(Updated 4 p.m.) Since Girl Scout cookie season started, troops in north Arlington have donated 671 boxes to their hometown heroes: the staff at Virginia Hospital Center.
“It’s very local and very personal,” said Dorine Andrews, the Service Unit Manager for the local scouts. “[VHC] is a real institution in Northern Virginia, and we really feel that the healthcare workers are overworked.”
One of the troops six Glebe Elementary 3rd grade girls of Brownie troop #60229 harnessed the power of Instagram to sell 1,415 boxes, 395 of which they donated to VHC, she said. The troop with the second-most boxes, #60160, donated 59 boxes.
“None of the other troops have really done what this troop has done in terms of social media,” Andrews said. “It really worked well.”
A small commercial building at the corner of Lee Highway and N. George Mason Drive has a pair of new tenants.
The building was briefly vacant, its future in question, after previous tenants TitleMax and Sam Torrey Shoe Service moved out last year. But the property owner, Virginia Hospital Center, has filled both spaces.
The old TitleMax space is being taken by Page Global Cyber Solutions, which bills itself as “an award winning industry provider of office solutions, strategic communications and information technology.” A sign on the building says the space will be a “neighborhood business center,” offering everything from private offices to nap rooms to drone video services.
The two retail occupants of a squat commercial building at the intersection of Lee Highway and N. George Mason Drive have now both moved out.
TitleMax, which opened at 5625 Lee Highway in 2014, closed recently and has cleared out of the space, which was previously a 7-Eleven store. A sign on the door directs customers to a remaining TitleMax location at 6198-C Arlington Blvd, in Seven Corners.
No explanation for the closure was given.
Next door, long-time local business Sam Torrey Shoe Service closed in July after the owner decided to move to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
TitleMax’s presence in the neighborhood drew some controversy early on.
(Updated 4 p.m.) Officials with Arlington County Public Health Division say they are not wasting coronavirus vaccine doses, but they also do not condone people getting vaccinated out of turn.
During a COVID-19 work session on Tuesday, County Board members told health division staff that their constituents frequently express concerns about line-jumping by those who do not currently qualify for vaccinations under Virginia Dept. of Health’s Phase 1b guidelines.
“Everyone knows someone who isn’t in the 75-plus category or the personnel identified yet but got vaccinated because their eye doctor, brother or psychiatrist,” Board member Katie Cristol said, listing the kinds of connections that people are allegedly using.
The coronavirus continues to circulate in Arlington, as vaccinations continue at a moderate pace.
The latest data from the Virginia Dept. of Health, as of Feb. 1, shows a pace of infections that is down from last month’s peak, but remains elevated compared to the relatively quiet summer and early fall.
Over the past seven days exactly 500 new cases have been reported in Arlington, down from the peak fo 864 on Jan. 12. One new COVID-related death has been reported since Friday bringing the county’s total to 201 and 14 new hospitalizations have been reported over the past seven days.
The number of new daily cases was in the double digits each of the previous seven days; the last time that happened, without days reaching the triple digits, was early December.