MAN ABOUT TOWN: For Short Attention Spans (Say What?)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Falls Church Times Columnist
March 22, 2010
In recognition of reduced attention spans, this week’s column comes in bite-size nuggets:
CITY JAIL NEEDS HEALTH INSURANCE
Kaiser-Permanente is right down the street, but the City of Falls Church lacks a healthcare plan – at least for its prisoners. The City’s Chief Financial Officer has informed City Council that after City police arrested a shoplifter, the suspect was found to be suffering from “a thesaurus” of health complaints. Our good Little City picked up the tab for $100,000 of medical care before police managed to transfer the prisoner into state custody.
LITTLE CITY DECAL
Speaking of the “Little City,” did you get your decal in this week’s News-Press? It’s a little sticker, paid for by the Economic Development Authority. I’m pondering what to do with it — stick it on the bumper of my minivan? Meanwhile, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for stickers around town, as a basis of judging how much support this slogan is getting. Haven’t spotted any yet.
SLOPPY BOOKKEEPING
The financial crisis is really causing municipalities to sharpen their accounting pencils – so far at Falls Church’s expense. First we heard about losing the local share of state sales tax for a number of businesses that checked the “Falls Church City” box just because their mailing address said “Falls Church” when they were actually located in places like Culmore. Now we hear that for an indefinite period of time, the Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department has been filling up its fire trucks at an Arlington County facility, and getting them serviced there as well – free of charge. Arlington suddenly woke up, and the bills are in the mail.
TRAFFIC CAMERAS GET A RED LIGHT . . .
Remember how the City contracted to have four “red light” cameras installed by January 1? Red tape tied up the red lights, and now Police Chief Reitze can only promise that two red light cameras will be installed sometime this year. Locations are not specified. MAT hopes to find out where, and to compare the duration of the yellow lights before and after the cameras go up. One of the red light camera national scandals was the discovery that some independent contractors reduced the yellow light duration in order to generate more tickets.
. . . AND SPEED BUMPS GET SMOOTHED OVER
MAT wrote some months ago about the “El Cheapo” speed bumps installed on East Columbia Street and how they encouraged head-on collisions to avoid the bump. Well, the snow plows made short work of the plastic ramps, and now the City has removed the residue, except on Van Buren Street. Meanwhile, the asphalt bumps on Grove Avenue held up fine, as they have year after year. (When my daughter was in high school, she made a science out of hitting them just slow enough so as not to leave our van’s transmission behind.)
OBAMA’S BRACKETS
Our Feature Video shows President Obama filling out his 63 picks for the NCAA basketball playoffs. I watched the video, and Obama clearly knows his basketball, making comments about the coaches, which players show the most strength, etc. I guess the reason we’re featuring the video is because our Food Editor, Jimmy Scarano, is a basketball nut and has organized the first Falls Church Times NCAA Pick’Em Tourney.
Well, I like Jimmy a lot, and didn’t want to hurt his feelings by not playing. But I’m just not a basketball guy. I haven’t watched a single game this season – in fact the last time I was even aware of the tournament was when George Mason made the final four in 2006. But, just to be “one of the guys,” I spent a couple of minutes filling out the grid, basing my choices on random intuition – e.g., my grandfather attended Cornell, so I picked it.
The only other time I’ve picked a pool was in college. One day I came to class early, and my favorite English professor was filling out a faculty pool sheet. He knew absolutely nothing about sports but didn’t want to be a spoil-sport by refusing to play. So he asked me to help him pick teams, but he couldn’t have chosen anyone more ignorant. Never shy to offer an opinion, I confidently answered every question – even about schools I had never heard of. He won the entire faculty pool, and said he really should split the winnings with me, but didn’t want to get in trouble.
And now, after two rounds of play, I’m in 1st place in the FCT tourney, with 36 out of 48 correct picks. According to Yahoo, that’s in the top 4 percent nationwide. Meanwhile, among the folks who know and love basketball, Jimmy’s in 4th place, my nemesis Andy Rankin is tied for 6th, George Bromley, Brian Williams and Gordon Theisz are tied for 14th, and poor Dave Witzel’s at 32nd.
Oh, and President Obama? He had a great first round (25-7, same as MAT) but faltered in the second.
