City Council | ALXnow

Minnie Howard overhaul approved, but getting students between campuses still a concern

Published January 24, 2022 at 4:45PM

Students get on school buses lined along W. Braddock Road on Dec. 10, 2021 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria voted in 2019 to stick with one high school across two campuses, but how exactly students get from one location to the other remains a topic of some consternation.

The City Council was supportive of plans for the Minnie Howard campus of Alexandria City High School presented at the meeting on Saturday — with the Council voting unanimously in favor and Mayor Justin Wilson calling it an example of positive collaboration in an occasionally fraught relationship. But getting students from Minnie Howard to the King Street campus and vice-versa is still a nagging cause for concern.

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City Council approves controversial hotel project, but says labor conversation isn’t over

By Vernon Miles

Published January 24, 2022 at 11:15AM

Hotel Heron, a proposed development at 699 Prince Street, image via Monarch Urban

Alexandria’s City Council voted to approve a partially city-funded hotel project at 699 Prince Street despite opposition from community labor activists.

The project drew some attention for the city involvement in funding — 1% of the tax revenue generated by the project will be paid back to bond trustees — but at the City Council meeting on Saturday, the majority of the discussion centered around how the city should use its involvement to push for better labor practices.

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Local labor activists push back against city financing in proposed hotel project

By Vernon Miles

Published January 21, 2022 at 2:45PM

Hotel Heron, a proposed development at 699 Prince Street, image via Monarch Urban

Local labor representatives have come out in force against potential city funding in the development of the Hotel Heron in Old Town.

A proposal spearheaded by the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) would have the city take some of the tax revenue generated by the Hotel Heron project at 699 Prince Street to pay the project’s bond trustees.

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Minnie Howard campus overhaul headed to City Council review this weekend

By Vernon Miles

Published January 20, 2022 at 3:45PM

Minnie Howard design renderings, photo via Perkins-Eastman/Alexandria City Public Schools

Three years after Alexandria’s School Board voted to stick with one high school, plans are headed to Alexandria’s City Council that could help shed light on what that one high school system looks like.

As a quick refresher: the Minnie Howard campus currently hosts 9th-grade classes but will be expanded to act as a larger satellite campus for Alexandria City High School with a total of 1,600 students.

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Wary of new Governor Youngkin, ACPS still proposes 10.25% in staff raises

By James Cullum

Published January 19, 2022 at 2:30PM | Updated January 19, 2022 at 2:51PM

Alexandria City Public Schools is sticking with its proposed 10.25% salary increase for all employees, and Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. says that number will not change based on potential guidance from Governor Glenn Youngkin.

“Regardless of what the governor says or does, we have positioned ourselves to continue to increase compensation for our staff,” School Board Chair Meagan Alderton said at a budget retreat last week. “This is the type of proactive intentional work that will, I think, makes us successful to be able to sustain what it is we’re trying to do right now.”

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ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

Published January 14, 2022 at 3:30PM

It’s been a busy week in Alexandria with City Council coming back into session for the first time in 2022.

With a majority of the Council being new, there are fresh names and perspectives stories about city decision-making. Highlights from this week’s City Council meeting included a first look at plans for the city to — kind of — invest in a luxury hotel and bids to develop broadband internet access citywide.

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Four internet companies vie for chance to take on Comcast in Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

Published January 14, 2022 at 1:15PM

Empty municipal fiber cables to be laid in the ground (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

Alexandria is moving forward with its long-awaited broadband network — and potentially breaking Comcast’s internet monopoly — with a shortlist of potential broadband internet providers.

At a City Council meeting on Tuesday, the City Council approve the receipt of four broadband franchise proposals.

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City Council expresses cautious optimism about proposed hotel development

By Vernon Miles

Published January 13, 2022 at 1:40PM | Updated January 21, 2022 at 10:49AM

Heron, a proposed hotel development at 699 Prince Street, image via Monarch Urban

Alexandria’s City Council was overall supportive of an arrangement presented earlier this week to invest — sort of — in a new Old Town hotel.

A proposal backed by the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership would have the city help fill gap-funding for a hotel project at 699 Prince Street that fell through when the pandemic hit. Interior demolition was already underway when the pandemic made it impossible to secure financing on a new hospitality project, said AEDP President and CEO Stephanie Landrum in a presentation to the City Council on Tuesday.

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Inova officials explain what recent state of emergency declaration means for Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

Published January 12, 2022 at 2:45PM

In a City Council meeting last night, Inova Alexandria Hospital and local health officials shared a look at the current COVID-19 situation in the hospital and what the state of emergency declaration means for the city.

Inova Alexandria Hospital President Dr. Rina Bansal told the City Council that the hospital is prepared for any potential surge.

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Alexandria City Council to likely make fifth extension of state of emergency

By James Cullum

Published January 11, 2022 at 10:45AM

The Alexandria City Council will likely extend the city’s state of emergency from the end of January to June 30, 2022. Tuesday night’s (Jan. 11) vote will be the fifth extension of the declaration since the pandemic began in March 2020.

The declaration, which was first approved by Council in March 2020, has been continually updated, and finds that “the emergency continues to exist and will exist into the future.”

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With hotel market in freefall, Alexandria considers financing luxury hotel in Old Town

By Vernon Miles

Published January 10, 2022 at 10:55AM

Heron, a proposed hotel development at 699 Prince Street, image via Monarch Urban

This week, the City Council is docketed (items 27 and 28) to review a proposal for the city to, in a round-about way, be involved in the financing of a new luxury hotel in Old Town.

With hotel revenue going into freefall during the pandemic, the prospect of building or renovating hotels in Alexandria hasn’t been a particularly financially appealing option, but a report prepared by Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) and city staff said that’s going to be a hit to tourism in the city as people travel again.