Dear West Springfield Neighbor / Friend,
Because I send these weekly messages to myself and blind carbon copy (BCC) everyone else, the enews may end up in your suspected spam folder. If you don’t see it by Thursday evening, check that spam folder and whitelist me or whichever Board Member is sending it out.
Tragic Neighbor versus Neighbor Incident (cont) – we discussed the incident last week that left one neighbor in a nearby community dead and his neighbor in jail. Not looking to go over that again, but have you followed the postings on NextDoor about what happened? Those comments included everything from racist remarks, to character assassinations, to assignment of guilt to belittling the character of the Daventry subdivision and its Homeowner’s Association (HOA).
Seems like some folks enjoy anonymity sitting behind their computer screen as they slander others to include the police. Social media has made our world much smaller and afforded us opportunities to connect more easily with friends and family, but not sure it was envisioned as a weapon for those wanting to disparage others. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole with our FaceBook Group.
Now, when we should all be working together to defeat a common foe, we still hear the divisiveness on the news and from our elected officials and regrettably from some of us. I suppose some see this crisis as a chance to score points either for their network, for their own self-worth, their political party or for their own candidacy, but hope that at our neighborhood level – we will still want to check on our neighbors and offer whatever assistance they may need. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole good people.
Yard Debris – Republic told me yesterday and again just now that they plan on picking up our missed yard debris today, Thursday 3/12/20. Reminder – each of us have to call 703/818-8222 to report being missed. Some have suggested we switch to American, but many of those with American are switching to Republic. Your call.
Eminent Domain Meeting – 25 March, 7:30 – 9:00 PM in the Library at Rolling Valley Elementary School. Morgan Perez (Rolling Road) arranged the meeting with Mike Coughlin from an eminent domain law firm for those who may soon be confronted by VDOT’s Property Acquisition teams. Morgan said that he gave a lot of great information and that he'd be happy to address a larger group of those who will be visited by VDOT to acquire part of your front yards for the widening project.
Please note that we have less than half of email addresses from the 57 homes subject to eminent domain property acquisition. Please inform your immediate Rolling Road neighbors and those who have side yards fronting Rolling Road about this meeting. We have mailed each of these homes and have had volunteers go door-to-door trying to get them into our information group. It would be hard to justify spending more CAWSV funds to send yet another letter given the dismal return on investment with previous hard copy snail mail. I will send a letter to all who have told me that they are still in the village even though they did not join our CAWSV, and do not have email, but that’s just a couple more. Help us help them – please!
There is no need to report your intentions about being at this meeting – just be there on time with questions in hand. And to be clear – we are not endorsing this firm or this particular lawyer, but very thankful he and they are willing to invest their time to help us.
New Neighbors – We would like to provide you a copy of our directory so you can present to your new neighbors. Those who arrived after 1 November 2019 get free membership in our CAWSV for the rest of this membership year (10/01/2019 – 09/30/2020). We will need the same membership information (names, address, phone, email). Once we receive their email address, we will dispatch the latest enews to them. You can see that this works only with your help; please do.
Original Owners? It might be interesting to identify the original owner of each village home, especially those still in the village. Our home is often called the “Rensch” home since they were the first to purchase it. It then was sold to Fran Nyman who lived here until we bought it in 1996. We have a few more to add, but would also like to include your home:
- 8131 Edmonton Court – Lou & Beverly Rensch, Fran Nyman, John Cooley & Suzanne McCormick.
- 6903 Rolling Road - Buddy Beck (1966) - Rich Randa (1987) - Luis Cruz (2018)
- 7001 Barnack Drive – Jim & Dorothy Landoll, 2nd Owners: Lee Fineman and Alison Smith
- 7004 Vancouver Road - 4/20/1967 - Roger and Catherine Shriver (paid $27,295!) and then on 3/29/1991 - Olin & Liz Greene Liz Greene became 2nd owners
- 8009 Springfield Village Drive – 1973 to Wayne & Jean Heston, 1988 to Kirby Myers.
