Throwing caps in the air at the ACHS graduation, June 1, 2024 (staff photo by James Cullum)
Good Saturday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 72 degrees. Northwest wind 6 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear tonight, with a low around 51 degrees. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.
Dominion Energy Power Outage Map on Friday, May 16 (screenshot)
It was a fast week in Alexandria! Welcome to ALXnow’s Friday recap of top stories.
This week started as the city cleaned up from last Friday’s damaging storm that knocked over trees, closed roads and disrupted power for thousands. Our top story was on the report of a suspected car thief who ended up in the hospital with serious injuries after a high-speed chase ended in a crash early Monday morning.
Among the movers serving Alexandria, VA, 495 Movers stands out for a simple reason: its local hourly rate includes packing materials, furniture disassembly and reassembly, and protection for floors, walls, and elevators. The company has been in business since 2009 and has completed more than 20,000 moves, a number that keeps climbing.
Anyone who has hired movers in the DC area knows the familiar pattern. A low hourly rate wins the call. Then the invoice arrives with a charge for boxes, a charge for taking the bed apart, a fee for the stairs, and another for the elevator. By the end, the number on the bill has little to do with the number in the ad. 495 Movers was built to avoid that.
495 Movers at a glance
In business since: 2009 (17 years)
Moves completed: more than 20,000, local and long-distance
Licensed in: Virginia
Serves: Alexandria and the rest of the DMV
Local hourly rate includes: packing materials, furniture disassembly and reassembly, and home protection on every move
No separate fees for: stairs or elevators
Also offers: junk removal, custom crating, and self-storage
Reputation: 4.7 stars across nearly 1,000 Google reviews
Who is 495 Movers?
495 Movers is a full-service moving company serving Alexandria and the rest of the DMV, founded in 2009 by people who had worked as movers for several other companies first. They wanted to do it differently.
“We wanted to take a different approach, offering a simple, honest, and transparent approach for the customer,” said Moti Kachlon, co-owner at 495 Movers. For local moves, that meant building the most common extras into the hourly rate. Seventeen years and more than 20,000 moves later, the company is still growing.
What makes moving in Alexandria different?
Alexandria is a hard place to move. A truck on an Old Town block gets watched by neighbors, property managers, and a family wondering whether the sofa will make the turn on a staircase built long before sofas got this big.
Old Town’s rowhouses have narrow staircases and tight turns, which is why large furniture often has to come apart to get out. Del Ray’s bungalows and rowhouses have basements that hold more than anyone remembers. And condo and apartment buildings in Carlyle, Potomac Yard, and the West End often require movers to carry a certificate of insurance and book the elevator, with building managers who care a great deal about scuffed hallways. The street adds its own complications, from cobblestones to limited curb space.
That’s the context for how 495 Movers prices its work.
What does 495 Movers include in its hourly rate?
For local moves, the rate covers four things that many movers bill separately:
Packing materials. Boxes, tape, paper, and wrap are provided at no additional cost, whether a move needs a few or a few hundred.
Furniture disassembly and reassembly. Beds, tables, desks, sectionals, and wardrobes are taken apart, moved, and put back together at the new home. In an Old Town rowhouse, that’s often the only way a dresser gets down the stairs.
More than 130 families from the MacArthur Elementary School community delivered a letter to the School Board this week opposing redistricting changes heading to the School Board for a final decision next month.
Keep Students Together, a new group dedicated to the issue, said that the proposals to “split the elementary school community” are speculative and rushed, and will disrupt kids who started their elementary school experiences during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you are interested in learning more about Continuing Care Retirement Communities (also known as "Life Plan Communities"), whether for yourself or for a loved one, please join our free workshop on Wednesday, November 4 from 5:00-7:00 at the Arlington office of Long & Foster. We are hosting this workshop in conjunction with Lisa Bates of the Williamsburg Landing community, which is a particularly excellent model of the way these communities work, and one you may wish to consider!
– How do Continuing Care Retirement Communities work? – What do they offer? – How much do they cost, and what are the financial models offered? – How do you how to evaluate them, and choose the one that's right for you? – How do you make a plan for a move like this? – How do you handle a lifetime's worth of possessions?
The former Meet the Press host has a long history with Alexandria, and he’ll decide on the top dishes between 14 restaurants at the ticketed event, which will run from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center fields (2701 Commonwealth Avenue).
Captain Rocky Versace Plaza in Del Ray (photo via Friends of Rocky Versace/Facebook)
Alexandria will honor fallen service members with a Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday (May 26). The event will take place at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center (2701 Commonwealth Ave.) from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
The ceremony will pay tribute to Captain Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace and 68 Alexandrians who lost their lives or are still missing in action from the Vietnam War.
The Alexandria skyline (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Want to improve your neighborhood parks and trails? Alexandria’s got your back with its Community Matching Fund. Local groups can now apply for up to $50,000 in matching funds to improve parks, trails, gardens, and community spaces.
The Department of Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Activities (RPCA) is running this PARKnerships program. You’ve got until May 26 to get your application in.
Get ready for a beautiful Memorial Day weekend! The National Weather Service says we’re in for mostly sunny skies and comfortable temperatures in the low to mid-70s.
Friday starts us off with some clouds mixed with sun and a high around 69°F. Expect west winds between 7 to 13 mph, possibly gusting up to 25 mph.