MHNA Newsletter August 2016 Page 1 www.MHNAnews.com August 2016 A Message from the MHNA President INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Message from the MHNA President 1 Our New 2016 MHNA Directory 1 Our New Roads 2 Calendar of Events 4 Miller Heights Real Estate Update 4 Committee and Officer Updates 6 New MHNA Members 6 Message from Fairfax Alerts 7 Officers and Committee Chairs 7 Community Services (Baby and Pet Sitters) 8 Nextdoor Miller Heights 9 Please Slow Down 10 Mosquito Control 11 Advertisements 12 MHNA Membership Form 13 New 2016 MHNA Directory If you are an MHNA member, you should have received our new 2016 Directory. We publish a new version every two years with current residents’ information, emergency contact numbers and baby and petting sitting contacts. The Directory can be a handy addition to your household. For new members joining in the future, we will ensure you get a copy also. wider. Let’s remember to observe the speed limit. The school buses will soon be rolling!!!!! I encourage all to keep their outside fronts lights on from dawn to dust. Jim Tiani President MHNA Welcome to all the new families that have moved into the Miller Heights neighborhood since January of 2016. Craig Lilly, our Hospitality Chair, has met many of you or either dropped off the hospitality package. I encourage those who may not have sent in their membership to Mil- ler Heights Neighborhood Association (MHNA) to do so. On another note, all MHNA members are entitled to the benefits and products offered by the Congressional Fed- eral Credit Union located at 10461 White Granite Dr, Oakton such as: checking, savings, fixed loans, variable rate line of credit and equity loans to name a few. If you would like more information regarding Congressional Federal and the products they offer, please contact Valerie Manuel at (703) 261-2839 and identify yourself as an MHNA member. Neighborhood Parties: As a reminder, MHNA will contribute $50 towards neighborhood block parties. See further details in the Newsletter. Safety Reminders Our new roads are beautiful as well as being a bit
Transcript
MHNA Newsletter August 2016 Page 1
www.MHNAnews.com August 2016
A Message from the
MHNA President
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Message from the MHNA President 1
Our New 2016 MHNA Directory 1
Our New Roads 2
Calendar of Events 4
Miller Heights Real Estate Update 4
Committee and Officer Updates 6
New MHNA Members 6
Message from Fairfax Alerts 7
Officers and Committee Chairs 7
Community Services (Baby and Pet Sitters) 8
Nextdoor Miller Heights 9
Please Slow Down 10
Mosquito Control 11
Advertisements 12
MHNA Membership Form 13
Ne w 201 6 MHNA D i r ec to ry
If you are an MHNA member, you should have received
our new 2016 Directory. We publish a new version every
two years with current residents’ information, emergency
contact numbers and baby and petting sitting contacts.
The Directory can be a handy addition to your household. For new members joining in the future, we will ensure you
get a copy also.
wider. Let’s remember to observe the speed limit. The
school buses will soon be rolling!!!!!
I encourage all to keep their outside fronts lights on
from dawn to dust.
Jim Tiani
President MHNA
Welcome to all the new families that have moved into the
Miller Heights neighborhood since January of 2016.
Craig Lilly, our Hospitality Chair, has met many of you or
either dropped off the hospitality package. I encourage
those who may not have sent in their membership to Mil-
ler Heights Neighborhood Association (MHNA) to do so.
On another note, all MHNA members are entitled to the
benefits and products offered by the Congressional Fed-
eral Credit Union located at 10461 White Granite Dr,
Oakton such as: checking, savings, fixed loans, variable
rate line of credit and equity loans to name a few.
If you would like more information regarding
Congressional Federal and the products they offer,
please contact Valerie Manuel at (703) 261-2839 and
identify yourself as an MHNA member.
Neighborhood Parties: As a reminder, MHNA will
contribute $50 towards neighborhood block parties. See
further details in the Newsletter.
Safety Reminders
Our new roads are beautiful as well as being a bit
MHNA Newsletter August 2016 Page 2
What do you think of our new roads in Miller Heights?
VDOT and their contractors have done a great resurfacing of all, not just some, of the streets in the area, including the desperately-needed Miller Road resurfacing.
This was not a patch job this time. The streets were given a first-class makeover. Thank you, VDOT, your contrac-tors Virginia Paving and everyone else responsible!
The contractors were able to keep all the roads open and passable the full time of the resurfacing.
In addition, after the roads were completed, several of us have had our driveways recoated to match our new roads.
See the following photos of the weeks’ long process.
Our New Roads in Miller Heights!
