The Alexandria Health Department is investigating three new positive cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the city announced in an update on Tuesday night.
There are now five confirmed cases in the city at this time. The first was identified on March 11 and the second on March 15.
The Alexandria City Council is considering steps for its COVID-19 response and recovery, including the suspension of the city’s dining tax collection.
Mayor Justin Wilson, in a Tuesday memorandum to the city manager’s office, outlined a number of measures that the city can take to mitigate the impact of the emergency.
The Alexandria City Council on Saturday unanimously approved the construction of an elevated gymnasium at Ferdinand T. Day School in the West End.
“The gymnasium at Ferdinand T. Day looks cool,” Alexandria City Councilman Canek Aguirre said. “I’m excited to see that move forward.”
The Alexandria City Public Schools will not be tracking student attendance for online learning during its month-long COVID-19 shutdown.
Alexandria City Public Schools announced on Friday that all schools would close until April 14 — after spring break. Every elementary school student was given instructional packets to take home, and students in grades 3-12 went home with Chromebook laptops.
Alexandria declared a state of emergency on Saturday, and the City Council also approved measures to assist the community as it weathers the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Justin Wilson said that the actions taken by City Council on Saturday are only the beginning.
The Alexandria City Council on Tuesday sent staff the proposed King Street Place pedestrian pilot program back to the drawing board.
The original plan would have turned a section of King Street near the waterfront into a pedestrian-only zone between Lee Street and Union Street on weekends, but more recent plans have included a single lane of traffic through the area that was going to be car-free.
The Alexandria City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a $1.155 real estate tax rate cap per $100 of assessed value — potentially a 2.5 cent increase — for the proposed city budget.
City Councilman John Taylor Chapman proposed that council approve a half cent more than the $1.15 rate proposed by City Manager Mark Jinks last month. That half cent equates to $2.1 million, which Chapman says is a cushion that will allow council to add budget items without making cuts.
Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne says that the city has a problem compensating its employees, and at Monday’s budget public hearing told city council that raising taxes is not the answer.
“The proposed budget does not close the gap with our competitors in the region,” Lawhorne said. “Taxes go up, people leave town. We need to change things.”
After months of confusion, the city and Alexandria City Public Schools plan on creating a committee to evaluate the co-location of affordable or workforce housing on the grounds of public schools slated for renovation.
“I feel like as a board that we’re being kind of we’ve been already left behind in this process. And and so I think that that we need to try to remedy that in some way,” School Board Chair Cindy Anderson said at a joint budget work session on Wednesday night.
Rising regional construction costs and are making Alexandria planners rethink a number of capital improvements, including the city’s extensive waterfront plan.
“We are in a highly volatile construction market, and it has been very challenging,” Deputy City Manager Emily Baker told city council in a budget work session on Feb. 26. “And it’s been very challenging for us to keep coming to you and saying, ‘Well, you know, we thought the project was going to cost X and now it’s going to cost some multiple of X.'”
Long-running efforts to address the condition of Alexandria’s roads will continue this summer with a new set of local roadways set for repavings.
Roads were prioritized for repaving based on the Pavement Condition Inventory, according to a newsletter put out by Mayor Justin Wilson. The study done last year showed roads throughout the city score poorly, particularly the side streets through neighborhoods.
