Virginia’s annual sales tax holiday is set for this coming weekend.
Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced this week that the tax-free weekend will last from this Friday, August 2 through Sunday, August 4. Shoppers can take advantage of it by purchasing items like school supplies and back-to-school clothes, as well as emergency equipment to prepare for hurricane season and energy-efficient home appliances, without the added expense of a sales tax.
“The annual sales tax holiday makes many important items more affordable for Virginians as they get ready for the new school year or stock up on basic supplies,” said the governor in a statement.
Per the governor’s statement the following items will be sold sans tax:
School supplies, clothing, and footwear:
Qualified school supplies – $20 or less per item; and
Qualified clothing and footwear – $100 or less per item.
Hurricane and emergency preparedness products:
Portable generators – $1,000 or less per item;
Gas-powered chainsaws – $350 or less per item;
Chainsaw accessories – $60 or less per item; and
Other specified hurricane preparedness products – $60 or less per item.
Energy Star™ and WaterSense™ products:
Qualifying Energy Star™ or WaterSense™ products purchased for non-commercial home or personal use – $2,500 or less per item.
Arlington County Fair (Photo courtesy Dennis Dimick)
Arlington County Fair (Photo courtesy Dennis Dimick)
This year the Arlington County Fair is debuting two brand new features — a beer garden and yoga with baby goats.
The annual event will begin in two weeks and is set to welcome Arlington-based New District Brewing Company as well as a special “kid-friendly” goat yoga session to the fairgrounds at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center (3501 2nd Street S.)
“For the first time in our 43-year history, the Arlington County Fair will host a beer garden,” organizers wrote on the fair’s website. “New District Brewing Company will feature hand-crafted, delectable beers to cool you off on a warm summer day.”
Fair-goers will be able to enter the beer garden for free during the three days it will serve up drinks during the festival. The garden will be open on:
Friday, August 16, from 3-6:30 p.m.
Saturday, August 17, from 12-6:30 p.m.
Sunday, August 18, from 12-6:30 p.m.
New District has not yet posted a draft menu for the fair as of today (Monday). The company is known for its golden ales and seasonal honeysuckle brew.
Fair organizers are also selling tickets for $40 for an hour-long goat yoga session on Saturday, August 17, from either 9-10 a.m. or 10:30-11:30 a.m. The baby goats are from Salem, Va.-based Walnut Creek Farm, and participants will be asked to bring their own mats.
“The goats are curious and interested in climbing and interacting with people,” organizers noted on the ticket sale page. “Children should be no younger than 10, comfortable with animals, and accompanied by an adult to attend.”
The fair will run from Aug. 14-18 and will feature rides, food, games, performer, exhibits and live music. The fair’s schedule has not yet been published on its website.
“Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the fair,” the website said as of Monday afternoon.
Puppy greets ACFD firefighters during Operation FirePaws (Image via Arlington County)
Donations for Operation FirePaws (Image via Arlington County)
Bid dog greets ACFD firefighters during Operation FirePaws (Image via Arlington County)
The Arlington County Fire Department will be kicking off a donation drive for the Animal Welfare League of Arlington this week.
Called “Operation FirePaws,” the annual event aims to gather donated pet supplies at fire stations for use by AWLA. This year, both the fire department and the shelter will be sharing safety tips with donors who drop off goodies, per a county press release.
Those interested in participating will be able to drop off supplies in donation bins in the lobby or outside of the county’s 10 fire stations. The fire houses will accept donations every day from this Thursday, August 1 to August 31, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Since the first drive in 2015, the county says people have donated more than 1,600 pounds of pet supplies.
AWLA shared a wish list of everything from food dispenser toys for dogs, to microwave heating pads for kittens, to plastic tarps and zip ties. However, the group is reminding residents that it cannot accept used beds, homemade treats, or milk bones.
Donation bins can be found at any of the following fire stations:
(Updated at 5:15 p.m.) Courts in Arlington County will no longer legally declare people drunks and arrest them for drinking alcohol after a federal court ruled the old law unconstitutional.
A full panel of judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a state law called “interdiction” which allows counties to label people “habitual drunkards” and prosecute them for having or drinking alcohol. The judges ruled 8-7 last week that the law left the meaning of habitual drunkards “unconstitutionally vague” and constituted cruel and unusual punishment — a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
“We hope that this means that our clients can have the debilitating label ‘habitual drunkard’ lifted from them and they can move through their lives without constant fear of prosecution,” said Elaine Poon, the managing attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center which has helped lead a class-action fight in court to overturn the law for the last three years.
