Dear Neighbors,
The road committee would like to share an update on what has been happening with Goose Creek Lane and the financial status of the road fund.
As you know, the current condition of the road was very poor before last week’s fix-up. We have been trying our best to efficiently utilize the limited funds we have to make them last through the year, but we are already close to being out of 2019 dues. We are working with the contractor to setup a long term repair and maintenance plan to get the road in a condition that will not degrade so quickly and would like to discuss this plan with you during a neighborhood road meeting on Sunday, April 7th at 5pm (more details at end of newsletter).
You may have noticed the large potholes and mud that developed in the section of road past the mirror as you drive out prior to the last fix-up. This was caused in large part to poor plowing by a neighbor that plowed snow into the side of the road where we had built the culverts, rather than off to the North side. This caused the snow to melt and drain to the middle of the road and not be able to flow out. Similar road damage occurred in front of the Johnson’s barn where plowing pushed debris into the culvert along the North side of the road, causing rain and snow melt to flow out onto the road, worsening potholes through that section. We would like to ask those that do volunteer their equipment and time, to be conscious of the drainage impacts of your plowing. The last set of road repairs we had last week cost over $5,800!
As mentioned earlier, we are working with our contractor to put together a long term road repair and maintenance plan. This plan will address the continual degradation of the road and put in place major upgrades to prevent the rapid deterioration we have seen in recent years. Part of the proposal also includes a regular snow clearing contract so that the road will not be damaged by neighbors plowing and accidentally creating additional problems. We plan on discussing this plan at the next meeting, which should also be attended by our primary road contractor if he is available. We would like to point out that this plan should bring the road up to a much higher standard and allow us to maintain it at that standard so we do not have to go for weeks and months with the road in nearly impassible conditions.
However, this proposed plan is not cheap. The initial upgrades to bring it up to a higher standard are estimated to be between $10k and $13k, with annual maintenance of $10k. Obviously, we will not be able to execute this plan without additional funds. Quite honestly, as you will see at the end of this letter, we may not even be able to maintain the road for the rest of the year without additional funds. To that end, we would like to hold a neighborhood road meeting to allow for your input on how we maintain the road into the future. Please plan on attending this important meeting:
Road Meeting – Sunday April 7th, 5:00 PM
21100 Grey Fox Lane
Dial -in: Contact us for phone number
During the meeting we will discuss in detail the proposed maintenance and improvement plan and its costs, current financial state of the road fund, road fund improvement plans, and opportunities for helping with the road.
Neighborhood Business Listing
Several neighbors have asked about compiling a list of business and services that our neighbors provide. To help facilitate this we would like to offer any neighbor that is current on road dues the opportunity to have their business/services listed on the website. That way if you need a service you can hopefully find it provided by one of your neighbors. If you would like your business/service listed, please send us an email with your business/service name, a few sentences about what service is provided, website link, and logo image. Then next time we send out a newsletter we will provide a summary of the local businesses as well as a link to our website where they are all listed.
Road Dues
As you are aware the annual GCF road dues for 2019 are now due and were increased, as was discussed and voted on last year, to $350 annually – the first increase in many years. Please consider this your notice and send your $350 dues payments for 2019 as soon as possible to:
Goose Creek Farms Road Committee
PO Box 604
Leesburg, VA 20176
*If you have not yet paid 2018, please send that payment ($300) in as well!
As of the writing of this letter, 26 households out of 45 in the neighborhood have contributed to the road fund in 2019. Thank you to the following 26 families:
- Adams, Tim & Patricia
- Bohn, Ron & Theresa
- Brown, Brad & Kathy
- Cha, James & Faith
- Chin, Allison
- Cook, Sara & Chris
- Coupar, George & Hazel
- Crawford, Mary Alice
- Dick, Edward & Jessica
- Green, Harley & Adrienne
- Hinke, Fred & Nancy
- Horton, Dave & Mallory
- Jeyanathan, Jey
- Isom, John & Christine (Tina)
- Judd, David & Janice
- Koritko, Kerry & Gudnadottir, Ingrid
- Lambert, Jim & Monica
- Larson, Chey & Matthews, Deb
- McCormick, William & Sandra
- Pickett, Dave & Missy
- Roush, Mike & Jeanne
- Sanders, William & Julie
- Sawyer, Jonathan & Ashley
- Victor, Michael Trisha
- Virt, David & Sarah
- Weaver, Cory & Debra
If you do not see your neighbor on the list, we encourage you to please chat with them about the importance of maintaining the road. Encourage them to help contribute so we can keep the road in good condition.
If it is difficult to budget a one-time dues payment, you can always send monthly installments. Any contribution helps and will allow our neighborhood to have a road that is passable.
Another comment that we have heard is that some individuals feel that if they use their personal equipment to plow snow on the road or do other occasional work that they then are absolved from the responsibility of contributing to the road fund. While it is nice when neighbors volunteer their equipment, the road dues are frankly a minimum contribution to a shared community resource. If one chooses to volunteer their equipment outside of coordination with the road committee then that is just being a good neighbor, but does not actually help with the financial requirements of maintaining the road. If you feel something on the road needs to be done that is not happening, please do not just use your own equipment to “fix it” and then feel like the neighborhood is indebted to you so that you do not contribute to the road fund. We have seen too many times that these “fixes” end up causing more damage and financial burden to the road fund. So we ask you to please coordinate with the committee and we can find an optimal way to get the work done, be it some combination of neighbor volunteerism or with paid contractors.
Road Fund
To recap 2018, we spent $13,995 and received $8,400 in contributions; resulting in a net loss of $5,595 and an ending balance of $12,787.
The good news for 2019, is that many of you that did not get your contributions into the fund in 2018, made up for it already this year. To date we have received $9,700 in contributions from the families listed above, well done! The bad news is that in the first three months of 2019 we have had to spend over $8,300 for plowing, sanding, and major road damage repair. That will leave us with just over $1k of contributions to cover ¾ of the year unless we go further into our reserves.
Between now and the scheduled neighborhood road meeting, please think about what might happen to our neighborhood if we do not, as a community, take steps to improve the quality of Goose Creek Lane. If we run out of money and can’t make repairs, services like UPS/FedEx/Amazon/USPS may stop delivering up the road. Friends and family from town may not want to come visit. Cost of maintaining our vehicles due to damage from the road will increase. Property values will decrease or not sell at all.
We are going to do everything we can with the funds available to keep the road in passable condition, but the reality is we may very well run out of money in 2019 if we continue to have the rainy weather like 2018. We look forward to discussing the road plans with you and hope to see each of you at the next meeting!
Best regards,
Harley, Ashley, Mallory, and Cory
GCF Road Committee 2019