To go along with a recent increase in the stormwater utility fee, Alexandria’s City Council is broadening the scope of what that can be covered by that fee.
At a City Council meeting on Saturday, the Council voted unanimously in favor of expanding the uses of the fee to help combat some of the rampant flooding that’s plagued the city over the last few years.
Alexandria’s DASH bus network could soon be completely free for all passengers.
In a recent newsletter, Mayor Justin Wilson said he is proposing to make DASH free for all riders to go along with a planned overhaul of the bus network going into effect in September.
The Duke Streeet transitway, the Potomac Yard Metro station, and several other city projects have made some substantial headway recently with some big new developments scheduled for the next few months.
A quarterly report headed to the City Council tonight details the latest on several of the city’s major infrastructure projects.
Alexandria City Councilman John Taylor Chapman wants to be mayor someday. Not now, but he says that the seat is in his longterm plan.
In the meantime, Chapman’s got a few ideas on improving government access in the West End, which is also where he lives. Additionally, he says that the Eisenhower Valley is ripe for affordable housing development and that it’s the duty of local politicians to directly address resident concerns on social media platforms.
Prompted by a question from City Council member Canek Aguirre, the city is reviewing alternative uses of funding that could be freed up if the city moves forward with plans to do away with the school resource officer position.
School resources officers (SROs) are police officers stationed inside T.C. Williams High School, Francis Hammond Middle School and George Washington Middle School and specialize in handling kids with emotional and education issues, search and seizure on school grounds, and school shooting situations.
Several largely-intact ship hulls found underground in Old Town a few years ago could see new life in a proposed “Waterfront Museum” in the early stages of consideration in the upcoming budget.
The possible museum could house and display the timbers of at least one of the four-total ships found under new developments in 2018.
In the latest adaptation of Brewster’s Millions, Alexandria is sorting through how to make the most of $59.4 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding coming to the city over the next two years with an emphasis on not leaving a penny unspent.
The challenge for Alexandria is sorting through some ill-defined language. According to the city, funding can be allocated in the following ways:
Like a lot of Americans, Alexandria is working on figuring out how to put its upcoming stimulus checks to good use.
The City of Alexandria is preparing to receive around $59.4 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the city is currently working through how and where to put that money to use.
In the middle of the ongoing budget season, the City Council is looking back at the dramatic drop-off in tax revenue over the last year, yet another reflection of the dramatic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
A financial report to the City Council includes a summary of the $17.4 million consumptive tax revenue — taxable revenue from the sale of goods or services, like sales taxes — lost since March 2020.
In the latest Agenda Alexandria conversation, local business and civic leaders came together to discuss the highs and lows of the recently proposed City Manager’s budget.
The budget included a proposed tax rate reduction, but City Council candidate Bill Rosssello challenged the overly sunny narrative about the reduction.
For all the earlier talk of doom and gloom early in the coronavirus financial forecasts, City Manager Mark Jinks’ proposed FY 2021 budget seems relatively painless.
As laid out by Jinks, the operating budget is a 1.9% proposed increase over last year’s, with a 2 cent real estate tax rate reduction, no major service reductions, and fully funds the proposed school CIP and operating budget.
