards to the bank, which turned out to be a newly-formed local bank which had a mandate to serve its local community. Its president was on the Chamber board and was present when I’d met with them in December. A very modest line of credit was granted that allowed the purchase of

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one 380 computer and a printer.

I had to set a firm date for the first issue to work with, and chose March 28, 1991. My young collaborator Danny O’Brien went around crowing, “Have you heard the news? Come March 28 Falls Church is going to have its own newspaper!” He helped sell some of the first advertisements, including to two who have never failed to advertise in the paper from its first issue to the present.

I decided at the outset to include a Platform composed of seven principles that I drew from my hometown newspaper I grew up with and which I described in the very first

all night on that first issue, and as the deadline approached, as dawn began to break on March 27, we looked out our second story windows to see that all the cherry blossom trees on N. Virginia had blossomed over night. That was our sign to press ahead!

At our Maryland-based printer, when the press bell rang and everything started to move, it was a very special moment. As the papers started chugging onto a conveyor belt, I couldn’t help but stand on a box and loudly exclaim, “Let every tyrant tremble! A free press is the voice of the people in defense of liberty and freedom everywhere!” The noise of

U.S. NAVY COMMANDER (Ret.) Robert S. 'Hap' Day, the executive director of the F.C. Chamber of Commerce and loyal advisor and friend to the News-Press for two decades. editorial in the News-Press as “the kind of mandate the blessed right to free speech imposes on the institution of the press in any democratic society.” Those seven principles, which I have never seen the likes of in all my travels and relentless curiosity examining other newspapers, are these: Keep the news clear and fair; Play no favorites, never mix business and editorial policy; Do not let the news columns reflect editorial comment; Publish the news that is public property without fear or favor of friend or foe; Accept no charity and ask no favors; Give “value received” for every dollar you take in; and, Make the paper show a profit if you can, but above all keep it clean fearless and fair.

It was little less than total chaos getting that first issue ready by our deadline at our tiny first office at 105 N. Virginia Avenue. It was our first of what became four locations for our offices, the most recent being at the same address where we started (different suite). We worked

the press drowned me out so that only a couple of pressmen gave me funny looks.

I had arranged for our distributor to be ready back in Falls Church.

But the only element I failed to provide for was a way to get the 7,500 copies from the printer to our distributor. Three of us rode up to the printer in the tight Mustang convertible provided by our invaluable friend Bill Johnson without a thought to getting all those papers back. We found someone who ferried papers for other organizations present, and made him a handsome cash offer to deliver mine, as well, to our distributor waiting for them in a living room in Falls Church.

That done, we got back to Falls Church as the sun was coming up on March 28. Later that same day, after some sleep, I decided to put out the second edition the very next week.

That turned into a very key decision, as the mighty News-Press has never missed a week of publication for 1,575 weeks, and counting, since.

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Heroic Guardians Testify About Jan. 6

The Washington, D.C., major league baseball team should now trade for the Cleveland baseball team’s choice just last week of “Guardians” to replace the racist name it went by for the last century.

Nothing better describes the four D.C. and Capitol Police heroes who appeared in full uniform and in side-byside formation before the U.S. House select committee in its opening session FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS Tuesday, telling their painfully personal accounts of how they engaged in pitched battles with an overwhelming force of Trump insurrectionists bent on day-long violence and murder to cancel the confirmation of the November presidential vote last January 6.

The names of those officers, Aquilino Gonell, Michael Fanone, Daniel Hodges and Harry Dunn, will henceforth be emblazoned in the permanent record of America’s battles to sustain her democracy, along with a couple hundred of their colleagues who staved off with incredible courage and physical resilience an armed, weapon-wielding reactionary mass mob at least 100 times larger than their ranks.

A compilation of video recordings from the insurrection, many taken from the body cameras of the officers and never before shown, opened the hearing, and set the tone for the day. It revealed the degree of force, violence and criminal intent behind the unrelenting surge of the terrorists, as they were correctly identified, acting at the direction of President Trump and aimed at shutting down the certification of the election due to occur that day. There were audible calls for the execution of elected political leaders, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, and the murder of the wholly outnumbered officers who were standing up to their push into the Capitol building.

It was like a scene from a Breughel or Bosch painting of the horrors of a wholesale slaughter of innocents in the 17th century, with the murderous forces taking on the appearance of ugly, distorted creatures from the pit of hell.

“Hell,” in fact, was how one of the officers Tuesday described the ordeal they faced Jan. 6. There is no way any honest person watching that opening video or listening to the accounts of the four officers, could deny, as so many GOP leaders have done, the vile, insurrectionist evil driving that day’s enemies of democracy and the rule of law.

Truly pathetic GOP leaders have attempted to downplay the whole thing, saying it was a picnic, not a terrorist assault on democracy itself, saying they didn’t bother to watch any of the hearing and blaming any problems from that day on Pelosi. One can only hope that the special GOP primary election results in Texas that day, where Jake Elizey defeated the Trump-endorsed candidate, is a harbinger of how the U.S. electorate will increasingly react to the treasonous, snivelling behavior of the GOP national leadership.

These are the same Republicans and their allies in the media, including Fox News, who have been spreading deadly misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic, condemning their own supporters to horrible illness and death from the pandemic’s now-raging Delta variant. In fact, they are legally liable for encouraging behavior which is both deadly and avoidable, and as such many should be found as legally accountable from a swarm of class action lawsuits. The current Justice Department is now clearly signalling it is not in the mood to defend anyone in the government, current or immediately past, who may be subject to such a legal tidal wave.

If there is one loud drum beat coming out of Tuesday’s historic hearing, it is that everyone, including the two prominent Republicans on the committee, U.S. Reps. Lyn Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, want to leave no stone unturned, no text message, email or phone call unexamined, including all those going and coming from the Trump White House, to get at whomever was behind, ordering or aiding and abetting the January 6 terrorist insurrection.

