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2025-2026 Snow Event #2, Update #1 (SNOW EMERGENCY IN EFFECT)

Good evening. I wanted to get a few items out to everyone.  Updates will be coming from Joe or Art as the event unfolds as I’m not on the ground there…

1.  Snow Emergency No Parking Zones have been marked.  They include the three white-painted curbs on Gainsborough Drive, a section of curb parking on Treasure Court, and a section of curb parking on upper Carriagepark Road.  These are critical areas based on the amount of snow we are expecting.

2.  Towing commenced as of 1800 today Thursday, Thursday, January 22, 2026.  The Pool Parking Lot is open as of 1700 today.

3.  Recommend you get any trash you have out for pickup tomorrow as both the Tuesday trash and Wednesday recycling pickups may not occur if the roads are not passable for the trucks.

Stay safe and be prepared.

Mark

Posted on

2025-2026 Snow Event #2, Initial Notice (Declaration of SNOW EMERGENCY)

Good morning.

The PWCA has declared a Snow Emergency based on the projected snow totals for the upcoming winter event.  While projections remain divergent between the tools; the Apple weather app current lists between 22 and 30 inches from Saturday evening through early Monday morning.

Regardless of the actual snowfall amounts – this is a major storm and we need to be prepared.

Association Snow Lead:  Joe Underwood with Art Gile as the main supporting Association support lead.

The following is in effect:

1.  All white-painted curbs on Gainsborough Drive are No Parking Zones as of today, Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 6:00PM.  ANY vehicle parked in No Parking Zones after this time is subject to towing at owner expense.  Additional curbs may be deemed NO PARKING areas today.  They will be marked with signs and marking tape/poles if so identified.

2.  The pool parking lot is opened for parking effective today, Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 5:00PM.  Vehicles may park in the pool parking lot with valid permits during this event.  Please remove your vehicles once the event is complete.  Further notice will be provided for when open parking is terminated at the pool parking lot.

3.  Please review the 2025-2026 Snow Removal Policy.

3A.  Request you clear any sidewalks and/or paver walkways in front and to the rear (if appropriate) of your home.

3B.  If the snow totals are sufficient, please consider removing snow around your mailboxes and fire hydrants.

3C.  Please DO NOT expect to be able to drive through our community for days after this event should that kind of snowfall occurs.  The first priority will be to open an emergency access lane throughout the community.  Crews will return later to widen the lanes for resident travel.

3D.  DO NOT place snow you shovel in the street.  That will make the street clearing much harder and take much longer to complete – you are creating danger for yourself and other residents in our community.  In the past we have stopped work in such non-compliant areas to concentrate assets on other areas of the community that followed the rules.

3E.  Please do not direct snow removal crews.  They are operating under direction from the contractor and the Association.  If you have concerns please contact the event lead or email Snow@ParkWestCommunity.org.

4.  The Snow Emergency will be in effect until canceled via email blast for the specific Gainsborough Drive snow emergency zones and any additional identified NO PARKING zones.  Message board notices will be removed once all snow emergency no parking zones are cleared after the snow event.

5.  Appreciate your help – the goal is to be prepared.  See the November 2025 newsletter for our Cold Weather Preparation article.  Please use today to get your home and vehicles ready for this winter event.

Stay safe and be prepared.

Mark

Posted on

PWCA Information for Members and Residents (January 2026, Message #1)

Good afternoon. 

Please review my current items of interest at your convenience…..

