About

In the summer of 2008, three residents with children in Falls Church City Schools decided to create an online resource for City information, and chose the name Falls Church Times [email] to differentiate it from opinion blogs. As others joined, the product expanded. Some things, however, have not changed:

• Non-Profit
• No personal attacks or mean-spiritedness
• Willingness to publish opposing points of view

While we still enjoy reading paper journalism, there are so many online advantages: We can update night and day, not just once a week. We have essentially unlimited space for all kinds of news and information about our City as well as comments from our readers. And if we get something wrong, we can correct it immediately.

Contributors include, but are not limited to:

Stan Fendley — City resident since 2000, help with City Hall and Sports pages.  Government affairs guy during the week, coach soccer and ice hockey on weekends.  Married with two kids in City schools.  Love Falls Church.  Read Stan’s stories.

Annette Hennessey [email] – City resident for over 10 years with a part-time job, full-time kids, and very little time to search for information. Wanted a one-stop solution, so collaborated with friends and neighbors to design fallshurchtimes.com, a community-based web resource for the City. I focus on the Schools pages, as well as recruiting contributors and story ideas. Write me to volunteer or suggest a story. Read Annette’s stories.

Dave Witzel [email] — I’ve been in Falls Church since 2002. My wife Claudia and I have two kids, Adam (GMHS) and Zach (MEHMS). I’m the “handyman” on the Falls Church Times, helping with the technology and writing some posts. I’m eager to have more talented techies pitch in. When I’m not futzing here I work on Internet strategy and social networking for non-profits and government agencies. Check out my friendfeed or email me. Read Dave’s stories.

George Bromley — Twenty-nine-year City resident, retired after many years with Treasury, looking forward to new adventures in journalism. Read George’s stories.

George Southern [email] — City resident since 2002; family includes two GMHS graduates. Worked for several newspapers before joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1985. Now having fun with fallschurchtimes.com. Read George’s stories.

Jimmy Scarano — Not actually a City resident (I live in Arlington — I know, blasphemous). I recently graduated from Virginia Tech with a useless degree in History and now I’m contemplating graduate school and working at The Container Store in the meantime. I stumbled across fallschurchtimes.com in my search for a local outlet where I could contribute as a food writer, which is what I think I might want to do with my life. It’s been a perfect marriage ever since. Read Jimmy’s stories.

Gina Caceci [email] — City resident since 1993, business owner since 1994, plan to live here for the rest of my life. I have a grown son who was entirely educated in the Falls Church City School system. I volunteer with Falls Church Arts, Creative Cauldron, and FIRSTfriday of Falls Church so I thought it would be a natural to contribute to the Arts pages. Read Gina’s stories.

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Scott Taylor – Moved from the District to become a City resident in 2004.  My wife Michelle and I have three children, two of whom are 2009 GMHS graduates. Our youngest will graduate in 2013. There are many uniforms in my life – I have been flying professionally since 1986, and also work at the nexus of aviation, environmental, and energy policy as a Reservist attached to an Air Staff office in the Pentagon. Read Scott’s stories.

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Stephen Siegel — Built a journalism business in the District in the 1990s, contracting with newspapers around the country to be their Washington correspondent. Needing a break after covering some dirty and unpleasant political campaigns, I decamped in 1998 for Chicago, hoping to meet a nice, Midwestern girl. That task accomplished, my wife, Jennifer, and I moved back to the area in 2008 and settled in Falls Church City. We have one child, Andy, who will enroll at Mount Daniel in 2010. Read Stephen’s stories.

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Christine Kilgore [email] — City resident for 7 years with two children at MEH.  I work as a freelance medical and health care writer for various publications and am interested in health issues in the Falls Church schools and the community.   I love receiving suggestions and hearing about medical/health care  experiences, so please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Other contributors to the Falls Church Times that we’d like to thank include:

• Jo Ryden whose sysadmin skills rescued and maintain the technology
• A.C. Miller until he moved (!?) to Massachusetts
• Sally Brett who we’re still trying to lure back to write more
• Kathleen Donovan for stories and photos
• Jon Brooks who kept us apprised of George Mason High’s march to the state soccer championship.
• Tracy Back & Steve Stroup for exciting photos of GMHS sports

Please let us know who we’ve missed.

Write for the Falls Church Times

Interested in contributing to Falls Church Times?  We would love to have your help.  We’re looking for people to write and/or contribute information on topics of interest to the city.

Just write us at contact@fallschurchtimes.com. Your fellow residents and readers will thank you!

Expressing Your Opinion

There are three ways to express your opinion in the Falls Church Times:

• A COMMUNITY COMMENT (article length);
• A LETTER TO THE EDITOR (shorter); or
• A comment  below any story itself.

1. All comments should be civil;
2. Commenters should seek accuracy in statements of fact and should be open to correction of inaccuracies;
3. We reserve the right to edit comments for grammar or typographical errors;
4. We reserve the right to edit or delete offensive comments.  Anonymous comments will be held to a higher level of civility and will be edited or deleted if, in our view, they are excessively harsh or critical;
5. We encourage transparency, including use of commenters’ full names and cities of residence where possible.  We believe such disclosure encourages the goals of civility and accuracy and adds credibility to commenters’ statements.