John Foust is running for re-election as the Dranesville District Supervisor. He is proud of the efforts he has made, and the success he has had, getting additional synthetic turf fields in the Dranesville District. John’s opponent spent 16 years on the Herndon Town Council and never got a single turf field in the Town. Nevertheless, supporters of John’s opponent have handed out flyers, circulated petitions and sent out emails that contain a great deal of false and misleading information regarding John’s support for youth programs in general, and for youth sports in particular. While meeting the ever increasing needs for expanded field capacity is a challenge, over the four years he has been in office, John has done more than any County Supervisor to increase the number of synthetic turf fields in his district. The following are the facts.
Support for youth programs. Before he was elected to the Board of Supervisors, John contributed hundreds of volunteer hours working for our youth. He coached youth soccer, was a Cub Master for 4 years and headed the McLean-Arlington district of the Boy Scouts of America for 3 years. He also served for several years on the board of the Fairfax County Medical Care for Children Partnership. Since taking office, John has been an advocate for numerous programs that support our youth including helping to lead the successful effort to expand full-day kindergarten to all elementary schools in the County; funding language, music, arts and athletic programs targeted by FCPS for budget cuts; restoring funding for School Resource Officers, School Nurses, Health Room Clinic Aides and athletic field maintenance to the County budget; and, as discussed below, expanding field capacity for youth sports programs.
Current synthetic turf field status. There are only 40 synthetic turf fields in Fairfax County. The typical Magisterial District has 4. When John took office, there was only one synthetic turf field in the entire Dranesville Magisterial District (at Lewinsville Park). Now Dranesville has 9 synthetic turf fields. They are: Lewinsville Park (existing when John took office); Hutchison Elementary School; Linway Terrace; Spring Hill 2; Spring Hill 3; Spring Hill 7; Herndon HS stadium field; Herndon HS practice field; and, Arrowbrook Park (this field became part of the Dranesville District through re-districting)
The Hutchison and Spring Hill 2 and 3 turf field projects were planned before John took office and completed while he was in office. John worked with McLean Youth Soccer’s leadership and the communities surrounding the Spring Hill fields to resolve many issues before, during and after construction of those fields. The Herndon High School fields were funded through a precedent setting partnership arrangement proposed by John. After the project was completed, the President of Herndon Optimist Youth Football said that John’s “creative partnership approach and strong advocacy resulted in investments from the County and Park Authority that made it possible to move the project forward.” Although John worked with the youth sports leagues on the Spring Hill 7 and Linway Terrace projects, and they expressed their gratitude for his assistance in funding and completing those projects, his opponent’s supporters falsely claim John had no role in either project.
Potential synthetic turf fields. John is not satisfied and continues to work on expanding field capacity. There are several synthetic turf fields in various stages of planning in the Dranesville District:
• McLean H.S. (John obtained $200,000 in proffer money to assist McLean H.S. Boosters. This was the first time that proffer money for fields in McLean was obtained through a Tysons Corner re-zoning)
• Leo Santaballa (Great Falls Lacrosse is working with the community; the County will invest $150,000)
• Police Station (a synthetic turf field, probably with lights, will be added as part of the expansion project for the McLean Police Station)
• Nike Park (John is working to obtain Park bond funding)
• Longfellow M.S. (investigating possible synthetic turf field)
• Langley H.S. (John has met with Boosters to discuss possible funding sources)
Langley Fork Park.For at least a decade before John took office, the community, including youth sports groups, talked about the great potential of Langley Fork Park for synthetic turf fields with lights. Langley Fork is owned by the National Park Service (NPS) and leased to the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) on a yearly basis. When he took office, John made the Langley Fork Park fields a priority and, by working with the FCPA, significant progress has been made toward transferring Langley Fork from NPS to FCPA. FCPA has commenced the master planning process for the park. In addition, to the potential fields listed above, Langley Fork has the potential for up to 4 rectangular synthetic turf fields and 2 improved diamond fields.
Salona Park. Before John was elected Supervisor, Fairfax County purchased its interest in Salona Park through a “Deed of Open Space and Conservation Easement.” The Deed recites that the Property is historically significant for several reasons. The conservation easement agreed to by the County specifies there can be up to 2 playing fields but they cannot have lights or synthetic turf. There was no public input process at the time of purchase so there was no community adopted master plan regarding how the property would be used. The Park Authority began the master planning process for Salona Park this year. At a public meeting on the master plan, about 25 speakers suggested many public uses they believed would be consistent with the historical, cultural and environmental character of the property. There was no consensus. After the meeting, John worked with the Park Authority to form a task force to study options to bring back for further review by the community before the master plan is finalized. That process is on-going and the unlighted grass fields allowed by the Deed are one option that is being considered by the Task Force.
Holladay field. One of the more outrageously false claims made against John is that he opposed playing fields at Holladay field (a natural turf field near Spring Hill Elementary School). The Holladay field was obtained about 10 years ago when John was a member of the Lewinsville Coalition. The Coalition successfully negotiated with the developer of the Holladay Assisted Living community (now a Sunrise facility) to transfer about 5 acres to the County to be used for playing fields. John and the Coalition supported using the proffered property for playing fields. They did oppose an MYS proposal to place a locked fence around the field that would have precluded community access to the field when it was not being used for organized sporting events.
Loss of Fields. Supporters of John’s opponent also claim the McLean area has lost 6 playing fields since John took office and suggest that he is responsible for the loss. In fact, there have not been 6 fields lost and John is not responsible for the loss of any field. While they are not specific about the fields they refer to as lost, it is believed they are referring to the following:
• Franklin Sherman E.S. field- was unavailable during expansion of the school, but now available.
• Longfellow M.S. field- unavailable during expansion of the school, investigating possible replacement.
• Police Station field- currently available but will be temporarily unavailable during expansion of the Police Station (in another effort to mislead, supporters of John’s opponent refer to the Police Station expansion project as a “$22 million expansion of the Supervisor’s office”).
• Spring Hill E.S. field- a portion of the field will be unavailable due to planned expansion of school.
• Spring Hill Rec Center fields- A large field was temporarily unavailable during construction but has been replaced with a large synthetic turf field (the net effect is increased playing capacity on this field); 3 micro fields were unavailable during construction, one will be made available in the Spring.
• Spring Hill 7 and Linway Terrace fields- one youth sports group has lost playing time under the Athletic Council’s MOU policy that makes 20% of the time on those fields available to other McLean youth sports groups.
Conclusion. A significant need still exists to expand field capacity, but much has been accomplished since John took office and he continues to work on several more field projects. And, while the loss of any playing field capacity is a problem, it is misleading to imply that John is not very supportive of youth sports.
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