PERMANENT LINKS:

PWCA Website: https://parkwestcommunity.org/
PWCA Meeting Packets: https://parkwestcommunity.org/association-meeting/
ACC Documents: https://parkwestcommunity.org/architectural-control-committee/
Parking Documents: https://parkwestcommunity.org/parking/
Newsletters: https://parkwestcommunity.org/newsletters/
Quarterly Assessment Timeline and Associated Information: https://parkwestcommunity.org/living-in-pwca/
Trash and Recycling Information: https://parkwestcommunity.org/our-environment/

SEASONAL LINKS:

Director Application for Candidacy: https://parkwestcommunity.org/board-of-directors-chairs-and-managers/

2025 J&J Individual Home Maintenance Program:  https://parkwestcommunity.org/our-environment/

2025-2026 Snow Removal Policy:  https://parkwestcommunity.org/living-in-pwca/

2026 Assessment Notice: https://drive.google.com/file/d/192Il0QQCJCHTEG4L3ty5Vm1NW87kBZBT/view?usp=drive_link

INFORMATION ITEMS:

1.  TRASH SERVICE DELAY.  Patriot ran out of time to collect our trash yesterday.  They will be by today to collect both the trash and the recycling today, Wednesday, January 7, 2026.

2.  HOLIDAY CHRISTMAS TREE PICKUP SCHEDULE.  Christmas tree collection will occur over the next two weeks.

CHRISTMAS TREE COLLECTION:
Wednesday, January 7, 2026:  Christmas Tree Collection #1
Wednesday, January 14, 2026:  Christmas Tree Collection #2

All trees must be placed on the curb with all tinsel/decorations removed and trees should not be placed in plastics bags.  See the website for additional information.

3.  BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING; TUESDAY; JANUARY 20, 2026; 7:00 PM; VIRTUAL.  The monthly board meeting will be conducted via the RingCentral virtual meeting framework.  For the virtual meeting information, see the website under ‘Meetings’, select the year (2025), then the meeting (2025-12-16).  Document #01-1 contains the information to join the meeting.

4.  YARD DEBRIS COLLECTION, RESUMES MARCH 11, 2026.  Yard Debris collection will resume on March 11, 2026.

5.  TRASH AND RECYCLING CONTAINER INFORMATION.  We are finalizing the containers list for Patriot currently.  Please get your request in as soon as possible.  Items for review.  #1 – we request all homes to mark their containers when received.  #2 – if containers are not removed in a timely manner, we issue violations to the home.  If containers are not removed in a timely manner and there are no address markings on them, they will be removed to the pool house for removal by our contractor.  Containers are usually at the pool house for a few weeks after removal so if you are missing a container I recommend checking the pool house for it.  #3 – With the start of a new contract term on 1 January 2026; Patriot is offering to deliver trash and/or recycling containers free of charge to you at the inauguration of this contract.  For further information and if you are interested in obtaining containers please contact the ECC, ECC@ParkWestCommunity.org, to add your name to the list.

6.  BAMBOO REMEDIATION THROUGHOUT OUR COMMUNITY.  Bamboo is an invasive species we do not allow on common ground.  We highly recommend owners not to plant bamboo but to consider various native species as an alternative to invasives and other non-native species.  Please see this link on the county website for further information.  https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/topics/running-bamboo.  This link also covers the potential costs to an owner who allows bamboo to outgrow their land.  I bring this up as we have to conduct bamboo remediation efforts almost every year to contain and remediate the bamboo one of our well-intentioned residents has planted on our common ground.  That help is not needed or desired and just adds cost to managing this property.  Please help us and help yourself by coordinating with the ECC for any desire to plant items on common ground and please refrain from planting running bamboo.

7.  2026 ANNUAL ASSESSMENT NOTICE AND ASSESSMENT TIMELINE.  If you have some kind of manual payment occurring to pay your assessments – please remember to adjust your payment.  We have several accounts that have paid last year’s amount and therefore still have an account balance.  As presented at the Annual Meeting, the Annual Assessment for 2026 has increased to $500.00 per quarter due on the first day of each quarterly assessment period – the first quarter’s payment was due on January 1st. The 2026 Assessment Notice and the Quarterly Assessment Timeline have been mailed/emailed to you and may also be found on the website – links provided above in the Seasonal (Assessment Notice) and Permanent (Assessment Timeline) Links section

8.  2026 SOCIAL EVENTS.  All events conducted in previous years are cancelled in 2026 except the Annual Meeting unless volunteers step forward to prepare for and stage the events.  Please contact the Social Committee if you’d like to step forward to make one of the canceled events occur.

