Welcome to our new owners & residents: Lisa Estrella and her daughters Hannah and Grace – 2123 Colts Neck Court; Quincy & Mary Ellen Schmidt and their son Simon – 2127 Colts Neck Court; Howard Kim & Michelle Stephens – 2143 Colts Neck Court and Jeanette Hong Kim – 2101 Colts Neck Court.
Farewell and best wishes to Zihan Wang (2101 Colts Neck Court) who has been transferred to China; Kathleen, Will, Korie and new baby Chase Allen (2143 Colts Neck Court) who had been here three years; Pat & Shaun McCabe (2127 Colts Neck Court) who had been here 19 years and are moving closer to family in sunny Florida; and to Atif Irfan, Sobia Ijaz, Safiyah, Summayah & Ibrahim (2123 Colts Neck Court) who had been here eight years are moving home to Michigan. We want to thank Sobia & Atif and Sobia's mom Qudsia, for all the neighborhood meals and especially Sobia's going away gift of providing us all with her buttered chicken recipe which has always been a big hit.
We would like to express our condolences to Walt Norko on the loss of his mother and to Paige Hall on the loss of her father.
Congratulations to BOTH Imel girls who graduated from college – Kati from George Mason last December and Elli from James Madison in May. We are all proud of your accomplishments, especially in light of a difficult year.
By the way, if you know of an announcement that should be made in our newsletters, please contact a board member!
Juneteeth is a new federal holiday! President Biden has signed a law marking Juneteenth (June 19th) a federal holiday. It will be celebrated on June 19th each year unless it falls on weekends, in which case it will be observed federally the Friday or Monday surrounding that weekend. The CEO of the cluster's bank, Primis, made the following statement in his recent email encouraging us all to consider this new federal holiday celebrating freedom in the future:
"Lastly, on June 19th this year, I would like every one of us to take a moment of our Saturday to reflect upon the importance of this holiday. The enjoyable moments you have this weekend… imagine if you had been denied the freedom to decide your life’s path. Our perspective and appreciation for the importance of Juneteenth will be sharpened as each of us better understand how it changed the lives of those affected.”
Cluster Clean Up: Thank you to everyone who came out and participated in April’s Cluster Clean Up! It was great to see so many neighbors out and about keeping our property beautiful. We want to give a special thank you to Chris and Ania who continue to bring down the tot lot trash can for emptying. It’s a great help and keeps our beloved tot-lot fresh and clean. By the way, if you haven’t been up to the tot-lot, the Board approved at its April meeting the replacement of the playground chips around the slide area. It looks and smells lovely, and the weeds are back at bay.
Trash Reminder: As you know, trash should be put out after dark the night before pickup and must be retrieved the same day as pickup. Please remember to secure all your recyclables on windy days! Trash cans are not to be left on the sides of houses or off the front porch unless appropriately screened.
Many people have purchased their own closed recycling bins and/or large rolling trash cans. We are now asking that you write your house number on the can (if you purchased it yourself) so if left elsewhere it can be returned to you. The trash company has tended to leave them scattered about, although they’re doing a bit better after we contacted them about their service. American does not want you to write on their recycling bins, but encouraged the use of mailbox letters which can be found at Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, etc.
Due to all the wildlife about please also remember that trash should not be placed in thin plastic bags. It makes it too easy for the wildlife to tear up and we have many animals who delight in trying to find food in and rip bags. Just look! A picture is worth a thousand words.
Speaking of wildlife, we hope you had an opportunity to see the six super-cute baby foxes which were on the golf course. We expect (and hope) more foxes will be around. Foxes are long-time Reston residents and are rarely harmful to humans. Until this year I (Jenni) counted myself lucky if I spotted one per year so this summer has been an extra-special treat. You can generally see them around dawn and dusk, although as they’ve grown, they’re out later and later and are harder to spot.
House numbers: Many homes in the cluster still use the old house numbers which are hard for emergency personnel to see. Reston Association stated that they no longer require approval to change house numbers; many of us have switched to bigger house numbers and we recommend it for everyone. There are various styles available – take a stroll down the row of 11850 - 11858 South Lakes Court. You will see several different ones, varying from vertical to horizontal. Several residents have not only the house number but the street name as well. We hope you’ll never need it, but for the benefit of emergency personnel we recommend replacing old small house numbers with larger, more visible ones.
Cluster Inspection: Covid-19 is hopefully moving towards the rear-view mirror it now is the ideal time to look at your homes and begin repairs before next year's cluster wide inspection.
Please remember that alterations to most things on the exterior of your home need Reston Association approval. Should RA inform you that something does not need approval, we strongly recommend that you obtain written confirmation of that exchange or submit a simple application so that you have that in your files. Different counselors have different interpretations and we have found having official approval, or at the very least an e-mail from them, can be beneficial.
Remember that anything changed - even from one approved style/color to another - is considered a change and all changes needs an approval. For example, one of our residents had received a verbal statement that “no approval was needed to remove a fence.” When this resident sold their house, they found that the verbal statement held no water and ended up needing to file a retroactive application as it was a change to the property and required approval.
