By Jay Fisette
Seriously? “Clean” Natural Gas? Natural gas is a fossil fuel. This is false advertising and it undermines the message and goals of our Community Energy Plan (“Energy Plan”).
Opinion
After a brief resurgence of sweltering summer, more fall-like weather is here, ahead of what should be a pretty nice weekend.
Despite a relatively slow second week of September, compared to the usual frenetic pace of things this time of year, there were a number of stories of note over the past five days.
The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
For years in this column, I have noted that the county annually underestimates revenue. As a result, the County Board creates a year-end slush fund of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to spend outside of the regular budget process. Arlington’s schools are a big beneficiary of this closeout process.
By Paula Lazor
Ever since middle school, Chloe Pilkerton wanted to become a veterinarian. Thanks to the animal science program at the Arlington Career Center, she was able to get a head start on her dream. In addition to her textbook studies about the anatomy and physiology of animals, she and her classmates had the unique experience of handling, feeding, and observing the behavior of up to 200 species all under one roof.
Hurricane Dorian is making its way out to sea and a pleasant weekend awaits here in Arlington.
It will be a weekend of some major events in Arlington, including the annual Arlington Police, Fire & Sheriff Memorial 9/11 5K and the Rosslyn Jazz Festival.
The Labor Day holiday weekend is here and Arlington residents are looking forward to vacations and the extra day off — as well as the start of September on Sunday.
In a poll this week, ARLnow readers said the top three things they were most looking forward to in the month of September were more pleasant weather, the start of football season and pumpkin spice food and drink. This weekend in Arlington you should be able to enjoy all three.
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Earlier this month, ARLnow.com posted a story highlighting a spate of restaurant closures on the west side of Glebe Road:“Restaurateurs along the west side of Glebe Road almost unanimously agreed that the biggest challenges for local businesses all stem from traffic issues. …[I]t can be difficult for visitors to find the right places to park.”
But some sources held out hope for west side restaurants:
Thumbs up to Arlington for finally opening its online permitting process. Phase one of moving the permitting process online launches on September 9th with phase two scheduled to follow on in 2020. Another good change coming as part of the process is all in-person filing will be done in one consolidated office location.
Thumbs down to this important line from the homepage: “Estimated review processing times are not changing.” Having recently been through the permitting process in Arlington, I was really hoping the move would help speed up the review process. As it stands the changes might save you a day or two on the front end, but it will have little impact on getting construction projects moving faster. Time is money in the construction businesses, so delays only add to the costs of the housing our county needs.
September will arrive this weekend, heralding the unofficial start of fall.
Yes, the actual season starts on September 23, but with pools closing after Labor Day, football being played, Oktoberfest beer being poured and Pumpkin Spice Lattes being brewed — well, it’s basically fall.
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By Claire Noakes
Vacationing families expect a line at the funnel cake stand on the boardwalk, but they shouldn’t be surprised if there’s also a line at the monkey bars back at the schoolyard for the foreseeable future.
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It’s a wet and downright cool start to what should otherwise be a very comfortable weekend, weather-wise.
The past week was another that started slow, but ended up being more eventful that one might have expected for the end of August.
On May 31, a gunman killed 12 people and injured 6 more in a Virginia Beach municipal building. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam subsequently called the Virginia legislature back for a July 9 special session to act on a series of gun safety bills. Most of the bills had been under consideration for years.
The Republicans who control our legislature–on a party line vote–successfully passed a motion to adjourn that special session without voting on a single bill: