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Morning Notes

Published March 8, 2016 at 9:50AM

‘Sound of Music’ Star Recalls Arlington Upbringing — Showbiz star Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich von Trapp in the “Sound of Music” 50 years ago, recently recounted his childhood in Arlington. “I loved growing up there, in a much simpler time,” he told Charlie Clark. “My brother and I had paper routes. Your parents thought nothing of kids going off on their bikes pre-dawn and throwing papers onto front-door steps. We’d play ball, or go on our bikes or explore the woods. It all seemed very safe.” [Falls Church News-Press]

Local Masseuse Working Out Trump Stress — Locals are stressing out about the idea of Donald Trump becoming the next president of the United States. Reports the Post: “Amanda Long, an Arlington, Va., massage therapist… has grown accustomed in recent weeks to clients laying down on her table and bellowing, ‘Can you believe this guy?’ Long allows her clients to vent for a few minutes before she tries to quiet them, if only so they can relax and she can attend to their aches.” [Washington Post]

News

FiOS Service Coming to Fairlington As County Continues Comcast Negotiation

By ARLnow.com

Published February 8, 2016 at 1:30PM | Updated February 8, 2016 at 1:56PM

Fairlington is the last neighborhood in Arlington to be wired for FiOS, according to Rob Billingsley, Arlington County’s Cable Administrator.

Under an agreement with Verizon enacted in June 2006, the company agreed to complete a county-wide implementation of FiOS service within 10 years. The initial service build-out took place mostly in north Arlington, before Verizon’s fiber optic lines were brought to other parts of the county during a second phase of the project.

News

County Requests Temporary Extension of Comcast Contract

By Katie Pyzyk

Published December 11, 2013 at 2:00PM | Updated December 11, 2013 at 2:18PM

Franchise agreements, which allow cable and video service providers to operate in a locality, typically are negotiated once every 10-15 years. Comcast took over an existing franchise agreement in 2000 and that expired in June of this year. In June, the County Board approved a six month temporary contract extension, which ends this month. Because both parties are still hashing out details of a long term agreement, they submitted the request currently before the Board for another temporary extension, to expire in December of 2014.

“The purpose of the extension is to give us time to negotiate the best deal we can with Comcast,” said the county’s Cable Administrator Rob Billingsley. “Rather than put the agreement in any kind of peril, the idea is that the Board passes, hopefully, that extension so we do have that time. All parties agree to do this, it’s not at all controversial.”

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published July 25, 2012 at 8:45AM

W-L Softball Field Approved — The Arlington County Board has unanimously approved use permits for a new softball field at Washington-Lee High School. The $1 million field will include lighting, grandstands, and a press box.

Comcast Doubling Internet Speeds — Arlington is one of the areas where Comcast is increasing its internet speeds this week. The company says it’s doubling the internet speeds of Arlington customers who currently have the Blast 25 Mbps or the Extreme 50 Mbps internet service, at no additional cost. “This is the seventh time since 2002 that Comcast has increased speeds for its customers,” Comcast spokeswoman Alisha Martin said.

News

Utility Companies Still Working to Restore Service

By ARLnow.com

Published July 2, 2012 at 9:44AM | Updated July 2, 2012 at 12:54PM

As of 9:30 a.m. on Monday, 27,586 Dominion customers were still without power, down from 59,000 at noon on Saturday. The company says it has 4,200 employees and contractors working to restore power to customers in all affected areas, but notes that the huge scale of the damage is making restoration a multi-day process.

“Many poles and cross arms need to be replaced, and other infrastructure needs to be rebuilt,” Dominion said in a press release.

News

Phone, Internet Problems at Schools, Central Library

By ARLnow.com

Published February 16, 2012 at 5:55PM | Updated February 17, 2012 at 8:45AM

As a result of the outage, librarians are checking out customers by hand at Arlington Central Library, according to library spokesman Peter Golkin. All internet at the library, including access to the library catalog system, is down. Customers at the library can still access the catalog via their smart phones, however.

