After an online celebration last year, Alexandria’s First Night celebration is back, fireworks and all on New Year’s Eve.
“I’m thrilled First Night is back,” said Laverne Chapman, chair of the board of First Night. “It took us two years to come back, and we’re ready to come back.”
(Updated 3:20 p.m.) Ahead of the new City Council being installed in January, the current body is scheduled to take another look at the city’s ethics pledge.
The Mayor and City Council make a pledge when being sworn in to abide by a somewhat nebulous one-page code of conduct. The pledge was a point of contention when it was introduced by then-Mayor Allison Silberberg, who fought tooth-and-nail to get the pledge passed.
Understaffing within the Alexandria Fire Department put people and buildings at risk during a fire at Crystal City’s restaurant row on 23rd Street earlier this month, according to two unions representing more than 500 Alexandria and Arlington firefighters, medics and fire marshals.
In a sharply worded press release on Friday, Dec. 10, officials from the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2141 and IAFF Local 2800 wrote that AFD’s inability to fully staff their department led to “multiple close calls” at a fire on Saturday, Dec. 4, in the 500 block of 23rd Street. No one was injured in the blaze, which caused $1.8 million in damages.
(Updated on Dec. 23) Florence King, a 2018 Alexandria Living Legend and 2021 City Council candidate, has died.
King, who was in her early 70s, died at her Alexandria home on Thursday morning, Dec. 9, after a brief illness, according to friends. The news was a surprise to many city leaders, activists and friends.
Alexandria is about to embark on a public relations campaign in response to the 5 cent Plastic Bag Tax, which goes into effect next month.
In a meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 14, the City Council will consider the release of $30,000 from contingent reserves to the city’s Department of Transportation and Environmental Services for outreach on the matter.
After a five-month-long national search, the Alexandria City Council officially hired James F. Parajon as Alexandria’s next city manager on Wednesday night.
Parajon, the deputy city manager of Arlington, Texas, will start work on Jan. 18 and take over for retiring City Manager Mark Jinks.
After a five-month-long national search, the Alexandria City Council will select a new city manager at a special meeting on Wednesday night (Dec. 1).
“Yes, we will be choosing a city manager,” Mayor Justin Wilson confirmed to ALXnow.
Alexandria City Public Schools staff and the Police Department are hammering out a revised memorandum of understanding (MOU), and while few details have been released, the school system says that the school resource officer (SRO) program will change next year.
It’s been more than a month since City Council reversed its decision and brought back SROs. The initial decision to defund the officers redirected $800,000 in SRO funding toward mental health resources for students. It created a rift between City Council and the School Board, but after numerous violent incidents with weapons in schools, School Board Chair Meagan Alderton and Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. pleaded for their return.
It wasn’t so much a groundbreaking as it was a wall-breaking, as local dignitaries smashed their way to a new future at the new Inova Oakville at Potomac Yard on Monday (Nov. 15).
After years of development, construction officially began on the $300 million project at the corner of Swann Avenue and Richmond Highway — just down from National Landing and the Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus. The project and includes more than 1 million square feet of residential space dedicated to apartments, a new 93,000-square-foot Inova HealthPlex with a comprehensive emergency room and 55,000 square feet of retail. The facility is planned to open in fall 2023.
In the last few months, a head-long battle between Alexandria’s police and firefighters against city leadership has come to a head as first responders unions say underpayment has left staffing at critical levels.
City staff recently laid out the potential costs to implement a pay raise for first responders, but unions representing those first responders say that sticker shock is less intense in the broader context of the budget.
A veritable who’s who in Alexandria will interview the final candidates looking to succeed retiring City Manager Mark Jinks.
On Tuesday night, City Council approved the formation of three advisory committees that will interview the final candidates selected after a five-month-long national search.