Fairfax County Budget Town Hall – 7 – 9:00 PM, 19 March at the West Springfield Government Center 6140 Rolling Road. Go speak your mind or live with their decisions.
- Real Estate Tax Levy is proposed to increase by $003; $0.02 for the County’s General Fund and an additional $0.01 to specifically for affordable housing.
- Property Assessments advertised to increase by 2.7%, but mine increased by 7.57%. That equates to 16.6% increase for my property for this and the previous two budget cycles. My wife and I are looking at $6500.00 in RE taxes if this tax levy is adopted or $550.00 per month!
- There is a proposed 4% admissions tax on events to help organizations produce better culture and arts programming. If approved, this tax would go into effect in October.
- The increase in the general fund's budget is estimated at $175.87 million (+3.95%) to a total of $4.63 Billion! Including other appropriated funds such as federal and state grants, the total proposed budget is $8.83 Billion.
- Specific budget initiatives include: increasing pay for the County's general and uniformed employees, reducing the County's carbon footprint, increasing hours at public libraries, Police body-warn cameras, and increased funding for the Diversion First program.
- 52.6% or $85.72 million of the budget is allocated to funding FCPS. That is less than the $89.70 million requested by the School Board
At the meeting you will again hear the need to increase the corporate tax base to relieve pressure on homeowners (county has 14+% vacancy rate on commercial [non-residential] properties). For years, we have justified spending more on FCPS to help attract businesses to our county, but little about increasing economies of scale by combining certain operations and locations with county.
Why not use last year’s revenue as a starting point for this year’s budget and then curb their initiatives to balance the budget. County’s Board of Supervisors will vote to adopt the budget (with markups as needed) on 5 May 2020.
Tax Relief – On Wednesday, 25 March from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, the Department of Tax Administration will be at my West Springfield Office to help those who may qualify for property tax relief fill out the appropriate forms and answer any questions you may have.
Mission “Impawsible” - Ava Hamilton (Barnack) and her classmate, Ainsley Hawk are doing a community-based passion project for school in conjunction with the Fairfax County Animal shelter to raise funds and pet food donations. This Saturday, 14 March from 1 – 3:00 PM, they will have a Bake Sale at the Burke Petco. Stop by and purchase a snack and/or to make a donation. You can also buy an extra can or two of dog or cat food to donate. If you can’t make it Saturday, they will take donations for the shelter over the next few months. The girls will also accept any extra, un-opened dog or cat food that you are willing to contribute. Or, you can drop off your cash or food donations at the Hamilton’s home (6826 Barnack Drive). The girls are planning more events, bake sales, donation sites and possibly even a Go Fund Me page - details to follow.
Lifeguarding Jobs at Village West Pool - are available for ages 15 and over. Our pool management company this year will be Crystal Aquatics. For more information or to apply, send an email to info@crystalaquatics.com and indicate that you are interested in working at Village West.
Village West Pool Membership Renewal - After several years of stable rates, membership rates for 2020 will be increasing by about 10% due to increased expenses. But if you join or renew by April 1, you will get your 2020 membership at 2019 rates! But wait...there's more! The swim season is a week longer than usual this year because of the timing of Memorial Day and Labor Day! So you will also be getting a little more splash for your buck.
To renew, visit the Village West Pool Membership Info page. If you have any trouble with logging in or joining/renewing, contact the Pool’s Treasurer, Jackie Glass, at vwpooltreasurer@gmail.com.
Happy Birthday! Our CAWSV Treasurer, Liz Greene enjoyed yet another 29th birthday. Knowing that she controls the CAWSV funds, I wouldn’t ever doubt her command of math, but do wonder when she will hit the big Three-OH? Happy Birthday Liz!
Take care; stay safe and enjoy the good weather. Monsoon-like rains can’t be far off.
John Cooley, CAWSV