Last month ACPS added five electrical buses to their fleet, and since last year, DASH launched six battery-electric buses of their own.

Both organizations offer insight as to what Alexandrians can expect in public transportation moving forward. Advocates major benefits of these buses as zero-emissions, less noisy and contain fewer moving parts that need maintenance. The drawbacks are centered around keeping them charged and a much higher upfront purchase cost according to sources from Dominion, ACPS and DASH.

Both ACPS and DASH were able to offset these initial costs using grant and state funding. As they continue to operate, the organizations are collecting valuable data that can be used to improve electrical bus technology and operations.

ACPS

ACPS purchased its five electric buses for the same price as their diesel models, according to an ACPS . The purchase came through a Dominion Energy program which also provided the batteries and charging stations at no additional cost to the school. The are manufactured by Thomas Built Buses and Proterra.

“What Dominion provided, I mean in cost alone, saved the taxpayers here almost $2 million,” said ACPS Director of Pupil Transportation Scott Merriman.

The program’s information says electric buses improve air quality inside the bus and reduce greenhouse emissions by 54,000 pounds each year. Dominion claims that the buses reduce operation and maintenance costs for schools by 60%. ACPS received five of the 50 buses that were a part of the program.

Merriman said the ACPS fleet consists of 112 diesel powered buses, one gasoline powered bus and the five new electric powered buses. He said since the inception of the program, the electric buses have saved $8,000 in fuel costs.

“As of this point it has cost me exactly zero dollars to maintain any of these,” Merriman said.

In return, Dominion uses the buses to inject electricity into the grid during periods of high demand, when the buses are not needed for transport. They are using a new “Vehicle-to-Grid Technology” which allows the buses to supply extra energy to the grid once they’re connected, providing extra stability.

Dominion Energy is exploring battery storage capabilities of electric school buses to see how they can improve electric grid reliability, according to the program’s .

Merriman said the agreement with Dominion would not interrupt ACPS fleet operations.

“The agreement with Dominion is we use the school buses at will, without any constraint with our traditional operating day,” Merriman said. “There’s nothing within our agreement that says we cannot use the bus from X to Y or period A to period B.”

Merriman said urban school districts are a perfect candidate for electric buses, because they have lower mileage than rural districts where buses need to cover larger distances.

“We have already projected that we can operate almost three days without a charge because of the number of miles and distance in our service district,” Merriman said.

Merriman said ACPS is in the process of applying to purchase 10 more electric buses to their fleet through grant funding from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust run by the . DEQ will announce the winning applicants this coming February.

The trust is “a result of settlement allegations that Volkswagen violated the Clean Air Act through the use of emission testing defeat devices designed to cheat on federal emissions tests,” according to the DEQ .

DASH

Alexandria Transit Company, DASH, it’s battery-electric buses in October of last year. They received $5.1 million in funding from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust and from statewide transit capital funding.

DASH CEO Josh Baker with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission last month to discuss the implementation of its electric buses.

“In Alexandria we have taken a very ambitious effort here in the adoption of electrification of our fleet,” Baker said.

Baker said his goals are to have a fully zero-emission fleet by 2035.

DASH is currently in the second phase of its.����

“Essentially the first study was: Can we do this? Should we do this? How can we do this?” Baker said.

Baker said while the environmental benefits were an important aspect of DASH replacing its fleet with electric buses, there are also fiscal benefits to the project. He said while the upfront funding for electric buses is substantial, the long-term benefits of decreased maintenance and the elimination of unpredictable fuel costs are worth considering.

“They’re coming in at about half the cost from a maintenance and operations perspective,” Baker said.

The second study, currently in progress, centers on the range of the buses, the technology required, the charging infrastructure and the short term and long-term investments that need to be made in order to implement an electric bus fleet.

Baker said the new buses are well received by the community, riders and bus operators and have performed well in “stop and go” urban environments, making them well suited for Alexandria.

Baker said the biggest challenge DASH has faced is with the bus chargers.

“The chargers have a tendency to go down for various reasons. We had struggles with installations. We had struggles with contractors. We’ve had battles back and forth with getting them in to service them when they break down,” Baker said.