By George Southern
March 22, 2010
Yeah, my brackets started out bad and got worse. I used a “Cinderella” approach and the wrong Cinderella’s all won. Not that I claim any particular knowledge of basketball. Hadn’t watched a game all season until I saw Kanas lose (very exciting). Love to do the March Madness brackets though. Gives me a reason to get up in the morning and I can argue with my son about something other than cleaning up his room…
Oh, and I put my “Little City” sticker on my laptop – helps me to stand out at conferences.
I liked the sticker but wouldn’t put it on my car. If they offered a magnet at a nominal price, I’d definitely stick it on my car.
Two red lights are better than none.
The sales tax issue is interesting. My understanding is that the vast majority of the misallocated funds came from one store – a Giant Food in Burke (or someplace not very close to Falls Church). The story I heard was that when Royal Ahold bought Giant Food (like 20 years ago) they starting filling sales taxes incorrectly for that one store. Apparently the flow of sales taxes makes it hard for Falls Church to notice a problem (we just get a transfer from the state without a ton of correlation between the amount and where it came from).
Anyway, it sounds like a really strange problem but not really related to people on the edges of the City thinking they were in the City when they really weren’t. I’m sure if you asked Tom Clinton he could give you all the exciting details.
As for the basketball tourney… I know about as much as George does. At this point I’m rooting for the highly unlikely final game of Syracuse vs. Cornell!
I have three of The Little City stickers on my van, one on each of the back side wing windows and one on the back window. Way cooler than those OBX or other ones that you can’t figure out.
Sticker joined my others…on the toolbox.
Hope the bumps on Columbia don’t come back. At first I liked them b/c it gave me time to turn onto Columbia as the traffic slowed for the bumps but, ouch, my little car really hated them. I was one of the straddlers at the end.
The Falls Church Times Tourney has been a blast to follow online. I’m glad you decided to join, George. Though you should know that given the fact that you have Kansas all the way your current lead will likely disappear in the later rounds.
As a lifelong Kansas fan, that Northern Iowa game was torture to watch, but it was still an on-the-edge-of-your-seat game, which is always fun.
Kansas was the best team in the country this year but they were not nearly as invincible as some of the basketball experts made them out to be in the days leading up to the tournament. The pressure that mounted over the last week really weighed down the team. They were so tense and nervous.
Nevertheless, this has been an incredible tournament so far. I wasted away the nice weather watching 30+ hours of basketball over the last few days and I look forward to more!
Jimmy: Kansas? We’re not in Kansas anymore? They’re not playing anymore?
Wow, George, you really aren’t a “basketball guy” are you? Kansas lost on Saturday and they are done. That doesn’t mean you or me or anyone else that picked Kansas is mathematically eliminated, but it does hurt our chances quite a bit.
But it could be worse. We could have Mr. Witzel’s bracket
George, what did we pay for to run up a $100K medical tab on one person temporarily held in our jail? How long was this person held? Any details we know?
Falls Church City does not have a jail – we use Arlington County and pay a portion of the operating costs. Maybe you should find out what health plan they have. The red light cameras are not installed because of red tape in the police department – they started from scratch instead of continuing with the research that was done from when we had red light cameras before. Maybe you should interview someone in the police department who can explain these things to you.
Can the Little City of Waste stickers be used on yard waste bags in place of the tax sticker?
I need to get my car cleaned and waiting for dry weather to put my sticker on,
we were out of town. Great idea! Thx, EDA.
Were the stickers printed using soy-based inks and recycled paper, or were chemicals and new resources wasted to generate them?
Any updates on how many people are collecting the free mulch now that it’s no longer being delivered? What will the city do with all of the extra mulch if no one takes it?
George, After a visit to the car wash over the weekend, the Little City sticker is now proudly displayed on my car which you will see parked right in front of our offices the next time your are out for a stroll in the neighborhood.
Victoria. I believe the City will soon publish a list of contractors who will deliver City mulch. The only cost will be for the delivery.
There has to be some genuine symbolism about the “Little City” sticker. Sort of reminds me of the once popular TV program, “Laugh In” and the wildly used phrase, “STICK IT TO ME!”
At least where I live now the “local sticker” celebrates the famous and tasty “Hanover Tomato”!!!
Have a nice day!