9.  PARK WEST PAGES, NOVEMBER 2025 EDITION.  The current edition of the Park West Pages is available – please see the website for the document.  The Hospitality Committee has hard copies of the edition if you’d like a printed copy.

10.  COMMUNITY SECURITY.  If out-of-the-ordinary events occur and you are concerned for your safety or security please notify the Police non-emergency number (703) 691-2131 to report the occurrence.  While we advertise a Neighborhood Watch on our signs there has been a lack of interest in the past to actually set one up.  If you are interested in participating please let me know.  If we have sufficient interest we will restart the process with the County but not before we see sufficient volunteers to make the effort worthwhile.  As always, please consider leaving your porch lights on throughout the night, remember to lock your vehicle doors, and notify the non-emergency number should you experience some kind of security event in the future. 

11.  OWNER ACCOUNT PORTAL.  This is a recurring topic for many of our owners.  Each owner has the ability to access their account through a portal Summit Management offers.  To access the portal, please go to our website and select the ‘Living in PWCA’ tab.  Scroll down the page to the button ‘Vantaca Owner Login’.  If you have not already done so, Vantaca will prompt you to create a login.  Once you login you’ll be able to access your owner information to include the status of your account.  This also provides an avenue to pay any balances due on the account.

12.  OPEN DIRECTOR POSITION.  Request your consideration to place your name forward to fill our open Director position.  We are looking for people who are invested in making a better community for all who reside here.  If you are interested please complete and submit an Application for Candidacy that may be found on our website and is listed above in the links.  The Nominating Committee will reach out to you after you complete that step.  If you have questions I’m also available to speak with you about more specifics.

Regards,

Mark

Posted on

PWCA Information for Members and Residents (December 2025, Message #2)

Good evening. 

Much to my surprise I did receive a time-sensitive notification for everyone so figured I’d also add two more items in my action list from previous meeting minutes.  Please review my current items of interest at your convenience…..

PERMANENT LINKS:

PWCA Website: https://parkwestcommunity.org/
PWCA Meeting Packets: https://parkwestcommunity.org/association-meeting/
ACC Documents: https://parkwestcommunity.org/architectural-control-committee/
Parking Documents: https://parkwestcommunity.org/parking/
Newsletters: https://parkwestcommunity.org/newsletters/
Quarterly Assessment Timeline and Associated Information: https://parkwestcommunity.org/living-in-pwca/
Trash and Recycling Information: https://parkwestcommunity.org/our-environment/

SEASONAL LINKS:

Director Application for Candidacy: https://parkwestcommunity.org/board-of-directors-chairs-and-managers/

2025 J&J Individual Home Maintenance Program:  https://parkwestcommunity.org/our-environment/

2025-2026 Snow Removal Policy:  https://parkwestcommunity.org/living-in-pwca/

INFORMATION ITEMS:

1.  RECYCLING AND YARD WASTE SERVICE DELAY.  Patriot had mechanical challenges during the day.  If your recycling and/or yard waste was not collected, please either leave them at the curb or bring them back out to the curb no later than 6:00 AM tomorrow, Wednesday, December 18, 2025.

2.  TRASH AND RECYCLING CONTAINER INFORMATION.  Due to some actions over the last few months I wanted to relay a few items on this subject.  #1 – we request all homes to mark their containers when received.  #2 – if containers are not removed in a timely manner, we issue violations to the home.  If containers are not removed in a timely manner and there are no address markings on them, they will be removed to the pool house for removal by our contractor.  Containers are usually at the pool house for a few weeks after removal so if you are missing a container I recommend checking the pool house for it.  #3 – With the start of a new contract term on 1 January 2026; Patriot is offering to deliver trash and/or recycling containers free of charge to you at the inauguration of this contract.  For further information and if you are interested in obtaining containers please contact the ECC to add your name to the list.