Another challenge was in heating the buses. Traditional automobiles generate heat from the internal combustion process, which is then captured and used in the cabin. But Baker said if heat is exclusively generated from the battery of an electric bus, it would require upward of 60% of the battery’s power. On colder days, the buses won’t be able to travel as far without needing a charge.

Moving forward, DASH is working to address these challenges and implement technologies that can address the unique problems that come with electric buses. DASH they secured funding for an additional 20 electric buses through 2025 from the Northern Virginia Transport Authority and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

The move for electrification as a whole is in line with Eco-City Alexandria, a collaborative effort to achieve sustainability in the city of Alexandria. In 2008, the Alexandria City Council adopted the . In 2019, the city released “Environmental Action Plan 2040,” which highlights city-wide environmental planning projects to reduce carbon emissions and move towards a more sustainable city.

The action plan sets out to “implement electrification of, at minimum 10% of DASH, rapid transit routes and King Street Trolley buses” by 2028.

Based on the projections in the first implementation study, DASH will have more than a 50% electric fleet by that time.

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After signing the employment contract, Parajon said he was looking forward to working with city staff and getting to know the community better.

“I’m really looking forward to being part of this community,” Parajon said.

Parajon has nearly three decades of experience as a professional planner in a variety of positions, according to a city . Parajon worked for the cities of Arlington, Texas, Raleigh, North Carolina and Cary, North Carolina, where he was charged with planning and managing a variety of city projects.

“I want to thank the mayor and council for placing their trust in me to lead such an amazing organization,” Parajon said. “I’m coming to an organization that’s got an incredibly talented staff and I’m looking forward to continuing to build on that.”

Councilman Mo Seifeldein was the only “nay” vote during the meeting. He said while he thinks Parajon is a qualified candidate, he wanted to see a candidate who reflected the city’s diversity.

“We are a diverse community of different opinions and views,” Seifeldein said. “We went through a robust community engagement and heard back from many of our community members, some of whom had the opportunity to speak with the candidates, so I wanted the council vote to reflect our diverse community views.”

During the meeting, Mayor Justin Wilson said he and city staff were impressed with and excited by Parajon’s background in planning.

“What better way at a time where the city has approved so many plans and is working to implement so many plans to have someone with that kind of background,” Wilson said.

The national search for Alexandria’s new city manager took five months. ALXnow that Parajon was vetted by three advisory committees made up of city staff, department heads and other representatives.

In June, when Jinks announced his intent to retire, the city hired , a talent acquisition firm which specializes in hiring leaders for public service positions.

The city also received input from the community through and meetings. In September, the city council held a to hear what Alexandrians wanted in their next city manager.

During that meeting, residents said they wanted a city manager who tackles flooding issues, preserves the city’s history, improves the city’s broadband options, increases affordable housing options, respects the city’s and provides educational opportunities for low income residents.

Over the coming weeks, Parajon will work closely with city staff and Jinks to help shape the Fiscal Year 2023 budget according to the council’s budget priorities.

“Your current city manager, Mark Jinks, has done an amazing job and has really already started to brief me and help me make the transition,” Parajon said.

The city said it would announce opportunities for the community to meet Parajon in January.

“I’m looking forward to spending quality time with you and really understanding what it means to live in the city and what your lives are like and what I can do and what our organization can do to better you and better your lives,” Parajon said.

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In August the city began laying a new municipal fiber-optic network to be used by 90 city buildings, including public schools and libraries. While digging and placing the fiber optic wiring, the city decided to lay down a second conduit which could be used by a franchisee in the future.

The foresight for the second conduit came as a low-cost addition that could entice another company to offer broadband services through existing infrastructure to compete with Comcast’s broadband monopoly.

“Mostly people say ‘I wish I had a choice, if I could have a choice maybe this would get better’,” Deputy City Manager Laura Triggs said.

Triggs said cable services have consistently been one of the lowest rated services in the city’s citizen surveys.

