What a week in Alexandria. Here are some of the highlights.

The Alexandria City Council on Wednesday approved its Fiscal Year 2022 $770.7 million budget on Wednesday, and it includes a 2 cent real estate tax reduction. It’s the first time that’s happened in 15 years, and the budget also fully funds Alexandria City Public Schools’ request and includes a 1% raise for city and state employees.

But perhaps the biggest news of the week came with City Councilman Mo Seifeldein’s proposal to eliminate School Resource Officer funding from the budget. The effort was supported along by Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Councilman Canek Aguirre and Councilman John Taylor Chapman, who voted along with the group after failing to save the program in a last-minute effort.

Crime stories dominated many headlines, and Police Chief Michael Brown spoke with us this week about his department’s efforts to reduce destructive elements throughout the city. More from that interview will be published next week.

In this week’s poll, we asked about the importance of political endorsements for local candidates. Out of 222 responses, 48% (107 votes) don’t consider endorsements while voting; 39% (86 votes) said endorsements influence their decision; and 14% (29 votes) feel that endorsements hold a lot of sway.

Election stories

• City Council candidates clash on critical local issues, Part 1
• City Council candidates clash on critical local issues, Part 2
• NEW: Alexandria School Board shakeup looms as few incumbents have filed to run for reelection
• Election: Northam endorses Wilson for reelection
• Here’s which City Council candidates signed the new ‘Alexandria Constituents’ Bill of Rights’ pledge

Important stories

• COVID-19 update: 40% of residents got first vaccine shot, 29% got second shot
• Old Town dominated the city in 2020 business grant funding
• NEW: Man sentenced 41 months for targeting Alfred Street Baptist Church, journalists and others in ‘swatting’ conspiracy
• Developer JBG Smith joins J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives to own and manage 2 million square feet of Potomac Yard
• ACPS could adjust grades in recognition of COVID challenges
• West End man with history of violent behavior taken into custody
• Appeal to save North Ridge home takes fight to City Council
• Girlfriend of murder suspect arrested for breaking into home and beating up witness

Top stories

1. Parking issues plague Potomac Yard, city looks to create residential parking district
2. Knife pulled on woman who chases would-be thieves in Old Town
3. D.C. man arrested after 130 mph chase leads to crash on Interstate 495
4. Police: Armed robberies occur minutes apart in Del Ray and Arlandria
5. Two injured in hit-and-run in Old Town, driver leaves car and flees on foot
6. Too noisy? City Council is considering revising Alexandria’s noise ordinance
7. Alexandria City Council to end School Resource Officer program at Alexandria City Public Schools
8. Alexandria man arrested for firing gun at 7-Eleven door near Braddock Road Metro station
9. Here’s the order that City Council candidates will appear on the ballot for the June 8 democratic primary
10. JUST IN: Power outages across Alexandria as strong winds hit the city
11. What’s next for GenOn and the rest of Old Town North?

Have a safe weekend!

Update at 6:20 p.m. — Outages remain in Taylor Run, but the Arlandria outage has been fixed.

Several thousand Alexandrians are currently without power as a result of a “wall of wind.”

According to Dominion Energy, 2,915 customers are without power in Arlandria.

There are other scattered islands of power outage throughout the city, including 1,349 customers in Taylor Run without power. In the West End, 857 customers are without power near John Adams Elementary School.

There’s no indication yet when power could be restored.

From the National Weather Service:

BULLETIN – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
Severe Thunderstorm Warning
National Weather Service Baltimore MD/Washington DC
439 PM EDT Fri Apr 30 2021

The National Weather Service in Sterling Virginia has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning…

* Until 515 PM EDT.

* At 438 PM EDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from Montgomery Village to near Chantilly to Warrenton, moving east at 65 mph.

HAZARD…60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE…Radar indicated.

IMPACT…Damaging winds will cause some trees and large branches to fall. This could injure those outdoors, as well as damage homes and vehicles. Roadways may become blocked by downed trees. Localized power outages are possible. Unsecured light objects may become projectiles.

* Locations impacted include… Arlington, Alexandria, Germantown, Centreville, Waldorf, Dale City, Rockville, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Reston, Bowie, Severn, Annandale, Clinton, Olney, Springfield, College Park, Crofton, South Riding and Fort Washington.

People attending the FEMA Greenbelt Metro mass vaccination site should seek safe shelter immediately!

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.

Image via Dominion Energy

Strong winds have resulted in a power outage in the West End affecting traffic lights and more than 2,300 Alexandria residents.

Alexandria Police are currently placing stop signs at intersections in the West End, including along Duke Street, near N. Van Dorn Street and Sanger Avenue.

