It is time to pay your dues for 2025! Dues are $20 per household, and may be paid by cash, check or Venmo in advance of the Annual Meeting, or you may pay at the Annual Meeting. Please see the attached membership form for instructions on how to submit your dues, along with additional information about HFNA. (Please note: Only dues-paying members are allowed to vote.)
Join us for coffee and donuts at the park before we do our part in keeping our neighborhood clean!
CITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Free Tree GiveAway - through Nov 30 or until trees run out -- Fairfax City's urban forestry program is once again offering free native trees from the Arbor Day Foundation to all city residents. This season we are offering the following native species: Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis); Black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica); River birch (Betula nigra); Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor); Sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana); and Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). Residents can input their address and order a free 1-gal tree, shipped direct to their home, at arborday.org/cityoffairfax. I've attached a flyer you can post or email out to your neighborhood. More information about this program can be found on our website: Free Trees for Residents City of Fairfax, VA
City FY27 Budget Open House - Tues Oct 21, 4-7 pm at Sherwood Center -- More info here: https://www.fairfaxva.gov/Meetings-Directory/Budget-Events/FY-2027-Budget-Open-House
City Community Engagement & Impact Expo - Wed Oct 22, 6-9 pm at the Sherwood Center -- More info here: https://www.fairfaxva.gov/Meetings-Directory/Special-Programming/Community-Engagement-and-Impact-Expo
I'll also be sharing an update next week from the City Parks & Rec Director regarding the playground at Pat Rodio Park so be on the watch for that.
CITY SURVEYS
Move Fairfax City is a plan to improve transportation safety and walkability throughout the city and in Old Town Fairfax. We want your input! Click the links below to:
(External link)Take a brief survey:(External link) This survey asks about your experiences walking, biking, driving, or taking the bus throughout the city and in Old Town, as well as your priorities for Old Town Fairfax.
(External link)Leave comments on a map:(External link) This interactive map allows you to pin specific locations on the map where it feels difficult or unsafe to walk, bike, drive, or wait for the bus.
NATIONAL NIGHT OUT
We're looking forward to our next neighborhood-wide event, National Night Out, on Tuesday, August 5th. This is a wonderful event for all ages, but especially children as the various public safety units rotate through our neighborhood, including fire trucks, police vehicles, McGruff the Crime Dog, K-9 unit, and more. Once again, we are collaborating with our neighbors of The Flats and The Towns of Boulevard VI, and this year, we will hold the event by Pat Rodio Park on the blacktop in the community parking lot to the south of the condo building/near the playground area. More details to come, but mark your calendars now if you haven't already!
DON'T FORGET TO PAY YOUR DUES
With it being the midpoint of the year, I'd like to remind anyone who hasn't had a chance to pay your 2025 dues yet to please take a minute to do so now. There are several options for paying dues as outlined on the attached flyer, but the easiest is via Venmo: $20 to our HFNA Treasurer, Lisa Skoglund. Venmo Lisa at @Lisa-Skoglund (last four digits of cell “0115”) -- for HFNA Dues, along with your name, address, email, and phone number.
NEIGHBORHOOD FACEBOOK GROUP
Finally, don't forget to visit our website for information at https://www.thehfna.org/ and to join the HFNA private FaceBook group (only open to residents in HFNA bounds as verified by street address). This group provides a mechanism for sharing between neighbors about concerns and needs such as asking for recommendations for home repair, sharing about plants you may have to give away, swapping household items, seeking a teenager to hire to help with a job, etc. To request to join, go to the HFNA Facebook page and then find "More" at the top of the page (on computer) OR find "About" if looking on your phone; click on the dropdown list and then click on "groups" - You may submit your request for approval and will be admitted once the address is confirmed.
2024 Highlights
In addition to enjoying a fun evening together at the holiday party, we raised $500 through our holiday wreath raffle to support the Fairfax City Giving Tree AND we collected over 30 winter coats and many winter accessories, all to help make the holidays a little more special for families in need. Many thanks to the wonderful party committee (Jamie Markogiannakis, Morrow Armstrong, Linda Remkes, Jen Meredith, Kate Fogarty, Gina Borsh, Katie Racine and Maureen McCarthy) for hosting this fabulous event! Check out our FaceBook page for photos of the party and other events from the past year, including Community Cleanup Days, Summer Social, National Night Out and the Fall Halloween Party: https://www.facebook.com/HistoricFFXNeighborhoodAssociation.