Triggs said while the bidders would not be directly competing with Comcast, the city’s only cable provider, they would be able to offer Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband services, giving residents more options.

“In our discussion with industry experts, we’ve determined that there’s really no significant interest in someone coming into the city to provide a cable franchise, that does not seem to be where the industry is interested in going,” Triggs said during a last Tuesday.

Without interest from other broadband companies, the city had to consider a different approach to expanding Alexandria’s broadband options. The ordinance allows a franchisee to use the city’s right-of-way to offer broadband services.

The city’s right-of-way is an underground system where the city runs utilities like electrical and gas lines. In Virginia, municipalities own that right-of-way.

Triggs said while this proposal is not a part of the city’s municipal fiber network, the city is open to working with businesses that would like to use the second conduit to provide fiber optic services.

“Just imagine an underground highway with cords and other things,” Triggs said in an interview. “If we allow access to the right-of-way, you can run fiber-optic cable through the city and allow for access to broadband internet.”

The city has the right to lease its right-of-way to provide services to residents. Triggs introduced a “franchise ordinance process” to the city council in order to achieve this. This would allow the city to solicit proposals for the use of the city’s right-of-way to provide FTTP broadband access to businesses and residents. All bids for the use of the right-of-way are due by Dec. 30.

The city is requiring all proposals to provide a minimum speed of at least 1 gigabit internet connection. The city also wants the broadband to be accessible to affordable housing units, parks and other areas where the public gathers.

“The one that we’re most excited about is the criteria that provides access for every Alexandrian,” Triggs said. “We know that some people have broadband to their home, but it is slow, it is older cables, it is not accessible, you cannot have school and work on some of the broadband that’s in the city.”

Some key terms of the include the use of micro-trenching to minimize disruptions, significant investment of financial resources for construction, standards for 24/7 customer support and a provision for damages or payments for non-completion.

By using microtrenching technology, the vendors could cut down their construction costs significantly by digging less deep into the ground, Triggs said.

“It’s expensive to dig here. If you spend any time in Old Town, it’s a 200-year-old city and so getting underground to connect things is expensive,” Triggs said.

The City Council will review the proposals at a legislative meeting on Jan. 11, 2022, then vote to allow the city to negotiate the terms of the agreement.

“This is an important step for the city in our ongoing process to expand broadband offerings,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said.

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On Friday, the Potomac River reached almost 6 feet above sea level, submerging several blocks of Old Town near the waterfront.

“We were completely surrounded by water and so we were forced to close down,” Chris Shell, the manager of Chart House said.

Shell said the restaurant, on Cameron Street, closed down during high tide at around 3 p.m. on Friday when the water had surrounded the base of the restaurant. He said restaurant staff couldn’t leave until about three hours later when the water had finally subsided.

The flood on Friday was caused by heavy rainfall in the north and east which flowed into the river causing it to swell over its banks during high tide. According to the , Alexandria is prone to flooding from heavy rainfall and tropical storms which create overbank flooding from the Potomac River.

“Whenever it rains a lot either it floods the night it rains or all the extra water comes in the morning,” said Hailey Baldwin, a lifelong Alexandria resident.

The city provided free to residents and businesses on Friday, ahead of high tide when the flooding was at its peak.

Sean Hall, manager of Chadwick’s on Strand Street, said despite being prepared with sandbags, some water still seeped into the restaurant.

Hall, who has been at Chadwick’s since 1998, said that a little bit of flooding is nothing new, but the amount of flooding on Friday was unusual.

The last time Hall saw water enter the building was in 2003 during Hurricane Isabel. “The water was over the bar,” Hall said.

Hall said he was impressed with how the city handled the flooding. He said when he was opening the restaurant at 10 a.m. on Saturday, the city streets were completely cleared of debris.

“This is hands down the best I’ve seen them do as far as pre-warning and post-clean up, really very impressive,” Hall said.

Hall said police put up roadblocks to stop large vehicles from driving through the flooded streets. He said when large vehicles pass through the floods, this can cause wakes that rise over barriers that residents and businesses put in place to protect themselves from flooding.

The city has had ongoing discussions about mitigating the effects of flooding from the Potomac river.

