Keeping Leewood Residents Informed
www.leewood.us - Visit and Participate
A New Newsletter
Leewood has not had a newsletter for much of the term of the current Board. For many people, the newsletter is the only reminder that the Leewood HOA (Home Owner’s Association) even exists and that it must continue to be supported by volunteers from the community. Without a Leewood newsletter, events within the HOA and the community at large are not often known by many outside of those directly involved. It is important that the community be reminded about the HOA and that it is a volunteer organization vital to the wellbeing of the community we live in. Many services that the Leewood community takes for granted are performed as an outcome of efforts made by volunteer members to the HOA. Without them, Leewood would break down and a failure in services would occur. These services include such things as regular trash pick-up, recycling pick-up, road maintenance, upkeep of the grounds, financial management, snow plowing, legal requirements, insurance, POA packets to Realtors and buyers and sellers, upholding the ARC (Architecture Review and Control) standards, our website, and many other functions.
Lately, with some inconsistency in the staffing of volunteer positions, there has been a debate on-going about possibly solving this problem with a property management firm’s service including possibly a full-service property manager. This is a huge issue that should be considered carefully. The outcome of the debate could mean that eventually assessments for the Leewood HOA could increase substantially. Members of Leewood might want to become more involved regarding this issue by attending Leewood HOA Board meetings and following the debate. There is also a thread about it on the Leewood website in the members only section of the message board.
Whether or not Leewood turns to outside contractors for help with some or all of its services; the Leewood HOA will remain a volunteer organization in need of volunteers. The Leewood HOA is, to date, entirely a volunteer organization and its success determines the quality of the community we live in. Just as we take pride in our separate homes, our homes are in our community, and the quality of the community is solely in our collective hands. We need to value both our homes and our community in Leewood. The focus of this newsletter is hopefully about encouraging and facilitating some degree of involvement and assistance to the Leewood HOA from residents of the community. Each newsletter must remind the community - the Leewood HOA continues to constantly need help to function and survive. For it to fail would cause a sharp decline in the quality of life in Leewood as well as the market value of our homes.
The Leewood HOA Website and Its Message Board
In addition to a possible newsletter publication periodically, Leewood has a continuous source of information about the Leewood HOA, events in the community, interesting information in general and a discussion area within two levels of message boards - one public and one only available to members of the community who have taken the time to quickly register themselves on the website. Additionally, the HOA governing documents and ARC standards are also available to read and save.
If you go to the Leewood website at www.leewood.us and follow the link on the right, you will arrive at the Leewood message board. There is a list of topics displayed, and anyone is welcome to read and post in that area. Note that in the Help and Announcement areas, you will only be able to read messages as no posting is allowed for these topics. All other topics are open to posts from you.
The real action on the message board takes place hidden from view from the casual browser. To see those topics and utilize that area, you must register yourself on the website. At that point a whole new area will open up to you and you will see spirited debates about topics of importance to Leewood. You can, for example, talk freely about contractors you have tried and found wanting without being concerned that a search engine will pick up your comments. You can search for car pool members without revealing your telephone number to anyone beyond the Leewood registered user community. Once you start using the members only area, you will understand why more posts are there than in the public area of the message board. Many users enjoy keeping their public thoughts limited to just the Leewood community rather than having them available to anyone browsing on the internet.
The website is a great way to communicate with your neighbors and participate in the Leewood community. If you need help with accessing, reading, or using the Leewood website, send an email to judy@leewood.us or call Judy Currier for friendly assistance.
Homeowner Accounts
Judy Currier has taken over the homeowner accounts again starting with the October assessment period so that Leona Taylor’s time is freed up to get the Leewood HOA accounting work done.
When mailing in your Leewood HOA assessment payment, please include your lot number on the check in addition to your name and address. There are multiple people in Leewood with the same last name and it is important to include full information on your check to make sure that your payment is credited properly to your HOA account.
