NEW Election Progress 11/26/13 Rev 11/27/13

The closest race in Virginia's history has moved closer to being finalized as the State Board of Elections on Monday certified Herring as the winner of the Attorney General constest. On Tuesday, Mark Obenshain indicated he would seek a recount.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe
Lt. Governor Ralph Northam (easy win)
Attorney General Herring by 165 votes out of 2 million cast

Westbriar's 35th District Virginia Delegate Mark Keam (close race)
Adjacent 34th District Virginia Delegate Barbara Comstock (close race)

Local Author Introduces an Important Life Guide 10/13/13

Jenifer Joy Madden speaks of ways we can keep ourselves durable.

I was at Jammin' Java this afternoon for an authors' meet, and picked up a copy of Jenifer's newly published Manifesto. This thin but powerful booklet can be read in five minutes, but the ideas expressed could change your life. It is best read slowly. And with introspection.

Especially, if you are a parents of young children and have nagging uncertainties about the fact that today's kids spend 7 hours a day looking at a screen. Or, if you are simply looking for affirmation that there are others out there that might share your mixed feelings about the Computer Age.

About the Author...

Jenifer Joy Madden is multi-faceted Renaissance Woman, who juggles many disparate facets of her life with seeming ease and light-heartedness, yet brings a certain gravitas and order to all she touches.

A science, environment, and relationship communicator, civic leader, speaker, and journalism professor, Jenifer serves our end of town well through her accomplishments in transportation planning for Tysons. She is widely known as the force behind the new pedestrian bridge linking Vienna to the Wolf Trap Filene Center.

Measuring up Westbriar 9/29/13

If you see someone walking what appears to be a red wheel along the sidewalk, here's the lowdown: It is a rotating ruler. For 50 years, the Luminaria program distributed 10 candles for every house and 20 for corner houses. While simple, it was not very realistic. Because home lots vary in size, it resulted in a non-uniform look. Especially in cul-de-sacs, where the pie-shaped lots called for fewer candles per house, it resulted in quite a blaze. A waste, really. So, our new computerized data base now has an additional column: Your lot's street footage. By the magic of computers and Excel programming, we can now just plug in the desired candle spacing, and instantly, every one of the 435 Westbriar houses will have its required candles, with spacings nice and uniform down the whole street.

Another reason for this effort is economics. Nearly two thirds of the revenue raised go back into buying more candles for the next year. The cost of the Luminaria materials continues to go up, as well as the costs of registering and hosting this newsletter. We want to keep the costs down, and have recently done some subjective testing at night. We find that we can space the candles out farther, and still achieve the same beautiful look. So, starting this year, we are going to aim for 15 feet between candles. This will forestall the day when we have to raise our annual fee. And it should be good news for everyone, since folding bags and setting them out is not the most enjoyable part of the Luminaria.

The measurements are not super accurate, like it would be with a surveyor. We take our cues from fences, utility boxes, and how people mow their lawns. You can look at our data base and see the figure we came up with for your house.

If anyone would like some extra candles, perhaps for a summer patio party, to line your walk to the front door for a Christmas party, or to fill a gap created by a new house under construction, you need only give us a call. We have extras on hand, yours for the asking.

Fairfax County Chairman Sharon Bulova thought a while before posting this link on her Facebook page, since the subject matter is something many people don't want to think about. But with VA Tech, Sandy Hook, Ft Hood, Navy Yard, and now, Nairobi, she thought the greater good was to see it.

This video, produced by the Houston Police, could save your life.

Old Courthouse Road Getting a Facelift 8/8/13

Alert residents along the Eastern edge of Westbriar may have noticed a lot of new colorful markings on Old Courthouse Road. Crews have been out marking certain infrastructure items in preparation for a complete resurfacing tentatively scheduled for this fall. The resurfacing will be a large job, and will be done by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Old Courthouse Road, often nicknamed "OCR", is VA State Road 677. New asphalt will be laid down from Route 7, up Gosnell Road, and all the way out to Trap Road, according to VDOT Inspector Max Taheri. Repairs will be made to drainage features as appropriate.

Westbriar Community Outreach Committee will be in contact with the VDOT offices to make suggestions for possible improvements. One item being studied is making the crosswalk at Pine Valley Drive a raised table. The edges of the table could contain reflective markers to enhance safety for crossing students.

Another item concerns the frequent flooding of the Wolftrap Creek at Besley Road. Westbriar Civic Association has "adopted" the culvert, and can claim some success in mitigating the frequency and severity of the floods. After every moderate to heavy rainfall, an Outreach Committee member checks on the drainage, and if a cleanup is needed, a report is filed with VDOT. The response has always been prompt, but it is a never ending task. A better solution is needed, and this road work would be the ideal time to address it.

The creek passes under Route 677 through an oval shaped culvert, 5 feet wide by 4 feet high. This would be sufficient for even the worst of storms unless the culvert gets blocked. And that is the rub. If rising water floats some deadwood out of the forest and it gets snagged on the culvert, soon other branches snag also. Then comes brush, vines, grasses and leaves, and soon the stoppage is complete and the water rapidly goes over the roadway. A larger culvert is needed.

Flooding is a dangerous situation, since cars will float in surprisingly shallow water. Even wading to safety in knee-deep water is risky. At the very least, closure of this important artery creates huge traffic problems. Blockages of the culvert are not apparent to motorists crossing the culvert. For this reason, the inspection must be done by checking from creek level. The photo at left below is the normal condition.

The photo at the right was taken 7/31/13 after some moderate rains the previous nights almost caused water over the road. Note the log caught in the culvert and the flotsam piled to the road level. VDOT cleared the situation the next day after this photo was emailed in.