Unquestionably, this will lead directly to Trump, whose lifetime of criminal behavior is exceeded by this treachery and treason. He will not escape the full force of the law in this case that goes far beyond the many criminal activities that defined his business and personal relations going into the White House.

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Nicholas F. Benton

 Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.

Our Man in Arlington

By Charlie Clark

“The Arlington Story,” a history pamphlet published by Arlington Public Schools in 1962, offered a matter-of-fact explanation of what today might be called voter suppression. “A capitation or ‘poll’ tax is required by the Virginia Constitution,” reads the essay edited by teacher and Arlington Historical Society member Seymour Stiss. “It is a tax of $150 that is levied on voters. In order to vote, the citizen must have paid this tax for three years previous to the time of voting. This payment must be made six months before the election.”

Unmentioned is the fact that the poll tax was designed in Richmond in 1902 to weed out certain voters, primarily African Americans. That is why the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966, in a Virginia case, banned poll taxes for state and local elections, declaring that “wealth or fee paying has … no relation to voting qualifications; the right to vote is too precious, too fundamental to be so burdened or conditioned.”

The pamphlet reminded me of how “the Arlington Story” changes and depends on the identity of the storyteller.

I picked up a copy of the “Written in Arlington: Poems of Arlington, Virginia” edited by Katherine E. Young, our poet laureate emerita. Published quietly last fall during the pandemic, it showcases storytelling via 150 poems by 87 poets who “live, work, study, worship in or simply pass through…and in so doing,

make Arlington their own,” Young explains. She nodded to famous Arlington-based poets — George Washington Parke Custis, Doors singer Jim Morrison, and ZitkalaSa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, the Native American federal official for whom the former Henry Clay Park in Lyon Park was recently renamed).

In selecting current talent, Young stretched “Arlington” to include those referencing Georgetown or Bailey’s Crossroads. She also relied on poets who’d read at Iota Club and Cafe (late of Clarendon) and the Wakefield High School Poet Club.

The result was printed by Arlington-based Paycock Press, with a grant from the cultural affairs division of Arlington Economic Development and the Commission for the Arts. Poetry is a tough sell.

The companion digital project “Spoken in Arlington” has but 15 subscribers on YouTube. As contributor Deanna D’Errico put it, “Poets hawk their words; like pearls and pomegranates…pocket fisherman for a coin of listen.” But I was pleased with highlights that struck me as “Arlingtonish.”

Rebecca Leet wrote of “a flamboyant male cardinal trilling prettee as he surveys mallards fishing in frigid Four Mile Run.” Ben Nardolilli described eavesdropping in Westover “from this beer garden perch,” as people “make war on a nearby dive bar,” saying it “attracts an undesirable element.”

Jacqueline Jules composed an

“Ode to a Pink House,” the conspicuous one on George Mason Drive at Frederick St: “You remind me of so many choices I abandoned in the paint store.”

Paul Hopper’s “Patterns in Darkness” says windows on “tall buildings in Rosslyn…form patterns of board games.”

Sarah Lilius’s “Ode to Fairlington”: “Brick beside brick, we keep it together.”

Amy Young intrigued with: “Just past the Kiss & Ride, at Wilson Boulevard and Fort Myer Drive a woman sits. This is her job.”

And Michael Schaffner addressed a neighborhood where residents were hit by that poll tax: “The homes of Hall’s Hill now vanish like Reconstruction’s evanescent dream into a cancer of McMansions.” *** I took a stroll last Saturday along the spiffy near-mile-long footbridge in renovated Long Bridge Park. It is well marked with Boeing Fields (for the nearby corporate donor), soccer fields and lush greenery by the railroad tracks.

But still fenced off with Covid signage is the $60 million Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center, for which construction by Coakley & Williams began in 2018. Too bad it is late in opening for the summer, as promised in May. Opening swim day will be in August, says county parks spokeswoman Martha Holland. The pandemic delayed the schedule only “slightly,” but the design/build contract stabilized costs. Ribbon cutting set for Sept. 24.

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FALLS CHURCHCALENDAR LOCALEVENTS THURSDAY, JULY 29 Concerts in the Park: Big Tow. Currently in its 28th year following a pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Concerts in the Park has been featuring a variety of musical acts every Thursday night since June 17. Closing out the current season is local cover band Big Tow, who will feature tunes from John Hiatt, Tom Petty, Wilco and Steely Dan. This event series is made possible by the Village Preservation and Improvement Society and the Recreation and Parks Department.

Guests are encouraged to bring a blanket or folding chairs as well as something to eat and drink. In case of inclement weather, performances are moved inside the Community Center. Cherry Hill Park (312 Park Ave., Falls Church).

For more information, visit fallschurchva.gov/concerts or call 703248-5077. 7 p.m.

Walk-In Tech Clinic. A tech tutor will be available every Thursday morning to help adults with their tech issues. The Tech Clinic is located in the Group Study Room of the Thomas Jefferson Library (7415 Arlington Blvd, Falls Church).

10 – 11 a.m.

Paws to Read with Lucy. Children and pre-teens can come and read aloud to Lucy, a trained therapy dog. Kids can bring their own book or find a book at the library.

Age 6 – 12. Thomas Jefferson Library (7415 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 2 – 3 p.m.

Night Out Ice Cream Social. For more information, call 703-5346461. Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church (3435 Sleepy Hollow Road, Falls Church). 6 – 8 p.m.

English Conversation Group.

A small conversation group for adults seeking to practice English.

Group meetings take place in the conference room of the Thomas Jefferson Library (7415 Arlington Blvd, Falls Church). Noon – 1 p.m.

MONDAY, AUGUST 2

English for Pre-Beginners. Adults with no or limited prior English experience are invited to a learning session focusing on basic vocabulary and every-day phrases. Limited to 6 participants. Registration required. Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church). 6:30 – 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, JULY 31 Falls Church Farmers Market. The Falls Church Farmers Market runs every Saturday, where attendees will find fresh, local produce, meat, dairy, flowers & plants, honey, music and more. City Hall (300 Park Ave., Falls Church) 8 a.m. – noon. For more information, visit fallschurchva.gov/547/FarmersMarket-To-Go.

