Hickory Farms Calendar for 2018

All activities are held in the upper Commons Field on these dates:

• Sept 8 - Volunteer Appreciation Celebration
• Oct 20 - Monster Mash Bash
• Oct 11 - HFCA Annual Meeting at Green Acres

The Board of Directors Needs YOU!

The annual election of HFCA Board Members and Officers is now underway. HFCA Treasurer is the 2018 Nominations Committee Chairperson. If you would like to serve with Dante please contact him at 703-978-0621 or dantegilmer@hotmail.com.

If you would like to nominate yourself or a neighbor for a Board position, please contact Dante so that he can include candidate names on the nominations slate to be voted on at our October Annual Meeting. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor at the Annual Meeting. To see who is currently on the Board of Directors, please click here.

Note that some of these volunteers will not be running for reelection because of other pressing responsibilities.
Dozens of volunteers have stepped forward over the past 40 years to make Hickory Farms the wonderful place it is today to live, perhaps raise a family, and enjoy surrounding attractions. Please consider volunteering this year as a member of the Board of Directors in order to keep our unbroken chain of volunteer community service going into decade number five!

How Many People Are Permitted to Live in a Hickory Farms House?

The Fairfax County zoning ordinance limits how many people can live in a single residence such as we have here in Hickory Farms (see https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/code/overcrowdingboarding-houses).

In general:

• No more than one family, plus two renters, may live in one house.
• No more than four unrelated people may live in one house.

However, the rules define that more than one person can live in a residence:

• One family, which may consist of one person or two or more persons related by blood or marriage with any number of natural children, foster children, step children or adopted children and with not to exceed two roomers or boarders.
• Two single parents or guardians with not more than a total of six of their dependent children, including natural children, foster children, step children or adopted children, functioning as a single housekeeping unit.
• A group of not more than four persons not necessarily related by blood or marriage functioning as a single housekeeping unit.
• One person or two persons one of whom shall be elderly and/or disabled, and one or both of whom own the dwelling unit, plus one family, which may consist of one person or two or more persons related by blood or marriage, and with any number of natural children, foster children, step children or adopted children.

The Hickory Farms Community Association is not empowered to address overcrowding issues. If you have any questions or complaints, call Zoning Enforcement at 703-324-1300 or file a complaint online at
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fido/complaints/comp_submit.aspx

Architectural Control Committee Activity

May

• 10011 Cotton Farm - Widen & Enclose Carport
• 4327 Farm House - Replace roof
• 4355 Farm House - Install retaining wall
• 4355 Farm House - Replace Roof
• 4367 Farm House - Replace Garage Door
• 4356 Harvester Farm - Replace Roof
• 10113 Roundtop - Replace Roof/Soffits/Gutters/Downspouts and Clad Fascia/Rake Boards

June

• 4335 Farm House - Various External Modifications (i.e., Widen Driveway, Install Rear Screened Porch, Install Front Porch & Enclose Carport)
• 4373 Farm House - Replace Roof
• 4357 Harvester Farm - Replace Rear Patio
• 10110 Roundtop - Paint House
• 4327 Still Meadow - Replace Roof
• 4333 Still Meadow - Replace Roof
• 4339 Still Meadow - Replace Roof, Remove Old Storage Shed, Install New Storage Shed

Summer Bike Parade

Summer Bike Parade starts with a quick dash to finish line and treats!

It is amazing how fast small wheels can go!

Hickory Farms is Bringing its By-Laws Up-to-Date

There are four documents that regulate how the Hickory Farms Community Association works: 1) Articles of Incorporation, 2) Declaration (our “constitution”), 3) Rulesand Regulations, and 4) By-Laws. The By-Laws haven’t been substantially reviewed since they were written in 1983. The Board of Directors has asked board member Kirk Randall (Country Squire) to form a team to review them and submit proposed changes to the homeowners at the October 11 Annual Meeting (mark your calendars!). The By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote of a quorum of members present in person or by proxy at a regular or special meeting of the membership. You can view the By-Laws at https://hickoryfarms.org/archive/By-Laws.htm If you would like to help out, please email Kirk at: Kirk_Randall@Hotmail.com

Neighborhood Watch Schedule

We are working to enlist 50 residents/teams on the roster! Contact Debbi Buchanan at 703.307.7323 or simplydebbi1@gmail.com for info or to be added to the roster.

How do you contact the Police?

