The Virginia General Assembly awarded funds towards Alexandria renewal and restoration projects in the Commonwealth’s Biennial Budget, which Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed on June 22.

The 2023-2024 budget bill, which the General Assembly approved during a Special Session on June 1, will provide $40 million for Alexandria’s Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) project, $500,000 to restore the Douglas Memorial Cemetery, and $4 million to construct the Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center.

The General Assembly also approved an amendment to the current budget that will ensure $50 million from American Rescue Plan Act funding to AlexRenew, the city’s wastewater authority that runs the CSO project.

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson thanked Alexandria’s General Assembly Delegation and Virginia’s Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees for supporting the city projects.

“We are especially grateful to the members of the money committees, particularly the budget conferees tasked with reconciling the differences between the House and Senate budgets, for fulfilling the General Assembly’s commitment to Alexandria’s CSO project with a ‘last and final’ payment of $40 million to AlexRenew,” Wilson said.

The $40 million provided to the CSO project will help reduce “rate shock” to AlexRenew customers who had to pay significant rate increases to fund the project, according to Wilson.

The $500,000 for the restoration of the Douglass Memorial Cemetery, a historic African American cemetery, will contribute the the City’s estimated $3 million for the entire project. The $4 million provided for the construction of the Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center on Alexandria’s waterfront will be appropriated to the City.

-lhardy@alextimes.com