Dear Neighbor / Friend,
The directories are now available for delivery and of course the wind picks up! Deliverers were asked to leave your copy at your front door, ideally where it won’t take flight.
COVID-19 Update – Taken from County News - Due to vaccine supply limitations, first dose appointments are cancelled as of 26 January for the foreseeable future Those who received a first dose from INOVA and are scheduled for a second dose appointment will be prioritized in an attempt to honor their appointments.
Vaccine production is an issue, but also the distribution model changed at state (VDH) to a per capita system meaning that Fairfax County will receive even less doses.
As of yesterday (27 January) and since 20 January, Fairfax County has had 2,123 more confirmed cases (50,064 total), 76 more hospitalized (3,275) due to the virus and 24 more deaths (778 to date) attributable to the virus or co-morbidity. Still that suggests a survivability rate of 98.5%.
Of the deaths in county attributed all or in part to the Covid-19:
- 0%, 0 deaths have occurred in the 17 and under age group
- 3.9% of the deaths were people in the 18-49 age group
- 13.8% in 50 – 64 age group
- 82.3% in the 65 and older age group.
Rolling Road Widening Project –I had thought that Phase I of the project was / is behind schedule since we haven’t seen much work there. You may recall that Phase I is to improve the intersection at northbound (NB) Rolling Road at Old Keene Mill Road with a second dedicated left turn lane from NB Rolling onto westbound (WB) OKM Road and a dedicated right turn lane from NB RR onto EB OKMR.
So I asked VDOT for an update and they responded that the schedule is still on track. PH I of the project was advertised in October 2020 and awarded in December 2020. Construction should begin soon.
Right-of-way acquisition is still underway for Phase II which will make Rolling Road into 4 lanes, two NB and two SB with a 16’ raised median, left turn lanes, a multi-modal path on the west side of Rolling Road and a standard 5 or 6’ sidewalk on the east side, both will extend all the way up to OKM Road. The median will prevent left turn lanes from RR onto Ashford, Glover, Taft and Rivington and also prevent left hand turns from those same streets onto RR.
If your property abuts Rolling Road and you used an eminent domain lawyer, I’d like to know if they helped you or not. Don’t need numbers – just an idea if they helped.
So they plan to begin Old Keene Mill Road Intersection Construction (Phase I) any day now. And then Phase II of the Rolling Road Widening Construction in early 2024 and finish in 2026.
If you are reading this about the two phased project for the first time, go to our website (www.westspringfieldvillage.org) to catch up. Our Webmaster has an entire section dedicated to the project to include design schematics that can be enlarged to focus on a particular address, intersection or location. And/or come sit on my porch (at appropriate social distance, of course) so I can answer or at least try to answer your questions concerning this project. It started in the 1980s; we are now in the 3rd or 4th iteration of the plan, but it is now fully funded ($79 million) with county, state and federal money and ready to go. If you also do the math: $79 million for a 1.4 miles “improvement”, you will see that it will cost over $10, 000 per linear foot and that does not account for previous costs of engineer design / redesign, environmental impact studies, etc. Might want to change the name from Rolling to Golden Road.
You may want to also look at the background study reports at https://virginiadot.org. There click on “projects and studies” and then put “Route 638 Rolling Road” in the search. All the briefing slides, environmental study results and noise abatement study reports are there if you have the patience to wade through them. Or, come sit on my front porch and we’ll talk.
Proposed Zoning Changes – I might be Chicken Little on this, but it smacks of re-development and perhaps signals real and negative change for our community (in my opinion). Reference last week’s enews (can also be found on our website) and then tune into tonight’s meeting at county’s planning commission. We did submit a CAWSV letter of non-support of each of the proposals to:
1) relax regulations for interior accessory apartments (ALUs) which could allow apartments in any single family detached home and
2) relax regulations to allow more Home Based Businesses (HBB) with increased customer activity in all types of dwellings, including our homes, and
3) to eliminate the public hearing process which has historically accompanied applications for each of these uses (ALU and HBB) and
4) to instead approve them through a simple administrative permit without notifying or seeking input from neighbors.
The Planning Commission will hold a Virtual Public Hearing about the proposed zoning changes tonight, Thursday, 28 January starting at 7:30 PM. You can watch the meeting live on Channel 16 or on your computer with Live Video Streaming.
2021 Directories – Should be delivered before the end of the weekend depending on the weather and the weather forecast. I hope you look it over and provide feedback to our Directory Editor, Kirby Myers. His email address (kirbytmyers@yahoo.com), also can be found in the directory.
We had a couple families join too late to be included. I’ll send their information out next week for a pen & ink addition once they approve me doing that.
Also want to thank those who volunteered to deliver the directories door-to-door: Kathy D’Amato, Michelle Schulker (and her kids), Gabrielle Bois (and her kids), Jim Kirkpatrick, Barbara Naylor (and her granddaughter Kayleigh), Glenn & Deanna Demarr, Kim Brown, Deb Bunyea, Bill & Maria Daugherty, Adam Harrison (and his kids), Daniel Klapmust and Louise Calise.
Free: Brand new dual release folding aluminum walkers. Adjustable height. Contact John Hoffmann (Landor Lane) 703/508-0200.
Free – 25 Cardboard packing boxes. Great boxes for storage or moving. Pick up at 8126 Edmonton Court, Springfield Village, on front porch. Text me if you want to know if they are still available at 703/505-3191.
Please let me know if, in this message the font size is unusually large. If you see monster font sizes, just hit reply and send. It may be just the copy that comes back to me, but I do take necessary measures to prevent distortion.
Stay safe and healthy!
John Cooley, CAWSV