Use the police, fire and rescue emergency number, 9-1-I, for crimes in progress and events which are life-threatening or immediately resulting in property damage. Call the nonemergency number, 703-691 -2131, to report crimes which already occurred and when the suspect is no longer in the area and to advise police of suspicious activity that you have observed. On-line reporting (www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police) and Citizen Reporting Service (CRS) are the Fairfax County Police Departments newest methods of reporting to police.

On-line and CRS reports can be made for the following types of incidents:

• Alcohol Violations
• Civil Disputes
• Destruction of Property
• Disorderly Conduct
• Larceny up to $5,000
• Loitering
• Lost Property
• Noise Violations
• Police Service
• Solicitor Violations
• Suspicious Events/Persons/Vehicles
• Trespassing
• Telephone Harassment/Threats /Vehicle Tampering

Deed and Declaration Change: Final Countdown!

Attention all Hickory Farms Homeowners! Your last opportunity for approving or disapproving the proposed amendments to our Hickory Farms Deed and Declaration document is counting down and scheduled to close by the end of August 2018. Attached to this newsletter is the proposed Amendments to the Deed and Declaration form. We need to hear from each homeowner!

• Those homeowners in favor, please fill out the form and send it in to the HFCA mailbox: HFCA, P.O. Box 2239, Fairfax, Virginia 22031
• Those homeowners not in favor, please send me an email at hfca@hickoryfarms.org so that we keep count of those not in favor.

In order for the revisions to become effective, 75% (149 of our 198 homeowners) must approve the changes by completing the Amendment form. If more than 50 homeowners do not agree with the amendments, the changes will not be approved. To date, we have received 71 valid Amendment forms. We have received zero homeowner disapproval votes. (Five duplicate forms have been received and one signed form from a deceased homeowner is no longer valid.) During the final countdown in August, a ListServe email will be sent, individual phone calls to homeowners are planned and individual visits to homeowners will be made.

The HF Board of Directors approved the changes and presented the background for the revisions at the Annual Meeting in October 2017. Your HF Board requests your support to complete the Amendment form and send it in!

If you have any questions regarding the proposed Amendments to the Deed and Declaration, please give me a call or text at 703-989-0751. For those homeowners who have sent in their forms, thank you! For those homeowners who have not yet responded, please do so now so that your voice is heard.

Thanks!
Bruce Bernhardt
HFCA Vice President

The Birds of Hickory Farms

Bob Cosgriff, Cotton Farm Road

There is a lot to report since the last article back in April. Because of the wet weather, this year’s migration was not the best one we’ve ever experienced here, with many birds just not showing up, and those that did appearing in smaller numbers than usual. Still, it still brought some nice surprises. Here are the highlights:

4/26 — A Bald Eagle being chased by a crow above the intersection of Cotton Farm Road and Farm House Lane. This is only the fourth Bald Eagle sighting in Hickory Farms.

5/4 — A big day with Cape May Warbler (only the second yard/neighborhood sighting, the other on 5/10/2001!), Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Northern Parula Warbler, and Black-and-white Warbler. The grosbeak was at a feeder and the tanager in a tree high above at the same time. These are two of the most beautiful neo-tropical birds and this was a spectacular sight to see them together.

5/5 — another exciting day, with a Blue Grosbeak, the first-ever yard or neighborhood sighting. At one point, we had both the Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeak in sight on a feeder! With the Blue Grosbeak, the HFCA all-time count stands at 121 species.

By the end of our count on 5/15, we had added some additional warblers for a total of eight in the yard, nine in the neighborhood. This is below our average yearly total. We blame the weather.

6/15 — we heard an Acadian Flycatcher. This was the first-ever in our yard (although they had been heard and seen previously along the path by the creek). This brought our yard total for the year to 61 species, an all-time high.

Our backyard daily average species count for April was 23 and for May (15 observation days) it was 20, with the Jan-May average being 21. This is a new high. In April we set a one-day record of 28 species seen on 4/18, and in May we broke that with a one-day total of 29 on 5/3. We added three new birds to the neighborhood total this year: Palm Warbler, Broad-winged Hawk, and Blue Grosbeak. So there has been much to appreciate so far in 2018 here in Hickory Farms, even if the spring migration in terms of numbers and “intensity” was a bit of a let-down.