Initial coating for the road
Delivering the new asphalt
Laying down the asphalt
It takes many workers knowing their jobs
Big roller compressing and smoothing
Smaller roller smoothing the seams
MHNA Newsletter August 2016 Page 3
Our New roads in Miller Heights!
Working on a HOT day Final smoothing with both rollers
Final touch to Gravel
And finally, laying and rolling gravel, sweeping and clean-up
The last step— Sweeping up One Last Roll!
Thanks Again VDOT and Virginia Paving!
MHNA Newsletter August 2016 Page 4
A lot of people ask me if I think we are
in a “buyer’s market” or a “seller’s mar-
ket”. After the beating we all took during
the recession, most homeowners in our
area seem to think sellers now have the
edge and can drive a hard bargain with
buyers. They also want to know how much homes have
appreciated in the past year.
I think we’re in a balanced market, which favors neither
side, and appreciation has been rather flat. Not losing
ground, but not gaining much either. Although I hear from
my colleagues that the inventory of homes has been low
this year, I haven’t seen many multiple offer situations. I
find this reassuring, since it means the real estate market
isn’t overheated. We certainly don’t need another episode
like we saw ten years ago of irrational price escalation,
followed by a bust.
When I study the Miller Heights market I look at what has
sold in the previous twelve months, in this case back to
the beginning of August 2015. This community has again
seen 40 homes change hands (it was 39 in my twelve
month look back last year), of which 30 were in what I call
“classic” Miller Heights, the homes built around 1980. On
average those homes sold for $745,000, which is a small
drop from the $762,000 average I noted in my last report
in November 2015. The average time for a home to get a
contract was 53 days, but as you can see from the chart
there were a lot of homes that sold in much less time.
In the newer parts of Miller Heights, like Windsong and
Wheatland Farms, the average sold price of the ten
homes that sold was a lot higher, $1,555,000, and the
time to sell a lot longer, around 103 days. We had a num-
ber of these homes come on the market about the same
time this past spring, and that flooded the market a bit.
These stats all point to a very stable market and steady
demand for homes in our great community. It’s fun to see
a lot of new folks joining us long-term residents (Leslie
and I have been here for 19 years), bringing their energy
and desire to get involved.
I hope you have a pleasant remainder of the summer.
The days are getting longer and despite the heat we
know Fall is right around the corner, with the colors and
cool evenings and parade of school buses in the morn-
ing. I love it!
Craig Lilly, Realtor, Long & Foster, Vienna
See the following page for more details on homes for
All information provided by Metropolitan Regional Information System (MRIS)
This is not intended to suggest any of these homes were sold by Craig Lilly or Long & Foster Realtors, and is not intended to be a solicitation of your business.
MHNA Newsletter August 2016 Page 6
Committee and Officer reports
Me m b er s h i p Up dat e
John Waypa, our Treasurer and Membership Committee
Chairperson, continually updates the MHNA database
as membership forms and dues are received. Currently,
our membership stands at 252 families for the 2015-
2016 dues cycle, a 21% increase from the 2013- 2014
membership level, and the highest membership ever for
the Miller Heights Neighborhoods Association.
If you are not already an MHNA member, please consid-
er joining by using the form on the last page. If you are
currently a member, your renewal and continued support
of our community activities is very important to us. This
is an important civic organization that offers our commu-
nities a collective voice when significant local issues af-
fect us. Notice that the membership dues form is now
for the years 2017 & 2018. We will initiate our dues
drive for 2017 & 2018 in November of this year. All dues
received from this point forward will receive full credit for
the years 2017 & 2018. Current members can consider
paying their 2017 & 2018 dues early, knowing they will
receive full credit for the two years.
D i f f i cul t R u n C l e an - U p
Helen Hollingsworth led the Difficult Run
clean up in April and reports they had a nice
turnout. They collected many cans, bottles,
and lots of other trash in the stream itself and
also in the flood plain areas. Look for signs
for the next sometime around Earth Day in April, 2017.
L an dsc ap i n g
Leslie Lilly is our Landscaping Committee Chairperson.
The corner plot at the Oakton Rd entrance to Miller
Heights has been worked on diligently, having to put
down new mulch, constantly replanting flowers and bush-
es, and repairing the rock wall surrounding the bed when
they were knocked down by errant drivers. Then apply-
ing a little Roundup on the weeds and, of course, some
Liquid fence to keep the deer from browsing the lirope.
If you would like to help Leslie … give her a call,
Leslie Lilly 703-864-3360.
In addition to
Leslie, of
course, Blue Sky
Landscaping is
our contractor
for landscaping
services for
MHNA.
