Hello, and welcome to another fact-filled edition of the Solaridge community newsletter. This rag is published in my spare time, usually a Saturday morning over a cup of strong English breakfast tea, when my notes for the next issue have accumulated to a precipitous point. If you have something you’d like mentioned, leave me a message at home, 620-0159 and I’ll add it to the pot...

A recent Post article on house siding recognized natural cedar as a premium step above more common aluminum or plastic composites. Cedar is known for its natural warm appearance. The downside is increased maintenance. It’s essential to restain every few years while it still looks OK -- before water penetrates and begins to cause deterioration of the wood fiber. Else, you will replace many boards. Our cluster colors are on file at Reston Association, including the lighter contemporary shade established by Tom and Vicki Pyle.

Trees are another attraction of our cluster. They tower over and alongside most of our Solaridge homes. I fertilize many of these regularly with small amounts of good quality tree fertilizer (IBDU products) to ensure they stay vigorous and healthy. We have just had our tree care company in for an annual inspection, to ensure the health and safety of the trees. The maintenance program entails some expense -- such as cabling one mature oak last year to ensure it didn’t threaten a home’s safety, and removing diseased trees this year. But looking at our towering, healthy native trees painted in scarlet and crimson this week, I think it’s well worthwhile.

Winter’s coming. After the time change, our evenings seem to vanish. Let’s all remember our Pole Lamps. And use them. Remember the warm welcome glow of a Solar street lined with outdoor lights! At 8PM or 6AM! Like a Victorian street scene. Almost like gas lights.

One resident recently suggested switching to a sodium vapor pole light, Virginia Power’s NightWatch system. I spoke to DRB about this. The one place in Reston you can see sodium vapor is the public lighting in the development across Glade Drive from Dogwood School and the Stonegate Apartments. I don’t favor using these in Solaridge: they are brilliant and have a distinct orange cast.

I suggest we all use our existing pole lamps. The look is much more upscale, and if they are all lighted, the street looks warm, welcome and safe. If you need one, I know where to obtain a replacement globe of the special bronze glass. Consider a timer in the house or a photocell, pole mounted. Lobby your neighbor to turn on that light!

Asphalt’s Complete! We got a quality job, at a fair price. I’m pleased. We cut and patched the damaged areas. Residents who repaired their driveways got a superb deal: top notch heavy construction at a fraction -- truly a fraction -- of the cost of having someone come in specifically to do just a few driveways. Wish I’d done mine!

Thanks for your cooperation and assistance with the ongoing work. And both the board and our hardworking treasurer Evan Douple appreciate your payment of the assessment on time to make this all possible! A small number of homeowners either have not responded at all or have fallen seriously behind in cluster payments. Virginia statute gives us no choice but to proceed with judgments and property liens in those cases.

Both the paving company superintendent and the independent civil engineer consulting on our project say we should do a full cluster-wide 2" asphalt surface layer within twenty four months, to seal the streets and stop further deterioration of the original installation. This assessment is based on the condition of our subsoil, stone, and existing asphalt base, known once the streets were opened. While this wasn’t the worst news we could have received, it wasn’t the best news, either. At least, if we do a 2" overlay we will have beautiful streets.

At the cluster asphalt meeting last July, the cluster members voted unanimously to cut back trash pickup to once a week to save wear and tear on the streets. A single fully loaded truck causes more damage to the pavement than the passage of twenty thousand passenger cars. We’ve arranged this with Rainbow Waste, and the new schedule is: <<<XXXX>>>. In addition, at the recommendation of the paving experts, we’ve asked the Rainbow trucks to continue staying off the pipestem we recently repaved at the foot of Solaridge Drive. This is the lowest and wettest road area in the cluster and will be quickest to deteriorate if not treated carefully.

A question about mailboxes. Both posts and boxes are almost worn out. Cedar posts are falling over, boxes are rusted and corroded. Do you favor making this replacement a cluster responsibility? I think we should, since mailboxes largely disappear from sight if they’re all alike. But if every post and box is unique, they emerge from the background to make an architectural statement. I’m not too fond of the white plastic Post newspaper tubes which that company has attached to our frames, but... cedar newspaper tubes?? I guess not. Call me with ideas...

 

Lynn Devore

 

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