September 20, 2026
With three accidents, with one fatal, in one day on 9/8 involving children on bicycles and scooters, there has been a call for parents to talk with their children about safely riding their vehicles and the increased dangers of distracted drivers not always being aware of them – especially at intersections. There is also a call out for automobile drivers to be more aware approaching intersections of pedestrians, bicyclists, and scooter riders and to not assume they will stop even if you have the right-of-way.
1 – Reminder of Annual Meeting in October
2 – CAWSV Annual Fund Drive
3 – Community Directory
4 – Driving/Insurance information from a neighbor
5 - Operation Safe Right Turn
6 - Avoiding Scams and Fraud Presentation, 9/21, 6:30-7:30pm, West Springfield Police Station
7 – Rolling Rd Widening Project information
8 – Calendar
1 – This is a reminder of the Annual Meeting on Thursday, October 8, at 7:30PM. Location TBD. If you want to host it, please let me know. If not, I can host it.
Related to that, this is the second call for budget auditors to go over the numbers and make sure it adds up. I need two people to do this and am very flexible after business hours. This will be the last week of September or the first week of October. It should only take 20-30 minutes.
2 – The CAWSV Annual Fund Drive is in effect. Thanks to those who asked for their status and if they needed to renew. Many people that did a multi-year renewal might due now. It is $10/year to renew. If you are paying online, the PayPal fees have changed to a base fee plus a percentage. I have adjusted the additional fees so you are not overpaying or underpaying. If you are paying by cash or check, you do not pay an additional fee. Make the checks out to “CAWSV” and not to me. You can drop off payments in the box in front of my house (6919 Vancouver Rd) to save a stamp, or mail it to:
CAWSV
PO Box 2204
Springfield, VA 22152
If you want to pay online via PayPal, here are the links for renewing:
1-year renewal ($10+$0.90 fee)
2-year renewal ($20+$1.25 fee)
3-year renewal ($30+$1.50 fee)
No matter how you pay, please include the address for the house you are renewing your membership for. If you have moved within the community, are paying for a relative, or have changed your name, it becomes very difficult for me to link the payment to where it should go. The online payment will show me your billing address, and this is what I look at in the membership database unless there is a note saying otherwise. Letting me know with the payment will save me the trouble of emailing you to ask who the payment is for.
There is an information form available with your member information – name, address, email address, phone number, and what you do or do not want included in the Directory. If nothing has changed, there is no need to complete it. If you want to update anything, I can email it to you. There are also copies under the CAWSV mailbox at my front door.
Please, please, please ask me if you owe anything if you are not sure. Do not be “that person” who submits a 3-year payment two years in a row. I will not keep track of your membership for that long and will issue you a refund. Also, please check with other people in your household if they are going to renew so I do not get two payments for the same unit from different people. As always, ask me if you owe anything and I will gladly tell you.
3 – The Directory will be printed soon. Many sponsors decided not to get an ad this year, so I am working with the printer on the final price. I am ordering fewer copies compared to previous years and am looking at a $1200 bill. Once I find out the print schedule, I will put the word out for help distributing them.
I am proposing creating a subcommittee to organize the Directory. There are not many tasks involved, but I do not have the brainpower to keep track of the components to make sure a 2-3 month process does not become 6-8 months. The steps involved are breaking down the database to display only what the members want for their address, reviewing the end result, sending this data to the wonderful person who has compiled it into the Directory, reaching out to previous sponsors who bought ad space, finding new sponsors to buy ad space, and organizing volunteers once we receive the directories to distribute them. I can do many of these, but having a subcommittee will help me stay on top of things and ask for help to make sure things happen on time. The one I need help with is finding new sponsors. I have reached out to several local businesses with no takers. The more people we have, the better the odds of adding more sponsors to offset the printing cost. If you know someone who owns a local business that serves our community or have had someone work on your house that you want to recommend to others, these are good people to ask if they would be interested in placing an ad.
If you are interested in helping to make sure it does not take close to a year for the Directory to go out, please let me know. Thanks.
4 – This was sent by a neighbor:
On our village streets drivers are speeding and driving recklessly since the Birmingham street is closed and the residents need to cut thru other ways to get in and out.
If I may remind drivers that in the event of an accident the insurance company will look at conditions like squeezing past where cars are parked on both sides of the street.
If you are the first arrival then the opposing vehicle should yield until it's clear to proceed even though you may make it through but if you contact each other one may get the smack on their insurance cost . Just as a courtesy to a neighbor be respectable and if you cant give up 10 seconds to be safe then you may reconsider your position on the planet.
