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Waynewood Citizens’ Association Newsletter President, Lyssa Seward October 2009 A Message from the President Hi
Neighbors! Hope this finds you all well. October and Halloween are very special times in our neighborhood with little
and not so little ones trick or treating with their scary costumes. We also boast the fabulous displays of horror (with the
closure of Crowley Place to vehicular traffic) so that we all can safely enjoy the super scary Halloween display put together
each and every year by the brother’s Park (Brian and Jeffrey). They work so very hard to bring fear and delight to our
children and neighboring communities children. Thank you Park brothers! A special thank you goes out to Kent Siegel,
our MVCCA rep for Public Safety and Waynewood’s own unofficial sheriff, for police coordination of this wonderful and
unique night in our neighborhood. Kent is an integral part of the reason why Waynewood is a wonderful place to live. Exciting
news! I have booked Dan Storck, our Mount Vernon school board representative, to address our community on: Wednesday
night, 8 p.m. Waynewood Elementary cafeteria November 11, 2009. This will also
serve as our General Membership meeting for the WCA. Please mark your calendars. We hope for strong community attendance and
good questions for our school board representative. Mr. Storck would greatly appreciate it if you have specific questions
to ask, that you submit them to me via email and I will compile a list of questions and send it to him in late October, so
that he can research and answer all questions that night. If you think of a question to ask that has not been submitted, that
is fine too, but it is really helpful to give him the opportunity to review and prepare responses to questions that might
require research, or reaching out to other departments within the school system. Please email me at Lseward@cbmove.com
with your question/comment and I will add it to the list. (continued on page 2) (from page
1) We will vote on the 2010 budget (thank you Kelli Odden for all of your hard work!) and present awards to the
Waynewood Citizens of the year. On behalf of the WCA board, I would like to congratulate Paul Cooksey and
Eric Rosenkrantz, as the winners of the Waynewood Distinguished Citizens of the
year for 2009. These two gentlemen are being recognized for their dedication to the West Potomac High School football field
and the WRA fields. They have worked tirelessly to restore the fields and they have our gratitude and appreciation. Please
join us for our annual meeting to help recognize to our outstanding neighbors. Have you joined the Waynewood news list
serve yet? I strongly encourage those not on our email list serve to do so ASAP. You can stay informed about great opportunities
available in our neighbor, find your lost dog, get babysitters and stay connected with our community. From a public safety
point of view, it really is essential that you be on this e-list serve and stay abreast of any issues we may be having in
the neighborhood. Please email waynewoodnews@aol.com, and simply ask to get added to the list. You have to agree to
the terms, and you are ready to be connected. I want to send big THANK YOU to Kevin Fornshill for maintaining our list serve
and for his daily work on our behalf. When you use our list serve, I ask you to please put in a very specific subject
line in, so that our citizens will know if it is applicable to their interests, and can simply delete it without having to
open it, if the contents doesn’t apply to them. Thanks to John Kohout, MVCCA Transportation representative,
for giving us a heads up that the future of the 11Y is in jeopardy in our neighborhood. Please see the Traffic Committee report
in this newsletter and if you are interested in being a part of the grass roots efforts to keep this route, please send an
email of interest to Joe Carbone at Jcarbone1993@aol.com. We will be meeting with Gerry Hyland’s office and notifying
adjacent neighborhoods about this issue and would love to hear from riders of this service who may be willing to participate
in trying to save it. I will update Waynewood neighbors via the list serve when we get a time and date for the meeting. This
is the fifth request for help for MVCCA vacancies– won’t someone please step forward and put in a little bit of
time to help our community? I would love to hear from you……..you know you want to…..just give me a call
or shoot me an email and we will get you set right up. Looking to serve your community in a meaningful way? I still have some
