Did you know that…Arlington County is in a No Drone Zone? I came across this little-known fact when receiving a Facebook post from the Arlington County Police Department. This post was essentially a Public Service Announcement to remind folks that if they received a drone for Christmas, they cannot use it in Arlington. I have to say, it is kind of nice to know that we may be spared from the rising national trend of drone home deliveries from Amazon and Walmart. 

In last week’s column about local news options in Arlington, I started by exploring the newsletters of civic associations. This week I thought I would shift to the Arlington County government as an important option for local news sources. As I started to check out the possibilities, it turns out that the County government options are so voluminous that I have to ask this question: are there too many communication sources to choose from?  

If you want to keep it simple, start with the basics, with the County’s Newsletters page on its website. It can be found at www.arlingtonva.us/About-Arlington/Newsroom/Subscribe. As an aside, I know I am violating my “keep it simple” mantra by giving you such a long string of words to input. You likely can also get to their Newsletter page with a word search of “arlington county government newsletters”. 

Once you get to the Newsletters page, start surfing the many links. I would recommend signing up for the weekly newsletter, Inside Arlington. You may also want to sign up for Arlington Alerts (warning: this part is not very user-friendly…at least not to this user). 

Then there is a section leading you to a “Main County News Channel”, which opens up to an overwhelming five page list of Subscription Topics. You will find 15 categories, with more than 200 specific topics, ranging from A to Z (Airport Noise Updates to Zoning Ordinances).  There is even a box to check for information about pickleball possibilities in Arlington. Good luck figuring out whether you want to subscribe to any of these topics. I am realizing that I need to be more judicious in selecting my topics, as I keep getting emails from the County that I do not bother to open. It has been information overload! 

There is a separate section of news from the police department (which includes a lot of social media possibilities – that is how I found out about the No Drone Zone.) The Commonwealth Attorney’s office has a monthly newsletter called Justice Matters; the Sheriff’s Office has a quarterly newsletter that does not have a fancy name, but it has a number of interesting features. 

My basic advice is that all of this web surfing will require a good deal of trial and error (and patience). You may just get tired of going through all the clicking possibilities. If so, then you need to answer this question:  Who can you depend upon to curate the news for you? This is where your Local Media resources can come to the rescue. Arlington County’s website does list some of these sources, breaking them down into four categories: Newspaper; Television; Radio; and Online Media. I will break down these categories, and the various offerings, in a future column. 

Meanwhile, let me end with the topic I was most interested in: traffic improvement projects. These projects affect much of our daily life in the County, with numerous projects that range from the minor (changing speed limits) to the major headaches (e.g., the Columbia Pike project).  All politics is local; my concern is with the Military Road Safety Improvements. There are differing opinions about the roundabout being built at the intersection with Nellie Custis Drive. I will withhold my opinion (for now), but I do appreciate that there is information to be found on the County website about the project. Now I can only hope the project can be built on time.