Sentinel

This Month

Note from the Editors

Lee District Land Use Report

Yard Sale Report

Tour de Lee Report

Police Report

Message from Supervisor McKay

Letter from Lynch Family

Announcements

Babysitters

Classifieds

Board and Committees

Sentinel Archives

Report on Stoneybrooke Yard Sale

Nineteen families participated in the Fall '08 yard sale and, by all reports, it was very successful. The ad ran in the Washington Post the prior Thursday through Saturday and numerous signs were put up in the surrounding areas. Next yard sale will be early May '09. A sincere thank you to Ruth and Bob Feist for collecting the advertising money during the yard sale, as well as Tricia Kobus for organizing. Their efforts make the yard sale possible.

Report on Tour De Lee (from Jeff McKay’s office)

From Jeff McKay's Office

The Tour de Lee took place on Sunday, October 19 on a brisk and sunny day.
Riders in the Tour met at Lee District Park where they had the opportunity to get free bicycle safety checks from Bikes@Vienna and free Tour de Lee t-shirts that were donated by Pyramid Systems, Inc. Fairfax County trail maps and ‘Slap’ bracelets were provided to riders by the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. (Slap bracelets are glow-in-the-dark safety bracelets.)

Participants were also able to check out the bicycle racks on both a Connector and Metro bus and practice loading and unloading their bicycles.

The tour was led by Bob Michie, Supervisor McKay’s appointee to the County’s Non-Motorized Transportation Committee (often called the Trails Committee).

The Franconia Police Bike Team provided assistance and SAG support.

Report from Mt. Vernon District Police

Over the period of Sunday night into early Monday morning, (October 26 - October 27), there were numerous vehicle break-ins. Officers at the Mt Vernon District Station have taken several suspects into custody as a result of these break-ins. During the course of the arrests, a significant amount of property was recovered. The arrests occurred near the Ferry Landing area of Mt Vernon. As of now it is undetermined if the suspects broke into vehicles in other nearby neighborhoods of the Mt Vernon District.
If your vehicle was broken into during that time please call the Mt Vernon Station directly at 703-360-8400 extension #0.

Message from Supervisor McKay

This has been the most astounding election cycle that I have ever seen. The Franconia Governmental Center has for many years been a satellite voting location for absentee-in-person voting. (Only a bureaucrat could have devised that name for voting that takes place before election day.) Absentee-in-person voting is not the same as early voting which Virginia does not have. In order to vote absentee-in-person, you must have a valid reason that will keep you from getting to the polls during the hours that they are open.

Absentee-in-person voting has always been leisurely at this satellite location—I don’t remember anyone waiting for more than a few minutes or circling the parking lot for twenty minutes trying to find a parking space. Not this year! In the last week of voting, people began lining up at 11:30 am for voting that would not begin until 1 pm. Lines stretched from one end of the governmental center to the other and doubled back on themselves. I was struck by how patient people were and how determined they were to cast their vote. Normally, we’re a do-it-now group of people, unwilling to wait more than a few minutes for anything, yet voters waited in line for two and three hours.

I didn’t think there’d be many people left to vote by the time election day came around, but as I was wrong. As I waited in a very long line at my polling place at an hour when turnout is usually light I thought about this historic election and reflected that whoever won would have an enormous obligation to the American people to honor their trust in democracy.

Now that the election is over, I hope that we can take that election civic mindedness and put it to use pulling together as a community and a nation. Heaven knows, the challenges in front of us will take all our energy, courage, and determination to overcome.

On a more festive note, as the year draws to a close, I would like to wish a happy holiday season and new year to you and your families. I hope you’ll join my staff and me for our annual open house from 1-3 pm on Saturday, January 31 in the community room of the Franconia Governmental Center.

Letter from Lynch Family, Former Stoneybrooke Residents

Following is a letter from Mary Pat and Michael Lynch, who lived in Stoneybrooke for over thirty years and during the summer retired to warmer weather in North Carolina:
This is a quick note to say hi to all our friends in Stoneybrooke and tell you how much we miss you all. Life is very good here – we’re close to Wilmington, North Carolina and the ocean is nearby. We’ve been working with the builder on our new house, which should be ready in the spring. That home building process is both exciting and exhausting!
But we think of our Stoneybrooke friends often and what a wonderful community you all have. It was ideal for raising our three children, and we have only the fondest memories of Stoneybrooke. And you have so much available nearby throughout northern Virginia and Washington.
Actually, two of our children, Caroline and David, remain in the Alexandria area. And our daughter Christy and her husband Trey are in Charlotte, NC, where they’re expecting their first child (our first
grandchild!) with a due date of Christmas Day!
The temperature’s been dropping, and we hope winter will be a little warmer down here. People say snow is a very rare occurrence here – we’ll find out! But suddenly Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and the holidays will soon be in full swing. We wish you all the best, and hope that you and your families have a wonderful holiday season!
Sincerely,
Mary Pat and Michael Lynch
PS: We hope to stay in touch - our phone is 910-579-4715, and email .