So MUCH Music & Art This Weekend — Right Here in the City
September 30, 2009 by Gina Caceci · Leave a Comment
SATURDAY 10/3: Echos Chamber Ensemble at Falls Church Presbyterian Church
September 30, 2009 by Gina Caceci · Leave a Comment
Crime Report for September 22-28
September 30, 2009 by Falls Church Times Staff · 2 Comments
Drunk in Public, 300 blk. S Oak St., September 23, 03:50 PM. A 42 year old Arlington man was arrested for being drunk in public.
Possession of Marijuana, 900 blk Ellison St., September 25, 00:08 AM. A 40 year old City of Falls Church man was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Drunk in Public, 1100 blk S Washington St., September 25, 04:12 AM. A 27 year old Falls Church man was arrested for being drunk in public.
Larceny, 200 blk Little Falls St., September 25, 3:43 PM, a Bump BMX style bicycle was stolen from a residence.
Drunk in Public, 100 blk Park Pl., September 26, 01:13 AM. A 23 year old Arlington woman was arrested for being drunk in public.
Driving Under the Influence, 6600 blk of Wilson Blvd., (Eden Center), September 26, 02:02 AM. A 34 year old Quakertown, PA man was arrested for driving under the influence.
Larceny, 400 blk Maple Ave., sometime between August 15 and August 22 a K2 OZ-X bicycle was stolen from the storage area of an apartment building.
Larceny – Shoplifting, 1150 W Broad St., (CVS), September 26, 2:17 PM. Two black male suspects stole items valued at $626 from the store.
Driving Under the Influence, 800 blk of W Broad St., September 26, 10:50 PM. A 38 year old Holland, PA man was arrested for driving under the influence.
Disorderly Conduct, 220 N Washington St., (State Theatre), September 27, 00:34 AM. A 32 year old Oakton man was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Driving Under the Influence, 200 blk E Broad St., September 27, 03:45 AM. A 23 year old Salisbury, MD resident was arrested for driving under the influence.
Arson, 7124 Leesburg Pike, (George Mason High School), September 27, 11:28 AM. A trashcan in front of the school was set on fire by an unknown suspect.
Driving Under the Influence, 600 blk Roosevelt Blvd, September 27, 10:04 PM. A 40 year old Adelphi, MD resident was arrested for driving under the influence.
VIDEO REPORT: I-66 to Be Widened, Despite Promise
September 29, 2009 by Stephen Siegel · 6 Comments
By STEPHEN SIEGEL
Falls Church Times Staff
Three decades after opponents thought they had forever limited Interstate 66 inside the Beltway to four lanes, the highway is set to be expanded. The Falls Church Times presents the following VIDEO REPORT: Click below to play.
‘Predatory Towing’ on City Council’s Hit List This Week
September 29, 2009 by George Bromley · 1 Comment
The Falls Church City Council will address the issue of ”predatory towing” Wednesday evening, September 30. In recent years the City’s reputation has suffered due to aggressive towing, primarily from its commercial parking lots.
The Council will consider making the following revisions to the City’s towing ordinance:
1. Require authorization for each tow from the property owner or his agent, who cannot be related to, an employee of, or have a financial interest in the tow operator. Such authorization must be in writing during the normal business hours and may be verbal during non business hours.
2. Require that a photograph or other documentary evidence be obtained substantiating the reason for each tow.
3. Clarify and improve the signage requirements to more adequately and uniformly caution citizens about being towed for illegal parking.
4. Reduce the maximum allowable tow fee from $100 to $50 per tow.
If approved on first reading Wednesday, a public hearing and second reading of the measure will be held Monday, October 26.
After declining in 2008, the towing rate in the City has increased in 2009. At the current rate, 386 vehicles will be towed this year. Annual totals are:
2006 - 358 2007 - 351 2008 - 224 2009 - 282 (through 9/21)Falls Plaza already has seen 192 tows. That unusually high number may be attributable to the plaza’s proximity to the West Falls Church Metro station and events held in the District, such as the presidential inauguration.
Complaints to the Falls Church Police also are on the rise, 10 having been received so far in 2009, more than the two prior years combined. To date, only one of the complaints has been substantiated.
Detailed towing numbers for the three primary City strip malls are available here on Page 4. A comparison of the towing charges in Northern Virginia jurisdictions appears on Page 3.
Merrill Peterson, 88, UVA Dean and Jeffersonian Scholar
September 28, 2009 by Special to the Falls Church Times · 3 Comments
Peterson. . .
Merrill D. Peterson, 88, a University of Virginia history professor, former Chair of the History Department and Dean of the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University and noted Jeffersonian scholar, died Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Charlottesville.
Survivors include two sons, Jeffrey W. Peterson, of Falls Church, and Kent M. Peterson of Lenexa, Kansas, and a grandchild, James W. Peterson. His wife of 51 years, Jean H. Peterson, died in 1995.
