Buy a White House Ornament and Support GMHS All-Night Graduation

George Mason High School PTSA is raising money for the 2011 All Night Graduation Celebration by selling the White House Ornaments and The Phantom Ball.

The All Night Graduation Celebration and all the activities associated with it tell our kids and their parents that their safety and well being are priorities in our community. Because of the money raised by both the sale of White House Ornaments and tickets to the non-ball we have been able to create an all-night event that attracts almost all of our senior class graduates and keeps them away from private parties or other activities they might find on their own on graduation night, a night that is statistically the riskiest night of a teenager’s life.

White House Ornaments are available for purchase for $21. All orders must be received by Monday, Dec. 6, in order to ensure Christmas delivery. There is a $5 home delivery charge or you can pick them up on Saturday, December 11t, at 611 Laura Drive from 10 a.m. till noon. The White House Ornaments make great gifts.

The 2010 White House Christmas ornament honors the twenty-fifth president of the United States, William McKinley, and celebrates the role of music in the traditions of the White House and features festive,colorful scenes from the annual Army Navy Reception at the White House in 1900. If you have any questions about the White House Ornaments you can contact Nancy Pierce at [email protected].

To order online, go to http://www.georgemasonptsa.com, click on ANGC and then on White House Ornaments. There is a photo of the ornament on this site. You can also buy the ornaments on line at the same address.

NEW YEAR’S EVE: Watch Night Celebration on Broad Street

ANNUAL WATCH NIGHT

New Year’s Eve Celebration in Falls Church City

Free, Family – Friendly Event for All Ages

WHAT: New Year’s Eve Falls Church Celebration—Watch Night

THEME: “Falls Church? Got Talent!”

WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 31, 2010

TIME: 7 p.m. – Midnight

WHERE: Intersection of Broad Street (Route 7) and Washington Street (Route 29)

City of Falls Church, VA 22046, all venues are located within three blocks of the

Crossroads and very walk-able…shuttle bus available to all venues

INFO: www.fallschurchva.gov/watchnight

Ring in the New Year with free, family-friendly festivities at the Annual Watch Night New Year’s Eve Celebration in the City of Falls Church. From 7 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, Dec. 31, beginning at the 100 block of Broad Street (Route 7) at Washington Street (Route 29). With events and entertainment both indoors and outdoors, The Little City’s celebration is unique because it is free and open to the public.

This year’s theme – FALLS CHURCH? GOT TALENT! – is a wonderful melange of music, singing, dancing, entertainment, performances and interactive festivities that appeal to all ages. Highlights will include a 66-foot dragon obstacle course, free balloons, a Velcro wall, karaoke, face painting, caricaturist drawings, a Scavenger Hunt, magic shows, dance lessons, free popcorn and more. The evening also features a New Year’s countdown spectacular and lowering of the historic star that first lit the Falls Church sky in 1948: the year Falls Church became an independent city.

FALLS CHURCH? GOT TALENT! will include live performances scheduled with seven bands and DJs, including The Big Band “Northern Lights” 18-piece orchestra and Cowboy Hay’s Music and Humor.

Watch Night is cosponsored by the City of Falls Church, the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce, the Falls Church Economic Development Authority and the Village Preservation and Improvement Society of Falls Church.

Three Choices Under a Million as Home Market Sizzles

By STEPHEN SIEGEL
Falls Church Times Staff

December 6, 2010

While much of the country continues to struggle with a supply of too many homes and too few buyers, fortunate Falls Church City continues to have the opposite problem: Too many buyers, too few houses.

It’s certainly a high-class problem to have, but the lack of inventory of single family homes for sale has frustrated buyers and recently reached what by definition is near an all-time low.

There are currently eight single-families for sale in the City, a small number in its own right. But if your budget is under $1 million, as most people’s budgets are, your choices dwindle to just three.

Those three are at 118 Greenway, 401 North Oak, and 514 Anne, and are presumably getting most of the attention from buyers about now.

“We have been getting outstanding traffic,” confirmed Dick Coogan, agent for 514 Anne, which has been on the market for just a little under three months. “We’ve had over 100 showings.”

Despite the interest, and what Mr. Coogan called the “meticulous” condition of the home, it remains for sale. The home doesn’t have a basement and is small, which has been the primary complaint among buyers, he said. The price has been reduced once, from $575,000 to $560,000. The sellers are moving because of a job transfer.

The North Oak home is adjacent to the Washington and Old Dominion Trail and is priced at $565,000. Listing agent Bethany Ellis says the home is a bit of a fixer-upper but features good “bones” — real estate lingo for a solid and functional structure. She said she’s had over 50 showings in the first month, but buyers have balked at doing the work required to update it.

The property at 118 Greenway is priced at $865,000. Agent Isabelle Williams did not return a phone call seeking comment.

“It’s true — there’s hardly anything on the market,” said Stacy Hennessey, an agent at Fall Properties, which recently opened an office at West and Park streets. “People are clamoring to get in here.”

Ms. Hennessey added that while the schools are a key driver of demand for City homes, access to Metro, the W&OD Trail, and the farmer’s market also are big draws.

Additionally, she said, the schools are in demand not only because of their quality, but also because of their small size.

