Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 7 pm via Zoom
Community updates
Cluster Clean up – Saturday, October 23rd
Projects
- Cold patch repair on parking lot
Jay from RA has a product he recommends that is superior to Coldpatch and much easier to use called Aquaphalt.
Kristina will order the Aquaphalt from Ace Hardware as it is the best price. Will take measurements to determine how much is needed for the potholes
2. Pulling invasive weeds and cleaning up natural areas between rows 2241 and 2243 and the area to the right of 2249 as well as other unkempt areas around tot lot.
Mulch to be added. Need to order.
Talked about ordering mulch from the company that delivers in bags as opposed to our landscaper who will deliver in a large pile which makes it more difficult to haul. (Update: did not end up ordering mulch – decided to wait until Spring.
- Tot lot benches
Cyndi to lead this effort – benches need to be sanded and stained.
- Moving sod from 2248 to the surrounding path by 2249 and 2251
This may end up being a cluster clean up project
- Cookout
KM put it into the last Wheelwrighter. Thinks we are probably ok to go ahead and has been watching county COVID transmission rate, down from high to substantial. Numbers are lower with a 3.31% positive rate. Proposes still having the cookout since it’s outside. Board agreed to start planning for it and cancel if transmission rates worsen.
After everyone reviews the shopping list for cookout, Kristina will go to Costco to pick up items.
Roles
Kristina will man check-in table and have coffee available and go to work later in the morning.
Will also direct people where they can do to help during clean up.
Cyndi already has some of the items needed for coffee and a table.
Sandy – in charge of asphalt patching
Cyndi – in charge of benches
Kelly and Kayleen to be in charge of weeds/invasives in the area by tot lot and between rows of houses between upper and lower cluster.
Kyle and/or Tim to grill during cookout.
Sandy to put out samples of siding and door colors and some decking information for people to view during the cleanup. Sandy has some paint sample chips that folks can take for our approved siding colors. If we don’t have enough, people can get more at Sherwin Williams.Erosion –
Erosion
French drain – 2243, 45, 47, 49 and access path to right of 2231 application – this has been approved by RA but waiting on clarification on a couple of things.
For the French drain Jose will be using 57 gravel and covering it with soil and grass seed making it invisible. RA said to use river jack instead of 57 gravel for aesthetics but agreed if underground, 57 gravel should be ok. They had also wanted a metal edging that will go along the access path to prevent wood chips from washing down the slope. That metal edging is supposed to be 6 in. in height but RA said they don’t want it to be higher than 4 in. (Part of this will be underground and not visible and in places where the grade of slope prevents the railing from “hiding” some of the railing, it is ok. Sandy suggested that the stipulation likely is so that the railing does not exceed the height of the wood chips creating a tripping hazard. We’ll try to ensure the chips are flush with the railing.
Jose said he could probably come out to start the work after the 25th After the lines are marked by “Miss Utility” to get the lines marked.
Kristina talked to Jose about him possibly using the wood chips from the stump of the tree in front of 2230’s house for the path. (Update: Jose will not use these chips – we will use for other projects – Sandy suggested using around the tot lot benches since it is muddy there)
Haven’t yet gotten a quote from Chris for price to move mulch once the tree stump has been grinded by J and L.
Concrete
Completed. Railing installed. Everything looks great!
Everything looks really good. Railing is installed.
Kerry had a couple of concerns about the concrete surface being too rough and clean up being less than adequate. We may want to monitor this going forward if we continue to use the same company but no one else has complained. Things seem to have been completed well and on time.
Watch light updates?
2265 replacement and 2215 blinding lamp
***New work orders submitted 10/4. Keeping an eye on 2265. Appears to be working, let me know if anyone notices otherwise. No feedback about the “searchlight” as yet.
Cyndi submitted new work orders on 10/4. They didn’t give feedback on turnaround time. Iit seems they have come by and taken care of it. No one has gotten back to her about the one in front of 2257. She will follow up if she doesn’t hear back.
Sandy mentioned the light in front of Cyndi’s house which appears to go on and off periodically as well. Cyndi has only noticed an occasional flicker but will keep an eye on.
Deck renovations -materials and colors, Door colors and styles
Sandy working on slide-show to share with the Cluster. Meaghan hoping to have some updates regarding decks by the end of the week. Once we get feedback Sandy will finish DRB and send it off. 2263 submitted their DRB for deck and railings. Sandy recommended clarification/changes – square rails instead of round and railing holders underneath instead of on top – to their DRB before the Board signs off on it – she will address with 2263.
Community outreach
Feedback
DRB
Tree work
The amount of tree work remaining will total $6247.50 as opposed to $8100 that would have included removal of shredded stump wood chips which we hope to use for our access path by Cyndi’s home. However, we’ll need to factor in the cost of moving the chips from one location to another in the cluster – our landscaper, Chris has offered to do this for us but I don’t have an estimate yet.