A memorial service will be held in Charlottesville at Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge, 2 p.m. Sunday, September 27, in the Rotunda Room. Read more
MAN ABOUT TOWN: Arlington County Idea Struck a Nerve
September 28, 2009 by George Southern · 10 Comments
Reactions to last week’s story on why Falls Church should affiliate with Arlington County surprised me. Expecting to get shot down by a horde of City loyalists, I never dreamed the majority of comments would be supportive. John Bennett nailed the argument better than I ever could. And former City Councilman David Chavern confided that he’s been “talking about this potential for a long time.” Good points also were scored in opposition, although I think some people misunderstood my premise.
I wasn’t proposing a merger in order to change Falls Church, but rather to preserve it. My job moved our family in and out of the Washington area over the years, and we’ve lived in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax County. We like Falls Church best, and for me it’s the village experience. Like Sara Fitzgerald, I can walk to the library, bank, restaurants, hair salon, City Hall, hardware store, post office, elementary school, and more. But I fear this small-town feel will be increasingly lost as we “Shirlington-ize.”
Andy Rankin, up late with a newborn, wrote, “there’s no way a chunk of land inside the beltway can stay ‘Mayberry’ forever.” (Note to younger readers: “Mayberry” was the village in the Andy Griffith Show back when TV was first invented and dinosaurs roamed the earth. Much later, Rascal Flatts sang: (listen) Read more
Post Office Adapts to Today’s Consumers, Economy
September 27, 2009 by Scott Taylor · Leave a Comment
Michelle Taylor takes some time on a Sunday afternoon to mail care packages to her two college freshmen from the Falls Church Post Office APC. . .
By SCOTT TAYLOR
Falls Church Times Staff
It’s Friday and as you finish your lunch you go over the list of errands that will consume the afternoon. Get to the bank and the Post Office before they close. Drop a request for reference books by the library so your daughter can start on her term paper next week. Pick up the airline tickets at the travel agent. All this and make it home before 5 p.m. so you won’t miss the phone call from the landscaper who wants to drop by Saturday morning.
Wait, something’s not quite right. You turn the list over in your hand – this just doesn’t make sense. Unless there was some hiccup in the space-time continuum you missed, it isn’t 1989 and everything on your list can be done by turning on your laptop, picking up your mobile phone, stopping by an ATM, and now – in the Post Office lobby at 800 West Broad Street – stepping up to the Automated Postal Center (APC) which is open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“The Automated Postal Center is a self-service kiosk that allows customers to buy stamps or mail letters and packages in a self-service environment,” Falls Church Postmaster Donna Bradley wrote in an e-mail to the Falls Church Times. “APCs support up to 85 percent of all possible retail transactions, including the purchase of additional services such as Delivery Confirmation. Customers can purchase stamps or mail letters and parcels using debit or credit.”
Bradley emphasized that the Post Office employees are ready to assist any customer interested in learning to use the APC. “It’s a quick and easy alternative to standing in line in the inner lobby,” Bradley wrote.
The Falls Church APC was installed on July 15, 2009, and is one of 2,500 kiosks distributed across all 80 USPS districts. City residents may remember an APC that was installed for a time at the Post Office’s former location. Its unexplained disappearance several years ago produced grumbles of frustration from patrons who were left with no alternative but to stand in line waiting to speak to a clerk at the counter.
“APCs can help shorten lobby lines, assist during busy lunch periods, and allow you to focus on assisting customers with more complex mailing needs,” according to guidance distributed to employees by the USPS. “The APCs will also make us more competitive by providing customers, especially those who use alternate shipping options because our hours are not convenient to their schedules, with expanded access to postal services.”
You can consider yourself a customer with complex mailing needs not supported by the APC should you need to ship packages internationally, conduct registered mail or money order transactions, or apply for a passport. You can consider yourself a member of the demographic forcing changes to the USPS’s business strategy – changes that include the installation of APCs – if you e-mail more than you put pen-to-paper, conduct business transactions over a secure internet connection, and use FEDEX, UPS, or other competitors for your shipping needs.
Today, the 650,000-plus employees of the USPS deliver mail to a residence in the US for an average annual cost of about $235 per residence. Ensuring the future viability of the USPS, an agency specifically authorized by the US Constitution, will involve more than annual first class postage rate hikes and increased automation. Legislative changes to the Postal Reorganization Act signed by President Nixon in 1970, collective bargaining terms and conditions for unionized workers, whether or not all residences qualify for home delivery, and the number of days home delivery will be provided are examples of the numerous issues under consideration.
Just as your 1989 “to do” list doesn’t make sense in 2009, the Post Office of a generation ago is slowly being transformed in response to the realities of today’s consumers as they maneuver through an early 21st century economy.
