Town Crier Articles

• For sale/rent signs in the special New Town format (available from Town Management) 

• Builder advertising signs

• Political candidate signs during election periods

• Homeowner event signs from the NTRA

Now that we have all, I’m sure, studied the primary Declaration for New Town and the Supplementals, we can peruse the Bylaws in our big fat notebooks or e-document. 

 

Our Bylaws delineate the roles, powers, and duties of the Board and establish the guidelines for conducting business. They also cover varied obligations such as insurance, address the role of the managing agent, and mandate some committees (e.g., Architectural Review) while allowing for others (e.g., Neighborhood Advisory Committees). 

 

The caveat, of course, is that these existing Bylaws were written by or for the Developers, New Town Associates, LLC. Although the original Bylaws made some provisions for the day when New Town would be turned over to the homeowners, they are clearly no longer pertinent to our position as an independent Homeowners Association. 

 

Many parts are just simply irrelevant now. Some examples:  A great deal is said about Mortgagees since the lenders were of primary importance to the Developers in the early days of New Town’s development. Section 4.2 allows the (Developers) Board “from time to time elect to have the Association treated as a ‘homeowners association’” to satisfy IRS regulations. The list goes on…

 

Other parts of the Bylaws are in conflict with best practices: Section 4.3, for instance, says that “The Developer or or an affiliate of the Developer may be employed as Managing Agent.” It thus allowed the Developer to hire Town Management even though there was a family relationship between the President and one of the Developers. Importantly, real practices are sometimes different than what is stated in our current Bylaws. They call for the Annual Assessments of our individual properties to be established in accordance with “the Declaration and these Bylaws,” yet they are currently not calculated in the manner prescribed. 

 

Clearly, all of our governing documents, including the Bylaws, must be redone to reflect our new self-governance. The NTRA Board is working (with an attorney) on the re-write, so stay updated. You will need to vote when this work is complete!

 

                           

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¹ ABVA's builder Atlantic Homes has been New Town’s primary developer.

 

The Holtgrieves, Dave and Paulette of Charlotte Park, are bargain shoppers and they take delight in finding a new deal. It could be food, or fun or furniture. They know how to do it, and they do it well.

Lunches are a special passion of theirs. Better prices, smaller portions, fewer people to jockey with for a table.

In this occasional series (when they find something they like, they’ll let us know), we focus on two New Town staples – Buffalo Wild Wings and Which Wich and a couple of special midweek enticements that are offered on a regular basis.

On Tuesdays at Buffalo Wild Wings, you can place an order for bone-in wings and get a second order free of charge. Small, medium or large. Doesn’t matter.

On Thursdays, the same offer at BWW applies for boneless wings. You get to choose from the same array of sauces, and they’ll put them on the side in case you wish to take leftovers home.

In between days, there’s $5 Wicked Wednesdays at Which Wich. A sandwich of turkey, roast beef, pepperoni, bacon, with cheddar, provolone, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and mayo is just $5.

That’s hard to believe – and no coupon is necessary.

 

 

             

 

This June 12th New Town Talk was focused on the digital resources on the Williamsburg Library website (www.wrl.org). The two Apps to use are Overdrive and Libby. Help is always available, either by email, chat, text, phone call or coming into the library. Williamsburg Library in downtown is located at 515 Scotland St, Williamsburg and the James City County branch is located at 7770 Croaker Road, Williamsburg.  

There are 6 digital collections. 

1. Ebooks, of which there are 25,000, can be renewed 3 times and return automatically.
2. There are 13,000 downloadable audiobooks which are a great way to “read” while walking and helpful for the vision impaired.  Once they are downloaded, they are offline.
3. There is a large digital magazine collection of 3200 issues! 
4. Streaming and downloadable music can be accessed anywhere, anytime using the FREEGAL App for a total of 3 hours, but during the pandemic it was extended to 24 hours. You can download 3 songs/week and keep them forever.
5. Streaming video is through the Kanopy App. You can get weekly updates on new videos available. The video is available for 72 hours and can be streamed to a Smart TV.
6. The last collection is Learning at Home which offers resources for teachers, school age children and librarians. There is also a section on resources which includes such topics as ancestry, life-long learning classes, languages, arts and crafts. 

Spend some time browsing the library website! It’s not just books.

On your computer you can visit museums in other cities, such as the Musee d”Orsay in Paris and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Google and Amazon via zoom have free and some for fee activities, such as wine tasting, cooking classes, travel experiences, dance lessons, and the programs are for adults and children. These are accessed via “explore virtual activities”. The Washington Post offers 30 minute free programs every weekday, the common topic usually current events and require registration. A listing of topics is available every Sunday in the WAPO.  Every Friday at 5 pm the Frick Museum, via You Tube, hosts “Cocktails with the Curator”, BYOB and recipes for the cocktail of the time period being highlighted.  The SmithsonianAssociates.org has virtual activities for a fee. Check out the NY Times Sunday At Home. There are daily virtual events such as a visit to Coney Island.

Local visits can include Colonial Williamsburg events which can be viewed on the CW website. Sign up for their daily emails which give a daily schedule, special events and a ,newsletter. Be sure to purchase a Good Neighbor Pass, good for entry to CW,  at one of the ticket booths or online. There are 3 local farmers markets! Downtown Williamsburg 8-12 Saturday am, Yorktown 8-12 Saturday am and New Town on New Town Boulevard Saturday 10-4, Sunday 10-2. Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Experience Museums are both free to Virginia residents. Williamsburg Contemporary Art Center offers a wide array of classes, not just art classes.

There are numerous regional wineries where you may bring a picnic and your dog. Most are located in highly scenic areas. Barboursville overlooks the ruins of Governor Barbours mansion and is owned by an Italian family from Tuscany. They have two tasting options – self serve tasting and the second seated in the wine library, reservation recommended. Keswick Winery has tastings outside only now and it has a fenced dog run. The King family winery in Crozet has tastings and polo matches to watch!