Most Arlington Public Schools south of Route 50 are also experiencing the same problems, according to a school employee. Phone and internet service has been down at the schools since 2:00 p.m., around the same time Central Library lost its phone and data service.

Events

Comcast Renewal Meeting Tonight

By ARLnow.com

Published September 13, 2011 at 11:42AM

The ‘franchise agreement’ that allows Comcast to provide cable television services in Arlington County is up for renewal, and residents are being asked to share their thoughts on what services the company can provide as part of a new franchise agreement.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published September 1, 2011 at 8:44AM

Aurora Hills Babysitter Co-Op — While the District has been ranked as the most expensive place in the country for childcare, parents in the Aurora Hills neighborhood, near Crystal City, have banded together to save money by taking care of each other’s kids. The Aurora Hills babysitting co-op is “just a group of moms helping each other out,” according to one of the members. [MyFoxDC]

Seasonal Green Chiles Arrive in Arlington — A shipment of green chiles, fresh from the famous growing region of Hatch, N.M., has arrived at Santa Fe Cafe (1500 Wilson Blvd) in Rosslyn. The restaurant is expecting to receive about 100 pounds of Hatch green chiles throughout September. Owner Kip Laramie says he’ll be using the flavorful, spicy ingredient to serve dishes like locally smoked pork chop with green chile peach chutney, grilled spinach with green chile quesadilla, and red snapper with artichokes, mushrooms and green chiles. [Rosslyn Blog]

Opinion

Morning Poll: New Comcast Guide

By ARLnow.com

Published June 29, 2011 at 10:56AM

The new guide was touted in mailings as faster and easier to use with a few new features that had been requested by customers. Many local customers, however, have taken to our comments section to blast the new guide, which eliminated the sleep timer and picture-in-a-picture functions that were available with the old guide.

Now that you’ve had a week to try it out, how do you feel about the “upgrade?”

Around Town

New Comcast On-Screen Guide to Arrive This Week

By ARLnow.com

Published June 22, 2011 at 9:35AM

The new guide will feature “faster On Demand access, a more user-friendly interface, more detailed program information, improved DVR and search functionality and a convenient menu of shortcuts,” according to Comcast.

Other features include easier access to HD channels through a “quick menu,” expanded parental controls, the ability to save multiple “favorite channel” lists, a “message center,” and local weather information.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published June 6, 2011 at 8:19AM

Moran: Arlington an Example for the Nation — Rep. Jim Moran (D) says that Arlington’s transit-oriented growth sets an example for other communities to follow. For communities currently lacking such infrastructure, Moran says that tax policy can be used to help entice developers to build near transit hubs. [WAMU]

Death Penalty May Be Dividing Line in Race — The death penalty may be a key difference between the two Democrats who are running for Commonwealth’s Attorney in Arlington. “The death penalty doesn’t have a place in a civilized society,” said one candidate, defense attorney David Deane, in a recent appearance. His opponent, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos, has previously said she supports capital punishment in certain circumstances. [Sun Gazette]

News

County Asks: What Should We Get From Comcast?

By ARLnow.com

Published May 31, 2011 at 12:15PM | Updated June 1, 2011 at 1:03PM

Right now, if you exclude fiber optic TV provider Verizon FiOS, Comcast is Arlington’s sole cable provider. Under its current franchise agreement, Comcast provides a number of guarantees, including customer service standards, regular system testing and maintenance, and free internet service for Arlington Public Schools. It also makes annual contributions to support the television channels run by the county government, county schools and by public access organization Arlington Independent Media. (About one percent of your cable bill goes to support AIM.)

Arlington, a lucrative market for cable operators, must now decide what to ask for as part of another 10-15 year agreement with Comcast. As part of that process, the county will be holding a number of focus groups that will discuss ways to improve cable service and while providing additional community benefits.