SAVE THE DATE! – March 27 HFNA Annual Meeting
Please mark your calendars for the HFNA Annual Meeting on Thursday, March 27 at 7 p.m. At this meeting, we’ll have the opportunity to connect with neighbors, learn about planned activities for 2025, discuss issues of concern, and to elect the Board of Directors. ½ of our current board will be rotating off, so we will have 3-4 spaces to fill with new members. Please consider if you might be interested in serving on the board – or also if you would be willing to be on a small nominating committee to help identify candidates for the board. We would also welcome your involvement if you would be interested in helping with one of the many events! (Please reach out to me or indicate your interest in serving on the survey form.)
TELL YOUR NEIGHBORS ABOUT US!
The strength of our neighborhood association is our people! We have a great neighborhood and would love to reach out to more. While we have an email address list representing a little over half of the 205 homes in our neighborhood boundary (see the "about us" page on the website for more info), we would love to include all as this is the most effective channel of communication. Please tell your neighbor about us, and if they aren't already on the email list ask if you can share their email with us.
Tree Give-Away
Fairfax City's urban forestry program is offering free native trees from the Arbor Day Foundation to residents in select neighborhoods this fall. (Our neighborhood is included.) Residents can input their address and order a free 1-gal tree, shipped direct to their home, at arborday.org/cityoffairfax. For more information, see the attached flyer or online at: Community Tree Distributions | City of Fairfax, VA
What Goes Where? – Recycling in the City of Fairfax
Did you know that the City of Fairfax has an 11.4% contaminate rate in the recycling stream? We can do better than that! It takes each of us to do our part to recycle right! The City has recently created the What Goes Where? search engine and game. This easy to use tool allows residents to search how to dispose of an item and any special instructions to properly discard it. The search engine also has a waste sorting game and an additional Need Nelp tap. The sorting game educates in a fun way on the waste hierarchy and how to properly dispose of items, customized to the City's programs and residential needs. (I took a few minutes to check out the Know Before You Throw Wizard and Game. I found them both to be useful tools, and I'm not gonna tell on myself, but also discovered something I hadn't been recycling properly myself all these years, so glad to know and correct it now!) Use the attached QR code or find the link to the search engine and more helpful information about recycling in the City of Fairfax here: www.fairfaxva.gov/recycling.
Pumpkin Disposal
And while it's this time of year, please remember that pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns should not be disposed of in the woods or parks, but please consider backyard composting or disposing of them at the City of Fairfax Composting Center located behind City Hall by placing them in the composting bins located next to the community garden. If you are unable to compost, then place them in your normal refuse bin at the curb.
for more information, please email hfnapresident23@gmail.com
Summer 2025
We were notified by City Staff recently that Ourisman Kia has withdrawn their proposal to build a new showroom and expand their dealership on the edge of our neighborhood, The HFNA Board has worked hard to represent the concerns of our neighborhood related to this project and we are pleased with this outcome! Thank you to all who participated in the process by sharing your concerns, attending meetings and providing other feedback when requested.
Fall 2024
The HFNA Board is continuing to monitor the Ourisman Kia proposal and has learned that it is tentatively slated to come before the new City Council on January 28. Ourisman Kia made changes based on City Staff Comments to their submission number 4 and just sent submission number 5 to the City last week. City staff have indicated the latest proposal submission will be posted this week to the development webpage found here. Our HFNA board will review and would welcome new comments from HFNA members, if any, on the revised submission. We will keep you posted as new information is available about upcoming hearings or other meetings.
Summer 2024
Thanks again for attending the meeting in June with the Ourisman Kia team. Following the meeting, I sent an email to Giff Hampshire (their counsel) requesting they provide further clarification on parking questions we had as that was a major concern at our meeting, in addition to concerns for provisions to prohibit traffic in our neighborhood from the dealership. Additionally, our neighborhood's concern for employees parking on Warwick/residential streets near the dealership was also presented.
It is up to everyone who is concerned with the issue to review the plans closely and provide feedback as to if the revised plan is something we should support or not. The HFNA Board will be meeting later in September and one of our items on our agenda will be discussing next steps in the participation/response process. Please forward your comments and feedback to me at your earliest convenience.
The Fairfax City Office of Community Development and Planning (CDP) is launching a new quarterly newsletter to "keep the community informed about the status of major development projects, as well as upcoming planning initiatives, and community meetings." I am forwarding the first newsletter that was sent out earlier this month (scroll down to see!), and I'd encourage all who are interested to subscribe to receive the quarterly newsletter directly into your own inbox. You may subscribe at the link at the bottom of the newsletter, or by going to this webpage: https://www.fairfaxva.gov/residents/news-and-information scroll down on this page to "Stay Connected!" and select the "Planning and Development News" option. (Note: You may also subscribe to other City updates at this site.)
Have news you want to include in the neighborhood updates? Email hfnapresident23@gmail.com