coronavirus

Washington-Liberty HS Staff Undertake Secret Overnight Mission to Surprise Seniors

By Vernon Miles

Hundreds of Washington-Liberty High School students woke up Tuesday morning in Arlington to find their front lawns adorned with congratulatory messages.

Principal Gregg Robertson said administrators and faculty at the school missed their students and were heartbroken that seniors didn’t get to experience their full senior year due to the coronavirus closure.

Robertson and other administrators at Washington-Liberty divvied up 500 addresses provided by Arlington Public Schools administrators to travel around the county and post signs.

“Congratulations seniors on your upcoming graduation,” the signs said on the side facing the student’s home. “From your W-L family.”

On the street-facing side it said: “Washington-Liberty High School Class of 2020. Home of a General!”

“One police officer did stop to see what we were doing,” Robertson said, “but once we told him what we were he stopped to take a selfie.”

After waking up Tuesday morning, students and parents shared photos of the signs on social media and with Robertson.

A senior picnic was delayed until August, which Robertson said should give seniors at W-L a chance to reconnect before they go off to college.

Robertson said the school is also trying to figure out how to host the graduating students at the school one last time, but in the meantime school staff wanted students to know they weren’t forgotten and were valued.

Photo contributed

ARLnow’s Experience Applying for a Paycheck Protection Program Loan

By ARLnow.com

On March 25, the owner of ARLnow’s parent company — which also owns ALXnow, Tysons Reporter and Reston Now — sent an email to the manager of our local bank branch.

“My understanding is that banks will be offering some form of SBA loan for payroll support, with a provision for the payroll costs to be forgiven after a few months,” said the email, sent two days before the CARES Act was signed into law. “That is something we both very much need and want. Can you put me in line to apply for it when the bill passes and we know what the terms are?”

Four weeks later, all $349 billion of the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program is spoken for and ARLnow’s application is still listed opaquely as “under review” by our bank, PNC.

We’re not alone, millions of small business — including Ben’s Chili Bowl — are facing the same reality. And while the program is likely to be replenished by Congress soon, those left behind still have the uncertainty of not knowing whether we’ll get the loans this time around, and whether it will be too late to save the business as it exists now, even if we eventually do qualify.

Thanks to the loyalty of our long-time advertisers and the generous contributions of our readers, ARLnow will weather this storm in one form or another. But a PPP loan would make a big difference in our ability to retain our workforce and our level of original reporting going forward.

For those interested in the nitty gritty, the following is an account of our experience with PPP. Hopefully it can be instructive for those trying to understand how it worked (and did not work), or cathartic for small business owners in the same boat.

But first, three caveats:

  1. It’s not unique. Lots of small businesses also were left high and dry.
  2. It’s just a snapshot. We only applied through one bank, so those who applied through other banks would have different experiences.
  3. Plenty of businesses did get PPP loans. Clarendon-based media company Axios announced today that it qualified for a $5 million PPP loan. Shake Shack got $10 million, but is giving it back amid a backlash. Tens of thousands of businesses in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. collectively received $16.5 billion. And those that bank at smaller community banks seem to have fared better than those who use big banks.

Friday, April 3

We emailed the person we were told was our main point of contact at PNC’s main Arlington office, on the day that the Small Business Administration was slated to open up its PPP loan processing window.

“It sounds like banks can start lending under the Payroll Protection Program in the CARES Act.” we asked. “How can we move forward with that?”

Our PNC contact responded promptly, letting us know that “like other financial institutions, we are reviewing the additional guidance from the U.S. Treasury and waiting for the final guidelines and details from the Small Business Administration.” This would be the last time we would hear from a human at PNC until a check-in email on April 16, the day the program ran out of money.

Applying with PNC made the most sense for us. We’ve banked there for the past decade as a business, and our owner has banked there personally since he was a teenager in the 1990s. Plus myriad articles on the subject of PPP said that business owners would have the most luck applying with their existing bank, which is more familiar with their financial history.

The fact that we also have a lending relationship with PNC, in the form of a long-standing line of credit, would also help, theoretically.

PNC opened applications on its website Friday night, but did not announce it to customers (at least not to us) via email.

Monday, April 6 

Not wanting to wait to hear back, we checked the PNC website, and after clicking around a bit found out that the bank was accepting applications online. Do not try to apply with a branch, the website is the only way to submit an application, it said.

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Local Restaurant Sues Insurance Company Over Lack of Business Interruption Payment

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 12:40 p.m.) Across the country, restaurants have started suing insurance companies over their refusal to pay business interruption claims.