3.  BAMBOO REMEDIATION THROUGHOUT OUR COMMUNITY.  Bamboo is an invasive species we do not allow on common ground.  We highly recommend owners not to plant bamboo but to consider various native species as an alternative to invasives and other non-native species.  Please see this link on the county website for further information.  https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/topics/running-bamboo.  This link also covers the potential costs to an owner who allows bamboo to outgrow their land.  I bring this up as we have to conduct bamboo remediation efforts almost every year to contain and remediate the bamboo one of our well-intentioned residents has planted on our common ground.  That help is not needed or desired and just adds cost to managing this property.  Please help us and help yourself by coordinating with the ECC for any desire to plant items on common ground and please refrain from planting running bamboo.

Regards,

Mark

Posted on

PWCA Information for Members and Residents (December 2025, Message #1) 

Good evening. 

With the dearth of volunteers willing to shoulder some of the load, these messages are less frequent.  Please review my current items of interest at your convenience…..

PERMANENT LINKS:

PWCA Website: https://parkwestcommunity.org/
PWCA Meeting Packets: https://parkwestcommunity.org/association-meeting/
ACC Documents: https://parkwestcommunity.org/architectural-control-committee/
Parking Documents: https://parkwestcommunity.org/parking/
Newsletters: https://parkwestcommunity.org/newsletters/
Quarterly Assessment Timeline and Associated Information: https://parkwestcommunity.org/living-in-pwca/
Trash and Recycling Information: https://parkwestcommunity.org/our-environment/

SEASONAL LINKS:

Director Application for Candidacy: https://parkwestcommunity.org/board-of-directors-chairs-and-managers/

2025 J&J Individual Home Maintenance Program:  https://parkwestcommunity.org/our-environment/

2025-2026 Snow Removal Policy:  https://parkwestcommunity.org/living-in-pwca/

INFORMATION ITEMS:

1.  HOLIDAY TEMPORARY PARKING REQUESTS – PROVIDE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  If you have not requested parking passes for any events you are hosting through the New Year, please do so as soon as possible as our requested deadline is today (15 December).  We would like to provide our volunteers who create those passes for you the time to spend with their families and several of them are departing the local area during the holiday weeks so you will not have them as assets. Please see the website for a current list of parking officials – link provided in the permanent links above. Submit as soon as possible as your request will take longer to generate the passes due to volunteer support limitations.

2.  BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING; TUESDAY; DECEMBER 16, 2025; 7:00 PM; VIRTUAL.  The monthly board meeting will be conducted via the RingCentral virtual meeting framework.  For the virtual meeting information, see the website under ‘Meetings’, select the year (2025), then the meeting (2025-12-16).  Document #01-1 contains the information to join the meeting.

3.  YARD DEBRIS COLLECTION, FINAL 2025 COLLECTION OCCURS DECEMBER 24, 2025.  The final yard debris pickup for 2024 will occur NEXT WEDNESDAY, December 24th.  Yard Debris collection will resume on March 11, 2026.

4.  HOLIDAY TRASH, RECYCLING, AND CHRISTMAS TREE PICKUP SCHEDULE.  The normal Friday pickup will be delayed one day for the Christmas and New Year’s weeks.  See below for specific dates.

CHRISTMAS WEEK:
Tuesday, December 23, 2025:  Trash Pickup #1
Wednesday, December 24, 2025:  Recycling Pickup and final 2025 Yard Waste Pickup
Saturday, December 27, 2025:  Trash Pickup #2

NEW YEAR’S WEEK:
Tuesday, December 30, 2025:  Trash Pickup #1
Wednesday, December 31, 2025:  Recycling Pickup
Saturday, January 3, 2026:  Trash Pickup #2

CHRISTMAS TREE COLLECTION:
Wednesday, January 7, 2026:  Christmas Tree Collection #1
Wednesday, January 14, 2026:  Christmas Tree Collection #2

All trees must be placed on the curb with all tinsel/decorations removed and trees should not be placed in plastics bags.  See the website for additional information.

