(Updated 9:10 p.m.) In a fairly sizable newsletter, city staff laid out a sort of “state of flooding” message that lays out the city’s response to recent flooding issues and a longer-term look at infrastructure work in progress and on the horizon.
In a newsletter, staff outlined plans for the grant funding received from the state for flood prevention.
The city is looking for public feedback on fair housing in Alexandria, with plans to incorporate that feedback into a larger effort to secure federal funds to make housing more equitable in the city and its neighbors.
Fair housing, in this context, refers to the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prohibits the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. The meeting will gather public responses to see what difficulties or barriers still exist in regard to fair housing in Alexandria.
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.
As the City of Alexandria searches for a new manager, several civic leaders recently met with Agenda Alexandria for a behind-the-scenes look at what the job entails and some of its local history.
The discussion, moderated by Alexandria Gazette reporter and local historian Michael Lee Pope, examined the qualifications of the job both as written by the city and from more hands-on experience.
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.
(Updated 4:45 p.m.) At the start of a City Council retreat this weekend, acting Human Resources Director Jen Jenkins laid out some numbers behind the ongoing discussion over a pay increase for city employees.
City employees — first responders in particular — have criticized city leadership’s handling of employee pay and lamented that the city is, in some respects, lowest in regional pay. The city has laid out plans for a 1.5% pay increase, which unions representing first responders called an insulting lowball.
City’s Torpedo Factory plans concern artists — “A recent presentation from the Office of the Arts outlining several proposed options for how to renovate the Torpedo Factory has led to pushback from artists, who claim the city’s plans would radically and irrevocably change the historic art center.” [Alexandria Times]
Alexandria man convicted of armed fentanyl trafficking — “A federal jury convicted an Alexandria man yesterday on charges of conspiracy, possession, and distribution of fentanyl and Eutylone, and being a felon in possession of a firearm during drug trafficking.” [Department of Justice]
After two years of euphoria with a Democratic majority in the legislature and a Democrat governor, local Democratic leadership are bracing for the other shoe to drop after Republicans won the governor’s seat and secured a tie in the House of Delegates in the election on Tuesday.
Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson, a Democrat who just won re-election along with the full slate of Democratic candidates in the City Council race, said those last two years have been a boon for the city.