committee representative positions open for MVCCA (Mount Vernon Council of Citizen’s Association). We have current openings
for the following committee members: Environment and Recreation Consumer Affairs Affordable
Housing Please let me know via email Lseward@cbmove.com, or phone at 703-360-3474 home – 703-298-0562 cell if
you have an interest. The committees draft resolutions that can impact our neighborhood, county and state. These resolutions
are written and voted on initially in the committees, and if passed voted on by the council. If past in the council, these
resolutions are presented to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. There are monthly meetings, and a short written synopsis
of the doings of your committee to share with your Waynewood community via our newsletter. One last thank you to Jane
Morrison who spear heads the membership drive for the Waynewood directory. It is a huge job and we thank Jane, the area reps
and the block captains for their efforts in keeping the Waynewood directory a gold standard for all neighborhood associations. Please
feel free to reach out to me should you have any issues, suggestions or questions. Thank you all for keeping Waynewood
a safe and wonderful community to live in. Warmly, Lyssa Seward Lseward@cbmove.com 703-298-0562 cell
703-360-3474 home Public Safety Report From the MVCCA Public Safety Committee meeting on NOV 1: Motor Carrier Safety
Unit. An excellent presentation was made by two FCPD officers from the Motor Carrier Safety Unit. They are ‘old
pros’ who inspect the physical condition and regulate the operation of commercial vehicles on our secondary roads and
highways. U.S. Route 1 is one of their principal target areas because of all the construction in progress in our area. (There’s
a good article in the past issue of The Mount Vernon Gazette by a man who heard the briefing.) Proposed
MVCCA Resolution. The Committee studied some language on a proposed MVCCA resolution, initiated by the Sulgrave Manor community,
to reduce motorcycle noise by restricting the replacement or modification of stock mufflers. Committee members did not appear
to have much interest in this issue so action is deferred until the November meeting when further supporting data will be
available. Blue mini van. A report was made on a blue mini van, driven by a teenage male, that
has been observed speeding in the 8500 block of Cyrus Place. The police were given a description of the vehicle along with
the tag number. The driver is believed to be a non-Waynewood resident who pays frequent visits/gives rides to a Waynewood
kid. Crowley Place Haunted House. I’ve sent the usual October letter to the FCPD Mt. Vernon
Station Commander, Captain David Moyer, requesting police support for crowd control and traffic direction in the vicinity
of the Crowley Place ‘haunted house’ on Halloween. --Kent Siegel, Security Committee Chairman Transportation Committee Report The MVCCA Transportation Committee met on Monday, October 5, 2009 in the Library of the Walt Whitman
Middle School. The meeting was chaired by Catherine M. Voorhees. Attending were Katherine Ward, MVCCA co-chair, and
representatives of about 20 member citizen associations. 11Y Metrobus Service Threatened Again. Last May
the Transportation Committee was briefed on a Fairfax County Department of Transportation study intended to produce a 10-Year
Bus Service Plan intended to optimize bus service in the County for the period from 2010 through 2020. Inputs were sought
on routes, schedules, bus stops and shelters, driver performance, and other aspects of our bus service. At this month’s
meeting, contractor representative Lora Byala and FCDOT representatives Rollo Axton and Randy White gave an initial report
on the current draft version of this 10-Year Bus Service Plan. Since May, the study effort had evidently shifted its focus
to exclusively consider adding to, changing and deleting specific routes. The first thing out of their mouths was their recommendation
to discontinue 11Y bus service south of Hunting Towers, the south edge of the City of Alexandria. Their rationale was that
the 11Y only had a couple of hundred boardings per week in Fairfax County and the 101 bus and 151/152 buses, with many more
boardings, could handle the 11Y patronage. Several in attendance protested this recommendation immediately. While the 11Y
only has four morning and five evening runs, other lines such as the 101 and 151/152 buses have many more busses per day running
on half hour headway during rush hours and every hour the rest of the day, so the number of boardings standard is skewed.
