Leewood Homeowners  Association

February 2001 Newsletter

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Assessments were due on 1 January!

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Penalty Assessments	President's Notes	Survey	Faucets
Website	Talent Bank	Traffic, Braddock Road	Nursing Home Bill
Audited Statements	Free Plants

 
 

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Penalty Assessments (by Judy Currier)

As most of you know, by Virginia law, the Association can assess penalties of up to $10/day for violations of the Covenants/Standards that are of a continuing nature. 

Earlier this year we did assess penalties for the littering of the common area with the debris of a homeowner's tree. After $200 worth of penalties had accrued, the homeowner finally removed the debris, and paid the penalties that he had incurred. At the November board meeting, if the homeowner showed up in response to the certified letter bearing the notification of hearing, the board and homeowner were able to work out a schedule that both homeowner and board thought fair as to the fixing of the ARC violations. Penalties will be assessed if the homeowner does not meet the deadline that he/she helped establish. If the hearing was ignored by the homeowner, the Board, in November, decided to give the homeowner one last chance to submit a plan of action. If no such plan was submitted, then penalties were assessed starting after the next board meeting. This policy was carried forward into the December hearings also. So, we do have homeowners who are being assessed at the rate of $10/day, some starting after the December board meeting, and some after the January board meeting. 

If one does the math, these penalties accrue fast! In one month, approximately $300 worth of penalties will be assessed. It is wise not to ignore them. The Board is not charging $10/violation which would have been permissible and for some that would add up very rapidly. According to Virginia law, no more than $900 worth of penalties may be assessed, so after three months the case should be sent to court.

Take care, and don't ignore violation notices. 

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President's Notes by Judy Currier

It starts at 7:00 p.m. with one of Leewood's few socials of the year. It is so great to get out and meet your neighbors after the winter! Somehow spring and summer are better times for casual hellos, and I know I always miss that interaction during the winter. The conversations at the social sometimes are association related, but there is a lot of just catching up to do. At 8:00 p.m. the business meeting starts. We try to make this move along, so that the people attending stay interested, and we have to get out by 10:00 p.m. which includes our clean-up time. Often we are through earlier - it just depends on the amount of discussion that comes forth in Open Session. If you don't make any other meetings during the year, this is the one to attend. We will be dramatically changing the makeup of the board at it, and your vote and questions will count mightily in how Leewood prospers in the years to come. The presentations by the board members and committee chairs are summaries of their activities for the year, and should be of interest to all. Everyone is invited to attend, if you are a tenant, you are encouraged to come and participate in our association. Many don't know this, but we have had tenants that were on the board, and also one that was chair of our important Grounds and Maintenance Committee. Sign up sheets will be available at the meeting for those that would like to get involved in the association, but you can also always call a board member to register your interest.

I received an email about another accident at the corner of Braddock Road and Bradwood Street which is included in this newsletter. It is sort of a combination of what happened to Rosie, and what must have happened to Dad in his accident. This should heighten your awareness of the dangers there. There is another thing discussed in the email, and it is an extraordinarily dangerous practice by some residents and users of the intersection. That is, if somehow is being too cautious for the person's taste, they go to the right of them and then make a left turn across both the person waiting in the left hand lane and all the traffic. Come on people! Nothing is that important! I nearly got hit the other day there by someone making a U-turn (why don't they put U-turn indicators on cars?) when I was making a right turn, thinking that person was just turning left. We don't need the speeders (mostly in the left hand lane it appears), U-turners, and then the illegal practice of turning left from the right hand lane. We may even be able to do something about it as that is a public street. 

Talking about people with no patience, I was going down Leebrad the other day, apparently too slowly for the guy in back of me, though I don't think others would agree with his assessment. He was tailgating me, so I put on my turn signal to turn into my parking place. The idiot decided he would pass me on the left, and I was turning left into my parking place. I saw the beginning of the maneuver and pulled left a little to block him and honked my horn. You should have seen the dirty look I got, like it is normal for people to pass on the left when someone goes to turn into their parking place. Is this the ultimate result of the "me first" generation? Just absolute disregard for others' safety?

