The Alexandria City Council unanimously approved Councilman Canek Aguirre’s call for a rent freeze at its meeting this week.
The resolution calls on state and federal officials to put a potential moratorium on rents and mortgages and to suspend the reporting of negative credit information by credit bureaus to protect people’s credit scores.
Tomorrow, the Alexandria School Board will consider changes to its grading policies that will, among other things, eliminate final exams for secondary and high school students.
The board will also talk about whether or not to give students in grades 6-12 “pass” or “no grade” for their fourth quarter work, according to a staff memorandum.
Arlandria bar Hops N Shine (3410 Mount Vernon Avenue) is running a GoFundMe for its laid-off kitchen staff.
The bar opened last January and has become a local fixture; full to the point of overflowing on Wednesday trivia nights. Like other restaurants, Hops N Shine is operating a limited carry-out and delivery business, and the company said in the GoFundMe that it’s had to minimize the number of employees for financial and health reasons.
While city business has mostly been limited to pandemic related emergencies, the Alexandria City Council is moving forward with time-sensitive decisions about southwest access to the new Potomac Yard Metro station.
Southern access to Potomac Yard was a selling point for businesses and organizations moving into the parts of that area, but was cut back to save money on the project. The new plan does not include the full southern entrance as originally envisioned, and instead replaces it with a bridge that connects to the northern entrance.
ACT for Alexandria raised $2.45 million for more than 150 local nonprofits during its 10th annual fundraiser — breaking the record for the most funds raised in a single day.
In total, 8,453 donors raised $2,455,401 for 156 nonprofits in Alexandria during the Spring2ACTion event on Wednesday.
City Hotlines Available to Stem Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault — “During a crisis like COVID-19, the risk for intimate partner and domestic violence increases. The City of Alexandria Sexual Assault Center and the Domestic Violence Program want survivors and victims to know they are not alone. Both programs are open during the COVID-19 health crisis, hotlines are available 24/7 and advocates are ready to listen and help.” [Facebook]
Gov. Northam Extends Executive Order by Two Weeks — “That means that gatherings of more than 10 people will remain banned, and entertainment and recreation and personal care businesses will remain closed, until at least May 8. In addition, restaurants are limited to carry-out or delivery orders only.” [Alexandria Living]
Two more people have died of COVID-119 in Alexandria, bringing the death toll to six, according to the city’s daily announcement.
There are also 26 new positive cases of the virus in the city, bringing the total to 273 cases (including the fatalities). There have been 229 new cases in April alone.
Updated 4:15 p.m. — As weeks drag into months and the coronavirus pandemic seems no closer to closure, Alexandria officials are trying to pin down what it will take for life in the city to go back to normal.
Dr. Stephen Haering, Director of the Alexandria Health Department, said reopening will require multiple criteria to be met.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has rocked Alexandria’s economy, Virginia’s oldest banking institution — Burke and Herbert Bank — has approved nearly 400 U.S. Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses, and there are 600 still pending, according to bank president and CEO David Boyle.
“We’ve approved just about 400 loans,” Boyle told ALXnow. “We have about 1,000 applications, so we have 600 or so that are still pending in various forms and we started actually closing and funding loans this week. So the money’s actually finding its way into the borrowers’ checking accounts and such this week.”
A 40-year-old Alexandria man is in jail for alleged cocaine possession and pointing a gun at his neighbor.
Devonte Burgess was arrested at his home in the Mayflower Square apartments in the 5900 block of Quantrell Avenue on the evening of April 8. He was charged with possession of cocaine, weapon possession by a felon and brandishing a weapon.
The City Council reviewed a substantially cut-back $753.3 million fiscal year 2021 operating budget at its meeting Tuesday night, and are now working through a months-long process that must be approved by April 29.
There were few budget surprises at the meeting, as the information was presented last week. The budget is 5.8% lower than the $800 million operating budget Jinks proposed before the COVID-19 pandemic, and includes $46.6 million in cuts to the operating budget and $140.6 million in the capital budget.
