Alexandria’s land records date back to the 18th century, and the city’s Clerk of the Circuit Court just secured more than $43,000 in grant funding to conserve those records and digitize them for public enjoyment.

This is the second year that the clerk’s office has been awarded the grant, which is made possible through the Circuit Court Records Preservation program from the Virginia Court Clerks Association and the Library of Virginia. Approximately $4.7 million was awarded to clerks offices throughout Virginia this year.

This year’s funding will pay for the restoration of eight volumes of the city’s oldest and most valuable records covering 1785 through 1798. Those records include deeds to real property, marriages and wills.

“Alexandria’s history is one of its most precious assets and I am committed to securing resources to preserve, protect and make widely available these windows into our past,” Alexandria Clerk Greg Parks said.

Last year, the city was awarded about $15,400 toward the effort, which went toward the restoration and digitization of four historic volumes.

After more than a year since closing its doors to the general public, the Alexandria Courthouse is reopening on Monday, May. 3.

That means that anyone will be able to walk into the courthouse (520 King Street in Old Town) without an appointment, including the Clerk of Court’s office, which will be open for normal business 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. during the week, except for holidays.

It also means that the Clerk’s office will no longer do business by email.

“Concurrently with reopening, the Clerk’s office will no longer accept pleadings, copy requests, concealed carry applications, notary oath applications, or filings of any kind, by email to [email protected],” the Clerk’s office said on its website.

The courthouse was deep-cleaned last fall after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, and there was a small outbreak earlier this year. Thousands of cases had to be put on the back burner during the pandemic.

The U.S. District Court in the city’s Carlyle neighborhood began reopening in March.

Updated 2:25 p.m. — There has been an outbreak of COVID-19 in the office of the Alexandria Clerk of Court.

The office is only operating with four employees out of 22, and may shut down, Clerk of Court Greg Parks told ALXnow in an email.

Mayor Justin Wilson was not aware of the outbreak, and the city tells ALXnow that three of the 22 employees in the Clerk’s Office tested positive for COVID-19 over the last few days and are isolating at home while they recover.

“Four supervisors are working from the Courthouse in separate areas, while three are working from home to answer phone calls,” Craig Fifer, the city’s director of communications told ALXnow. “The other employees are currently quarantining at home out of an abundance of caution until they complete the appropriate contact tracing and testing protocols.”

Fifer said that the courthouse will not shut down.

“There is no significant impact on court cases, which were already operating with limited dockets,” Fifer said. “Urgent matters such as protective orders are still receiving priority handling. Less urgent matters such as notary commissions and marriage licenses may encounter some delay this week while in-person appointments are suspended, but will still be processed as quickly as possible. Matters that can be resolved over the phone or through video appointments will continue to be handled that way.”

The Alexandria courthouse has been closed to the general public since the onset of the pandemic, and operations at the clerk’s office have been heavily impacted with staff mostly operating online. Thousands of cases have been put on the back burner.

In October, the courthouse was deep cleaned after an employee of the General District Court tested positive for COVID-19.

The Alexandria Courthouse is nearly empty as Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter leads a skeleton crew through the COVID-19 pandemic.

All jury trials have stopped, multitudes of cases have been continued between 30 and 60 days, and the clerk’s office is doing business by appointment only. In fact, staff at the courthouse said the earliest appointment to view public documents in the clerk’s office is April 26.

Porter’s staff 35 employees and interns has been whittled down to four essential staffers, while the remainder work from home.

“Please have patience if people need something from my office, if they’re expecting a response to an email or a phone inquiry,” Porter said.

“We are dealing with an extremely small number of people who are currently coming to work,” he added, “we will respond because we have a duty to the public, to the people who work in the courthouse, to the people charged with crimes who are part of the community, and we’ve got to make sure that people are not languishing in jail without access to the courts and bond hearings and that sort of thing. We’re here doing our job.”

The office is now only having arraignments for people arrested by the police department, although Porter said that arrests are down significantly.

“It really only seems to be cases in which there’s violence, like domestic violence or otherwise,” he said. “We’ve worked really hard with both the sheriff and the public defender’s office in the courts to really err on the side of release, and to really do our best to let anyone out from pretrial incarceration — if that can be consistent with the public safety, so we’re really working on getting that jail population down, which is better for the people charged with a crime and better for the people working in the jail.”

Porter said that there will be backlog of thousands of traffic and other cases once the court reopens.

“For the first four to eight weeks s after we’re back to some sense of normalcy the dockets are going to be large and we’re going to have a lot of time to get down there and try to get through those cases,” he said.

Porter said that dealing with an uncertain future is a challenging aspect of the pandemic.

“We’re just not sure when we’re going to crest the wave, but I have every belief that we will be able to find a way through and we’ll make it work,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult for the defense bar, it’ll be difficult for the judges and for law enforcement and the sheriff’s and everybody else, but we’re here and you know we’re committed to the mission and I think we’ll get through it.”

Staff photo by James Cullum

It’s a new era in the Alexandria Courthouse.

Greg Parks was sworn in as Clerk of the Alexandria Circuit Court on Thursday, and officially took the reins of an office that has more than 800 responsibilities, including the organization of land records and the issuance of marriage licenses.

“I will respect and value all the people who need services from my office and I will strive to make the office work better for more Alexandrians every day,” Parks said after being sworn in by Circuit Court Judge Lisa Kemler.

The 53-year-old Parks won the Democratic primary for the seat in June, and was uncontested in the general election in November. He takes over for Ed Semonian, who served in the role for five consecutive eight-year terms. Parks enters the office with a focus on improving customer service and making technological upgrades to courtrooms. He will also be tasked with the transition of 20 years of records to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

“We know that you have the same customer service focus that we have across the street at City Hall and that you will bring that same focus to serving our common constituents,” Mayor Justin Wilson told Parks.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter said that he considers himself fortunate to call himself Parks’ colleague and also his friend.

“I know that he will diligently and faithfully discharge the duties of his new office without fear or favor, that he will serve the public, the rule of law and the Constitution he just swore to uphold,” Porter said.

Parks was previously the chief counsel for the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals for eight years, and is a former attorney with the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the General Services Administration. He has lived in Alexandria since 2013 and is married to Assistant Commonwealth Attorney David Lord.