Dear Village Neighbor / Friend,
1. Who Will Be Next? I know that there are more of us willing to invest a small bit of time and energy in our community. Heads up - my wife is in Colorado now and about to make an offer on our retirement home. I’d love to spend the rest of whatever time I have here in the village to help transition the next President into the role. Even if I am enjoying Colorado Rocky Mountain High, I will still help as needed. Are you that person? If not, why not?
2. Membership Drive – The FY23 Membership form can be found at our website (West Springfield Village) and on our FaceBook Group or email me and I’ll dispatch a copy to you. If you were and are happy with your current directory listing, we really do not need the completed form – just your dues. Dues are again $10.00 for the fiscal year (10/1/2022 – 9/30/2023). Please use PayPal to pay your FY23 dues by clicking “Here” but, it will cost you an extra $1.00 ($11.00 total) to cover their transaction costs, but a first class stamp is now $0.60. Or use your online banking service or snail mail to dispatch $10.00, payable to “CAWSV”, P.O. Box 2204, Springfield, VA 22152. If you also want to prepay for FY24 & FY25 – please do; we don’t see any reason to raise dues or even consider raising them until after the Rolling Road project.
3. Village Street Repaving – We first included this project report in the 14 April newsletter and still we have some who aren’t prepared for the asphalt crews. Dr. Maureen Boland will allow us to park in the school’s parking lot until the teachers return on/about 15 August. The apparent plan (they still haven’t discussed it with me) is to do the courts and then the feeder streets. Edmonton Court, they (one of the crew members) said would take 3 days and today (day 3) it is resurfaced and looking good. Granted, it is a minor inconvenience, but all of us should have had a plan. And it is a good trial run for when Rolling Road is widened starting in 2024. VDOT has received a severe tongue lashing from villagers about the signs that said no parking for 10 – 17 days and caused the contractor to make pen & ink changes to those signs reducing the period for their work. Did anyone have a car towed?
They may have failed to use a valuable community liaison (our enews, Facebook Group and our website), but lesson learned, I hope! But our newly resurfaced Edmonton Court looks good! Pictures by Bob Lomax of Edmonton Court.
4. Street Gutters – Now that we getting our streets resurfaced, please consider clearing the street gutters. The cement transition between the asphalt road and the curb is where our storm water travels to the next storm water intake. Any debris, plants, parked cars or trash toters left in that gutter obviously will impede that storm water movement. Please clear debris and weeds and other impedance as possible from the gutter in front of your property.
5. Protecting Yourself from Fraud - I ask our Webmaster and Computer Whisperer, Bob Havey of D2D Computer Services (see his ad in our directory) to post items that should help all of us. Here is his latest:
- Don’t talk to strangers.
- Do slow down and pay attention when you are reading emails and texts. Be suspicious of any that are particularly urgent.
- Do not panic. There is hardly ever a situation where you don’t have time to think about what to do next.
- Trust your gut. Social engineering scams use scare tactics, threats, and a sense of urgency to get you to act quickly.
- Do pay attention. Scammers often misspell things or mispronounce things.
- Do not open email attachments or click links unless you know the sender and are expecting the document or information.
- Call the sender (don’t email) if in doubt.
- Go directly to the “senders” website and log in to your account – don’t follow a link.
- Do not give away your User ID, account number, password, or any other personal information in response to emails, texts, or phone. No legitimate enterprise is going to ask for information on an incoming call.
- Do not rely on caller ID to tell you who is calling. Fraudsters spoof phone numbers to help convince you they are legitimate.
- Do get any support phone number from the manufacturer’s website. Google searches often turn up “Support for,” phone numbers that are bogus.
- Do not allow anyone you aren’t absolutely sure you trust have access to your computer. If a scammer gets access, he can destroy your computer. He might destroy it even if you pay his outrageous charges.
“Guaranteed” high investment returns, supposedly with little or no risk, and sounding too good to be true.
- Unlicensed or unregistered sellers. Use Investor.gov to check out the background of anyone offering you an investment in securities.
- Skyrocketing account values. Investments that appear to rapidly increase in value are often fake.
- Fake testimonials. Scammers often pay people to provide fake reviews, so never rely solely on testimonials in making an investment decision.
- Fake contacts. Take caution if someone approaches you through social media with an investment opportunity. Pretending to be a friend or to have a mutual acquaintance is a common tactic used to gain trust.
School supplies, clothing, and footwear - Qualified school supplies - $20 or less per item, Qualified clothing and footwear - $100 or less per item
Hurricane and emergency preparedness products - Portable generators - $1,000 or less per item, Gas-powered chainsaws - $350 or less per item, Chainsaw accessories - $60 or less per item, Other specified hurricane preparedness items - $60 or less per item
Energy Star™ and WaterSense™ products - Qualifying Energy Star™ or WaterSense™ products purchased for noncommercial home or personal use - $2,500 or less per item
5 – 7 August – Virginia Sales Tax Holiday (see article above)
- 10 August – Free Summer Concert featuring The Road Ducks (Southern Rock)
- 17 August – Free Concert featuring Speidel, Goodrich, Goggin & Lille (Rock)
- 24 – Free Concert featuring The Colin Thompson Band (Blues Rock)
- 13 October – 7:30 PM, General Membership Meeting, Location TBD
- 1 November – FY23 Membership Drive Ends even though residents can still join anytime during the Fiscal Year.
15. TAXES! - Just received notice of personal property (car) tax that will increase by just over 16%. Did my 2019 Highlander really increase in value over the years since we bought it? Don’t we have to sell the car to realize that value increase? If so – shouldn’t the taxing authority also wait? But, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors has patted his own back for saving us what could have been even more than the 16%. Really?
Previously, our real estate taxes went up by over 14% and since my wife and her hybrid Prius do not contribute enough at the pump for gas tax – she was levied with a Highway Use Tax! Still, we pay to use plastic bags at the grocery store (ok, sure – environment – got it), but I do wonder why we don’t have to pay for plastic bag use at the ABC store. Yes – I know the answer. Inflation has eaten away at our purchasing power (practically for the same food that had cost me $90 - $100 now costs $180 - $200+), but they (county, state and federal governments) continue to “save us money” by increasing our taxes! Say what? Remember this at the ballot box.
CAWSV