Your lot number is the number painted on your home’s reserved parking space. If you have any questions about what your lot number is, call or email Judy Currier. Your lot number is on your closing documents and can also be found on-line at the Fairfax County website in the real estate section. You can look up your house and the last three numbers of the map code is your lot number. That web site address is: http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/Main/Home.aspx.
Grounds and Maintenance Committee
The G&M committee will soon be replacing our south perimeter fence. This is the fence behind Leestone Street that runs parallel to Larrlyn Street. Three contractors have been contacted for bids. The work is expected to cost somewhere in the range of about $6,000 to $8,000. Money for this has been budgeted for the current year.
There is a disease problem with certain trees within Leewood. Some of the trees most damaged are slated to be taken down. Details on this issue are at this date unavailable. With large trees within Leewood being taken down, replacement of trees is also something that needs to be considered. Our resident tree expert - Bob Meyer - is sadly no longer with us. Should anyone sit on the Bob Meyer Memorial Bench in Meyer Park (Boot Hill as Bob called it), perhaps contemplation and thoughts of getting involved in the health and renewal of our trees in Leewood will be inspired. Let’s be reminded that our trees are an invaluable asset to our community and part of what makes Leewood such a special place to live in.
Perhaps a tree committee can be formed to focus on this important aspect of Leewood. If anyone is interested, please contact the newsletter editor.
ARC Committee
This fall there have been two ARC committee meetings as well as a fall walk-thru. Letters have been drafted for homes with violations. Adherence to the ARC standards and maintenance of our homes to keep them up to the Leewood ARC standards is part of the agreement that we made when we bought a home in Leewood. We owe to our community a home that is not in violation. A decline in ARC standards can be disastrous over time to our community’s well-being. It is hard to understate the importance of this issue. Regarding ARC violations, the problems in Leewood today are the same as they have always been. Homeowners are either making unauthorized outside changes or neglecting to perform necessary maintenance such as painting; repair or replacement of damaged or missing shutters; not using the approved paint colors; not adhering to the required coordinated colors between doors, shutters, and trim; etc.
Most ARC violations could be eliminated if all homeowners including those living offsite were educated in our ARC standards and used that education to voluntarily keep their homes in compliance with those standards. Homeowners who buy in Leewood agree to abide by the ARC standards at closing. The ARC standards are part of the POA packet provided to a Leewood home buyer. Although most don’t read or understand the material and it is often filed away and never looked at again, the ARC standards must be adhered to. Ignorance is no excuse. Please read and heed the Architectural Standards and Guidelines publication in your POA packet after making sure that it is the current publication. ARC standards change with time and the ARC standards in your POA packet may well be out of date now. Before doing any work, it is best to contact the ARC Committee and get approval in writing before making any modifications to the look of your home.
If you do not have the ARC standards or can’t find them, request one at the next HOA Board meeting the second Tuesday of each month or call a Board member or ARC committee member. The ARC standards are also available on our Leewood website and can be easily downloaded at www.leewood.us. One townhouse in violation can affect the curb appeal, home market values, and the quality of life of an entire sector of our community. This is why enforcement of the Leewood ARC standards is crucial and violations must be taken seriously at all times. Each homeowner, by agreeing to buy a home in Leewood, has agreed legally to be obligated by the Leewood ARC standards. Consideration of the community’s well-being is required by all Leewood homeowners.
Please note that the Leewood ARC standards are updated from time to time. Homeowners must verify that they have and are using the current version of the standards. The ARC standards in your POA packet might be out of date. Make sure to discard or mark as obsolete older versions you might have.
Reminders about our rules, standards, and considerations of our neighbors and the community will be featured in each newsletter. Included in these will be reminders about ARC standards from time to time.
The ARC fall walk-thru has been completed with the last of the new violation letters mailed as of October 30 . Additional violation letters are still pending. Note to the Board and ARC committee: Perhaps we should be mailing offsite owners this newsletter so they gain from this instruction shared here?)