I don't know what the ultimate solution is. Some of course think more speed bumps will fix the problem. Of course, this would not affect those that turn left across you or pass on the left. Besides, with 30% of the new sales of cars being SUVs I seriously doubt it. 

Speed bumps have always been an imperfect solution as cars, and people's concern for their cars, vary so vastly. Some of the worst speeders I see are trucks, and then SUVs. In addition, if you have neck problems, speedbumps truly aggravate them no matter what speed you go over the bumps. It seems like we should be able to get to our homes without pain. Others suggest speed limits. These are unenforceable, so I doubt if they will work. Others want multiple stop signs. If you look at Leebrad and Leestone Ct., the two worst streets for speeding, it is difficult to set up stop signs without creating even more of a hazard. Besides, they are unenforceable also. Police do not enforce traffic rules on private streets, unless it is considered to be reckless driving. Perhaps then, if we posted a 25 mph speed limit if someone was going 45 mph, they would ticket them if we could get them here, but 45 mph is so outrageous for our streets, that doesn't seem to be a solution. I remember once a truck was going down Leebrad, tried to get one tire off the speed bump so it didn't bump his load so much. The tire was pinched by the curb, the truck went out of control, and crashed into my neighbor's parked car. I wasn't home at the time, or my car would have been included in the accident. The police would not even ticket the guy, much to the chagrin of my neighbor who wanted to collect from his insurance company. 'Tis a problem, and not solved by solutions that are quick and easy. Of course, I continue to be a believer in what they call restriction in the traffic calming circles - that is, make the street narrower at points. An easy way of doing this is a traffic circle at intersections. Let me tell you if you head into a street and see a block ahead of you a tree in a circle, you slow down! Not cheap, no doubt to do, but they would require less maintenance than speed bumps, would be effective for all sizes of vehicles, would not require non-existent police enforcement, and would not damage one's vertebrae or cars! So, if people are truly concerned, this seems like a solution.

Well, enough of this, on to the rest of the newsletter!

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SURVEY RESULTS

Thanks to those of you who responded to the survey. We received 58 responses to the 195 surveys mailed out to owners. The Board plans to look at each area of the survey in turn and determine if there are any steps that can be taken to address your concerns. To begin to analyze the results, we are presenting the results of two sections -the general questions and the Board services.

General Questions

Following is a summary of the responses to the general questions regarding the community:
 

		AVERAGE	YES	NO	UNKNOWN	BLANK
When did you purchase home		1987
Did you receive POA packet			21	11	20	6
Did you read POA packet			18	4	8	28
Did you receive a welcome packet			29	21	7	1
Are you aware of restrictions
associated with living in a
homeowners association					0	0

  POA Packet

The POA packet is required by law to be presented to the purchaser of an existing home (it is also known as a resale packet). The purchaser has three days from receipt of the packet in which to read the packet and can cancel out of the contract with no further explanation. The packet contains the Association documents (bylaws, articles of incorporation, covenants, standards manual), a current budget, the most recent audited financial statements, description of assessments charged by the Association, schedule of reserves held by the Association, notice of outstanding architectural control violations, if any, of the current owner, plus a few other items required by law. 

Sellers should request the POA packet from the Association when they have a bona fide contract to purchase their home. The request must be in writing, and a $100 processing fee is charged by the Association and should be included with the request. The Association has 14 days from receipt of the request to provide the packet.
 

Welcome Packet

The delivery of a welcome packet is a practice instituted at times during the 20+ years that Leewood has existed and is currently in place. Those who purchased their Leewood home new from the developer did not receive a packet. And those who came into the community prior to the institution of the practice also may not have received a welcome packet. We expect to continue providing welcome packets to new residents. 

