Village News, 7/29/21

Dear Village Neighbor / Friend,

1. CAWSV Membership Drive – This is the last enews before the membership drive launches on 1 August. Whether you rent or own, I hope you’ll agree that there are tangible benefits from our CAWSV. If you do not agree, I welcome your constructive comments on how we can improve.

Annual dues for Membership Year 2022 will remain at $10.00 per household. Looking ahead, we see no reason to increase dues until the Rolling Road project is completed in 2026. Then we may have to consider a hike to reinitiate contracts to maintain the RR median and to either relocate or replace our village sign. That is, if we can obtain another sign permit.

The membership form is attached to this email in .pdf. If you are an existing member and are happy with your directory listing instructions, the form isn’t necessary. Even if you are a new member, you can email me to provide your name(s), street address, phone number(s), email address(es) and what of that you want listed in our next directory.

Using PayPal to pay your dues is certainly more convenient for the CAWSV. It will however, cost you an extra $1.00 to cover transaction costs. Click “Here” to pay for FY22 using PayPal.

Or use your online banking service or snail mail to dispatch payment, payable to “CAWSV”, P.O. Box 2204, Springfield, VA 22152.

Some may be wondering if you have already paid for FY22. If so, you would have received a thank you receipt. If still in doubt, send me a note and I’ll verify your membership status. Once you have paid – you will not receive these weekly reminders but, will ask that you to help inform your neighbors about our CAWSV. Our funding objective is 350 members; goal is 100% participation even if that participation is limited to simply paying dues. How ‘about it?

2. Job Opportunities - Elo's Italian (formerly Live Oak) and The Garden in Del Ray Alexandria are now hiring servers and host staff.  Full time, part time, weekend help positions are available.  Great job for rising seniors or local college students.  Please email Jeremy Barber at, jeremy@liveoakdelray.com for questions and interviews.

3. Pre-Notification 9-1-1 – we reported on this last week but, having had an EMT experience when I wasn’t as conscious and able to answer their questions as they needed for treatment and transport – I created a free emergency health profile so my critical medical information can be shared with first responders during any future emergency or crisis event.  I included real-time health, medical, emergency contact and my background information that will help them help me. Click on this link to create your free emergency health profile - https://www.emergencyprofile.org/. For more information - Emergency Health Profile | Public Safety Communications (fairfaxcounty.gov).

4. Curbside Trash Collections – seems like all the commercial trash haulers and even County’s collection services are experiencing personnel shortages (crews, customer service reps and especially Commercial/CDL Drivers). OK – that’s their problem, but the absence of a set routine or schedule of pickup makes their problem also ours. 

County provides access to residential markets for those trash companies who will pick up recyclables, household trash and yard waste, each at least once per week. Problem is that county does not have a timely response mechanism to take corrective action when the hauler fails. They will tag what has missed, but the hauler has 7 days to get back to it without any tongue lashing from county. None the less, I continue to submit complaints to district and county as I did again this morning.

So? What can we do? Go to another company? All of the trash service companies that work our area are having the same problems. Ask to have county pick up our area? Nope – been there and done that several times to no avail. What we can do is to demand a reduction in our bill for those missed pickups. If all or most of us did this – it should get their attention. And, they have been providing refunds to those who demand it. One filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau - that worked to secure a refund and more importantly – corrective actions.

There are a few things we also can do better:

  • Don’t put bagged household trash on the ground beside your toter, even if your toter is full. There is no need to feed rats and other critters. And, at some point the commercial haulers working our area will go to a one-man crew and use the articulating, hydraulic arms to pick up our toters. They will not dismount to pick up extra trash placed on the ground beside your container. Discuss with your neighbors a cooperative agreement for them to put their extra trash in your toter when there is room and vice versa. Please do get their permission first.
  • Do not use plastic lawn and leaf bags – they will not pick them up.
  • Glass can be recycled, but not with your other recyclables. Take glass bottles to the purple recycling bin behind the post office or if you can’t – put glass in with your household trash.
  • Do not place plastic bags, take-out food containers or cups, shredded paper, cords or hangars or water hoses and dirty diapers (??) in with your recyclables. Plastic bag collection sites are at grocery stores, home improvement stores and other retail outlets such as Walmart and Target.
  • Put recyclables into the toter without bagging in plastic bags. If bagged, it will require someone on the sorting line to open and then dispose the bag. We have had so much trash in with recyclables that all of it now has to first go through an expensive secondary sorting where 30+% is removed as trash and then transported at additional costs to the dump.

For more information Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | Public Works and Environmental Services (fairfaxcounty.gov).

5. National Night Out with Ice Cream Sundaes - Tuesday, 3 August, 7 – 8:00 PM. Event is hosted by VW Pool and co-sponsored by your CAWSV. All are invited regardless of your membership status in either organization. National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie. Come to the Village West Pool parking lot to build your own sundae, talk to your neighbors, and meet a policeman! Hope to see you there!

6. Village West Pool News - Join the pool for August and get the rest of the season free! Stretch your membership dollar a little further and get an extra week! The pool is open through Labor Day, September 6. For more information and rates, go to www.villagewestpool.com and click on the Membership Info tab (or choose Membership Info from the menu if you're viewing on a phone).