ED: It is SOP for Leewood to mail newsletters to offsite owners
New Leewood HOA Board Members
Al Carchedi and John Davenport are our two new members to the Leewood HOA Board - replacing earlier vacancies on the Board. One seat on the Board remains to be filled to return the Board to its proper level of 5 Board members. Additional Board seats will soon be vacant, so volunteers for those upcoming vacancies are also needed. Anyone interested in volunteering for this remaining Board seat should contact the newsletter editor for additional information.
The Leewood HOA Board decides amongst themselves the organization of the Board. Al Carchedi has been appointed the Secretary and the Registered Agent for the community. The Registered Agent is the Board contact for any Leewood HOA lawsuits, judgments, legal inquires, etc. As Secretary, Al will record the votes and keep the minutes of Leewood HOA Board meetings.
Dune Ly had been filling in for the Secretary role prior to Al. Al will take over this function as of the November 2004 meeting. Dune is Vice President and John Davenport is the new At Large member. There is currently no information that is available to the newsletter about either of these two men’s duties in their Board roles. John Davenport is still getting oriented to the Board. Al currently has yet to be assigned any committee oversight responsibilities but will be working on the reserve study update.
The Leewood Reserve Fund - An Educational Article for Homeowners
What is the Leewood Reserve Fund? In the most simplistic terms, a reserve fund is the setting aside of a portion of the assessments for a "rainy day". If we did not have a reserve fund then when maintenance is needed, each homeowner would be charged a special assessment. Suppose, for example, that in 2010 the HOA finds that it needs to spend $100,000 for street paving. With no reserve fund, each member would have to come up with approximately $513 to pay their share of the cost. With a reserve fund, if it is predicted that the streets will last just 20 years, the HOA would need to set aside $5000 per year for this future expense. Thus the per household contribution through HOA assessments would come out to about $25 per household per year. In 2010, the reserve fund will have accumulated all of the money for the street replacement job. In this example, a fully funded reserve fund allows us to avoid a special assessment of $513 per Leewood homeowner. Another benefit of the reserve fund is that homeowners pay for the depreciation of the Leewood HOA assets that they are currently using.
To use a well-known comparison of the reserve fund to what we are more familiar with in our everyday lives, the reserve fund is similar to homeowner’s escrow accounts paid with their mortgage payments. Our monthly mortgage payments contain an escrow account to accumulate money to pay our real estate taxes and insurance premiums when they fall due. If one’ s real estate taxes are say, $2,400 per year - it must be paid in a lump sum. The escrow fund ( a reserve fund) sets aside $200 per month so that when the tax bill comes in, there is enough money set aside to pay for it. The Leewood HOA reserve fund does the same thing. There are certain items that must be replaced periodically - streets, fences, etc. - so each year we set aside a sum to cover these future known expenditures.
Al Carchedi is performing our yearly review of the 2002 reserve study to make sure that all the assumptions are still valid and the estimates continue to be reasonable. Reserve funds on the Leewood books is "spent money" - it is for specific Leewood projects and not to be used for other purposes not identified in our reserve study.
Want to know more about reserves? Check out our web site at http://www.leewood.us/news/oldies/reserves.htm.
Welcome Committee
We’d like to welcome a new neighbor at 5201 Bradwood St., Judy Yiu. Judy Yiu immediately took advantage of our Leewood website and has been contributing to discussions on our website message board. We encourage more of you in Leewood to join into the website discussions and you might say hello to Judy Yiu and welcome her to Leewood while you are on-line. I’m sure she would appreciate it.
With this newsletter we are re-instituting our welcomes of old. If anyone has recently moved into our community and has not been welcomed yet, please contact Barbara Rolling at welcome@leewood.us, or call her at (703) 916-0279. We would also like to ask our current neighbors to help us keep our roster complete by notifying us if a house has changed hands in your area and you don’ t see them listed in our welcome pages. Please email homeowneraccounts@leewood.us, or call Judy Currier.