Prosecutors in Arlington this week dismissed seven active cases brought under the nullified law, and police have suspended enforcement — though laws against public drunkenness and other alcohol-related crimes remain on the books.
“In accordance with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruling, the Arlington County Police Department has suspended enforcement of the Virginia Code sections related to alcohol interdiction,” said ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage. “No arrests or charges will be sought in relation to those code sections.”
Brad Haywood, Arlington’s Chief Public Defender, said attorneys in his office were notified about the change Thursday morning when they showed up to court, and his office was “ecstatic” to hear the news last week.
“This has been an issue that defense attorneys and social workers have been fighting for decades,” he said. “Since the first day I’ve worked a public defender 15 years ago there were concerted efforts to overturn this law.”
Case Dismissed
The case, Manning v. Caldwell, is named after Roanoke man Bryan Manning. A judge declared Manning a “drunkard” nine years ago under the interdiction statute without Manning present because the man, who is homeless and had struggled with alcohol addiction for several years, can be difficult to find. Over the next eight years, Manning racked up over 30 charges related to possessing alcohol or being suspected of drinking it, and the frequent arrests often cost him jobs and led to him losing his possessions.
Manning isn’t the only one: in Arlington, one interdicted man has been charged 37 times, per data the prosecutor’s office shared with ARLnow.
The same data shows 12 people have been interdicted in Arlington since 2015, and in total there are 50 interdicted in the county — with each person averaging 19 prosecutions. Between 1996 and 2015, there were 1,220 people legally declared drunks across Virginia, reported the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Flooding in a home along 14th Street N. near Westover (Photo courtesy Nicole Bender)
The sump pump in Jennifer Diascro’s basement failed under the heavy rain Monday morning, flooding her basement (Image courtesy of Jennifer Diascro)
Flooding in a home along 14th Street N. near Westover (photo courtesy Nicole Bender)
(Updated on 07/29/19) Arlington County will not be paying for the cost of clean-up from sewage back-ups into people’s homes during the July 8 flash flood emergency.
A spokesperson for the County Manager’s office said today (Friday) that the county “sympathizes with proper owners” recovering from the unusually strong storm and “regrets” any damage caused, but “unfortunately, the County is not in a position to accept responsibility for damage to private properties resulting from this storm.”
As the rainstorm dumped water on Arlington two weeks ago, stormwater runoff filled basements in homes and businesses — as did some sewage. The Department of Environmental Services previously told ARLnow that water flooded some sewer pipes, backing up sewage into people’s homes.
The result was raw sewage flowing into basements, and in some cases, potentially washing up to the first floor of homes, as evidenced by the smells still lingering days after the storm in some houses hit hard in Westover.
“Under Virginia law, the County is legally immune from these sorts of claims and using County tax dollars to pay for damages for which the County is immune would constitute an illegal gift to a private individual,” said County Manager’s office spokesman Ben Hampton. “While the County will investigate all reported claims on a case-by-case basis, there is no legal basis for it to accept liability in the vast majority of cases resulting from the July 8 storm.”
One tipster who lives near the Cherrydale and Waverly Hills neighborhoods said his house was flooded after the main sewer line near his house flooded, “leaving us pretty much helpless as the county sewage flooded into our basement.”
When asked how many homes were affected by damaged sewer lines during the sewer line, county spokeswoman Bryna Helfer did not yet know and added that, “our primary focus right now is on pursuing the federal and state assistance.”
Over 1,000 residents and business owners filed post-storm damage claims with the county as part of Arlington’s preparation to request aid from the state or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hampton said the county is currently reviewing the the damage assessment from the claims which determines the county’s aid eligibility.
“At this time, we have no reason to believe that homeowners with major damage would not be eligible for aid if it’s approved,” added Helfer.
“The most likely form of aid is from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), which provides low-interest loans to disaster victims, including homeowners, renters, and businesses, for repairs or replacement of disaster-damaged buildings and property,” she said. “SBA can also provide capital to businesses. The County is also pursuing aid under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Individual Assistance program, which provides financial assistance to individuals and families who have sustained losses due to disasters.”
Prior to the July 8 flooding, damage from clogged county sewers has occasionally damaged homes, including several incidents in the Madison Manor neighborhood, leaving residents on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in clean-up costs.
The full response from the County Manager’s office is below.