Further, only the 101 bus serves the population living closer to the Parkway than to Fort Hunt Road all the way north to Hunting
Towers. Katherine Ward pointed out that the 11Y is the only mass transit that goes directly to the middle of the employment
center of the District. What is really ironic about the FCDOT proposal to discontinue 11Y service south of Old Town is that
the last time Waynewood residents had to take on FCDOT to protect the 11Y, besides convincing Metrobus to publish and post
schedules, we had to convince them to open the 11Y to fare-paying Old Town passengers who had previously been denied 11Y service
because Old Town refused to pay their share of bus subsidy payments. The Metrobus decision to accept Old Town passengers and
steady Fairfax County resident patronage reportedly turned the 11Y into one of the top rated bus lines for return on subsidy
investment in all of Northern Virginia. Now Fairfax County Department of Transportation wants to stop 11Y service to Fairfax
County residents while protecting it for Old Town residents. If you agree that 11Y bus service is worth protecting
there is still time for action. There will be eight open house meetings for collecting public comment between
October 15 and November 17. The closest to Waynewood is at the South County Center, 8350 Richmond Highway from 6:00 p.m. to
8:00 p.m. on Tuesday November 17. Meetings will take place at the County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway
in Fairfax at 10:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday, October 17 and 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Monday, November 16. Other meetings
are spread across the county. (See attached flyer.) If you ride the 11Y or care about 11Y service as a factor in protecting
real estate values in our neighborhood, now is the time to make your feelings known! (See flyer on last page.) Resolutions
on the Future of the Richmond Highway. Both Resolutions advanced by the Transportation Committee last month were approved
by the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Associations. Amendment to the Fairfax County Code
Regarding the Parking of Commercial Vehicles in Residential Areas. FCDOT is circulating draft changes to County Code intended
to add enough detail to render the current parking code enforceable by the police. The Transportation Committee will be looking
at these changes in coming months. If you have feelings on this subject, please let me know. 11Y Bus Service. Use it or lose it! The next meeting
of the Transportation Committee is scheduled for 8 PM on Monday, November 2, 2009, in the library of the Walt Whitman Middle
School. All are welcome to attend. --John Kohout, Waynewood Representative to the MVCCA Transportation Committee Phone:
703-799-1182, E-Mail: jjkohout@cox.net Budget
and Finance Report I attended the MVCCA Budget and Finance Meeting on Wednesday,
October 7th at Walt Whitman Middle School. The meeting was chaired by David Voorhees, with eight other representatives
attending. There was no published agenda.
The meeting focused on the previous resolution to recommend that
the county raise BPOL Taxes. This resolution was tabled by the MVCCA in its last full council meeting and is scheduled
to be reconsidered in the next one.
No changes to the resolution were made, and no votes were taken. The
last vote stands and the committee will present the resolution to the council for consideration.
Although the resolution
previously passed, the committee remains divided over the resolution based on a few major points: Those for the resolution
believe that with the anticipated shortfall in the budget next year, new revenue needs to be raised. Since the budget
process was unable to nominate any significant funding cuts, multiple members continue to state that the only recourse left
to the Budget and Finance Committee is to recommend new tax revenue.
Those for also believe that the resolution
will support a leveling of burden between homeowners and businesses due to a $40M increase in business taxes that will not
have to be levied against homeowners. This is stated as a core objective of the resolution.
Those against,
of which I remain one, present the following concerns:
1. There was no control placed in the resolution to provide
for an offsetting reduction or stabilization of real estate taxes or even to counter an increase in expenditures based on
the availability of $40M more in revenue.
2. The increases proposed are imbalanced between the Business,
Personal, and Repair Services and Money Lender categories (who got a large percentage increase of +.12/$100 or roughly 60%)
and everything else, which increased far less (+.02 - +.05/$100 and average lower %'s).
3. The proposal
increases BPOL taxes by roughly 30% and raises an additional $40M in revenue. This is a large aggregate increase on business
during a recession. (Recall that BPOL is a tax on receipts, not profit, so a business could actually be losing money and still
have a tax increase).
There was a generalized discussion of Low Income Housing at the meeting as well, with the
intent of having county representatives at a future meeting to discuss the county's plan for this in detail. I will
let the WCA know when this meeting is planned.
--Jay McConville, Waynewood Representative to the MVCCA Budget and
Finance Committees COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD WANTED: News of community events, births, deaths, new
neighbors, etc., for inclusion in the monthly newsletter as space permits. The deadline for articles to be included in the
newsletter is the 2nd Saturday of the month. Please contact Marilyn Geiger at 703-360-2309 or drop off information in
the WCA box on the porch at 1009 Potomac Lane, or send via email to mgeiger3@cox.net.
Halloween Costume Parade, Saturday, Oct. 31. - Want to meet up with friends and grab a bite to eat before trick-or-treating?
Meet in the Waynewood Recreation Association parking lot at 5:00 for a complimentary slice of pizza (while it lasts!).
At 5:30 show off your costume in a parade around the parking lot.
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