Volunteers for Committees Needed
Nominating Committee - Leewood’s documents call for a standing nominating committee year-round. Therefore, we need citizens of the community to be on this important committee. Since half of our appointed Board’s terms end at the next annual meeting in March of 2005, and since one other person plans on leaving the Board before then, it is extremely important to organize this committee now. The committee typically has written inspirational newsletter articles, held socials, and encouraged their friends and neighbors to join them in serving in the Leewood HOA. Although the main purpose of the committee is to get nominees for the Board, help with committees and other Leewood HOA functions is also often found in the process of lining up our Board nominees.
ARC Committee - Although the ARC committee does not do walk-thru(s) or send violation letters during the winter months, it is a good time for new volunteers to join the committee and learn the skills needed to properly perform the mission of the ARC committee and so that they will be properly trained when spring arrives and walk-thru(s) resume. Detailed knowledge of our ARC standards and ARC committee practices will be needed to properly perform the tasks of the ARC committee. The committee currently has some members on it, but more are needed including someone willing to chair the committee. ARC is essential to maintaining the quality and value, the "curb-appeal" of Leewood. It can directly affect the market value of our homes. Regular walk-thru(s), recording and tracking violations, notifying in writing homeowners with outstanding ARC violations, approving of work to be done to ensure that ARC standards are being followed and upheld, and inspection of corrective work to fix violations are all functions of this important committee. Serving on the committee requires a good working knowledge of our ARC standards so that inspection and approval of homes is done properly. Members with ARC experience and expertise are valuable assets to Leewood. Serving on this committee can be a rewarding experience as efforts to keep Leewood up to high ARC standards result in a visibly more appealing community.
Important Dates
Leewood HOA Board Meeting: November 9, 2004 at 8:00 p.m. at the Phillips School. A lot of things are happening in our association right now, so do attend, and feel free to speak up during the open forum period which is scheduled at the beginning of each Board meeting.
Holiday: November 25 - Thanksgiving: Have a Happy Thanksgiving and remember that there is NO TRASH/RECYCLING pickup on Thanksgiving Day. The next trash pickup will be on November 29 . Let’s remember this and not have Leewood look like a trash heap on th Thanksgiving!
Regular Trash Days: Every Monday and Thursday (except Thanksgiving Day this month)
Regular Recycling Days: Every Thursday (except Thanksgiving this month)
Remember: There is no trash or recycling pickup on November 25 , Thanksgiving Day. There will be no trash pickup until the next Monday, and no recycling pickup until the following Thursday.
Rules and Considerations - Reminders
1) Please remember to turn your porch light on at dusk and keep it on all night long to providing lighting for safety and security to the Leewood community. Leewood does not have streetlights and our porch lights are mainly the only light sources to our community’s streets. It is very important to keep those lights on all night long to provide additional security.
2) Please do not place trash and recycle bins outside until dusk on the night before a scheduled pickup. If you are planning on being out of town, ask a neighbor, family member, or friend to do this for you rather than putting trash outside several days early. Putting out trash or recycling early is a violation of Leewood HOA rules and has enforcement consequences determined by the Leewood HOA Board. Also, please be mindful of the weather and pack trash accordingly. If windy, be sure items will not blow around the streets. Please remember the three "Trash Holidays" - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’ s Day. Just about every year, some Leewood residents put out trash and recycling on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving where it then sits for four days since the next pick-up is on the following Monday. This is unacceptable and a violation of our rules.
Should this occur, perhaps neighbors could contact the resident in violation and press them to remedy the mistake. Neighbors could move the items to a less conspicuous location as well perhaps. A request for intervention by a Board member would be a possibility. Reminding neighbors early that week might also be considered and worth the effort for a positive outcome. A reminder flyer could be printed and distributed to neighbors as well as phone calls or a knock on neighbor’s doors. Neighbors can help in getting the word out to their nearby neighbors. In our busy lives, we can all forget changes to our routine and extra reminders could make a difference.