“Please treat those intersections as 4-way stops,” police tweeted. “APD will place stop signs in those intersections until the lights are fixed.”

The City’s department of Transportation and Environmental Services is working on the temporary fix with police.

There are currently 2,330 residents without power spread around the West End, according to Dominion Energy.

The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for the area through tonight. Wind gusts could range from 40 to 60 miles per hour.

Strong winds are forecast today. Please be #weatheraware in addition to paying close attention to traffic signals that may be dark. https://t.co/ob40qTyOvM

— Alexandria T&ES (@AlexandriaVATES) April 30, 2021

Map via Dominion Energy

Alexandrians are starting to get suspicious that the repeated power outages aren’t just the fluke that Dominion officials claim.

Old Town was hit with another power outage last week that left over 2,000 customers in the city’s southeast corner in the dark for hours. It was the latest in a series of outages over the last year.

Dominion officials told the City Council that the incidents were unique and unrelated to broader structural problems, but officials disagreed and Mayor Justin Wilson wrote a letter to Dominion formally requesting greater investment in reliable infrastructure.

Photo via Dominion Energy/Facebook

It was a cold week in Alexandria.

With bits of snow and temperatures hovering at around freezing, our top story this week was on Allison Priebe, the local business owner who was robbed while pumping gas in Old Town. Police later released suspect photos and advise anyone pumping gas to keep their keys with them and lock their vehicles.

On the coronavirus front, Alexandria is now at 9,903 cases and no new deaths, which is an increase of about 150 cases since Monday’s report. Meanwhile, as the city contends with a growing vaccine waiting list, the Health Department is warning residents of COVID-19 vaccine scams.

More than 260 people participated in our weekly poll. This week we asked about voting in the upcoming City Council and mayoral elections, and 87% plan on voting in the primary and general election; 6% only plan on voting in the primary; 5% aren’t voting and 1% will only vote in the primary.

In case you missed them, here are some other important stories this week:

• Developers Lay Out Multi-Year Timeline for GenOn Plant Redevelopment
• Superintendent: Sports Start Again at ACPS Next Week
• Sarah Bagley Files Paperwork to Run for City Council
• Mark Center Office Building Sold for $71.7 Million
• Exercise Clothing Store Athleta to Replace La Tasca in Old Town
• Director of Finance: Alexandria’s Real Estate Assessments Are a ‘Tale of Two Markets’

Here are our top stories of the week in Alexandria:

1. Local Business Owner Robbed of Car While Pumping Gas at Old Town Gas Station
2. BREAKING: Large Power Outage Reported in Old Town
3. ACPS Releases Semifinalist Names for T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School Renaming
4. Just In: ‘QAnon Shaman’ from Capitol Siege Transferred to Alexandria Jail
5. Poll: What Do You Think of the Proposed Heritage Development in Old Town
6. Mayor: Brace Yourselves, It Could be End of Summer Before City Moves into Next Vaccine Phase
7. BREAKING: Councilman Mo Seifeldein Running for Alexandria Mayor, Hatch Act Conflict in Question
8. Alexandria Sheriff: Jailed ‘QAnon Shaman’s’ Organic Food Request is Normal
9. Just In: James Lewis Files Paperwork to Enter City Council Race
10. Photos: The Regal Potomac Yard Movie Theater is Being Torn Down
11. City Councilman’s Virtual Super Bowl Party Ambushed by Racists and Nazi Trolls

Photo via Alexandria Police

Update at 2:10 p.m. — Power has been restored for many customers in the area, with only around 80 now without power. An equipment problem was found to be the source of the outage.

Over 2,000 Dominion Energy customers in Old Town are currently without power.

An outage is currently impacting approximately 2,186 people in Old Town’s eastern and southernmost portions, Dominion said on its outage map.

The cause is still under investigation, but Dominion said that power could be out for the next few hours, with estimated restoration sometime between 1-4 p.m.

@DominionEnergy Power outage in South Old Town Alexandria. Flickered for 10 minutes and now is totally out.

— WindowlessOffice Growth Corp (@lipmanms) February 8, 2021

@DominionEnergy no power in #AlexandriaVA at 751 Thornton Way. Flickered intermittently before fully out. Reported outage online. Is this widespread or isolated?

— Nicolle Bradford (@NicolleBradford) February 8, 2021

The outage comes less than a month after Mayor Justin Wilson officially asked Dominion to invest in more reliability — makes Dominion’s claims that last year’s frequent outages were just flukes more unlikely.