Out on the bluebird trail, we have had some good news and some bad news. An early nest with five hatchlings in the lower common ground was predated in late April by aggressive, non-native House Sparrows, who killed the hatchlings and removed their bodies from the nest. Meanwhile, two other boxes in the lower common grounds had bluebird eggs in them. These eggs hatched, but again, House Sparrows attacked and killed the nestlings in one of them and built their nest over the blue-bird nest. The other box was more successful with four nestlings fledging about 30 May. Two addi-tional nests were built in mid-June. One produced four hatchlings with fledging likely by the end of July. No eggs were laid in the other box for some reason. So our season total will be only eight new bluebirds.

Meanwhile, two Tree Swallows investigated the box near the creek on Cotton Farm Road in early May. A few days later, we found a dead Tree Swallow in this box, which was unfortunate, since these are the first Tree Swallows noted here in three years. Since then, we have not seen any others in the neighborhood. In a case of “turnabout is fair play,” we found a dead House Sparrow in another box in the lower common grounds. Whodunit?? Who knows? It’s a rough world out there for birds.

Soon, the fall migration will start. Some birds are already on their way south, but the peak is not until September and October. Much of the migration occurs along mountain ridges (raptors) and the coast (shorebirds, waders, ducks and geese). However, we should see some songbird mi-grants passing through Hickory Farms.

Until next time, enjoy the remainder of the summer!

Thank You! Thank You! And Thank You!

Thanks to Melissa’s artistic skills the Hickory Farms entry signs stand out. In the past, visitors to our neighborhood would miss the landmark entry signs.

Bob Cosgriff and Melissa Stark have put many hours landscaping our entry sign areas. The result is a safe and attractive entry that announces our neighborhood with pride.

Well done and greatly appreciated!

Student Services

If you wish to offer services such as snow removal, raking leaves, lawn mowing, babysitting, general home maintenance, etc., email kirk_randall@hotmail.com

George Mason Fitness Memberships

Get a great workout — practically in your own backyard — at any of the 3 George Mason University gyms listed below! Join your HFCA neighbors as a corporate member of Mason Fitness. Annual membership rates are competitive with area gyms and you can’t beat the location!

Membership (currently $450 for August 31, 2017 – August 31, 2018) includes access to:

1. Aquatic and Fitness Center, which has a variety of fitness programs, cardio and strength equipment, and aquatic amenities and programs https://recreation.gmu.edu/ facilities/aquatic-and- fitness-center/
2. Recreation and Athletic Center (the “RAC”) which has three gymnasiums, racquetball courts, squash courts, and a two story fitness gallery https://recreation.gmu.edu/ facilities/rac/
3. Skyline Fitness Center which features cardio, weight training/strength equipment and a basketball court. This gym is open 24 hours during the fall and spring semesters https://recreation.gmu.edu/ facili-ties/skyline-fitness/

Other features include:

• Recreational pool
• Whirlpool & Sauna
• Extensive group exercise program
• Fitness & Aquatic programs
• Weight training/strength gallery
• Cardio gallery
• Cycle studio & multipurpose room
• Olympic size pool
• Dedicated room for stretching and light weight use
• Men’s and women’s locker rooms
• Family changing room

Mason’s corporate membership policy requires us to provide a roster with each member’s full name, ad-dress, and date of birth. Members must be residents of Hickory Farms.

Please contact Jennifer Maloney at jmaloney57@gmail.com, you wish to renew your membership or be-come a new member. Annual membership fees for 2018-2019 will be announced this summer and will be due early August 2018.

Senior Resources

Fairfax County has many resources for seniors. Aging, disability and Caregiver Resource Line: (703) 324-7948 The one-stop webpage (https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/familyservices/older-adults) for information about services, recreation and community engagement opportunities. The website has an extensive links to county resources.

Fairfax County has 12 (over age 50) Senior Centers. There is an annual fee for Fairfax County residents is $48 per person or $5 guest fee for Fairfax County residents or $10 for non-residents. The nearest senior center to Hickory Farms is Little River Glen Senior Center on 4001 Barker Court, Fairfax VA 22032. (Website: www.LittleRiverGlen Senior Center.org) They have many free and fee-based senior classes that include languages, exercise and crafts.

While on the topic of seniors, be sure to mention OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) on Roberts Road next to the swimming pool, which provides a variety of instructional courses taught by local university faculty, retired ambassadors and government officials, and other smart folks. https://olli.gmu.edu/winter-2018-catalog/