Many businesses have insurance policies that cover loss of income due to disasters. Restaurants say being forced to shut down by state and local governments to help slow the spread of the coronavirus is such a case and are seeking payments. Insurance companies, however, say the policies mostly cover interruptions caused by property damage, not diseases.

Here in Arlington, at least one restaurant is seeking to press its claim in court. Guajillo Mexican restaurant, at 1727 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn, filed suit in Arlington Circuit Court against its insurance company on Tuesday.

The restaurant is suing Twin City Fire Insurance Co, which is a part of the Hartford Insurance Group. Guajillo says in the suit that its policy “explicitly covered such loss when caused by a virus, including the salaries and other expenses owed.”

“Guajillo has been in Arlington for about 20 years, and is family owned. They paid for insurance, including business interruption insurance, and expected to get coverage when their business was interrupted,” Scott Rome, an attorney with D.C.-based Veritas Law Firm, tells ARLnow.

“Restaurants operated with the understanding that they were paying for this insurance for just this type of situation, and are being denied across the board by every insurance company,” Rome said. “Here, the policy covers viruses, and yet the insurance company has made no payment yet.”

While Guajillo asserts that its policy covered diseases, the head of an insurance company association suggested otherwise, at least for most business insurance policies, in an interview on CNBC yesterday.

“Virus and bacterial related events are not covered under business interruption,” said David Sampson, president and CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

“A pandemic specifically is not something that appeared in many policies,” Sampson said. “The reason that businesses are shut down is not because of damage to property. It’s for fear of human to human transmission of a communicable disease. That’s not a property insurance claim. Now, I’m sure that there are going to be some very enterprising plaintiff’s lawyers out there that are going to try to expand coverage. That’s what they always do. But exploiting this crisis with litigation profiteering will stop America’s recovery even before it starts.”

The Guajillo suit outlines a case that may run counter to the insurance industry’s assertions.

The Policy states that “period of restoration” “begins with the date of direct physical loss or physical damage caused by or resulting from a Covered Cause of Loss at the ‘scheduled premises’.”

The Policy explicitly provides for loss due to a virus through an endorsement: “We will pay for loss or damage by ‘fungi’, wet rot, dry rot, bacteria and virus.” […]

Twin City’s refusal of coverage breached its obligation and responsibility to provide coverage available through the Policy to Guajillo due to its covered loss of business income because its premises are unusable and uninhabitable and have lost all function, which constitutes a direct physical loss under the Policy.

Guajillo is still open for delivery and takeout, but Rome says the pandemic has greatly reduced its revenue.

“Rolando Juarez can be found in his kitchen every day, he is trying to keep all of his staff employed,” the attorney said. “This pandemic has devastated his business. The insurance coverage that he paid for could help this neighborhood family-owned business survive.”

Photo via Facebook

Fire Department Sees Reduction in Calls Amid Pandemic

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 11:20 a.m.) The Arlington County Fire Department has seen a reduction in calls amid the coronavirus pandemic, though its members have remained busy.

In a typical day, ACFD dispatches personnel to about 80 calls. Currently, the number of daily dispatches is averaging in the mid-60s, according to spokesman Capt. Justin Tirelli.

Calls for things like vehicle crashes, scooter accidents, and workplace slip-and-fall injuries are down sharply, with fewer people commuting to work. Dispatches for possible structure fires are about the same, Tirelli said, but there have been few actual fires over the past few weeks.

“Structure fires are often in places that are not occupied,” he explained. “Now that people are not leaving the house to go to work, they’re at home and they’ve been able to catch it before something happens.”

Medical calls are an key metric to track, a potential harbinger of a worsening outbreak. Tirelli said medical calls are actually down slightly, though that doesn’t tell the full story. Those who are calling are often exhibiting more serious symptoms.

“It could be because people are reluctant to call for help — waiting longer before calling 911,” he said, also noting that with COVID-19 “a lot of people don’t feel the symptoms until it’s very late in the game.”

Anecdotally, ARLnow has heard what seems like an increase in calls for COVID and flu-like-symptoms over the past week. This week alone, we’ve taken note of two life-threatening, CPR-in-progress calls at long-term care facilities. But it’s not just older residents calling for help due to possible COVID-19 symptoms — we also heard a call for a woman in her 20s, in an apartment building, experiencing trouble breathing.

Though slightly reduced in number, on net the medical calls have taken more personnel time due to the increased severity of the symptoms and the need for firefighters to protect themselves, Tirelli said.

“Our [Personal Protective Equipment] process is very methodical,” he said.

Tirelli said there has been no shortage of ambulances in the county and “we’ve been able to manage really well” to meet all needs without issues, thanks in part to some smart planning and actions.