Image via Dominion Energy

Beyer Rails Against Congressional Republicans — “I’m really sick of whining about ‘canceling’ from rich and powerful Republicans who tried to cancel our democracy.” [Twitter]

Deadline Extended for Landlords to Apply for Relief Program — The deadline for landlords to apply for the Rent and Mortgage Relief Program, to cover overdue rent or mortgage payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been extended to March 1. Applications that have not yet been submitted can now include requests to cover rent payments through February 2021. Previously submitted applications are also eligible to include rent due in February through a contract amendment process.” [City of Alexandria]

City Council Affirms Commitment to Racial and Social Equity — “On Jan. 23, the Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted a resolution to acknowledge racial inequity in the past and present, and commit to adopting practices and policies that promote racial and social equity.” [Zebra]

City Councilwoman Amy Jackson Announces Run for Reelection — “I AM running for Re-election! With your support, I look forward to serving my hometown in this capacity for another term. Any contribution at any level helps! Thank you! #AlexandriaVA” [Twitter]

Alexandria Police Are Hiring — “Interested in becoming an Alexandria Police Officer? The first step is to take a written test. We have a few spots open for the next test on January 30th. Click the link below to start the process to become one of Alexandria’s finest.” [Twitter]

Power Outage Affects Some ACPS Teachers Tuesday — “Alert 1/26/2021 12:56 p.m.: There is currently an internet outage on the east coast that is impacting some of our staff. Please be aware as some teachers may not be able to connect to classes this afternoon.” [Twitter]

‘Groundswell’ Art Installation Coming to Waterfront Park — “A new art installation called Groundswell, featuring about 130 wood pilings in various heights, will adorn Waterfront Park in Old Town this spring.” [Alexandria Living]

Today’s Weather — “Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 43F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Overcast (in the evening). Low near 30F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.” [Weather.com]

New Job: Teacher – Head Start — “The Teacher creates, maintains, and manages an attractive, warm, and challenging learning environment for young children, incorporating developmentally appropriate learning activities that meet the needs of the group as well as those of individual children. The Teacher collaborates with all staff to facilitate the utilization of needed services to the children and their families. The Teacher is responsible for keeping accurate reports and records for each child and ensuring that all of the necessary forms are completed and properly maintained.” [Indeed]

(Updated 2:05 p.m.) Alexandrians have had to deal with a frustrating uptick in power outages this year, and Mayor Justin Wilson said locals are getting tired of it.

The city has faced several large-scale power outages in 2020 — including a particularly large one in October that hit 12,750 residents in Del Ray, North Ridge, Rosemont, Seminary Hill and Potomac Yard. Dominion representatives said the outage was a fluke, but city representatives pointed to the recent spate of outages as evidence to the contrary. In a letter sent yesterday, Wilson outlined local concerns and what Dominion can do to improve the situation.

“Unfortunately, I write in frustration on behalf of the 160,000 residents of the City of Alexandria, of which 66,039 are direct customers of Dominion Energy,” Wilson wrote. “The residents of our community are frustrated with the recent reliability of the electricity service that they have received, Dominion’s response to these reliability challenges and the lack of meaningful infrastructure investments planned to prevent these challenges in the future.”

In the letter, Wilson listed 16 large-scale outages between April and December.

“As you know, the City has worked with Dominion to make the large-scale infrastructure investments required to improve reliability,” Wilson said. “Over six years ago, when Dominion approached the City seeking to construct a 230KV transmission line across out community using municipal right-of-way, we convened a multi-year community process, at taxpayer expense, to work with dominion to determine the proper route. After years of work, Dominion chose to abandon the project.”

Wilson also said that for the last 15 years, the city has been sharing funding with Dominion to perform utility under-grounding and has been requiring new private and public sector development to be undergrounded — only to find that very few undergrounding projects have been undertaken by Dominion.

“In fact, it has been the City’s efforts, either through development proffers or taxpayer-funded projects that have led to most of the undergrounding efforts in recent years,” Wilson said.

In response to the concerns, Wilson asked Dominion for:

1. A multi-year infrastructure investment plan to improve reliability of electricity service for the City of Alexandria, including appropriate exercise of all available authority under the Grid Transformation and Security Act to accelerate implementation
2. Improved transparency for customers relating to reliability data and recovery performance
3. An enhanced Service Level commitment for customer requests (street light repairs, property constructoin/renovation, municipal projects, etc)

The letter was sent and signed by the City Council, along with City Manager Mark Jinks and five members of the Alexandria General Assembly delegation.

“We understand how critical reliable energy is for our customers,” said Dominion spokesperson Peggy Fox. “We take these concerns seriously and work to continually improve our service.”