The County sympathizes with property owners recovering from the July 8, 2019 storm, which dumped an unprecedented amount of rain in the region and caused significant damage to public infrastructure as well as private property. The County regrets any damage that may have been caused to private property from the County’s public sewer lines being damaged or overwhelmed by this storm. Unfortunately, the County is not in a position to accept responsibility for damage to private properties resulting from this storm. Under Virginia law, the County is legally immune from these sorts of claims and using County tax dollars to pay for damages for which the County is immune would constitute an illegal gift to a private individual. While the County will investigate all reported claims on a case-by-case basis, there is no legal basis for it to accept liability in the vast majority of cases resulting from the July 8 storm. Property owners are encouraged to check with their insurance carriers and to explore the possibility of obtaining flood insurance for their properties. Additional information regarding the July 8 storm is available on the Flood Recovery Center at arlingtonva.us/flood-recovery.
An Arlington teenager has been selected to be featured in a video about Down syndrome, which will be shown in New York City’s Times Square.
Suzanne Garwood says her 14-year-old daughter Sloane was among the 500 chosen to be featured in the video by the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), out of 3,000 people who submitted photos nationwide.
The video is part of the advocacy organization’s annual Buddy Walk Program, which celebrates people with Down syndrome and fundraises for NDSS programs.
Garwood has two children with Down syndrome, Connor, 16, who attends Yorktown High School, and Sloane, who attends the newly re-named Shriver Program. She said her desire for both of them to have the rights and opportunities of any other kid led to her involvement with a local chapter of NDSS.
“I think that they’re making a real impact on Capitol Hill,” she said of the organization. “There are a few bills that they’ve actually gotten passed in the past year. In the context of this environment is really, really impressive.”
NDSS has previously lobbied for a bill allowing people with disabilities to save money without losing Medicaid benefits. The bill ended up passing.
Sloane, who is nonverbal, wasn’t phased when she heard she was picked for the video.
“She was like, yeah whatever,” Garwood laughed, adding that her brother, who is verbal and enjoys social media, was more excited.
The video will air in Times Square on September 14, per the NDSS website.
Baby squirrels rescued during the floods (Image courtesy of Jennifer Toussaint)
Rescued juvenile Cooper’s hawk (Image courtesy of Jennifer Toussaint)
Flooding along 14th Street N. near Westover in 2019 (file photo)
Flooding along 14th Street N. near Westover (courtesy of Nicole Bender)
Flooding along Lubber Run (photo courtesy Brandon Jones)
During the floods that devastated Arlington two weeks ago, it wasn’t just people’spets that needed rescuing.
Wild animals — especially young ones — were at an especially high risk of being orphaned by the storm because of the time of the year, according to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, and staff say they rescued dozens of critters.
“After the flood water receded the wildlife calls started to come in,” said Animal Control Chief Jennifer Toussaint.
“From deer who were in odd areas appearing disoriented to dozens of orphaned baby bird and squirrel calls,” she said. “It look about 3 days for our calls for wildlife to go back to the standard volumes we see this time of year. Unfortunately given the time of year many small unweaned animals were thrown from their nests and orphaned.”
Among the orphans were baby squirrel siblings, and a juvenile Cooper’s hawk. AWLA was able to care for them overnight, staff told ARLnow, and transfer them to a wildlife rescue organization that will hopefully be able to rehabilitate them for the wild.
“When we get in wildlife it is either re-released back into other wild, or we do triage care until we get a wildlife rehabilitator,” said AWLA spokeswoman Chelsea Jones. Due to the call volume that Monday it was “all hands on deck” at AWLA, she said..
Toussaint was dispatched to help the Westover community, which was especially hithard by the flooding, checking homes with pets whose owners were away at work during the morning storm.
“I was present when the fire department aided a woman and her cat out of the flood waters in her basement and up to safety,” she said. “We brought that cat in here to AWLA for safekeeping, a free program we have for boarding animals in an emergency situation.”
She said residents were taking in each other’s pets to keep them safe, and directing first responders to check their elderly neighbors. Jones confirmed that the cat was able to return to its owner after five days of care at AWLA, and all wild animals rescued have been either re-released or transferred to a wildlife rehabilitation organization.
Toussaint said the kindness people showed each other “highlighted the true strength of community we have here in Arlington.”
“I stood in the home of a member of the public who had just lost everything — an inch of water on the floor of the first level, darkness filling the house as the power was cut for safety,” she said. “I listened to one of the captains from our fire department say, ‘I will not leave until I know you have a safe place to go and a plan.'”
Photos (1 and 2) courtesy Jennifer Toussaint, (3 and 4) courtesy Nicole Bender, (5 and 6) courtesy Brandon Jones
(Updated at 5 p.m.) For some, dating across the river is apparently a bridge too far.