Two-and-a-half weeks ago the county opened a telemedicine line in its dispatch center, to steer those with medical concerns but no symptoms to other resources. More recently, ACFD deployed what it’s calling an “Omega unit” — an SUV staffed by an EMT and an APO, the county’s most highly-trained paramedics. The Omega unit evaluates (in full protective gear) those with minor COVID-like symptoms, while keeping ambulances that can transport patients in service for life-threatening emergencies.

“Medical matchmaking,” Tirelli explained, “using the right resources for the right patients. That reduces both unnecessary ambulance calls and unnecessary ER visits.”

Even though hospitals are doing their best to isolate COVID-19 patients, “the emergency room is not a safe place to be right now…when there’s a very contagious virus like this,” he said.

The fire department expects that Arlington’s COVID cases have not peaked yet, Tirelli said, and the department remains ready to handle a future surge of calls. A second Omega unit can also be deployed, if necessary.

One thing residents can do to help keep firefighters safe and ready to respond to the most serious calls is to dial the right number for help depending on the situation.

“If someone is not having an emergency, the best place for medical advice is the Health Department hotline: 703-228-7999,” Tirelli said. “If they are having an emergency they should call 911.”

Morning Poll: Tracking Coronavirus in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

On a Wednesday four weeks ago — which seems like a lifetime ago — Arlington had 36 known cases of COVID-19 and ARLnow conducted an unscientific poll.

Of nearly 2,800 respondents, 0.76% said they had tested positive for COVID, 4.4% said they had COVID-like symptoms, and 11.6% said they had a close personal connection who had tested positive.

It’s now April 22 and as of Tuesday there were 625 known coronavirus cases in Arlington. Let’s conduct the same poll and see (again, unscientifically) where we stand.

Please answer honestly and select the options that apply to you. Note that the typical symptoms of COVID-19 are cough, fever, tiredness and — in more serious cases — difficulty breathing. Loss of taste and smell is also a common symptom.

As before, you should not use this poll response data for policy decision-making — but do use it as a reminder of the importance of social distancing, practicing good hygiene, wearing a face mask when out, and flattening the curve.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Meridian Pint Closes Temporarily — “I regret to inform you that one of our employees has contracted COVID-19. He was hospitalized and tested positive on Sunday, April 19th after not working in the restaurant for 9 days. In an effort to keep the rest of our staff healthy, as well as ensure the safety of our guests, we have decided to shut down until further notice.” [Facebook via @fritzhahn]

DCA Is a Ghost Town — A series of photos of emptiness at Reagan National Airport can make one envision tumbleweeds blowing through the terminals. [PoPville]

Beyer Critical of Administration’s Supply Chain Management — “A group of House Democrats today raised serious issues with the Trump Administration’s handling of the supply chain for COVID-19 response, and sought improved transparency and federal coordination to mitigate the inadequate, harmful, and dysfunctional engagement.” [Press Release]

Arlington Chamber Holds Volunteer Day — “Local volunteers from various Chamber member businesses and organizations lent a helping hand to area nonprofits as part of the 21st Annual Arlington Chamber Volunteer Day… The projects provided were in accordance with the CDC guidelines to ensure that participants were practicing social distancing.” [Arlington Chamber of Commerce]

No Word Yet on APS Graduation — “Will members of Arlington Public Schools’ Class of 2020 have an in-person send-off to celebrate their achievements? That remains an open question. Bridget Loft, the school system’s assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, on April 16 said the school system was looking for ‘creative ways’ to celebrate graduation – and neither ruled in nor ruled out some sort of communal send-off ceremony.” [InsideNova]

Food Trucks Branch Out into Arlington Neighborhoods

By Vernon Miles

As the pandemic forces brick and mortar restaurants to close or switch to takeout and delivery, food trucks are filling the void by bringing the restaurant experience to residential neighborhoods.

Patrick Rathbone, the owner of the popular Big Cheese food truck, spent this morning (Tuesday) at Virginia Hospital Center making 50 sandwiches for medical workers there — 35 for those in ER and 15 for those working in the ICU.

On the Big Cheese website, people can make $10 donations to buy lunch for a hospital worker. So far, he said he’s made about 120 lunches for hospital workers and plans to keep it up through the pandemic.

Rathbone has a busy week planned, because after VHC he’s headed to the Westover neighborhood.  The usual roundup of Metro-accessible Arlington locations this week includes something different: a few stops in residential neighborhoods, like Fairlington on Saturday.

“I had been focused on vending at Courthouse, Clarendon, Ballston, Pentagon City,” Rathbone said. “They’re all the places where there’s high-density residential. It’s more business than sitting at home but hasn’t been exemplary.”