Storytime Fun for Preschoolers.

Space limited to 15 children with one caregiver each. First come, first served basis. Check in at the info desk for tickets. Bring your own towel, cap and water bottle.

Weather permitting, the event will take place outdoors in a shady location. Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church). 10:30 – 11 a.m.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 3 National Night Out Ice Cream Social. Those interested are invited to join the Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church for a National

foods as well as help in creating a grocery list to help lighten your spirit and improve long-term physical wellness. An invitation to join the class will be emailed to interested participants 1 day prior to the start time. Register online at librarycalendar.fairfaxcounty.gov/ event/7689490. Noon – 1 p.m.

MONDAY, AUGUST 2

THURSDAY, JULY 29

Virtual Reading Buddies/Ayuda de Lectura. Every Monday and Wednesday, students have a chance to practice their reading with a high school volunteer, supervised by a librarian. Geared toward students in the K – 6 age range. Sign up with the name of the student for a Zoom link to join the session. Registration opens up one week prior to each session and closes 24 hours before the start time. If you are a high school student interested in volunteering as a Reading Buddy, email pamela.snyder@fairfaxcounty. gov. 1 – 1:30 p.m.

Live Well: Mood Boosting Foods (online). As part of the Food and Nutrition Series, join Emily Massi, dietician and nutritionist, for a virtual lesson in mood-boosting

City Council Work Session — to include joint session w/CACT. (online). All participating members of the City Council will be present at this meeting. Members

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4

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B.B. King Blues Band Experience ft. Michael Lee of The Voice

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ft. Julian "Junior" Marvin

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

of the public may view this electronic meeting via www.fallschurchva.gov/CouncilMeetings. The meeting may also be viewed on FCCTV (Cox 11, RCN 2, Verizon 35).

City Council Work Sessions are held the first and third Monday of the month, with the exception of August and December when only one meeting is held. These meetings are open to the public and are conducted to allow Council Members to discuss upcoming legislation and policy issues; the public is not generally invited to speak. 7:30 – 11 p.m.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 3 Yoga Wellness: Movement, Breath, Meditation (online).

Those interested are invited to join Laura East for yoga movement practice and a lesson in traditional yoga breathing techniques. This learning session is focused on stress relief and heartcentered compassion meditation.

An invitation to join this virtual class will be emailed the day of the program. Teens and adults are welcome. 10 – 10:45 p.m.

Bouncin' Babies (online).

Participants are invited to join Ms. Kelly and her ukulele for a morning of songs, storytelling and fun. Geared towards children age 1 and under. A Zoom link will be emailed to registered parents and guardians a day in advance. 10:15 – 10:45 a.m.

THEATER&ARTS FRIDAY, JULY 30 After Midnight. Conceived by Jack Viertel, this song and dance extravaganza is set to the swinging sounds of Duke Ellington, Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields and many others, framed by the classic works of American poet Langston Hughes. Starring Hamilton’s Christopher Jackson and Signature favorite Nova Y. Payton with direction and choreography by Jared Grimes), After Midnight features 28 of the big band era’s most memorable songs, including “Stormy Weather,” “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” taking the

CA L E NDA R

audience on a glamorous, vibrant tour of Harlem after midnight.

Streaming on demand until Aug. 4 at sigtheatre.org.

JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 | PAGE 17

LIVEMUSIC THURSDAY, JULY 29 Scarlet Begonias. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 7 p.m. 703-858-9186.

Fast Eddie & The Slowpokes.

Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). 7 p.m. 703-255-1566.

ZOSO: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience. The State Theatre (220 N Washington St., Falls Church). $20. 8 p.m. 703237-0300.

Thrillbillys: The Return. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 8 p.m. 703241-9504.

FRIDAY, JULY 30 Josh & Garrett. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 4 p.m. 703-241-9504.

Toad Head. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington St., Ste A Falls Church). 6 p.m. 703-8589186.

Young Relics: Their Return to JV’s. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church).

7:30 p.m. 703-241-9504.

Back to the 90’s (Outdoor Show). Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). 7 p.m. 703-2551566.

Judith Hill: Live. The Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria). $39.50. 7:30 p.m.

703-549-7500.

Kix & The Roadducks Live. The State Theatre (220 N Washington St., Falls Church). $30. 7:45 p.m.

703-237-0300.

SATURDAY, JULY 31 Shot Glass Romance Live and in Concert. JV’s Restaurant (6666

ZOSO, who formed in 1995, embodies the original Led Zeppelin lineup of Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones in their spirit and attention to detail and will be performing this Thursday at the State Theatre. (Photo: zosoontour.com) Arlington Blvd., Falls Church).

3:30 p.m. 703-241-9504.

Debonis Allen Trio. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 4 p.m. 703-858-9186.

The Free Flowing Musical Experience: Free Outdoor Show.

Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 6 p.m. 703-858-9186.

U2TOPIA: A Live Tribute to U2.

Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). 7 p.m. 703-255-1566.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Live and in Concert. The Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria). $39.50. 7:30 p.m. 703-549-7500.

Shakin Woods (Funk, Blues and

More). JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 8 p.m. 703-241-9504.

Saved by the 90’s: A Party with the Bayside Tigers. The State Theatre (220 N Washington St., Falls Church). $20. 9 p.m. 703237-0300.

Joint Operation: Live. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15 – $25. 10 p.m. 703-2551566.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 1 Cosmic Carl's Drum Circle Open Mic Live. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 5 p.m. 703-8589186.

Terra Firma: Live and in Concert.

Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E,

Vienna). 6 p.m. 703-255-1566.

Zen Warship — Outdoor Concert. The Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria). $25. 7:30 p.m. 703-549-7500.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 3 Casey Abrams: Live and in Concert. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15 – $25. 7:30 p.m. 703-255-1566.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4 Rewind Wednesdays with David Thong & Friends: A Live Outdoor Concert. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). 7 p.m. 703-255-1566.

