Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields reported to the F.C. City Council Monday night that City Hall is moving ahead “courageously” to get some holiday twinkle lighting on City-owned trees on the north side of the 100 and 200 blocks of W. Broad St., and that they can be ready for lighting up by early December. The bulk of the Council members present appeared pleased by the initiative which stemmed from an exchange between the F.C. Chamber of Commerce board and the City’s new arborist, Kathleen Sutaro Reich.
Reich prepared a memo on cost options for the putting lights in the trees, being the first City arborist in the City’s history to look favorably on the idea. Mayor David Tarter said his preference would be to leave the lights in the trees all year long. Shields said there is a high likelihood that a major property owner in one of those blocks has indicated a willingness to help cover the cost of the job, which Mike Collins, the City’s Public Works director, will oversee.
Meanwhile, in a clarification of last week’s report on this subject, the City arborist noted that while her name was Kathleen Sutaro when she first took the job last summer, she’s since married, and her name now has Reich at its back end.