A n n u al Y ar d S al e
Mark your calendars for the Spring 2017 Yard/Garage
Sale scheduled for a weekend in the April/May
timeframe. Any items you consider to be "junk" could be
someone else's "treasure". Yard Signs will be available
in advance of the event and MHNA will publicize the
event for maximum coverage. So join your neighbors in
this money making event sponsored by your MHNA.
P o t h ol es
To report a pothole, citizens should visit
http://virginiadot.org/travel/citizen.asp or call VDOT’s
Customer Service Center at 1-800-367-7623. TTY us-
ers, call 711. Northern Virginia drivers can also email
For more information about outreach and public educa-tion, and the latest news about emergency management, visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/oem/outreach/.
Thanks for reading the Emergency Preparedness News-letter. Please let us know how we can be of assistance. Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management Tel: 571-350-1000, TTY 711
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/oem
Register for Fairfax Alerts!
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/alerts
Emergency Information Website
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/emergency
P o w er Out ag es
To report a power outage to Dominion Power, you can
call 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357), or you can
contact them via the Internet at:
https://www.dom.com/storm-center/index.jsp.
This same site allows you to check the status of any out-
ages.
Newsletter News…
If you have information, items of interest to our commu-nity, or human interest stories you would like included in the MHNA Newsletter, please contact Barry Ingram at: [email protected] Ph. - (703) 691-8584
Board Officers and
MHNA Officers
President Jim Tiani
Vice President Marlene Hammond
Secretary Leslie Campbell
Treasurer John Waypa
Committee Chairs
Membership John Waypa
Webmaster Barry Ingram
Newsletter Barry Ingram
Trails Helen Hollingsworth
Landscaping Leslie Lilly
Hospitality Craig Lilly
Safety Jim Tiani
Note: Safety includes Neighborhood Watch and Citi-
zens Advisory Committee
B lo ck P art y S u pp or t
To help encourage more neighborhood block parties on
your street, MHNA will now provide for a $50 donation to
Heading to college in the fall but is available for babysitting and pet sitting on school breaks. Has access to car and can drive kids as necessary for camps, etc.
Morgan Doss 22 (C)703 304-8227 Available for pet sitting too.
Natalia Wyatt 17 (H) 703-343-374 Available for baby and petsitting
Oakton High School Sophomore. Loves animals and loves to play and care for them, i.e., dog walk or pet care when families are away at vacation. Babysit or a mother's helper. (mom’s cell – Linh) 703-965-4515
Tessa Bayer 13 (H) 703-938-529 Available for babysitting and petsitting
Available for petsitting and Mommy's helper. Girl Scout and CPR trained. References available.
Liam Bloom 15 (C) 703-975-3849 Oakton High School. Available for petsitting
Noah Lindorf 15 (H)703 281-0651 Pet sitting only. References available.
Rachel Bloom 15 (C) 703-975-3849 Oakton High School. Available for petsitting.
Have you heard of Nextdoor yet? It provides a service for neighborhoods all over the U. S. Here is their state-ment of purpose from their website:
Nextdoor is the private social network for you, your neighbors and your community. It's the easiest way for you and your neighbors to talk online and make all of your lives better in the real world. And it's free. Thousands of neighbor-hoods are already using Nextdoor to build happier, safer places to call home.
People are using Nextdoor to:
Quickly get the word out about a break-in
Organize a Neighborhood Watch Group
Track down a trustworthy babysitter
Find out who does the best paint job in town
Ask for help keeping an eye out for a lost dog
Find a new home for an outgrown bike
Finally call that nice man down the street by his first name Nextdoor’s mission is to use the power of technology to build stronger and safer neighborhoods
The Miller Heights Nextdoor group already has 168 of our neighbors signed up and it is growing every day,
You can be invited by your neighbor or sign up directly on the website. The link to the site is :
If you wish to place an add in the newsletter please send
the check payable to MHNA to the following address with
your final ad copy:
MHNA
P.O.Box 538
Oakton, VA. 22124
Written by Miller Heights resident and former Marine, Mike McCarey, Atrocity provides a riveting look at the difficult issues the Vietnam War posed for our military legal system.
It reads well too. It’s “fantastic,” said former military judge Col William Eleazer, USMC (Ret.). Col David F. Wall, US-MCR (Ret.) said, “What a great story . . . so well written.”
Readers have given Atrocity an almost perfect score on Amazon.
Oakton Congregation seeking childcare staff for 1-2 Sun-day mornings a month in the nursery and optional occa-sional weekend or evening opportunities. Seeking at least one person 21 or over and 2-3 high school teens. Contact MH neighbor Linnea Nelson, at [email protected].