7. Plastic Grocery Bag Tax - County is moving ahead with their planned ordinance for a 5-cent tax on most disposable plastic bags provided by grocery stores, convenience stores and drugstores. They have set a public input hearing on 14 September starting at 4:30 PM at the Fairfax County Government Center. You must sign up to provide testimony whether in person or by phone that day or offer written or video testimony in advance. Your written comments can be submitted by email. Sign up to testify here or  provide testimony to the entire Board by sending your email message to ClerktotheBOS@fairfaxcounty.gov. Ask yourself why county didn’t also tax plastic lawn & leaf bags instead of banning them? Let me know when you break the code.

The proposed tax would apply to single-use plastic bags offered at grocery stores, convenience stores and drugstores, and the tax would be charged for every bag provided at checkout. The proposal is intended to benefit the environment by encouraging people to use fewer of these bags. However, the law would exempt some kinds of disposable plastic bags:

  • Bags used to contain or wrap meat, fish, poultry, produce, ice cream, unwrapped bulk food or perishable food to avoid damage or contamination
  • Bags used to carry dry cleaning or prescription drugs
  • Bags sold for garbage, pet waste or yard waste.

Let me (john.t.cooley@verizon.net) know if you have input to a possible CAWSV letter representing a majority position whether in support or not.

8. Calendar:

  • 31 July – Free - Marsha and the Positrons (Children’s Songs) – see below.
  • 3 August – National Night Out with Ice Cream Sundaes, 7 – 8 PM at VW Pool.
  • 4 August – Free Concert - The Johnny Artis Band (Blues, Rock & Roll) – see below.
  • 23 August – First Day of School
  • 6 September – Labor Day (FCPS student holiday 9/03 through 9/06)
  • 14 October – Village Meeting, 7:30 PM, vote to Ratify FY21 Audit Report, vote to pass a FY22 Budget Proposal with markups if/as needed and vote to elect new Board of Directors.

9. Free Summer Concert Series – Wednesdays at 7:00 PM at Burke Lake Park (see remaining schedule below). 2 Silos Beer and Peterson’s Ice Cream will be for sale. A food truck may also be there. 

Local student talent will perform opening acts. Come early to get settled with your picnic blanket, food, drinks, and enjoy the whole show! For last minute weather cancellations, call 703/324-7469 one hour before the schedule start of the event.

August:

Visit Springfield Nights | Park Authority (fairfaxcounty.gov) for more information and to find other summer concerts at Fairfax County Parks.

And there are also Free Children’s Entertainments on Saturdays starting at 10:00 AM at the Burke Lake Amphitheater. Here’s that schedule:

July: 31 - Marsha and the Positrons (Children’s Songs)

August:

  • 7 - Ray Owen (Children’s Songs)
  • 14 - Blue Sky Puppet Theater (Puppets

10. Covid-19 – Honey, where did we put those face masks? Click here Vaccines.gov - Find COVID-19 vaccine locations near you to find who has which vaccine and to schedule an appointment to include those 12+ years of age.

11. New Amazon Data Center – submitted by Kathy D’Amato (Barnack) - Amazon Web Services (AWS) will demolish a pair of Springfield office buildings on Loisdale Road and replace them with a two-story data center. Their plan is to raze 7951 and 7961 Loisdale Road, that are twin, 111,000-square-foot office buildings that AWS recently purchased for $28 million.

According to the development plan, the cloud arm of Amazon.com Inc. would replace those buildings with a 120,000-square-foot, 100-foot tall data center and an adjoining 55,500-square-foot generator yard. 

Amazon has acquired a host of vacant office buildings and land in Northern Virginia to feed its data center demands, but the Springfield site is unusual in that the company typically taps Loudoun and western Fairfax counties for these data centers, but prices approach $3 million per acre in Ashburn and the Dulles corridor. The Loisdale campus cost AWS $1.6 million per acre.

12. Real Estate Market Report – Readers’ Digest (condensed) version– taken from Long & Foster report - when we compare current performance factors to last year’s status: 

  • units sold are up,
  • active inventory is up,
  • median sales price is up by 6% (median, not average),
  • days on market is down,
  • new listings are up,
  • current contracts are up,
  • sold versus list price is up to 106% and
  • months of supply up also to ½ month supply.

Good for those selling, but all of that means to me is my RE taxes will continue to rise. But what will ending the foreclosure moratorium for homeowners and ending the mortgage payment forbearance option mean to the RE market? Any informed guesses out there?

13. Lesson Learned – Call the Police. Last evening, we had a couple men acting what I thought to be suspiciously walking and standing on Edmonton Court. So, I went to ask if they needed help finding someone’s address. One claimed he had a girlfriend who lives on our court (nope); the other claimed to be waiting on an Uber ride (nope) and both claimed they did not know the other man even though they had stopped often to converse and then split up again (more bull). Both had two electronic devices such as cellphones and both devices were in play. Bottom line, they left our court. And then I called the police non-emergency number (703/691-2131) as I often advise others to do. They, the police did not take a report or even a description since the men were no longer on my street. Was told to call next time when they are actually on the street. Now I know.

Our Neighborhood Watch Coordinator, Jeff Carter submitted the attached “Safety Tips to Protect Your Home from Burglars” that is worth your time.

Stay safe good people and healthy!

John Cooley
CAWSV

News Date