Photo via Dominion Energy/Facebook

Fairfax Police Injured in Chase on Woodrow Wilson Bridge — “Three Fairfax County police officers were injured during a car chase involving a homicide suspect that ended with the person’s capture on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.” [Washington Post]

Power Outage in Carlyle — “We have about 2K @DominionEnergy customers experiencing outages in the vicinity of Carlyle. If you are out please report the outage online or by phone at 866-366-4357.” [Twitter]

Alexandria Man Sentenced in Kidnapping and Witness Tampering Case — “U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel today sentenced Henry Lee Kenner II, age 43, of Alexandria, Virginia, to 150 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for kidnapping and witness tampering.” [Shore News Network]

Winter Village at Cameron Run Makes Coronavirus Adjustments — “The Winter Village will be open on weekends, holidays, and prime visitation nights from Nov. 20 to Jan. 3, and ice skating only will be offered on select days from Jan. 9 to Feb. 28.” [Patch]

Alexandria Law Enforcement Honored for Heroism — “Deputy Jason Bebow and Deputy Julio Ocasio were honored for their rescue of an inmate who had attempted suicide at the Alexandria City Jail. Deputy Devon Neckles and Officer Shakita Warren were honored for their successful intervention with a suicidal resident.” [Zebra]

Staff photo by James Cullum

It was a historic week in Alexandria.

Alexandrians overwhelmingly helped reelect U.S. Senator Mark Warner and Congressman Don Beyer, and 80% of voters chose Democrat former Vice President Joe Biden for president over incumbent Republican President Donald Trump.

Out top story this week was election-related. It turns out that before election day several Alexandria households with Joe Biden signs were sent letters with a Northern Virginia postage mark stating that Biden is a pedophile. The Chair of the Alexandria Democratic Committee advised that anyone who receives such notes should call the police. The police, in turn, are sending along the information to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Additionally, 91 people participated in our weekly poll. This week we asked about election night plans, and 65% of respondents said they were staying home to watch the results, 24% had no eleciton night plans, 10% planned to protest that evening, and 1% were going to an election night event.

School News

Alexandria City Public Schools were back in action this week — sort of. While the ACPS opened in-person classes on Thursday, fewer than 10 students made it to class. There were about 60 students eligible to go back to school, since only kids with kindergarten through second graders with disabilities were allowed to attend Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School.

It was the first in-person public schooling in Alexandria since the pandemic shut down schools in March. ACPS plans to expand opening for all citywide special education students by December. Meanwhile, however, hundreds of parents want the school system to open and have started the #OpenACPS messaging campaign.

Also in school news, a two-year-long court battle was settled with the city and 15 Alexandria homeowners were settled regarding the addition of stadium lights to Parker-Gray Stadium at T.C. Williams High School.

The Week in Crime

The week started with news that there were two shootings in Alexandria over the weekend.

The was also the story of a 17-year-old on the run since last month after allegedly stealing a car in the West End. The juvenile, who later admitted stealing the car, was seen by the victim — a federal law enforcement officer — driving past his house, and the victim got into another of his cars and followed the suspect. The victim got the juvenile out of his car and held him at the scene until police arrived, and the juvenile left the area after being charged.

We also covered the story of the ‘Beltway Bank Bandit’. Freddie Lee McRae, 34, of Washington D.C., pleaded guilty to three counts of brandishing a firearm during a series of bank and shoe store robberies in and around Alexandria in 2018 and 2019. He will be sentenced on February 23, 2021, and faces up to life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 21 years in prison.

Health and Business

As of Friday there were 76 deaths attributed to the coronavirus in Alexandria, and the case count stands at 4,444, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Latino residents continue to lead the case count.

We also reported that longtime Del Ray staple, Al’s Steak House, is for sale since the owner passed away.

This week also saw fewer continued and initial unemployment claims in Alexandria.

Here are ALXnow’s top stories of the week in Alexandria:

1. Alexandrians with Joe Biden Yard Signs Get Anonymous Letters Saying Biden is a Pedophile
2. Del Ray Staple Al’s Steak House for Sale After Owner’s Death
3. Republican Jeff Jordan Running Uphill Battle Against Incumbent Rep. Don Beyer
4. Braddock West Project Headed to Planning Commission Later This Year
5. Identity Released of Old Town North Suspect Killed in Shootout
6. Soft Opening for New Chicken Joint in North Old Town Today
7. Alexandria Parents Start #OpenACPS Sign Campaign as School System Begins Partial Reopening
8. Juvenile Allegedly Steals Car and is Tracked Down by Victim in the West End
9. BREAKING: Massive Power Outage Reported in Alexandria
10. The Alexandria Drive-In Just Kicked Off an Encore Series on Halloween
11. Did You Know: The Tall Ship Providence Encountered a Ghost Ship in 1777

Have a safe weekend!