5 – From a recent FCPD newsletter:
Fairfax County, VA – The Fairfax County Police Department is launching “Operation Safe Right Turn”, a focused enforcement following a concerning traffic safety trend involving drivers turning through crosswalks without fully checking for pedestrians, bicyclists, and scooter riders.
Officers are seeing particular concern at intersections where drivers make right turns on a solid green light. While a green light allows a driver to proceed, they must still check the crosswalk and yield to pedestrians who have the right of way before completing their turn.
When preparing to turn, drivers should actively scan the crosswalk and surrounding area, including mirrors and blind spots, for pedestrians, bicyclists, and scooter riders approaching from either direction. A green light does not relieve a driver of the responsibility to ensure the path of travel is clear before turning.
Focused Enforcement
In response to this trend, officers from FCPD’s Traffic Division and patrol districts will be conducting focused enforcement aimed at drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.
Drivers should expect strict enforcement when officers observe violations, including citations when appropriate. The goal of this initiative is simple: to prevent crashes and protect some of the most vulnerable people using Fairfax County’s roadways.
Drivers can help by remembering:
- Look before you turn. Check the entire crosswalk, mirrors, and blind spots before moving.
- Yield to pedestrians. If someone is within the crosswalk, give them the time and space necessary to cross safely.
- Expect bicyclists and scooters. They can approach an intersection more quickly than a pedestrian and may be difficult to see without an intentional check.
- Give driving your full time and attention. A momentary lapse in attention at an intersection can have serious consequences.
Pedestrians, bicyclists, and scooter riders should also remain alert, make themselves visible, and watch for turning vehicles even when they have the right of way.
Traffic safety is a shared responsibility. Whether you are behind the wheel, walking, biking, or riding a scooter, taking an extra moment to look for one another can prevent a serious crash and help everyone reach their destination safely.
6 – On Monday, 9/21, the West Springfield police will give a presentation titled “Avoiding Scams and Fraud” at 6:30-7:30pm at the West Springfield Police Station – 6140 Rolling Rd.
7 – Here is some news regarding current and upcoming work on Rolling Rd:
WEST SPRINGFIELD – Weather permitting, from Wednesday, Sept. 9, through Tuesday, Sept. 29, Rolling Road (Route 638) between Hunter Village Drive/Tanworth Drive and Old Keene Mill Road will have flagging and intermittent stoppages on weekdays to implement long-term traffic shifts as part of the Rolling Road widening project, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.
From Wednesday, Sept. 9, through Friday, Sept. 11; Monday, Sept. 14, through Friday, Sept. 18; Monday, Sept. 21, through Friday, Sept. 25; Monday, Sept. 28, and Tuesday, Sept. 29, this stretch of Rolling Road will have one lane of alternating traffic via flagging between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. each day. There will also be intermittent full traffic stoppages lasting no more than 15 minutes each between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. each day. The Rolling Road intersections at Taunton Place and Viola Street will be right in, right out only during this shift.
By the time the flagging is complete on or about Tuesday, Sept. 29, the long-term Rolling Road traffic shifts will be in place as follows:
- Hunter Village Drive/Tanworth Drive to Birmingham Lane: Northbound Rolling Road traffic will be shifted to the left and southbound Rolling Road traffic shifted to the right, so that the northbound and southbound lanes will run together along the west side of the roadway. This shift is needed to allow construction to occur along the east side of the roadway.
- Birmingham Lane to Kenwood Avenue: Northbound Rolling Road traffic will be shifted to the right and southbound Rolling Road traffic will be shifted to the left, so that the northbound and southbound lanes will run together along the east side of the roadway. This shift is needed to allow construction to occur along the west side of the roadway.
Access will be maintained to all properties along Rolling Road during these traffic shifts, which are scheduled to be in place until late 2027.
Birmingham Lane is closed at Rolling Road for intersection work for the next several weeks.
I have contacted the VDOT project manager and construction manager about the timing of the light at Barnack. They said they will look at it. If there is anything you see that does not look right, please contact them or let me know so I can pass it along. There have been several small fixes to make driving on Rolling safer and easier for us because of this.
8 – Calendar
9/21 - Avoiding Scams and Fraud Presentation, 6:30-7:30pm, West Springfield Police Station
9/22 – Autumnal Equinox (First day of Fall)
10/8 – CAWSV Annual Meeting, 7:30-9pm