The Alexandria Times took home 14 awards from the 2009 Virginia Press Association awards banquet Saturday night in Roanoke, doubling the newspaper’s tally from last year.

Associate Publisher Jeanne Theismann won two first-place awards for feature writing and two third-place distinctions for column and headline writing. 

Editor David Sachs won three awards, one each for government coverage (first place) and public safety writing (second place) and one in the breaking news photo category (third place). 

Austin Danforth, the newspaper’s main reporter and photographer, took home two photography awards including one for best feature photo, a pictorial photo award (second place) and one award for government writing (second place).

Steve Artley, the Times’ cartoonist, almost swept the “illustrations” category by taking home both first and second prizes for two editorial cartoons. Artley beat out every non-daily publication in the state as well by winning Best in Show for artwork.

The Times also won a second-place staff award for a photo essay of last year’s Alexandria Arts Festival of which writer Marty DeVine, Sachs and Theismann gained recognition. 

The city’s other local paper, the Alexandria Gazette Packet, also took home multiple awards.