Shinyribs. The Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria). $35. 7:30 p.m. 703-549-7500.

Calendar Submissions Email: calendar@fcnp.com | Mail: Falls Church News-Press, Attn: Calendar, 105 N. Virginia Ave., #310, Falls Church, VA 22046

Be sure to include time, location, cost of admission, contact person and any other pertinent information. Event listings will be edited for content and space limitations. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for the current week’s edition.

PAGE 18 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC OF AN APPLICATION BY VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY D/B/A DOMINION ENERGY VIRGINIA FOR APPROVAL OF A RATE ADJUSTMENT CLAUSE: RIDER GV, GREENSVILLE COUNTY POWER STATION, FOR THE RATE YEARS COMMENCING APRIL 1, 2022, AND APRIL 1, 2023 CASE NO. PUR-2021-00112 •Virginia Electric and Power Company d/b/a Dominion Energy Virginia (“Dominion”) has applied for approval to revise its rate adjustment clause, Rider GV. •In this case, Dominion has asked the State Corporation Commission (“Commission”) to approve a biennial update procedure for Rider GV with two consecutive rate years. The proposed rate years for this proceeding are April 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023 (“Rate Year 1”), and April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024 (“Rate Year 2”).

•For Rate Year 1, Dominion requests a revenue requirement of $142,481,000, which would decrease the bill of a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month by $0.10.

•For Rate Year 2, Dominion requests a revenue requirement of $127,166,000, which would decrease the bill of a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month by $0.28 as compared to Rate Year 1.

•A Hearing Examiner appointed by the Commission will hold a telephonic hearing in this case on November 9, 2021, at 10 a.m., for the receipt of public witness testimony.

•An evidentiary hearing will be held on November 10, 2021, at 10 a.m., either in the Commission’s second floor courtroom located in the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or by electronic means. Further details on this hearing will be provided by subsequent Commission Order or Hearing Examiner’s Ruling.

•Further information about this case is available on the Commission website at: scc.virginia.gov/pages/Case-Information.

On June 8, 2021, Virginia Electric and Power Company (“Dominion” or “Company”) filed with the State Corporation Commission (“Commission”) a biennial update of the Company’s rate adjustment clause, Rider GV (“Application”) pursuant to § 56-585.1 A 6 of the Code of Virginia. Through its Application, the Company seeks to recover costs associated with the Greensville County Power Station, a natural gas-fired combined-cycle electric generating facility in Greensville County, Virginia, and 500 kilovolt transmission lines, a new switching station, and associated transmission interconnection facilities in Brunswick and Greensville Counties, Virginia (collectively, the “Greensville County Project” or the “Project”).

In Case No. PUE-2015-00075, the Commission approved Dominion’s construction and operation of the Greensville County Project and also approved a rate adjustment clause, designated Rider GV, for Dominion to recover costs associated with the development of the Project. The Greensville County Project became fully operational in 2016.

In this proceeding, Dominion has asked the Commission to approve a biennial update procedure for Rider GV with two consecutive rate years. The proposed rate years for this proceeding are April 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023 (“Rate Year 1”), and April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024 (“Rate Year 2”). The two components of the proposed total revenue requirement for Rate Year 1 are the Projected Cost Recovery Factor and the Actual Cost True Up Factor. For Rate Year 1, the Company is requesting a Projected Cost Recovery Factor revenue requirement of $130,771,000 and an Actual Cost True Up Factor revenue requirement of $11,710,000. Thus, the Company is requesting a total revenue requirement of $142,481,000 for service rendered during Rate Year 1. The total revenue requirement for Rate Year 2 is comprised only of a Projected Cost Recovery Factor. For Rate Year 2, Dominion seeks approval of a total revenue requirement of $127,166,000.

For purposes of calculating the revenue requirements in this case, Dominion utilized return on common equity (“ROE”) of 9.2%, which is the Company’s currently authorized ROE as set by the Commission in Case No. PUR-2019-00050.

If the proposed Rider GV revenue requirements for Rate Year 1 and Rate Year 2 are approved, the impact on customer bills would depend on the customer’s rate schedule and usage. According to Dominion, for Rate Year 1, implementation of its proposed Rider GV on April 1, 2022, would decrease the bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month by approximately $0.10.

The Company states that, for Rate Year 2, implementation of its proposed Rider GV on April 1, 2023, would decrease the bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month by approximately $0.28 as compared to Rate Year 1. Dominion indicates it has calculated the proposed Rider GV rates in accordance with the same methodology as used for rates approved by the Commission in the most recent Rider GV proceeding, Case No. PUR-2020-00100.

This Application is one of six filings Dominion made on or about June 8, 2021, for recovery of funds related to capital projects. If the revenue requirements in these filings are approved as proposed, the cumulative impact would be a monthly increase of approximately $0.41 for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month.

Interested persons are encouraged to review Dominion’s Application and supporting documents in full for details about these and other proposals.

TAKE NOTICE that the Commission may apportion revenues among customer classes and/or design rates in a manner differing from that shown in the Application and supporting documents and thus may adopt rates that differ from those appearing in the Company’s Application and supporting documents.

The Commission entered an Order for Notice and Hearing that, among other things, scheduled public hearings on Dominion’s Application. On November 9, 2021, at 10 a.m., a Hearing Examiner appointed by the Commission will hold a telephonic hearing for the purpose of receiving the testimony of public witnesses, with no public witness present in the Commission’s courtroom. On or before November 5, 2021, any person desiring to offer testimony as a public witness shall provide to the Commission (a) your name, and (b) the telephone number that you wish the Commission to call during the hearing to receive your testimony. This information may be provided to the Commission in three ways: (i) by filling out a form on the Commission’s website at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting; (ii) by completing and emailing the PDF version of this form to SCCInfo@scc.virginia.gov; or (iii) by calling (804) 371-9141. This public witness hearing will be webcast at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting.

On November 10, 2021, at 10 a.m., either in the Commission’s second floor courtroom located in the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or by electronic means, a Hearing Examiner appointed by the Commission will convene a hearing to receive testimony and evidence offered by the Company, any respondents, and the Commission’s Staff on the Company’s Application.