It’s a familiar refrain for some Arlingtonians: boy meets D.C. girl, girl learns he lives across the river, girl ghosts. In the words of one man, the river is less a body of water and more a “Great Potomac Divide.” But after I joked about the phenomenon last week, hundreds shared stories on social media of how they’ve been left adrift — or shamelessly drop dates themselves.
D.C. resident Tim tweeted that “everything was perfect” between him a girl after going on a dates at a D.C. bar, the Wharf, and Union Market. So far what happened to rip these love birds apart?
“She strongly encouraged our 4th date be in […] Ballston,” he wrote. “We never had a 4th date.”
When asked why he’d been ghosted about half a dozen times, Sean from Arlington (who asked us not to use his last name) said he wasn’t sure.
“To me, it’s just a couple extra stops on the Metro line,” he said. “But the Potomac seems to be a psychological barrier.”
In an age of dating apps with location filters — and Metro summer shutdowns — we reached out to professional matchmakers to ask just how common this geo-phobia was. Is there any hope for those looking for love in the retrocession of District of Columbia?
“Yes it happens but I don’t see it a ton,” said professional matchmaker Kate O’Connor, with D.C. office of It’s Just Lunch. “Everyone I work with is serious about relationships and are willing to go the extra mile. Literally.”
Michelle Jacoby, who runs local firm DC Matchmatching and herself grew up in Montgomery County, agreed extreme location preferences aren’t common but do happen. Two weeks ago, one of her male clients from Virginia said he didn’t want to visit a woman in D.C. for their first date.
“He was insisting that she come to Virginia,” she said. “Just insisting.”
Jacoby said this can be off-putting for women who do not feel safe traveling to a place they’re unfamiliar with to meet a stranger on a first date, and it’s a gesture of courtesy to meet her at a place she’s more comfortable with.
“You want to get the girl?” Jacoby said. “Drive a little further.”
Both said they’ve mostly experienced strict location parameters with D.C.-based clients, however, and the problem can sometimes be caused by them not owning a car.
Independent County Board candidate Audrey Clement (2015 file photo)
Independent County Board candidate Arron O’Dell (Image courtesy of Arron O’Dell)
This election season, incumbent Arlington County Board candidates will be facing not one, but two independent challengers.
Perennial candidate Audrey Clement is joined in the race for County Board by first-timer Arron O’Dell, a payroll associate with the American Correctional Association who threw his hat into the ring on a platform of affordable housing, more efficient transportation, and representing marginalized communities. The two candidates will face off against incumbent Board Chair Christian Dorsey and Board member Katie Cristol.
Clement is returning to the ring running a campaign centered on greater support for county services like schools, libraries, and affordable housing, as well as promoting green energy and preserving open space.
O’Dell is a D.C. native who’s also lived in Alexandria and Falls Church before moving abroad to Costa Rica and Thailand to teach English. In Thailand, he had a daughter who is now eight years old and lives with him, he said.
“She was born in Thailand and is the single biggest motivator for moving back to Arlington,” he said. “I wanted her to receive a high quality education and live in a place where women are treated more equally.”
“I know many in Arlington consider density a dirty word but we need a solid smart growth plan to add density at all price levels to meet the needs of the future,” said O’Dell, who noted he does not own his home. “I would love to see a plan where longer term residents that could not afford to buy in the current market were given an opportunity to build equity in the places they call home.”
Clement, meanwhile, is proposing the county reorganize all housing programs under a central housing agency in order to help, “negotiate construction costs down, providing taxpayers with more bang for their buck.”
She referred to county data indicating that the cost of building the new Queens Court affordable housing apartments was $430,000 per unit, a price she said was too high.
O’Dell is also campaigning on increased public transit options for the county, citing how much easier it is for him to commute by car to his job in Alexandria currently because of infrequent buses and Metro’s current summer shutdown.
“An effective transportation system needs to be high frequency, high volume and a good value,” he said. “As Arlington evolves we should be looking at walkability and transportation and designing around that.”
Representation
O’Dell believes his time living abroad, and his experience as a single parent, make him uniquely qualified to represent some underserved communities in Arlington. He told ARLnow he has “deep empathy for the migrant communities in Arlington County, because of my experiences abroad I empathize with people living in a foreign land and trying to get by.”
“I understand just how daunting a new language and culture can be,” he added. “My desire is to be a voice for these lower-income, politicly quieter residents of the county.”
