Author: Mark Griffin

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

Posted on

PWCA Information for Members and Residents (October 2025, 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: 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/

INFORMATION ITEMS:

1.  ASPHALT CRACK-FILL, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2025.  The crack-fill of the asphalt in the drive lanes and in open parking spaces occurred last week.  If you see cracks in your assigned spaces we recommend moving your vehicles that day to allow access for the crew to seal those cracks.  This work helps to prolong the life of our asphalt and thereby defer the cost of repaving the community.

2.  FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING; TUESDAY; OCTOBER 14, 2025; 7:00PM; VIRTUAL.  The October 2025 Finance Committee Meeting will focus on the final review of the 2026 PWCA Budget to be presented for Director vote at the BoD meeting.  Please consider attending as we discuss the future orientation of the Association in consonance with the Governing Documents as articulated through our Strategic Plan.  Please use the same information to enter the meeting as used for the regular Board of Directors Meeting.

3.  SPEED BUMP REPAIR, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2025.  Three speed bumps have been damaged over the last few seasons and require repair.  This work is planned for this upcoming Friday.  Please keep vehicles aways from any damaged speed bumps or you risk having your vehicle relocated/towed during this project.

4.  BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING; TUESDAY; OCTOBER 21, 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 (2025-10-21).  Document #01-1 contains the information to join the meeting.

5.  TREE WORK, TODAY AND TOMORROW, OCTOBER 1 AND 2, 2025.  We are accomplishing some emergent tree work today and tomorrow.  If you have been notified or spaces have been marked they are no parking zones for the duration of the work.  Vehicles parked in those identified parking areas will be either relocated or removed at owner expense. Please note that all work is weather dependent.  In the event of a rain date, you will be notified with new dates as necessary.  If access is required to a part of your property, please ensure any gates are unlocked and any creatures are removed or secured during the work timeframes.  The contractor may need to access the area(s) specified to conduct the work.  Restrictions will be lifted upon completion of the work.  If assigned parking impacted, restrictions on parking will end upon removal of the signs, marker poles/cones and/or tape.

6.  2025 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION; TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2025; 8:00 PM; ST MARY OF SORROWS CHURCH (PARISH CENTER, FARRELL HALL) AND VIRTUAL.  The Parish Center is located at 5222 Sideburn Road.  There will be signs to guide you to the room for the meeting.  All documents will be either electronically or physically mailed to Members of the Association by Wednesday, 22 October 2025.  Those documents will also be found on the website.  The meeting will be available virtually in the same manner as our monthly Board of Director meetings via the RingCentral virtual meeting framework. For the virtual meeting information, see the website under ‘Meetings’, select the year (2025), then the meeting (2025-11-18), and finally select “Annual”. The document “2025 Annual Meeting, Virtual Meeting Information” contains the information to join the meeting.  If you are a renter residing in our community please feel free to attend – you’ll receive a report of what has been accomplished in the last year and where we are going over the next year.   There will be refreshments available for all attendees.

7.  ANNUAL MEETING – CALL FOR NOMINATIONS.  In preparation for our Annual Meeting in November we attached a nomination form in the August newsletter.  The nomination form will also be included in the Annual Meeting documents that will be mailed or emailed on 22 October 2025 to all Members of the Association.  At each Annual Meeting there are multiple Director positions up for election or re-election.  Please consider submitting your name for consideration by the membership.  If that seems to large a step, consider volunteering for any one of our committees.  They would be happy for any assistance you could provide.

8.  ELECTRONIC CONSENT FORMS.  For Owners/Members of the Association who may not know, electronic consent forms provide the Association the ability to send certain communications to you electronically only, thereby saving us the cost of printing and mailing those documents.  The form was attached in the August 2025 newsletter, will be included in the Annual Meeting documents mailed/emailed on 22 October 2025, and is available on our website within Policy Resolution 17-04.

9.  2025 SOCIAL EVENTS.  As a reminder, without more volunteers to prepare for and stage our events all social events are planned for cancellation this year due to the lack of volunteer support.  Please contact the Social Committee if you’d like to stage of the upcoming events.

10.  INDIVIDUAL GROUNDS CARE OFFER FROM J&J LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT, APPLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  Our grounds care contractor is again offering residences in our community the ability to have your private yards maintained.  The care options include turf care, lawn care, and leaf removal.  Please refer to the link listed above in the Seasonal Links section, just scroll down the page to the applicable information.

11.  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. 

12.  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.

13.  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