Rathbone said business is down 80-90 percent of what it usually is this time of year, when workers flood out of office buildings at lunchtime looking for a meal and some time outdoors.

While Rathbone said he usually has a staff of between six to eight employees, right now it’s just him. With business down in the high-density areas, he wanted to take a chance and bring Big Cheese to some of the less dense areas of the county.

“I live in Barcroft area, put a post on the Arlington Neighbors Facebook page just to see if people in neighborhoods would want a visit,” Rathbone said.

The post got a large response, with over 130 comments, many of them asking Big Cheese to come by their communities. Rathbone said Shirlington, in particular, seemed excited about the prospect of a food truck visit.

“It’s something different,” Rathbone said. “They’ve been cooped up. Their kids have been cooped up. I think a lot of people are interested in supporting small businesses. With a food truck, it’s something coming to their neighborhood. I want to mix it up a bit.”

For Rathbone, it’s also a small part of offsetting the lost majority of his business.

“Basically, the business has gone from lunches and events catering to residential,” Rathbone said. “A big part of my business is event catering — all the weddings, PTA events, music festivals have all canceled. I don’t see how any of those are coming back this year at all. I am concerned, but I’m less concerned than if I had brick and mortar because that’s a lot more overhead.”

Rathbone said he’s also happy to be working, as it makes him less stressed than just sitting at home.

The Big Cheese isn’t alone in serving more residential areas. Food truck DC Slices has been offering pick up and delivery 951 S. Monroe Street, just off Columbia Pike. Astro Doughnuts also drew a crowd when its truck made a stop in a North Arlington cul-de-sac.

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Former County Intern Helps Workers Get Masks

By ARLnow.com
1/2

A former intern in Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services has helped the county obtain 1,400 masks for workers.

The intern, Lucie, interned for DES in 2016 and has since been attending school in Hawaii, though she is currently back in her native China amid the coronavirus outbreak. Through a friend who runs a trading company in Hong Kong, she heard about a shipment of 1,400 face masks sitting in Los Angeles and immediately thought of her former colleagues.

Lucie reached out to DES, according to department spokesman Peter Golkin, to see if the masks might be of use. When she was told they were, she and some other friends — including a George Mason University grad student — raised money to cover the cost of the shipment to Arlington, Golkin said.

Now, frontline workers in the Water, Sewer, Streets Bureau, one of the bureaus in which Lucie interned, have access to construction-grade face masks that can help them stay healthy while on the job patching potholes, fixing water main breaks and maintaining other essential infrastructure. And the shipment came at a time when personal protective equipment of all types is in short supply.

“Thanks Lucie and company!” DES said via social media on Monday.

Three More Coronavirus Deaths Reported in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 10:15 a.m.) The reported number of people who have died from COVID-19 complications in Arlington increased by three overnight.

The death count rose from 20 to 23, according to the latest Virginia Health Department data. Arlington currently has 625 known coronavirus cases, 114 hospitalizations, 10 outbreaks and 2,487 tests conducted. There were 593 cases reported on Monday.

Some experts believe that the actual number of coronavirus cases may be as much as 10-20 times higher than the reported numbers. There’s also evidence of many more coronavirus-related deaths than reported.

Among the 10 outbreaks in Arlington reported by VDH are:

  • 5 in long-term care facilities (nursing homes, assisted living facilities, etc.)
  • 3 in healthcare settings (medical offices, fire and EMS stations, etc.)
  • 1 in congregate setting (business, apartment building, church, etc.)

ARLnow has continued to ask Arlington County officials for additional details about local outbreaks, though officials have so far declined to provide data beyond what is published online by the state health department.

On Monday ARLnow asked about coronavirus cases and those in quarantine among police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and firefighter/medics. We also asked about safety measures being taken by county employees.

A county spokeswoman did not provide any figures and instead issued the following statement from Aaron Miller, Arlington’s Director of Public Safety Communications and Emergency Management:

Arlington’s overall numbers are updated daily on the Virginia Department of Health website. Our Public Health Division does not provide information on reportable diseases on less than a county level.

The County is always monitoring its workforce capacity. We continue to be able to maintain staffing levels for the services needed for Arlington residents.

The County is taking many steps to protect its essential workers, as well as the Arlington community. They include providing personal protective equipment (PPE) to all frontline employees, increasing cleaning of facilities and equipment, quarantining employees who may have been exposed, modifying services to limit interactions between staff and promote social distancing, and implementing rotational schedules or extended hours to ensure high priority essential services continue.