One of Clement’s campaign promises is to “provide a voice on County Board for all taxpayers” but she’s also positioned herself as a watchdog of the County Board through a decade of campaigning and speaking at Board meetings.
In an email to ARLnow she criticized the Board’s recent raise as “excessive,” echoing comments from her website where she accused members of paying themselves more regardless of “whether their actual workload justifies the salary increase.”
Arlington County’s zoning office is undertaking a study to find new ways to encourage affordable housing growth in the county.
The study aims to update the Housing Conservation District (HCD) report — a document which lays out measures to preserve units of affordable housing in several, specially-designated areas across the county.
Zoning staff are currently considering several new “zoning and financial incentives,” like:
Allowing developers to add more units to a building, or construct a second building on a property, if the developer reserves some units for affordable housing
Changing some zoning rules about setbacks or maximum building heights to make it easier to replace older affordable housing buildings
Adopting tax benefits for properties with affordable housing
The 12 areas in Arlington that form the HCD include Leeway Overlee, Glebewood, Waverly Hills, Spout Run/Lyon Village, North Highlands, Westover, Lyon Park, Penrose, Shirlington, and Long Branch Creek.
The original draft of the HCD in 2017 aimed to prevent developers from tearing down older homes in favor of new townhouses.
Earlier this year, the county announced a new “Housing Arlington” initiative to help the county meets its goal of creating 15,800 affordable units by 2040. At the time, staff noted lower-income residents face a housing squeeze given that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $3,000, and Arlington lost 17,000 market-rate housing units since 2005.
The new study is expected to be completed by early 2020.
County staff are also currently undertaking a study about ways to make it easier to build new elder care facilities, such as allowing developers to build the facilities in more places around Arlington than currently permitted via zoning.
A group of brothers from Arlington rescued a girl who was drowning off the coast of Ireland (Image courtesy of Meagan Cummings)
A group of brothers from Arlington rescued a girl who was drowning off the coast of Ireland (Image courtesy of Meagan Cummings)
A band of brothers from Arlington saved a five-year-old girl from drowning this week during a trip to Ireland.
On Monday, three brothers — Walter Butler (21), Eoghan Butler (18), Declan Butler (18) — were enjoying a rare sunny Dublin day at a beach with their brother-in-law Alex Thomson (24) when they heard someone crying for help. The group leaped into action after spotting a young girl on an pink inflatable floaty, who was being pulled away by the ocean current.
The group was able to rescue the girl and carry her back to safety, as first reported by Ireland’s Evening Herald.
The boys’ mother, Meagan Cummings, told ARLnow that her children were visiting Ireland to bury their grandfather, who was born there and emigrated to the United States years ago. But there was also something very special about the fateful day of the rescue.
“Their grandfather, when he lived in Ireland many years ago, got on a ship to join the United States Navy. When he was coming over there was a telegram waiting for him that said his younger brother had drowned,” said Cummings. “The anniversary of his brother drowning was Monday.”
Cummings said the drowning death had made her and her parents fearful of water. That was one the reasons she encouraged her six children to learn to be good swimmers. The three Butler boys swam with the Overlee swim team for several years, and Walter and his sister were also on the Washington-Lee High School swim team.
“Only for them my daughter wouldn’t be here today,” said the father of the six-year-old girl, in an interview with the Irish Times. The man said he was unable to reach her from the shore, and could only watch as the current dragged the girl away and led her to lose her grip on the floaty she was clinging to.
“You could see the brave little girl fighting for her life, her head bobbing under and breaking the surface, she clearly could not swim,” Walter told the newspaper. “She was doing everything she could to stay alive.”
Three of the brothers swam for twenty minutes — almost a mile in total — to reach the girl. They took turns carrying her as they made their way back to the shore. Eoghan told the Irish news site the Independent that the girl was a “nervous wreck” and they calmed her by asking about her birthday and her favorite color.
Walter currently serves in the United States Coast Guard as a Health Services Technician. His mother said he put his training to use, assembling a plan for his three brothers to swim the distance and retrieve the girl while he met them halfway, to save his strength in case he needed to administer first aid.
Alex, who is married to the brothers’ sister Juliana, told the Independent that he thought of his own growing family during the rescue.
“The main thing I was thinking about was we couldn’t lose that little girl,” he said. “I’m expecting a daughter in October, and was empathizing with the father’s fear.”
Authorities reported the girl was taken to the hospital after the rescue and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Her father confirmed on Tuesday she was recovering back at home.
“The way I feel about it they were given a chance to rise to their best. And they did,” said Cummings, the boys’ mother. “And that just made me feel so proud.”