Further details on this hearing will be provided by subsequent Commission Order or Hearing Examiner’s Ruling.

The Commission has taken judicial notice of the ongoing public health emergency related to the spread of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, and the declarations of emergency issued at both the state and federal levels. In accordance therewith, all pleadings, briefs, or other documents required to be served in this matter should be submitted electronically to the extent authorized by 5 VAC 5-20-150, Copies and format, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure (“Rules of Practice”). Confidential and Extraordinarily Sensitive Information shall not be submitted electronically and should comply with 5 VAC 5-20-170, Confidential information, of the Rules of Practice. Any person seeking to hand deliver and physically file or submit any pleading or other document shall contact the Clerk’s Office Document Control Center at (804) 371-9838 to arrange the delivery.

Pursuant to 5 VAC 5-20-140, Filing and service, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice, the Commission has directed that service on parties and the Commission’s Staff in this matter shall be accomplished by electronic means. Please refer to the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing for further instructions concerning Confidential or Extraordinarily Sensitive Information.

An electronic copy of the public version of the Company’s Application may be obtained by submitting a written request to counsel for the Company, Lisa R. Crabtree, Esquire, McGuireWoods LLP, Gateway Plaza, 800 East Canal Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or lcrabtree@mcguirewoods.com.

On or before November 9, 2021, any interested person may file comments on the Application by following the instructions on the Commission’s website: scc.virginia.gov/casecomments/Submit-Public-Comments or by filing such comments with the Clerk of the State Corporation Commission c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118. All comments shall refer to Case No. PUR-2021-00112.

On or before September 3, 2021, any person or entity wishing to participate as a respondent in this proceeding may do so by filing a notice of participation with the Clerk of the Commission at the address above or at scc.virginia.gov/clk/efiling. Such notice of participation shall include the email addresses of such parties or their counsel. The respondent simultaneously shall serve a copy of the notice of participation on counsel to the Company. Pursuant to 5 VAC 5 20-80 B, Participation as a respondent, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice, any notice of participation shall set forth: (i) a precise statement of the interest of the respondent; (ii) a statement of the specific action sought to the extent then known; and (iii) the factual and legal basis for the action. Any organization, corporation, or government body participating as a respondent must be represented by counsel as required by 5 VAC 5-20-30, Counsel, of the Rules of Practice. All filings shall refer to Case No. PUR-2021-00112.

On or before October 1, 2021, each respondent may file with the Clerk of the Commission, at the address above or at scc.virginia.gov/clk/efiling, and serve on the Commission’s Staff, the Company, and all other respondents, any testimony and exhibits by which the respondent expects to establish its case, and each witness’s testimony shall include a summary not to exceed one page. In all filings, respondents shall comply with the Commission’s Rules of Practice, including 5 VAC 5-20-140, Filing and service, and 5 VAC 5-20-240, Prepared testimony and exhibits. All filings shall refer to Case No. PUR 202100112.

Any documents filed in paper form with the Office of the Clerk of the Commission in this docket may use both sides of the paper. In all other respects, except as modified by the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing, all filings shall comply fully with the requirements of 5 VAC 5-20-150, Copies and format, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice.

The public version of the Company’s Application and other documents filed in this case, the Commission’s Rules of Practice, and the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing may be viewed at: scc.virginia.gov/pages/Case-Information.

VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY D/B/A DOMINION ENERGY VIRGINIA

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING

Preservation Biscuit Company Hosting a Fundraiser Preservation Biscuit Company is hosting a fundraiser for the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center on Saturday, July 31 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Michele Fleming and her son Spencer will host a lemonade stand in front of Preservation Biscuit to raise awareness of the cancer that took the life of her son Nathan Fleming in 2019. Lemonade will be available at no cost but donations will be appreciated. Those who donate $20 or more will receive a 3 oz jar of Preservation Biscuit’s strawberry jam. A drawing will also be held for gift cards from local businesses. Additionally, Preservation Biscuit will donate $1 for each The PBC Biscuit sold from July 30 to August 1. For more information visit Preservation Biscuit Company’s social media. Preservation Biscuit is located at 102 E. Fairfax Street in Falls Church.

Columbia Baptist Church Conducting Community Food Drive Columbia Baptist Church is conducting a community food drive for its Spend Yourself Food Pantry on Saturday, July 31 from 10:30 a.m. – noon. The drive and drop food drive will take place at Columbia’s Crossroads Campus at 3245 Glen Carlyn Road in Falls Church. Items needed include canned meat, macaroni and cheese, no sodium canned beans and tomatoes, non-instant oatmeal, non-sweetened cereal, pasta, pasta sauce, white rice, and feminine hygiene products. Columbia Baptist serves more than 250 local families every Saturday. For more information, visit www.columbiabaptist.org/hungerministry/donate/

Columbia Baptist Church Hosting Grand Re-Opening

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

REDISTRICTING COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARINGS Hearings to solicit public comments on the drawing of state and congressional legislative districts in Virginia.

A total of eight public hearings will be held in July and August. Hearings are scheduled regionally both in person and virtually. Hearings will be livestreamed and archived online

For more information on dates and registration:

https://www.virginiaredistricting.org Follow Us

@CommissionVa

MAKE YOUR DREAM KITCHEN A REALITY WITH SHELFGENIE

Columbia Baptist Church is hosting a Grand Re-Opening and open house for the Sharyn Byer Institute of Fine Arts at Columbia Dance Studio on Saturday, July 31 from 5 – 7 p.m. and again on Friday, August 6 from 6 – 8 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to visit the studio and meet new ballet instructors Andrei & Natallia Yemelianov who will be leading classes in the fall. Dance programs are offered for students ages 6 – 18. The dance studio is located at 301 N. Washington Street. For more information, visit www.columbiabaptist.org//SIFAdance.