On Oct. 26, the city council approved the first grant application for $50 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant Program. The awarded grant money will go toward the .

The amount of funding the city receives will depend on how many points it scores in accordance with FEMA’s .

City Manager Mark Jinks said BRIC funding would also be dependent on the total number of applicants nationwide as well as the kinds of projects those applicants are looking to fund.

“There’s some categories where this project just doesn’t score points because it doesn’t have the features that get those points,” Jinks said at the council meeting.

Two other grant applications were approved for a total of around $10 million from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Virginia Resources Authority for the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund Grant Program, which would also go toward the Waterfront Flood Mitigation Project.

On Oct. 4, the Waterfront Commission Flood Mitigation Committee a variety of flood mitigation which include improving streetscape, stormwater and pump station infrastructure.

reported that the presented plans would reduce stormwater overwhelming existing infrastructure and would stop the river from backing up the sewer system.

But neither would fully fix the overtopping from the river — nor have prevented Friday’s historic flooding.

Back at Chadwick’s, manager Sean Hall said he’s used to some flooding but floods of this caliber tend to be much rarer.

“Usually, we don’t take it that seriously, but this one, this one obviously came up a little more than usual.”

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The section of street is popular with Alexandrians due to its selection of restaurants with outdoor dining and retail stores. On weekends the street is bursting with life and buzzing with the sound of street performers.

The hearing followed a Planning Commission on Oct. 5 to review whether the closure of the 100 block to vehicular traffic was consistent with the city’s . The commission unanimously approved the closure.

“On behalf of the Old Town Business Association, we support the permanent closure of the 100 Block of King Street to vehicular traffic,” said Charlotte Hall, managing director of the Old Town Businesses Association at the City Council hearing.

Hall has been overseeing and managing the project since it’s conception as a trial in May 2020. She proposed that the street closure first be tested out for three months. If the majority of restaurants felt like they were losing business during the trial, changes could be made.

“I talked to everybody, retailers and restaurants, and they felt like, ‘Well, what do we have to lose,’” Hall said in an interview.

The trial last summer proved to be a success, and the restaurants invested in better tables, chairs, planters and umbrellas, improving the quality and aesthetics of the outdoor dining experience on the street.

“I can tell you that every restaurant their business is up from where it was this time last year,” Hall said.

Leu Amir, the manager of Il Porto Ristorante on 121 King Street said the closure helped revitalize the area and increase foot traffic.

“I believe the outside patios have helped all the restaurants here,” Amir said.

After 18 months, the closure of the 100 block of King Street to vehicular traffic is now a permanent fixture of the city.

“We’ve been dealing with Health Department, we’ve been dealing with Virginia ABC, we’ve been dealing with police, fire, you name it. You know, Trash, cleanliness, making it look good and we’ve come a long way in two years,” Hall said.

Old Town Business also wanted some changes made to a required 5-foot minimum clear access path on the sidewalks between buildings and their outdoor seating areas as required by the Alexandria Fire Department.

The requirement reduces the number of tabletops restaurants can fit in the outdoor space and can cause collisions between restaurant staff and pedestrians using the sidewalk.

Hall said she was working closely with Alexandria Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Sharpe to come up with compromises.

Some Old Town residents think that the decision to make the closure permanent is short-sighted as it may have unintended consequences on surrounding areas.

Members of the Historic Alexandria Resources Commission said the closure of the 100 block of King Street is increasing the rate of deterioration on the 100 block of Prince Street, known as Captain’s Row.

Chairman of the commission Danny Smith said he spoke to several commission members and residents of Captain’s Row who reported seeing displaced cobblestones and noticed an increased rate of deterioration to the street since the closure of the 100 block of King Street.

The cobblestone streets, first laid down in 1795, lack a solid foundation underneath, Smith said. As vehicles drive through the street, the stones are pounded further and further into the ground, which is difficult to repair.

Chair of the Alexandria Archaeological Commission Ivy Whitlatch said the street is a vital part of Alexandria’s image.