3.) If you see efforts made by anyone in the Leewood HOA that you notice and appreciate - think about communicating that appreciation with a phone call, email, or a note in the mail. Leewood HOA volunteers are doing the work on your behalf that you may not be able to do yourself at this time. Thanking them can make a huge difference. Expressed gratitude is a small way of participating in the community. If you find that you have something to complain about, ask first what you have done to contribute to the Leewood HOA yourself - currently - and consider that nobody else can do what you can do to contribute to the Leewood HOA. We determine, by our own efforts, what the quality our community will be. Even with volunteers doing things on our behalf, we still always owe service to the Leewood HOA and our community. Complaining is not giving service.
4.) The Leewood HOA website "members only" discussion area is the perfect place for committees to share their work and ask for help from the community. Board members should also consider participating in the lively debates or the starting of new debates. Board and committee meetings are often not the best time or place for deep reflection and debate with the purpose of better understanding issues or hearing from residents about their concerns. Let’s use our website to help with a timely open Leewood HOA that involves the community and connects volunteers with the community that they have decided to serve. There are existing threads for all major Board activities and HOA committees. It’s hoped that all those that serve as volunteers to the HOA will post messages on these threads and help keep the residents of the community that they are serving informed of their activities and debates and give them a chance to provide feedback. Let’s use the resources we have available through this excellent and powerful website. It’s potential has yet to be realized.
5.) Remember, even the smallest gesture of friendliness to a neighbor - such as a greeting or a wave - can go a long way towards building a closer relationship with those we share our community with. Also, don’t let language differences stop anyone from being friendly to each other. Even simple words of friendliness can go a long way. Leewood’s diversity is our strength. Let’s all reach out to each other and be a closer community by our efforts.
Note from the Editor
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue of the Leewood Community Newsletter. Please continue to email the newsletter editor with articles, messages, and notes that can be considered for future newsletter content. Information from the HOA Board, committee chairs, and committee members was scarce. To have a quality newsletter for the community, more information is sought from all who participate in the Leewood HOA as well as members of the community in general who feel they have something of interest worth sharing through this newsletter.
Please note that not all articles or messages may make it into a particular newsletter issue. Often they will be considered for future issues. Many editorial criteria are involved. The length of a particular newsletter issue is one concern. The focus of an issue is also a factor.
The property management debate may be given more attention in the future as this is such an involved issue and could mark a significant shift in how the Leewood HOA is run. This issue could result in a considerable increase in the cost of the Leewood HOA quarterly assessments. If there was ever a time to be involved in what is being discussed at Board meetings and in the community; this is certainly the time. Input from all sides of this debate is needed and the larger community needs to turn out at these Board meetings.
Our Leewood website has been upgraded and is now a full-featured website. More participation from the community will help build the website’s value over time. Visit and participate. Members of the community can easily add content and increase the value of our website to all.
Encouragement and inspiration in the building of a strong community within Leewood is always a goal of this publication.
The Leewood HOA Committees
Newsletter - Chris Hiltz
Email: newsletter@leewood.us
Grounds & Maintenance - Al Sanford
Email: grounds@leewood.us
ARC - To Be Determined
Homeowner Accounts - Judy Currier
Email: homeowneraccounts@leewood.us
Acting Treasurer - Leona Taylor
Email: treasurer@leewood.us
Consumer Affairs - Mary Ann Wilson
Email: consumeraffairs@leewood.us
POAA Representative - Betty Lillard
Email: poaa@leewood.us
Welcome - Barbara Rolling
Email: welcome@leewood.us
Webmaster - Greg Bellan
Email: webmaster@leewood.us
The Leewood HOA Board
Anne Esquivel - President
Email: president@leewood.us
Al Carchedi - Secretary
Email: secretary@leewood.us
Dune Ly - Vice President
Email: veep@leewood.us
John Davenport - Member at Large
Email: misc@leewood.us
Abbreviations: HOA - Home Owner’s Association
ARC - Architecture Review and Control
Click
for printer friendly page
