My Council Colleague Joan Cross

Tonight my Council colleague Joan Cross resigned due to illness, effective June 30, 2011. She will be greatly missed by all of us on Council and the community as a whole.

Joan is someone I truly admire as a person who stuck to her principles, her word and her convictions. She is also one of the kindest people I know. As I said from the dais tonight, Joan always, always asked me how Kerry and the kids were doing. It is how she is - putting others before her self, concerned with others' well-being. It's what made her a great public servant and what makes her a wonderful person.

When I first ran in 2008, people always told me, "You need to be like Joan - accessible and responsive." And it's true, without a beat Joan was always there to help her constituents with whatever issue they faced, no matter the size or scale.

I will truly miss my colleague and pray that she returns to full health. My thoughts and prayers go to her, her husband Ron and family as they work to overcome her illness. I ask that you also keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Tonight the council had the somber duty of appointing someone to fill Joan's term until it expires on June 30, 2012. The person Council unanimously appointed is former Councilman R. Scott Silverthorne. According to our charter he will fulfill the remainder of Joan's term. The Council also unanimously agreed to, in keeping with state law, ask the Fairfax Circuit Court to set May 1, 2012 as the election to fill Joan's seat. This is the same day as the general election for City Council.

Independence Day Carnival and Ashby Pond

The City prides itself on its fantastic parks and recreation department and offerings. From the trails to our parks and of course, events, no one does it better than us.

We'll, we're stepping it up a bit.

Thanks to the creativity of parks director Mike McCarty and his team, the City's Independence Day celebration isn't just going to last a day. It's going to last for a weekend. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday (except during the parade), the City will host a carnival at the Sun Trust bank parking lot site on University Drive. This is where we've had the fall festival carnival before. There will also be food available as well as rides and games. Special thanks goes to Sun Trust for their support.

The Independence Day carnival is actually something the City had until a few years ago but for a variety of reasons stopped. I'm glad to see that this tradition is back. Be on the lookout for more information.

Onto the pond ... Ashby Pond that is. As many know, the City purchased the Ashby Pond site in the Little River Hills Neighborhood many years ago with the expectation that we would clean it up, dredge it, put in a trail and make some other minor improvements so that it could be a passive park.

Right now we have about $390,000 in the bank, but are short around $140,000 for the entire project. On Tuesday night the Council re-dedicated its commitment to finding the funding and making good on turning Ashby Pond a passive park. We are looking at having at work session at the June 28 meeting to discuss options for funding, which could include using some of the $2.4 million remaining from the 2005 library construction (we just found out about this recently).

In any event, this is a promise we made to the community and it's one we certainly will keep. Stay tuned.

Ending Hunger Makes an Economic Impact

It's fair to say that the majority of people in Northern Virginia have enough to eat. In fact, we probably have too much to eat.

Yet, there is still a hunger problem in our community, our commonwealth and our country. Today at the Board of Directors meeting for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (I serve as the City's representative), my council colleague Jeff Greenfield made a presentation in his capacity as the manager of a program administered by the Department of Agriculture that seeks to get communities involved in ending hunger.

The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP)provides assistance for purchasing food for our fellow citizens who don't have enough to eat. It is the nation's largest anti-hunger program and "ensures that families and children get essential nutrition while also promoting local economic activity."

As Mr. Greenfield discussed in his presentation, the program not only helps people individually by providing them the food they need, but also helps local economies as people spend money on food in local grocery stores.

There are qualifications to be eligible for SNAP - for instance the annual income for a family of four can't be more than $28,668. But when these people get their money they spend it and that spending creates a multiplier effect - for every $5 in new SNAP benefits, $9 is generated in total community spending. Currently, SNAP distributes $490 million in assistance every year in the D.C. area.

The goal now is to get participation up in all jurisdictions across the country, but particularly here in the D.C. area. Based on eligibility, the City of Fairfax has a participation rate of .15%. But if that rate was boosted by 15%, the additional economic benefit would amount to $242,000. In Fairfax County, the participation rate is around 34% and boosting it by 15% would account for an additional $11.3 million.

With the economy - even in this area - still on shaky ground, there is a need out there for people to get the benefits they are entitled to and ensure that they and their families do not go to bed or wake up hungry.

Today COG took a step forward and committed to using its resources to help increase the SNAP participation rate and do its part in ending hunger. I'm certain the City will follow suit in finding ways to promote SNAP. More information about the SNAP program can be found here.

Let me also commend my colleague who doesn't talk about his day job that often, but should be commended for the work he does.