Blog posts are the personal views of Letty Hardi and not official statements or records on behalf of the Falls Church City Council

Dear Friends,

This week’s update will brief…

A final reminder that we have an important community meeting TOMORROW, Saturday at 9 am at MEH middle school about the GMHS Campus project. Whether you currently have kids in school or not, we are all taxpayers and will shoulder the cost together. And if high school seems like ages away for your kids, keep in mind that by the time construction completes, current elementary students will be the first to attend the finished school!

I know that this is a long weekend for school families and many are out of town. The meeting will be recorded and available on FCC-TV, YouTube, and the City website. As a parent of little ones, I also know it can be hard to attend meetings with them in tow- so we are also offering free childcare to make it easier for parents! Sign up here. Whether you are there in person on Saturday or will view the meeting afterwards, we want to hear your input on the options for the campus project. You can always email me directly or email cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov to get comments to all of City Council.

I hope to see many of you tomorrow.

Best,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

• Joint City Council-School Board meeting – we reviewed the options and presentation materials for Saturday’s meeting with both bodies. The meeting video is available here. If you’ve followed my updates the past few months, you’ll recall that the options under consideration had grown to a dizzying number (13+). For clarity’s sake, we’ll be condensing it down to 3 broad options to discuss on Saturday – renovation, build new, and build new in phases – ranging from $65M to $141M and some with economic development and some without.
• City of Falls Church earns top marks! In case you missed it, rankings came out that declared the City to be #1 place to live in the US and #1 place to raise a family in Virginia.
  • http://patch.com/virginia/delray/best-places-live-six-localities-northern-virginia-make-top-10-list
  • http://patch.com/virginia/fallschurch/falls-church-ranked-1-place-raise-family-virginia-study

What’s Coming Up:

• Have you voted for next year’s decal?  The annual Vehicle Decal Design Contest is underway; voting is now open and closes next week on 2/9. Voting is limited to City residents and employees of the City government and schools. The winner will be announced at the 2/13 City Council meeting.

• TOMORROW – Saturday 2/4, 9 am – Community Town Hall on GMHS Project (MEH). We will provide an update on enrollment trends, facility needs, and financing constraints and the options under consideration that need YOUR input. If you are interested in child care, please complete this form. We will be in touch with you.

• Monday 2/5 – City Council Work Session –  we are expected to discuss CIP projects, a mid year financial report, next steps on the GMHS campus project following the town hall.

• Monday, 3/13 – City Manager Presents FY18 budget