Board Services

With the composition of the Board expected to change at the next annual meeting election in March, publishing the results of the Board services section seems appropriate at this time since the results reflect the current Board composition.
 

		YES	NO	UNKNOWN	BLANK	MAYBE
Is the Board adequately representing Leewood's interests		44	5	3	6
Is the Board managing Leewood's funds effectively		45	3	4	5	1
Would you be willing to serve on the Board or a committee		9	35	0	13	1

 

And as the results show, we can always use volunteers to serve on the Board or committees, but the volunteer rate is very low. If you are interested in serving on the Board or a committee, the nominating committee is currently looking for volunteers in preparation for the annual meeting and elections in March. Please contact Al Sanford or Pam Stover if you are interested in helping out the community.

Comments received regarding Board services are as follows:

1. Serving on the board is a time consuming thankless position - my hat's off to those willing to serve

2. I think we need representation of other culture groups.

3. Re services - We need a neighborhood watch (patrol) personnel who look out for the interests of their neighbors, driving or walking

4. Judy Currier is wonderful

5. Super job -everyone!

6. Need more community involvement in board

7. I appreciate Board members' time and hard work -- thank you!

8. I feel that there is limited interaction between the board and residents in general

9. Think they do one hell of a good job. No one notices until something goes wrong. Board is taken for granted too much - but it is a compliment in a way.

10. The board's doing a good job.

11. There should be an annual community meeting/get-together to discuss issues. Otherwise how is the board to know what is of concern to the community? (other than word of mouth)
 

Again, we thank you for your responses and will report on other sections of the survey in future newsletters.
 

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Water, Water Everywhere! By Judy Currier

Did you remember to turn off your outside spigots? It's not too late; the worst of winter is yet to come!

We had a forceful reminder of doing this recently. There was a report from an observant dog walker that a backyard was flooded, water was gushing out of somewhere (it was too messy to wade through in current equipment), had flooded the yard and was flooding the common area. The owner was not at home, nor the immediate neighbors.

We worried that flooding was happening in the house, and called the Fairfax Water Authority who said they would come over and turn off the water to the house and leave a note. They thought the spigot had probably frozen, and then broke with the thaw. This happened to me with a pipe in my recreation room, and made me a real believer in turning off water.

A helpful neighbor waded through the mess and found out that actually the water had been left on and the hose had frozen and broken (they had one of those sprayers that turns off the water at the end.) We cancelled the call to FCWA as the problem was solved.

This had a happy ending. When my pipe broke, I was home and not much damage was done. If you are gone, it could be a real problem.

My house, the Benton, has a shut off valve in the forward laundry room for the front of the house and another in the furnace room for the back. I have shut off the spigots in a Stewart where both valves were in the laundry room. Look for them, they are easy to find. When you find them turn them off, and turn on the outside spigots. It doesn't hurt to unscrew the bleeder valve in back of the valve to make sure the whole pipe drains. 

You can go for years without a problem, but when it occurs, it is a mess. Better safe than sorry, especially as it only takes about 10 minutes.

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Website by Judy Currier

Have you visited our website yet? It is at www.communitypath.com and is constantly changing (actually, not always for the better!). Recently the folks at Community Path have put in a new link to find contractors for services. You give them what you want done, and they find someone who they have checked out in your area to provide the services. There is a coordinator if you go with the firm to help you plan your job and ensure it goes smoothly. There are similar sites listed on our Leewood Links page which is in the Miscellaneous section of the Library on the site. There have been a couple of time sensitive news articles which I have posted to the site, such as where you could have gotten flu vaccine, the article about water appearing in this newsletter, and a source for nutritional supplements I have found. In addition, the agendas are posted on the site so you can see what will be appearing at the next board meeting (library section), minutes are sometimes posted (library section - we have trouble getting minutes recently), the latest newsletter is posted in case yours got lost or rained on (library section), and often the latest financials are posted (library section). In addition, there are the standing things like the Leewood Manual, Leewood Standards, and forms - again, all in the library section. The manuals are fully hyperlinked so you can find what you want easily. In the library, under miscellaneous, you will also find a list of parks nearby, how to get there, and how far they are. Our area is so convenient, this document is must reading!