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Amazon Offering Businesses and Nonprofits Opprunitunities Businesses and nonprofits interested in learning about the opportunities available with Amazon as it expands into Northern Virginia are invited to attend The Amazon Opportunity, a virtual event on Tuesday, August 3 from 11 am to 2 pm. Amazon executives, business partners, real estate developers, nonprofit partners, and economic development experts will discuss the best ways in which to partner with Amazon, what programs the company is focused on, and where Amazon is going next. Individual tickets are $45, group tickets are 10 for $400. For more information or to register, to https://bit. ly/3xCupZN.

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 Business News & Notes is compiled by Sally Cole, Executive Director of Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be emailed at sally@fallschurchchamber.org.

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PAGE 20 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY COUNCIL CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA The ordinance referenced below was given first reading on July 12, 2021. Public hearing, second reading, and final City Council action is scheduled for Monday, August 9, 2021 at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard.

(TO21-10) ORDINANCE TO CREATE AND ESTABLISH THE WEST FALLS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY This ordinance would create and establish a Community Development Authority for the West Falls District of approx. 9.78 acres for the purpose of issuing bonds to pay for public infrastructure in the district and administering a special assessment on property in the district to pay the debt service for those bonds, plus eligible administrative expenses associated with the district.

Public hearings will be held electronically.

To speak on a public hearing item, complete a speaker form at www.fallschurchva.gov/ PublicComment before noon on the day of the Council meeting. Following submission of the form, you will receive emailed instructions to join the virtual Council meeting.

Written public hearing comments may be sent until noon on the day of the meeting to cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. Council members will attend the meeting through electronic means and members of the public may view the meeting at www.fallschurchva. gov/CouncilMeetings and on FCCTV (Cox 11, RCN 2, Verizon 35). Video will be available after the meeting both online and on FCCTV. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at 703-248-5014 or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5014 (TTY 711).

CELESTE HEATH, CITY CLERK

CITY OF FALLS CHURCH In anticipation of the creation of a West Falls Community Development Authority and establishment of the West Falls District, the Falls Church City Council invites interested City residents to apply for the resident position on the 5-member Authority. Candidates with knowledge of finance or commercial real estate preferred. Visit www.fallschurchva.gov/BCapply for a link to the application and more information about the CDA, including the background and anticipated schedule for establishing the Authority. Application deadline has been extended to July 31, 2021.

Celeste Heath, City Clerk cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov 703-248-5014

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY COUNCIL CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA Public hearings and final City Council action for the following items regarding the West Falls development project are scheduled for Monday, August 9, 2021 at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the matters may be heard.

(TR20-29) RESOLUTION TO GRANT SPECIAL EXCEPTION ENTITLEMENT AMENDMENT FOR A MIXED-USE DEVEL-

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

C L AS S I F I E DS

OPMENT PROJECT WITH A BUILDING HEIGHT UP TO FIFTEEN (15) STORIES ON APPROXIMATELY 9.78 ACRES OF LAND LOCATED AT 7124 LEESBURG PIKE (PORTIONS OF REAL PROPERTY CODE NUMBERS 51-221-007, -008) ON APPLICATION BY FALLS CHURCH GATEWAY PARTNERS (TR20-30) RESOLUTION TO GRANT SPECIAL EXCEPTION SITE PLAN (SEC. 48-488.B(3)) FOR A MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT WITH A BUILDING HEIGHT UP TO FIFTEEN (15) STORIES ON APPROXIMATELY 8.83 ACRES OF LAND LOCATED AT 7124 LEESBURG PIKE (PORTIONS OF REAL PROPERTY CODE NUMBERS 51-221-007, -008) ON APPLICATION BY FALLS CHURCH GATEWAY PARTNERS (TR21-07) RESOLUTION APPROVING THE ACQUISITION OF APPROXIMATELY 0.33 ACRES OF LAND FROM THE FALLS CHURCH CITY SCHOOL BOARD TO THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH (BEING A PORTION OF REAL PROPERTY CODE NUMBER 51-221-008) LOCATED AT 7124 LEESBURG PIKE AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ACCEPT A DEED OF CONVEYANCE, AND EXECUTE THE DEED OF RESUBDIVISION AND SUCH OTHER DOCUMENTS AS MAY BE NECESSARY TO COMPLETE THE TRANSACTION The ordinance referenced below was given first reading on July 12, 2021. Public hearing, second reading, and final City Council action is scheduled for Monday, August 9, 2021 at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard.

(TO21-10) ORDINANCE TO CREATE AND ESTABLISH THE WEST FALLS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY This odinance would create and establish a Community Development Authority for the West Falls District of approx. 9.78 acres for the purpose of issuing bonds to pay for public infrastructure in the district and administering a special assessment on property in the district to pay the debt service for those bonds, plus eligible administrative expenses associated with the district.

Public hearings will be held electronically.

To speak on a public hearing item, complete a speaker form at www.fallschurchva.gov/ PublicComment before noon on the day of the Council meeting. Following submission of the form, you will receive emailed instructions to join the virtual Council meeting.

Written public hearing comments may be sent until noon on the day of the meeting to cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. Council members will attend the meeting through electronic means and members of the public may view the meeting at www.fallschurchva. gov/CouncilMeetings and on FCCTV (Cox 11, RCN 2, Verizon 35). Video will be available after the meeting both online and on FCCTV. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at 703-248-5014 or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5014 (TTY 711).