FYI, fences on the firewalls are considered joint property (even if you didn’t install it.) Owners are jointly liable for the firewalls when they get dirty.
We have a new temporary Reston Association counselor filling in. A new counselor has been hired but is still in training and has yet to be introduced. Kelly Beavers is no longer with Reston Association. At the moment we have Cat (Catherine) Castrence who can be reached at (703) 673-2038, ccastremce@reston.org. If RA provides us the name of our new counselor once he or she is officially assigned, we will let you know. It is always best to check RA's website to see who our current counselor is. Go to:
Property Owner Resources
Property Owner Resources Overview
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Click here to access documents and view your advisor’s contact” (the link is in green).
Remember that Colts Neck Cluster is a different Cluster than us, Fairgreen Cluster.
Carhopping incidents: Be sure your cars are locked at night! As we informed you in May (via email), we want to remind everyone that summer is carhopping season. “Carhopping” is the term used by Fairfax County Police for incidents occurring all over the county; it refers to when a person/group checks for unlocked car doors to steal whatever contents look appealing or valuable. We’ve had several incidents like this over the years as we’re in a “vulnerable” location, near the paths and golf course. We have never had a car physically broken into, and we suspect that when this has happened it was the result of a car left accidentally unlocked. The police will generally take a report, but seldom come out. It also does not hurt to keep your glove compartment locked, if possible. If we continue to lock our cars, we should have no issues with this type of crime. We have not had any incidents reported to the board this year, although we did receive a report of suspicious non-residents in the parking lot which prompted the e-mail we were asked to send.
Rescue Reston: The developer which owns the golf course is still trying to get building rights for development. We strongly encourage everyone to subscribe to Rescue Reston's website www.rescuereston.org and if you are able, make financial donations. Jenni has been attending meet-ups with the other Cluster Presidents whose properties are on the Golf Course. Reston National has a “Study Group” who is meeting with each cluster individually to assess their thoughts on developing the golf course and to answer questions. We will let you all know when it’s Fairgreen’s turn to meet with them and cannot urge you enough to attend this meeting with us. It will be open to all, and this is our chance to have our voices heard on the importance of not developing this land. More information was handed out this week; see also our next blog post.
Fun fact celebrating, well, US! Fairgreen Cluster has an amazing “retention rate” for its residents and owners and we thought it would be fun to share some of this with you.
25 years to the beginning of the cluster 37 years ago 1974 to 1996:
1974 - Margrit Harmon; 1978 - Nancy Streiff; 1979 - Bernie Woodard; 1982 - Judith Krijgelmans; 1985 - Debbie Carroll; 1986 - Bill & Mutsuko Brooks; 1988 - Jerry & Marianne Leach, Walt and Linda Norko; 1989 – Steve Tucker; 1992 – Paul & Doreen Brownbill; 1994 – Rich Jones & Gail Hunter, Larry Gregg; 1996 – Bob Babcock, Caroline Fitzpierce; Brian & Holly Vanderhoof.
15 to 24 years to 1999 to 2006):
1999 – Gabriel Homes residents; 2004 – Greg Copeland, Daron & Camden Doran, Elvis Tanke
5 to 14 years 2007 to 2016:
2013 – Larry Davis, Jimmy Lutz; 2014 – Kevin Williams; 2015 – Trinidad & Theresa Garnica; 2016 – Steve and Jenni Jacyna
Less than 5 years 2017 to 2018 – no sales in 2019 or 2020:
2017 – Colin & Rebecca Barthel; 2018 – George & Olivia Petree
All but two of our nonresident owners have lived here at some time:
1989 – Guadalupe Prieto; 1992 Tom & Susan Capuano Torda; 2012- Guy Reeve of Victoria Investments who owns a home on Colts Neck Court, but whose family rented on South Lakes Court when he was growing up, Rodney D'Souza; 2014 – Raigan Winthers, Ty & Sarah Rice who bought her parents' house
We appreciate ALL our residents, newer and longer time owner/residents and tenants alike. We have had many neighbors come and go, seen couples married, children born, children live here their entire lives and leave for college, and we have had the sad times of deaths in our community. It has truly been a neighborhood where many of us have been fortunate enough to turn neighbors into lifelong friends. One of the nicest comments made was from Sobia Ijaz' mother, Qudsia, who said after her first visit and meeting the neighbors, she knew her daughter and her family would be part of a welcoming community and be safe and that she did not need to worry about them living here.
We are especially grateful to our neighbors as we reflect on the past year and hopefully turn the corner on Covid-19. It was a difficult year at the best of times, but our sense of community has remained strong and we are thankful to all of you! We hope you are fully vaccinated, and we look forward to seeing more people out and about.
Upcoming board meetings:
July 20th - 11852 S Lakes Ct
The Fairgreen Cluster annual meeting will be October 6th at the Hunters Woods Community Center.
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