Alexandria’s residential property assessments are climbing this year and, for the first time in years, that includes a significant increase for condos.
Mayor Justin Wilson, in a virtual town hall last Thursday, said the assessed property value increase comes after years of that being essentially stagnant.
(Updated 2/7) Busy week at the intersection of state and local politics.
Yesterday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin visited an Alexandria Safeway for a roundtable discussion only to get heckled for not wearing a mask indoors. There’s even a shirt referencing the incident being produced as a fundraiser. Meanwhile, members of Youngkin’s administration made better headway in meeting with state and federal leaders to discuss increased infrastructure funding for a local bridge project.
An unmasked Governor Glenn Youngkin made a surprise stop at the Bradlee Shopping Center Safeway yesterday (Thursday), and afterward the Alexandria Democratic Committee tweeted for him to “get out of Alexandria.”
Youngkin, a Republican, spoke without a mask inside of the store at noon. He discussed “the elimination of the grocery tax, the rising costs of groceries, and the impacts of inflation on Virginia families and the high cost of living,” according to an email.
If you or a loved one have gotten a red light ticket at Duke and South Walker streets you may be entitled to financial compensation.
The City of Alexandria is dismissing erroneously issued red-light speeding citations from the intersection and providing full refunds to impacted customers. The city said camera was not using the 0.5 seconds of amnesty required by law.
(Update at 2:45 p.m.) It’s no secret that Alexandria’s public safety agencies want a raise in the upcoming city budget, but if they are to get a compensation increase it will be outside of the boundaries of collective bargaining.
After more than a year of organizing, the elections for collective bargaining representation for the city’s first responders will be held between Feb. 5 and Feb. 22. But with a staffing crisis and compensation issues within the Fire Department, Police Department and Sheriff’s Office, it will not be until 2024 until negotiations will be fruitful.
Just hours before a Joint City Council/School Board Subcommittee meeting, new Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon spoke with Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr.
Parajon, who started work earlier this month, said it was a great conversation and that he looked forward to working collaboratively with Hutchings, who wants a 2.6% salary step increase and a 2.5% market rate adjustment for all eligible ACPS employees in the upcoming fiscal year 2023 budget.
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.”
Fresh from a bout with Covid that left Mayor Justin Wilson isolating in Spain, Wilson’s first virtual town hall of 2022 launched with a discussion of the current situation with COVID-19.
Alexandria has seen record-high levels of confirmed Covid cases thanks to the highly infections omicron variant. Wilson implored locals to swap out the simple cloth masks for more effective N95 or KN 95 masks.
The big story this week was snow.
A snowstorm on Monday had the city working at clearing roads and putting weather-affected services back into play. There was a smaller dusting of snow last night, though it didn’t have nearly the same level of impact.
After six months of waiting for the city’s Permit Center to approve an expansion of her nail salon, Kathleen Le was ready to throw her hands up in resignation.
“I tell my staff that if they hear me talk about opening another location or expanding to please kill me instead,” Le told ALXnow. “Don’t let me do it.”
A day after 10 inches of snow was dumped on the region, 95% of Alexandria’s primary roadways are now “passable”, according to the City’s Department of Transportation and Environmental Services.
The Department also tweeted that 65% of the city’s secondary streets are passable, and that crews are working toward intermediate streets. There are also still three open requests to clear away snow from the city’s Arlandria neighborhood, according to the city.