CELESTE HEATH, CITY CLERK

PUBLIC NOTICE PLANNING COMMISSION On August 4, 2021, at 7:30 p.m., the City of Falls Church Planning Commission will hold a virtual public meeting to consider the following items and recommendations to City Council:

(TR20-29) RESOLUTION TO GRANT SPECIAL EXCEPTION ENTITLEMENT AMENDMENT FOR A MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT WITH A BUILDING HEIGHT UP TO FIFTEEN (15) STORIES ON APPROXIMATELY 9.78 ACRES OF LAND LOCATED AT 7124 LEESBURG PIKE (PORTIONS OF REAL PROPERTY CODE NUMBERS 51-221-007, -008) ON APPLICATION BY FALLS CHURCH GATEWAY PARTNERS (TR20-30) RESOLUTION TO GRANT SPECIAL EXCEPTION SITE PLAN (SEC. 48-488.B(3)) FOR A MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT WITH A BUILDING HEIGHT UP TO FIFTEEN (15) STORIES ON APPROXIMATELY 8.83 ACRES OF LAND LOCATED AT 7124 LEESBURG PIKE (PORTIONS OF REAL PROPERTY CODE NUMBERS 51-221-007, -008) ON APPLICATION BY FALLS CHURCH GATEWAY PARTNERS The application materials for the above items may be viewed on the City’s website: http://www.fallschurchva.gov/WFC The public hearing will be held electronically. Meeting agenda and materials will be available on the following page prior to the public meeting: www.fallschurchva. gov/PC. Public comments will be accepted electronically only until the end of the public hearing. Please submit comments to plan@ fallschurchva.gov. All participating members of Planning Commission will be present at this meeting through electronic means; and all members of the public are welcome to view the meeting at www.fallschurchva.gov/ PC and on FCCTV (Cox 11, RCN 2, Verizon 35). The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5040 (TTY 711).

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM PUZZLE NO. 93

10. Flat-topped hill 11. Watched 19. Offense 20. Frolicsome 21. Halt 22. Bean curd 23. Rough file 24. Astonishment 26. Appropriate 27. Hill’s companion 28. Self-images 29. “____ Be Cruel”

32. First number 35. Jackson bill 37. Newspaper bigwig 39. Plant anew 40. Voice part 41. Harness strap 42. Telephone 43. Extreme 45. Agent 007, e.g.

47. Wood cutter 48. Kind of shirt 49. “Stand ____ Deliver”

PUZZLE NO. 94

Copyright © 2021, Penny Press

ACROSS 1. Suitor 5. Bonfire residue 8. Base-runner’s goal 12. Like 13. Large antelope 14. Toe the line 15. Squeal 16. Ambition 17. Meet defeat 18. Exclude 20. Beseech 21. Put through a sieve 24. Bitter brew 25. Some amphibians

26. Bestowed 30. Certain prepositions 31. Grumpy’s pal 33. Past 34. Scout’s shelter: 2 wds.

36. Criminal 38. Tiny 39. Most impolite 40. Bent 43. Snack place 44. Incline 45. Brother’s sib 46. Londoner’s farewell: 2 wds.

50. Tip slightly 51. Debate side

52. Farm animals 53. “____ the Lonely” 54. Certain evergreen 55. Cattail, e.g.

DOWN 1. Howl 2. ____ out (make do) 3. Be ill 4. Disburden 5. Encore!

6. Temper tantrum 7. Bustle 8. Shout 9. Clarinet’s relative

JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 | PAGE 21

23. Postage item 24. Fido’s foot 25. Volcanic discharge 26. Affirmative vote 27. Dent 29. Golf gadget 30. Conducted 31. Play part 32. Which person?

35. Fights back 38. Common STRANGE BREW ailment

40. NYC opera house 42. Honolulu hello 43. Motivate 44. Emblem 45. Snakelike fishes 46. Skedaddle 48. Tiny particle 49. Volcanic flow 50. Frosted 51. Middle JOHN DEERING 54. Jest

Copyright © 2021, Penny Press

ANSWER TO PUZZLE NO. 93

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS USE AMERICAN SPELLING

ACROSS 1. Holepunching tools 5. Pod vegetable 8. Wool eater 12. Send away 13. Coat sleeve 14. Cockeyed 15. Nails 16. Chat 17. Slender 18. Sleep 20. Homework 22. Relieves 24. Fee 28. Fodder 33. On a boat 34. Feather accompaniment

36. Per 37. Pier 39. Keepsake 41. Slip-up 43. Practical 47. Slanted font 52. Angler’s tool 53. Approves, shortly 55. Filled tortilla 56. Storm 57. Great success 58. Across 59. Otherwise 60. Product pitches 61. Concocted DOWN 1. Some vipers

2. At what time?

3. Advertising symbol 4. All right: hyph.

5. Costumed parade 6. Distinctive time 7. Walk leisurely 8. Blob 9. Nighttime hooters 10. Singing group 11. Sacred song 19. Final letter 21. Initial for Superman

ANSWER TO PUZZLE NO. 94

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS USE AMERICAN SPELLING

SPORTS QUIZ

By Ryan A. Berenz 1. True or false: Motorboat racing was a medal sport contested at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.

PUZZLE NO. 95

9. On one’s ____ 30. Tennis-game units 2. What country won Olympic gold medals in baseball in 1992, ‘96 and 2004? (alert) 10. Egg-shaped 33. Certain snake 36.Summer Stingy people 3. Name the East German female swimmer who won four gold11.medals the 1976 Olympics “Wishat You 38. Purple flower in Montreal and was later found to have been administered steroids byHere” team doctors. ____ 19. Song of praise 40. Having an ceiling 4. Who was head coach of the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball21. team managed toarched win only a Finethat powder 41. Sailor’s call bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens?

22. Hunch 42. A la ____ 23. Fence 43.

5. What martial-arts arena in Tokyo was built for the 1964 Summer Olympics and hasFarm hosted musical 24. Corral implement acts such as the Beatles, ABBA, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton?25. Aquatic 44. Regal form of mammals address 6. Name the U.S. female gymnast who suffered an ankle injury was carried to medal podium 27.and Except 46.the Chop down by coach Bela Karolyi at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

48. Rowing device 28. Kitchen hot box 49. Bikini top 7. What was the name of the E! reality TV show starring U.S. 29.

Olympic swimmer Lochte that Skating arena Ryan 50. Tricky

PUZZLE NO. 96

aired briefly in 2013?

Copyright © 2021, Penny Press Last Week’s Answers

24. Soda ____ 52. Prior to, in ACROSS 1. Antlered deer 26. Change to fit poetry 1. 222 • 2.

Sidney Moncrief 5. Fearful 27. Gamblers 53. Nobleman 3.

