Arlington County Board member salaries may top the $100,000 mark for the first time over the next four years, after a vote this weekend.
Board members were paid a $57,648 annual salary as recently as a year ago, though after a series of votes in 2022 and in April the base Board member salary has been increasing — to $89,851 with the new Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
A hundred-some Dominion customers are without electricity along Old Dominion Drive after a tree fell on power lines.
The outage is affecting the Rock Spring neighborhood in far northern Arlington, including the area around Discovery Elementary and Williamsburg Middle School. A portion of Fairfax County is also within the power outage boundaries, as listed on the Dominion website.
New APS Redo Policy Approved — “Superintendent Francisco Durán said he has signed off on changes to the middle and high school grading policy at Arlington Public Schools that will allow students to retake or redo assignments and reduce the weight of quizzes or homework on a student’s overall grade.” [WTOP]
Pike Improvements Continue — “Arlington County Board members on June 10 [awarded] a contract totaling just under $35 million to wrap up the final phases of streetscape improvements to Columbia Pike. The funding will support the two segments of the project that currently are neither completed or under construction.” [Gazette Leader]
(Updated at 11:20 a.m.) A physical fight among 2-3 adults marred a promotion ceremony for fifth graders at Oakridge Elementary on Thursday.
Police were called to the school in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood around 4:45 p.m. for a report of a sizable fight, involving adults and possibly children as well.
Arlington County police are investigating the death of a man near the county office complex at Sequoia Plaza.
A family member called 911 around 4 p.m., reporting that he was attempting to kill himself, according to initial reports. He was found dead by arriving police and firefighters, in an outdoor area near the Arlington Dept. of Human Services offices and a county-run mental health facility.
Arlington County is working on a replacement for the two bridges over Lubber Run destroyed in severe flash flooding four years ago.
The Arlington County Board is set to discuss a $360,000 construction contract for a new pedestrian bridge at its meeting this weekend.
Amazon Prepping for HQ2 Phase 2 — “Amazon expects to break ground next year on the next stage, Holly Sullivan, the company’s vice president of worldwide economic development, said in an interview. PenPlace, she noted, is already an ‘active construction site,’ with staging ongoing. ‘We are continuing on that kind of a pre-permitting process with all indications of kicking that off next year,’ Sullivan said… Ask Amazon, and the only thing that’s changed around PenPlace, even slightly, is the timeline. A spokeswoman said no changes or updates are planned for the phase as it’s envisioned.” [Washington Business Journal, Bisnow]
Paper Makes County Board Endorsements — “Our picks? Let’s start with the honorable-mentions. Susan Cunningham and Tony Weaver almost made the cut into the top two. Both have some positions we can get behind, and both have experience in civic life. They are viable options who should not be overlooked by voters. But they were not our top selections. Instead, we are urging voters to choose Natalie Roy and J.D. Spain Sr.” [Gazette Leader]
An Arlington County Police Department report released today puts on paper what we reported in March: crime was generally up in Arlington last year.
“The overall crime rate in Arlington County, reported as Group A Offenses (defined on page 18 of the Annual Report), increased 17.8% in 2022 as compared to the previous year,” the police department noted in a press release. “The total number of offenses (offenses per 100,000 persons) remains below the 2022 Virginia average.”
On March 11, 2020, Covid was declared a global pandemic. More than three years later, the knock-on effects of Covid are still being felt, including when it comes to television and internet service in Arlington.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday is expected to extend the franchise agreement with Verizon to provide its Fios service to county residents for another year. The relatively short-term extension is being proposed because negotiations over a longer-term extension were “significantly impacted” by the pandemic, county staff say.
Forecast: Home Prices to Keep Soaring — “An already constrained inventory coupled with developers circling the community in search of lots viable for Missing Middle-type housing could continue pushing the price of single-family homes higher in Arlington. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, which predicts 2023 will end with Arlington single-family-home prices up an average of 9.2 percent from the year before.” [Gazette Leader]
APS Examining Renovation Needs — “Arlington School Board members on June 8 are slated to approve a contract to finish up an ongoing analysis of existing facilities in preparation for future renovation. The second-stage contract of $832,273 will go to Arlington-based MTFA Architecture, which in coming months will develop an analysis that focuses on the conditions of: 25 elementary schools. Six middle schools. Six high schools and high-school programs.” [Gazette Leader]
Arlington’s preeminent youth soccer league is nixing white shorts.
The Arlington Soccer Association announced yesterday that it would replace white shorts with blue shorts, starting in the fall. The move will create the “best possible environment for [female athletes] to feel comfortable and perform at their highest level.”
A $2.1 million contract to restore Sparrow Pond in Glencarlyn Park is set for Arlington County Board consideration this weekend.
The planning of the Sparrow Pond restoration project began in the spring of 2019. It will add new stormwater management facilities while restoring the sediment-laden pond.