Meanwhile, there are only five homes over $1 million available. Make that four. As this article was being written, 101 Buxton Street, a 5,500 square foot home built in 2005, the most expensive home available in the City, went under contract, priced at $1,395,000.

Ironically, as the contract for Buxton was being finalized, Ms. Hennessey was saying it was a beautiful house, but that buyers she had shown the home to had turned it down because it’s at the corner of Buxton and busy East Broad Street. Still, someone decided that wasn’t a deal-breaker.

The market for high-end homes has improved since the depths of the mortgage mess in 2008, when jumbo loans were hard to come by. A new home on Highland recently closed for $1,345,000. But that market clearly remains slower than that for homes that are lower-priced. In 2010, 18 City houses have sold in five days or less, an incredible number, but all of those quick sales sold between $460,000 and $899,000.

Even the condo market, one of the banes of the City budget, may be improving. A foreclosed condo at The Byron, 513 W. Broad, recently went under contract after just 23 days. Priced at $429,900 for a 2 bedroom, the condo sold in 2006 for $569,500 but is only assessed at $347,000.

It probably sold for well beyond the current assessment, which means the assessment, and thus the City’s revenue from it, will likely be rising. That should be music to the City Council’s ears.

Update, Dec. 7: A fourth home under $1 million is now on the market: 801 Lincoln Ave., priced at $795,000.

City Resident Dies in Accident Crossing Broad Street

FALLS CHURCH CITY COMMUNICATIONS

December 6, 2010

A Falls Church City resident who was crossing West Broad Street (Route 7) in the middle of the 400 block was hit and killed by a van about 6:40 p.m. on Sunday, December 5, according to Falls Church Police.

Police have identified the victim as Vincent D. Kern II, age 64 of 902 Madison Lane.

Broad Street was closed in both directions for a couple of hours during the Police investigation.

No charges had been filed at press time. The police investigation is continuing.

MAN ABOUT TOWN: Fighting for the Schools

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Falls Church Times Columnist

December 6, 2010

As foreseen, “the fight for the schools” has intensified, including skirmishes on the electronic pages of the Falls Church Times. So far the words remain largely civil, but civil words can nevertheless lead to civil wars. And the fight for the schools threatens to become a civil war – a fight, not against outside forces, but of neighbor against neighbor.

“Fighting for the schools” is a proud tradition in Falls Church, as documented by the late A.C. Miller, who wrote a short history of the CBC (Citizens for a Better City) for the Falls Church Times in April 2009. Miller compared the CBC to a PTA, “not Republican or Democratic, but a non-partisan, or perhaps multi-partisan organization of parents fighting for the best schools.”

Current CBC President Sally Ekfelt blew the same trumpet in a comment to the FCT last week: “We think independence is worth fighting for.”

Also last week, City Patriarch Lou Olom wrote a letter to the FCT, urging City taxpayers to continue to lend adequate financial support to the schools. That letter, and the 29 comments it generated, was the most-read item of the week – nearly 1,300 views so far. And it inspired another seasoned observer, Ed Strait, to write that Olom was “a leading fighter for the high-quality public school system in Falls Church today,” the main CBC activist who “fought that fight in 1959.”

But whom are these proud fighters fighting against? Then-Mayor Robin Gardner stated in April 2009 that “the School Board’s job is to do whatever they can to fight for their school staff. Our [City Council’s] job is to fight as hard as we can for our City staff.”

And there lies the crux of the matter: the “fight” for the schools is, and always has been, over money, and who gets it. The City broke away from Fairfax County in 1948 because town parents wanted a better education for their children than the then-hayseed county schools were providing. And the townies were willing to pay for it.

Unfortunately, the law of unintended consequences has caught up with the City of Falls Church. “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” The better mousetrap is the City school system, often likened to private schools: small, well-bred, and exclusive, requiring an expensive ticket for admission — the price of Falls Church real estate – and only the privileged need apply. Evidence is the percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch: 32 percent in Arlington, 26 percent in Fairfax County, and 8 percent in Falls Church City.

The Man About Town broached this subject nine months ago in a much-maligned  commentary that unleashed a firestorm of response, the most scathing coming from David Chavern, who accused me of suggesting that the City Schools’ popularity is a form of “white flight.” Well, this time I won’t try to reason why our schools are in demand, and ask instead how and if we can meet that demand.

FACT: Smaller school systems are more expensive per student than larger school systems. Arlington has 10 times our students; Fairfax 100 times.

FACT: Unfunded mandates would bankrupt any school system without state and federal aid. But wealthy Falls Church receives only a fraction of the outside support flowing to other small jurisdictions. The next-smallest area school system after Falls Church is Manassas City, with 3 ½ times as many students. But 49 percent of Manassas school costs come from state and federal funding. In the Little City, that figure is 21 percent.

FACT: For the past two years, City funding of schools has declined, even while student enrollments increase 2-3 percent per year.

The battle lines are drawn. On January 11 we’ll hear Superintendent Lois Berlin’s proposed school budget for next year. Will she make further cuts to last year’s draconian budget?

Whether parents or not, we all have a dog in this fight. But is it a fight that can be won? I don’t see how. The more we fund the schools, the more exclusive, and therefore desirable, they become, thus heightening demand. Expensive schools beget even more expensive schools.

And the alternative? Will our children still study Yeats?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. . .