Now, our problems. Community Path recently put in some new features that have some bad side effects for us. One is that the text sort of drizzles around the pictures which is annoying. The other, potentially more serious, is that somehow the Index document that we had at the beginning of the various sections in the library to ease getting to what is there, no longer works sometimes. Actually we can make it work if you use Netscape, but it doesn't work on Explorer, or vice versa. At one point it worked for both, so we are a bit mystified at the moment. It is set up now so it works on Netscape, but if you have a version of Explorer that it works on we would sure like to know to satisfy our morbid curiosity. The problem is being worked on, and hopefully, eventually will be solved. Maybe we will have to have two indexes!
 

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Talent Bank of Potential Appointees  (from the Weekly Agenda)

To encourage citizen participation on advisory bodies, the Fairfax County Commission for Women has established a Talent Bank of potential appointees. Individuals interested in participating on an advisory board, authority or commission may obtain a Talent Bank application form from the Commission by calling 703-324-5730. They should send their completed application and resume to the Fairfax County Commission for Women, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 318, Fairfax, Va 22035.

Potential candidates can receive suggestions and information about the appointment process to county advisory bodies by contacting the Office for Women, which runs the Talent Bank. The Talent Bank makes names of potential appointees available to members of the Board of Supervisors when the Supervisors are filling vacancies on the boards, authorities, and commissions.

For more information, call the Office for Women at 703-324-5730; TTY 703-222-3504.

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Turning Left on Braddock - My Own Accident (an email received from a resident)

First, let me say that I am sincerely sorry for your loss. I had the exact same accident as your father, and I've said all along that I'm lucky I wasn't seriously injured or worse (and particularly lucky that my young daughters were not in the car). I hope that sharing my story gives some additional support to the notion that something needs to be done.

In the summer of 1999, I was turning left onto Braddock, as I do every morning, to get to the Beltway. Traffic was backed up that morning, and the lane closest to me had come to a stop. A man waved me through; however, neither he nor I saw another car coming up in the left lane. I was hit squarely on my drivers' side door, and my car spun around until I was facing west on Braddock--partially in the lanes on the other side of the divider. I never saw the other driver coming--and given that the brakes on the other car were never applied, the driver obviously never saw me. The sound of the impact was horrible. I was in a Honda, and the other car was a small car as well. I know that if the driver had been in a taller car, I would have been seriously injured with the impact higher on my side. 

Like the other Leewood resident who wrote an article for our newsletter, I was cited because I didn't have the right of way. I had to go to court, but the police officer who wrote the ticket was sick, so I just pled guilty and the judge made me only pay court costs. Although the whole experience of going to court, dealing with insurance, and buying a new car was a nuisance (and costly), I still consider myself lucky.

Every morning when I turn left onto Braddock Road, I think of my accident. I wait until it is clear in both directions, and I won't cross the road if someone waves me through when I can't see the inner lane. 

Unfortunately, I've noticed a bit of a trend lately with other Leewood residents turning left onto Braddock. Several times in the past four weeks, someone has pulled to my right (imagine three lanes on Bradwood--with me in the middle one positioned to turn left). The person on my right has turned left onto Braddock from the far right lane. One time, the driver pulled out before I could turn left--essentially cutting me off from turning left. Yesterday, a driver turned left (from the right lane) at the same time I did. (Maybe the thought being I was a cover from oncoming traffic--who knows.) I am stunned at the nerve of people to do that. It has happened at least four times in the past month--and it's not the same person each time. Now I'm not only afraid to turn left, but I'm afraid someone on my right will try to turn left in front of me as well. The situation is bad enough that we don't need to make it worse by taking dangerous (and illegal) actions like that.