5.  2025 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION, SYNOPSIS.  The Annual Meeting was held on November 18th at St. Mary of Sorrows Church (the Parish Center) in a parallel in-person/virtual format.  My thanks to those who physically attended the meeting.  Joe Underwood, Marguerite Wiese, and I were elected for another three-year term of office.  There remains one open Director position.  Art Gile was appointed as the 2025-2026 Nominating Committee Chair.  See the website for the meeting slide deck and other supporting documentation.  The draft Annual Meeting minutes will be posted to the website after being provisionally approved by the Directors at the December Board of Directors meeting.

6.  2026 ANNUAL ASSESSMENT NOTICE AND ASSESSMENT TIMELINE.  As presented at the Annual Meeting, the Annual Assessment for 2026 will increase to $500.00 per quarter due on the first day of each quarterly assessment period. The 2026 Assessment Notice and the Quarterly Assessment Timeline have been mailed/emailed to you and may also be found on the website – link provided above in the Links section.

7.  OCTOBER 2025 COMMUNITY RULES.  The Board approved updated Community Rules at the October 2025 BoD meeting.  The updated Rules may be found on the website under the ‘Rules and Regulations’ sub-page.  New residents to our community receive a copy when they are getting their initial set of parking permits.  If you would like to have a hard copy of the Rules and are not a new resident, please email Parking@ParkWestCommunity.org to coordinate a time to receive a copy.

8.  COLD WEATHER PREPARATION.  Please review the November newsletter for an article on this important subject.  Each year there are challenges faced by homeowners – consider taking the identified steps to take to be prepared for winter and limit potential damage to your home. The PWCA snow policy is posted on the website and is linked above in the Seasonal Links section; please read and understand it before any snow emergency might be declared for the Community.  If/when snow or ice storms occur all residents are requested to shovel and de-ice the sidewalks in front of your home. Help your neighbors and your community by assisting others if needed, clearing around fire hydrants, and clearing the mail boxes.

9.  CONSTRUCTION DEBRIS.  Reminder, no construction debris is authorized for placement with regular trash pickup.  Please ensure you or your contractor remove all debris (e.g. yard, construction, or installation) associated with any project conducted at your residences.

10.  2026 SOCIAL EVENTS.  All events conducted in previous years are cancelled in 2026 except the Annual Meeting unless volunteers step forward to prepare for and stage the events.  Please contact the Social Committee if you’d like to step forward to make one of the canceled events occur.

11.  PARK WEST PAGES, NOVEMBER 2025 EDITION.  The latest edition of the Park West Pages has been released – please see the website for the document.  The Hospitality Committee has hard copies of the edition if you’d like a printed copy.

12.  COMMUNITY SECURITY.  If out-of-the-ordinary events occur and you are concerned for your safety or security please notify the Police non-emergency number (703) 691-2131 to report the occurrence.  While we advertise a Neighborhood Watch on our signs there has been a lack of interest in the past to actually set one up.  If you are interested in participating please let me know.  If we have sufficient interest we will restart the process with the County but not before we see sufficient volunteers to make the effort worthwhile.  As always, please consider leaving your porch lights on throughout the night, remember to lock your vehicle doors, and notify the non-emergency number should you experience some kind of security event in the future. 

13.  OWNER ACCOUNT PORTAL.  This is a recurring topic for many of our owners.  Each owner has the ability to access their account through a portal Summit Management offers.  To access the portal, please go to our website and select the ‘Living in PWCA’ tab.  Scroll down the page to the button ‘Vantaca Owner Login’.  If you have not already done so, Vantaca will prompt you to create a login.  Once you login you’ll be able to access your owner information to include the status of your account.  This also provides an avenue to pay any balances due on the account.

14.  OPEN DIRECTOR POSITION.  Request your consideration to place your name forward to fill our open Director position.  We are looking for people who are invested in making a better community for all who reside here.  If you are interested please complete and submit an Application for Candidacy that may be found on our website and is listed above in the links.  The Nominating Committee will reach out to you after you complete that step.  If you have questions I’m also available to speak with you about more specifics.

Regards,

Mark