Tree planting – Jeffrey has proposed 2 trees for planting behind his home to replace the felled trees from a couple of years ago.
Tulip Poplar (native)
black sourgum tree (native)
American sweetgum (native) (alternate)
Jeffrey got prices on the Tulip Poplar trees from a nursery in Ashburn for $169.99 for a sizable baby tree (can’t remember exact size). The sourgumm and sweetgum can also be found at the same nursery. No price available for those yet. The price of the trees will come out of the tree budget. They are not covered by our tree credit. Is everyone ok with spending the roughly $325 for the two trees behind Jeffrey’s house.
Board agreed to the trees. (Update: Jeffrey went to the nursery and purchased 2 black gum trees – one of which was the price that was agreed upon, the other was significantly bigger and the price was significantly more. Board will have to address.)
Sandy proposed waiting on the cherry tree behind 2250 as agreed upon by the homeowners because when the cherry tree left, other trees filled in and now there is not a lot of light back there. A small sapling won’t do well. Also, many of those trees need to be considerably pruned. Some of the remaining roots are actually sprouting and we may be able to use these offshoots to replant this cherry tree either there or other places in the cluster.
Cyndi has talked with her neighbor about the very dead tree in her neighbor’s yard and has suggested that others help to cut down the tree. Sandy offered to take her chain saw to it after we can confirm with the homeowner.
Scope of work that the tree committee is responsible for and what the board is responsible for.
The tree committee says that they only handle trees that potentially imperil life or property. We didn’t realize that and assumed anything to do with trees fell under the purview of the tree committee.
Board will take on the task of figuring out how to go forward with smaller tree work and potentially explore other companies for this.
Parking lot
Email regarding visit with Jay from RA
Kristina met with Jay from RA about parking lots. Biggest take away was that RA does not do any seal coating of their parking lots because it doesn’t add to the life of the parking lot. Addressing cracks as soon as they appear is important. He added we are potentially looking at a foundation problem with our parking lot and it might be wise to do the 4 inch mill & pave.
Discussion about only doing 4 in. mill & pave in the middle of the parking lot and 1.5 inches in the parking space. Jay from RA thinks that’s a good idea.
K will continue to gather information and will talk with the guy from Pavement Design LLC to answer her questions and determine cost.
Also, determine if Jay from RA is available for a paid consultancy/project management.
Email from Pavement design, LLC – consultants for repaving lots – proposal and sample report that was completed for Marriott recently.
Email from Pavement & Design LLC, a consultant who basically holds your hand through the process….they go through bids and put together a 10 – 15 year budget and tell you how to elongate the life of your parking lot. However, Kristina had questions about a recent Marriott proposal that they had worked on & contradictory message about seal coating.
Landscaping
Issues?
Aeration of Steve’s yard that was done even though he had not ordered it. Sandy talking with Chris to address the problem.
Progress on seeking other bids?
Will likely need to continue using Chris for another year. No one has time to look for new bids. Might need to save money by only doing common areas. This way there won’t be any more problems with individual lawns and will save money too.
Will ask Chris for two proposals, 1) Common areas only, 2) common areas plus individual yards.
Homeowner Fall lawn service update
Swale installation update
Maybe next week or the week after. (Update: Chris says he will do week of October 25th.)
Garbage/Recycling
Rollaway dumpster has been ordered for Friday 10/22 to Monday 10/25. – Ordered
Voucher to exempt us from dumping fees was actually processed and received and submitted to Bates already. (Miracles can happen) – Done
Issues?
None reported.
Neighborhood donation pickup
Cyndi has been working with Green Drop to get us a date for a community pickup of donated items for multiple families. Email went out and we will hopefully get multiple homeowners to sign up
****scheduled for Wednesday 10/20 7am – 7pm – Done.
Compost bin discussion.
Texted Lynn to ask if she’d keep an eye on it.
Cindy asked how to take care of it and offered to help maintain as well.
Update: Lynn has offered to keep an eye on it and communicate any issues to the board.
Parking
Sandy suggested to start enforcing guidelines more strictly since pandemic restrictions are easing a little….two cars, tags up to date, inspections current, etc.
Financials
Financial outlook
2022 budget
Dues increase
Kelly & KM talked about dues increase and determined that $350 is where we want to be. It is the average for other clusters in Reston are paying.. Talked about doing it incrementally, $25 this year, $25 next year. Money in CDs will be needed for pavement mill & grind in 2022.
CD’s
Two CD’s listed in online banking totaling $95K. Need to call the bank to talk about them and get details.
P&L, dues
Reserve study
We have a CPA for tax prep. KM reached out to an attorney via email but hasn’t heard back yet. Kelly will reach out to CPA to ask about reserve study.
Next Meeting
- Thursday, November 11th at 7pm
- Annual Meeting Monday Dec. 6th, at 7pm
- Still half virtual, half in person?
Consensus is to have it virtual. KM will ask RA for a refund for the room.