This may be more than you wanted to know, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of my accident. I wish I had been the only one this happened to. 

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New Nursing Home Bill

HB 2748, a bill that would allow convicted felons to work in nursing homes has PASSED the Virginia House of Delegate today February 6. In a nutshell, the bill, introduced by William Barlow (D) of the Smithfield, VA area, and co-patroned by Viola Baskerville (D) of Richmond permits nursing homes to hire persons convicted of felony assault and bodily wounding related to domestic disputes. There must be 5 years elapsed since the conviction and the felon must have no additonal convictions for assault, battery or other major crimes. References must be provided.

An amemdment to the bill, which, I believe, but am not sure, has passed, would require the nursing home to document to ITS satisfaction that the applicant doesn't present a risk to consumers and that the applicant has been found to have been rehabitated, as determined by a state screening contractor.

Although nationwide criminal background checks are now readily and inexpensively obtained, this bill does not require the nursing home to obtain one. Most telling, is the fact that legislators refuse to move quickly on anything that will help provide quality care to residents. They have referred our minimum staffing bill to the Joint Commission on Health Care for yet again, further delay and study. Yet this piece of legislation is gliding through the General Assembly at an alarming pace with NO STUDY on the effect the bill will have on VULNERABLE NURSING HOME RESIDENTS.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATORS NOW, EITHER BY EMAIL OR BY PHONE OR BOTH, AND LET THEM KNOW THEY SHOULD OPPOSE THIS LEGISLATION WHEN IT COMES TO THE SENATE.

If you need help contacting them, please let me know, and I will assist you. A phone call would be best and TODAY IF POSSIBLE!!!

Ilene Henshaw

TLC4 LTC

703/241/8338
 

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Audited Financial Statements

We are including copies of the 1999 audited financial statements, which were recently completed. We receive a reduced rate from our auditors by allowing them to complete the work during their off-season, so we do not get the results very quickly. A copy of the complete financial statements (including all the notes and other schedules is available if you are interested. Please contact Leona Taylor if you want a copy.
 

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Add Blooms and Berries to Your Landscape!

Add brilliant blooms and berries to your landscape this spring with shrub and tree seedlings offered by the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. This specially selected package of 14 bare root seedlings can be yours for only $16. A package contains two each of Indigo Bush, Graystem Dogwood, Red Osier Dogwood, and Arrowwood Viburnum shrubs. It also contains two each of Black Locust, Red Maple, and Eastern Red Cedar trees. Orders must be placed by April 12 and be pre-paid. You will receive a confirmation receipt and a map to the pick-up site (in Fairfax County, off of Braddock Road, two miles outside the Beltway). Trees will be available for pickup April 20-21.  

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For adults, we have reserved swimming times early mornings and evenings. Plus, at all times, there is a lane set aside for lap swimming. In addition, we offer special programs such as water aerobics and 'learn-to-swim' sessions. For children, we offer swimming and diving lessons and practices, and sponsor swimming and diving teams that compete in the NVSL. 

LPRCoffers four top quality tennis courts (two lighted for night play). Our tennis pro is available for lessons, works with children enrolled in the Junior Developmental Program and coaches the Juniors' teams. Tennis teams also include men's, women's and mixed doubles. All teams participate in NVTA league play. There is a full schedule of social events, a tournament each fall and a New Year's Eve indoor tournament and party. Sunday afternoons are reserved for round robin play, followed by cookouts at the pool.

Whether you're a beginner or advanced player, you'll enjoy our sand volleyball court.

Every year our social committee plans a full calendar of events. Events include: Opening Weekend Open House, Fiesta Night, Wine Tastings, Crab Feast, Pig Roast, and weekly Friday Happy-Hour and Sunday Evening BBQ's.

LPRC is conveniently located next to Holmes School on Montrose Street, 2 blocks south of the intersection of Braddock and #236.

For more information, contact Stair Calhoun at 703-941-8544 or stairZZ@aol.com.