The county has not provided an official update on public safety coronavirus cases since it first announced a firefighter testing positive on March 24. A tipster told ARLnow last week that there were 3 firefighters who have tested postitive and 37 in quarantine.

Startup Monday: How Local Startups Will Fare During and After the Pandemic

By ARLnow.com

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow,  Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. Monday Properties remains firmly committed to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, tenants and community. This week, Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1000 and 1100 Wilson (The Rosslyn Towers).

One area of the economy that is being disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, among many, is a group used to being the ones doing the disrupting: startups.

As COVID-19 results in widespread economic devastation, startup founders find themselves having gone almost overnight from a world with abundant funding and plenty of deep-pocketed potential customers, to one in which funding is likely to be scarce and customers — companies and individuals alike — are looking for ways to cut costs, not add new expenses.

Jonathan Aberman, Dean of the School of Business and Technology at Marymount University in Arlington and a long-time participant in the D.C. area startup ecosystem, said that tough times like these often result in a starker contrast between winners and losers.

“The first thing you have to understand is that not every company is going to be affected the same way, because some companies are going to benefit really well from the short term,” he said, citing certain healthcare startups as one example. “In the longer term the economy is going to be changed forever by COVID-19 and the aftermath, in ways we can’t really predict.”

“Uniformly, right now, every business is trying to figure out what the future looks like,” he said. “COVID-19 is such an enormous change agent for how our economy and our society functions.”

One major differentiation factor between winners and losers, according to Aberman, will be product/market fit: whether a given company offers something for which there is strong demand in the marketplace. Whereas prior to the pandemic founders with a bright idea and confidence-inspiring credentials could get funding for the latest Uber-for-something app before actual customers showed up, the new environment will favor scrappy founders who go out and build something people really want.

“With venture capital for the past few years, startups without product/market fit could raise money,” Aberman said. “But if you don’t have a product that is really attractive right now, if you aren’t in a sector of the economy that’s really hot right now, and you don’t have the possibility of being hot in the near term, you have to ask yourself: am I in a war of attrition?”

Startups with few customers and poor funding prospects are ill-fitted for such a world, where only the strong and well-capitalized survive. On the other hand, those making something that’s in need — robots and artificial intelligence that can help do work usually done by humans, for instance, or other products and services compatible with social distancing — should do fine.

“Businesses that don’t have something to sell will not do well, and the businesses that do will find a way,” Aberman said. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy.

“It’s appropriate to use the the ‘D’ word — depression,” for the current economic climate, Aberman said. “I think it will end when there’s a vaccine.”

Entrepreneurs who are in it for the long haul — those who grit it out and are less concerned about getting rich as they are building something great — will find lots of opportunity as the economy rebounds. And those who jump in now rather than waiting for the coast to be clear will have a valuable head start and a leg up when it comes to seeking funding, according to Aberman.

“I expect that there will be enormous entrepreneurial and social entrepreneurial opportunities at the other side of this,” he said.

Additionally, the D.C. area and its startup ecosystem — which is weighted toward less sexy but more reliably lucrative categories like cybersecurity, which get less attention than the latest buzzy consumer startup — is relatively well-positioned going forward, says Aberman.

“We didn’t really participate in all the frothiness of the national venture capital market,” he said. “We never really over-indexed to ‘Facebook-for-cats.'”

The local startup scene “is not just around government,” said Aberman. “It’s around a lot of established industries that will continue to have money.”

Group Holding Webinar With County Leaders to Discuss Coronavirus Response

By Vernon Miles

Arlington’s Committee of 100 is planning a public webinar with county leaders to discuss the latest on COVID-19.

“Arlington has been one of the hardest-hit communities in the commonwealth for COVID-19,” the organization said in an event description. “Join us to learn more about how Arlington is responding and what you can do to stay safe and help others.”

The lineup is a who’s who of leadership handling the response on a local level, including:

  • Libby Garvey — Chair, Arlington County Board
  • Zachary Pope — Emergency Manager, Arlington Public Schools
  • Dr. Reuben Varghese — Public Health Director, Arlington County
  • Karen Coltrane — CEO of local nonprofit Leadership Center for Excellence

Varghese has been at the forefront of the coronavirus response in Arlington and has already participated in previous online discussions about the virus’ impact on how Arlingtonians should handle the crisis.

The Committee of 100, which normally holds in-person discussions and debates about community issues, said participants will be able to ask questions during a Q&A portion of the meeting.

The group will be hosting the webinar via Zoom on Wednesday, April 22, from 7-8:30 p.m. A link is sent after registering, along with an email address to which one can submit questions.

The event is scheduled to be moderated by Lynn Juhl, chair of the Committee of 100.

File photo

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