“The most visible brand image of Old Town Alexandria is Captain’s Row, the cobblestones, the houses, the proximity to the Waterfront, the history, the story, the urban legends are all about the 100 block of Prince Street,” Whitlatch said.

Camila Gonzalez, an Alexandria resident who frequents King Street, said before the closure, King Street was already a high traffic area. “Now with the street closed and with a bunch of tables outside, it’s even worse,” Gonzalez said.

Smith sent a letter to the Planning Commission and City Council proposing solutions to decrease traffic and slow down the deterioration of the cobblestone. He said Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennet-Parker and Mayor Justin Wilson have responded to his email letting him know they understand the issue and that they’ll be taking it into consideration.

Smith said the preservation of the street is an important part of keeping the tourism industry healthy, and serves as a benefit to the economy of the entire city.

“I think that garnering the support of the businesses who benefit from and the tourism that heavily displays Captain’s Row should be as much in their interest to preserve it as it is to open up the 100 block of King,” Whitlatch said.

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Officials in Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County, Virginia, voted for the tax, which goes into effect next year, more than a decade after D.C. implemented the same policy.

Virginia is a Dillon’s Rule state, which means that municipalities in Virginia can only make policy decisions under the directive of the state. In 2020, the state passed a bill that allowed municipalities to tax plastic bags by 5 cents.

Dean Amel, solid waste chair of the Sierra Club’s Potomac River Group, said that despite years of lobbying for environmental policy, it was only recently that things started to change, due to a Democratic majority at the state level in both the House and the Senate.

“The dam finally broke a couple of years ago,” Amel said.

Experts say plastic bag taxes can curb plastic bag usage on the consumer side while also reducing pollution that occurs during the manufacturing process due to a decrease in demand.

Financial from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue estimated that bag use dropped from an average of 22.5 million bags per month prior to the start of the fee to 3 million bags a month after the fee was imposed.

Additionally, D.C. businesses a 50% decline, on average, in the number of bags they purchased.

Although the Virginia legislature passed the bill that allows municipalities to implement this tax, Amel said it fell short of broader changes that he lobbied for, like bans on single-use plastics, such as plastic bags, takeout boxes and straws.

“The law that came out was fairly restricted and all it allows us to do is to put this 5-cent tax on single-use plastic bags at certain types of stores,” Amel said.

Democratic State Sen. Adam Ebbin, who represents Virginia’s 30th District, introduced the bill to the legislature. The tax received unanimous votes from both Alexandria and Arlington city councils.

The collected tax revenue will be used for environmental cleanup, environmental educational programs, mitigating pollution and providing reusable bags to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC).

Rachel Karasik, a policy associate with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy, said these kinds of plastic bag taxes may have some equity implications.

She said the tax can pose a barrier for some low-income residents, while having a minimal impact on the behavior of higher income residents.

“I know that New York City has a more equitable policy in which folks who are on SNAP and WIC don’t have to comply with the taxes,” Karasik said.

Karasik is responsible for updating and maintaining the Plastic Policy Inventory, a searchable online database of plastic policy documents.

“I do think that plastic bags are pretty low hanging fruit,” Karasik said. “We have alternatives, they’re very very clear. For the majority of civilized life on earth people have been using reusable bags and reusable packaging.”

Aside from the economic incentives for behavioral change, Daniel Fiorino, director of the Center for Environmental Policy at American University, said the 5-cent tax serves as a reminder for people at the checkout counter that they are using resources and producing waste, which alone might curb consumption.

“It probably is low hanging fruit, and the advantage of low hanging fruit is that it’s pretty easy to get to,” Fiorino said.

Alexandrians can expect more environmental-based legislation to be implemented in the future. Eight months ago, the Virginia assembly approved a ban on foam to-go containers. Businesses with more than 20 locations will need to stop using foam food containers by July 2023.

Amel said he expects a continued push for limits on other single-use items like straws and plastic utensils that restaurants give away with takeout.

“I think people were kind of waiting until localities adopted this plastic bag tax,” Amel said.

“And now that that’s in place we can, you know, go back to the legislature and say, see, this kind of stuff is wanted.”

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