Drew Brees, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning wonder 31. Floral wreath 54. Evergreen 4.

CC Sabathia 8. Load 32. Appear as a shrubs ANSWER TO PUZZLE NO. 95 12. Brave person 5. Spain •ghost 6. National Basketball Development League (NBDL).

55. Married 34. Contest 13. Trim, as a 56.7.

Waiter’s aid Anthony. lawn 35. Most peaceful (c) 2021 King Features Syndicate, Inc. 14. Sheltered 37. Occurrence DOWN nook 39. Unruly kid 1. Reserved 15. Thanksgiving 40. Sips 2. Iced ____ dish 41. Current 3. Branch 16. Mine measures, 4. Busybody shipment for short 5. Between 44. Fair: hyph.

17. Back end 18. Desert floor 45. Golfer’s target 6. Part of a sentence 46. That dude 20. Land 7. Female surrounded by 47. Tosses sheep water 51. Bloodhound’s CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS clue 21. Exhausting 8. Handwriting USE AMERICAN SPELLING

Copyright © 2021, Penny Press

ACROSS 1. ____ Wednesday 4. Not this 8. Take off, as clothes 12. Service charge 13. Roomy 14. List of dishes 15. Roofing material 17. Breakfast flakes 18. Type of snake 19. Remorse 21. Bridge payment 24. Milky stone 26. Lacking moisture

27. Hunch 28. Zeroes in 30. Make ready to publish 31. Lodging house 32. Scored on serve 36. Brink 38. “The ____ Boat” 39. Finished dinner 42. Single 44. Unfold 45. Game tile with dots 47. To each his ____ 49. Yoked beasts

50. Salad-bar items 55. Ice arena 56. Female wool-givers 57. Noah’s transport 58. Wraps up 59. Printer’s term 60. Cheerful

DOWN 1. Fore’s opposite 2. Ocean 3. This lady 4. “____ the night before . . .”

5. African 29. Parlors animal, 31. Spurned shortly 33. Dirty Harry, 6. Citrus e.g. beverage 34. Abel’s mother 7. Land 35. Cozy place 8. Urban 37. ____ Quixote problem 39. Revere 9. Got word 40. Poison 10. Become a member of 41. Change, as 11. Powdery text 16. Roof of the 43. Sing like the mouth Swiss 20. Popular street 46. Signs name 48. Sharp-witted 21. Hitch 51. Admiration Last Weeks answers!

22. Unusual 52. Witch 23. Hawaiian 53. Historical necklace epoch 25. Group of 54. Heaven judges

ANSWER TO PUZZLE NO. 96

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS USE AMERICAN SPELLING

LO CA L

PAGE 22 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

BACK IN THE DAY

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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25 � 10 Y���� A�� �� ��� N���-P���� Falls Church News-Press Vol. VI, No. 19 • July 25, 1996

Falls Church News-Press Vol. XXI, No. 23 • July 28,, 2011

Business Licenses Down 10% in City, Scott Tells Council

Done! F.C. Council Unanimous in OK Of Hilton Garden Inn for W. Broad St.

The number of local businesses paying business license taxes to the City of Falls Church has dropped off by over 10% in the past three years, Doug Scott, the City’s chief financial officer, reported to the City Council at its meeting here Monday night.

By a unanimous 6-0 vote Monday, the Falls Church City Council gave a final OK to modifications of zoning and special exception provisions sought by the developers of the Hilton Garden Inn that will now move forward toward construction in the downtown City of Falls Church.

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THIS BIG BOY, CINNAMON, a 7-year-old rescue from Virginia Beach, likes to play catch, wink with one eye, and he has the most wonderful disposition. Cinnamon misses his buddies, Cowboy and Sam! Just because you’re not famous doesn’t mean your pet can’t be! Send in your Critter Corner submissions to crittercorner@fcnp.com.

THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND HER WORLD, THE MORE POSSIBILITIES YOU SEE. For Julia’s family, early screening for autism made a lifetime of difference.

Find out more at ScreenForAutism.org

MICHELE has been running Nathan’s Cancer Slayers ever since her youngest son, Nathan, passed away in 2019 from the disease. On Saturday, July 31, she will be holding a fundraiser at Preservation Biscuit at 102 E. Fairfax Street from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. (P����: J. M������ W�����/JM������W�����. © 2019 Sesame Workshop. All rights reserved.

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

WHO’S THE BEST?

JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021 | PAGE 23

The News-Press BEST OF FALLS CHURCH reader vote is back and it’s time to cast your ballot for your Falls Church-area favorites! Our 11th annual contest features a host of all new categories — now 36 in all — for readers to vote on the best eating, drinking, shopping and more in and around the Little City .

Winners will be featured in a special BEST OF FALLS CHURCH edition of the News-Press on August 26!

Vote for Your Falls Church Favorites: FOOD & DRINK Burger • Pizza • Sandwich • Chicken • Seafood • American • International Breakfast • Brunch • Coffee Shop • Bakery • Frozen Treats Outside Dining • Delivery Food • Farmers Market Vendor • New Restaurant

R ETAIL & SERVICES Accountant • Professional Services • Bank/Credit Union • Real Estate Agent Real Estate Group • Doctors • Dentist • Retirement Community • Home Improvement • Dry Cleaners • Auto • Grocery Store • Salon • Gym/Fitness • City Event Specialty Store • School • Chiropractor • Live Entertainment • New Business

BEST OF FALLS CHURCH ISSUE COMING AUGUST 26!

BEST of

FALLS CHURCH BE

2021

STOFFC.COM

1ST ROUND VOTING ENDS AUG 1

CAST YOUR BALLOT AT BESTOFFC.COM

#BESTOFFC2021

PAGE 24 | JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2021

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Congratulations to Nick Benton and the Falls Church News Press!

Thank you for 30 years of exceptional journalism building strong community in our Little City of Falls Church, Virginia.

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