Town Crier Articles

The NTRA Board is considering significant changes to landscaping services provided to homeowners in our neighborhoods. These potential changes are due to our dissatisfaction with the performance of our current landscaping contractor and the services that are being provided. James River Grounds Management has done an excellent job in some neighborhoods and a poor job in others, given the diversity of our neighborhoods and using a one size fits all set of landscaping specifications.  The NTRA Board has concluded that continuing with one large contractor providing landscaping services to all of our neighborhoods will continue to fail to meet our needs.  A change is in order.  However, we are unsure about type and quality of service that owners desire.

 

The NTRA Board has spent a great deal of time soliciting suggestions and developing possible alternatives to improve the overall landscaping services in New Town.  In order to meet the individual needs of our neighborhoods, the Board is in the process of preparing individual landscaping specifications tailored for each of our neighborhoods with the goal of providing the specific services each neighborhood wants and needs.  In addition, we are considering using multiple smaller contractors to provide services by neighborhood.  Perhaps they might be more receptive to our needs and able to provide a higher quality of service. It is likely that using three or four smaller contractors will be more expensive because of the loss of economy of scale.  To address this possible increase in cost, we have developed several options for the 2025 landscaping season and would like owner input.  

 

Option Number One - Multiple Landscaping Companies.  Use of three or four landscaping companies to provide services based upon the predominate home type in a neighborhood.  For example, one contractor would provide services to neighborhoods with predominantly detached homes such as Charlotte Park and Shirley Park.  Another contractor would serve areas with townhouses that require minimal service such as Village Walk, Savannah Square, and Chelsea Green.  A third contractor would serve townhouses that require more services such as Abbey Commons.  The Board’s concern with this approach is that it would likely be more expensive, create coordination problems and be harder to manage.

 

Option Number Two - Reduction of Services.  The NTRA governing documents only mandate that the Association provide homeowners with mowing, edging, pruning trees, and pruning shrubs services for their homes.  The Board is considering providing only those services.  Spring cleanup and leaf removal throughout New Town would continue to be provided to everyone as part of the common area maintenance.  This would significantly reduce landscaping costs for every neighborhood and would more than likely make up for utilizing multiple landscaping service providers in option number one.  Under this option the Association continues to provide full landscaping services to the common areas.  If implemented, this option could degrade the look of our community.

 

Option Number Three - Provide a Package of Optional Services.  This option would provide the basic services provided in option number two above and be augmented with a set of services providing mulch, and turf fertilization, turf weed control, insect control, flowerbed weeding, fall aeration and over seeding.  This package of additional optional services would be selected by a homeowner during an open enrollment period at the beginning of the landscaping season and would remain in place until the next open enrollment period.  The combined basic and optional services are the same as what are currently provided in the Association’s contract with James River Grounds Management.

 

Option Number Four - Opting Out of All Services.  Homeowners would be given the opportunity during the open enrollment period at the beginning of each landscaping season to opt out of all NTRA-provided landscaping services.  This opt out selection would remain in place until the next landscaping open enrollment period.  Changes during the year would only be permitted with Board approval if a property is sold or a life changing event such as a death or medical issue occurred that would prevent the homeowner from providing his or her own landscaping services.

 

Option Number Five - Fenced Yards.  The NTRA Board is also not satisfied with the landscaping services that have been provided to homeowners with fenced yards that have been provided at an additional cost. It has been very difficult for both the NTRA and the landscaping service provider to manage.  If the Association continues to provide landscaping services for fenced areas, homeowners will be required to formally select this service during the landscaping open enrollment period at the beginning of the landscaping season and their selection would continue until the next open enrollment period.  Changes during the year would only be permitted with Board approval if the home were sold or a life changing event such as a death or medical issue occurred that would prohibit the homeowner from providing his or her own landscaping services.

 

I am interested in hearing your comments and learning your desires for landscaping services in 2025.  Please feel free to email me with your landscaping thoughts.  Jack.Espinal@cox.net

 

You may have noticed new fences at New Town’s New Town Ave entrance and around the Olive Drive stormwater retention pond (commonly called BMP). Another new fence is scheduled to be installed in the first half of November at the Rollison Drive pond. All three fences have a different appearance, and I will address the considerations and reasons for the choices made by the NTRA Board.

 

All the wooden fences along the BMPs in New Town had deteriorated to the point that a painting contractor said they were simply not worth repainting.  So what began as a maintenance activity turned into three capital replacement projects. Since the wooden fences required painting every two or three years, the Board begin looking for more durable fencing solutions.

 

We felt the existing fence style along New Town Avenue at the entrance to our community needed to be replicated, but with a material other than wood.  There are no plastic or metal fence sections commercially available that match the custom stick-built fence we decided to rebuild the fence with solid PVC planks. Although more expensive than wood this material does not require painting and reduces future maintenance to just pressure washing every few years. Also, the PVC planks will not develop the rot and deterioration that was prevalent in all of the wooden fences in our community. For those who are interested, the material used in the New Town Avenue fence is Kleer TrimBoards, (www.kleerlumber.com) The contractor was Finley Asphalt & Concrete.

 

 

For the BMP fences, the Board looking at metal fencing.  The New Town Design Standards allow the use of chain-link fences around BMPs.  This was the least expensive mental fence option. The Board liked the appearance of the aluminum fences recently installed around the Settlers Market BMPs.  This fencing was attractive and sturdy. The Board felt that this option was better than the cheaper chain-link fence. We also considered replacing the fences with white PVC boards matching what was done along New Town Avenue, but this option was simply too expensive.  Aluminum fence panels were significantly less expensive than rebuilding the existing fences with PVC boards.  In addition aluminum fences have proven durability with their factory applied coatings.  For example, the aluminum fence around the NTRA swimming pool was installed in 2012 and has been maintenance free.  This black aluminum fence was the guiding model for changing the Olive Drive BMP fence to black aluminum. The Board decided to encircle the Olive Drive BMP with fencing in light of the tragic drowning in the Olive Drive BMP about two years ago. This extension almost doubled the Olive Drive BMP fence's length.  

 

All of the current fences surrounding the Rollison Drive BMP and the Goddard School are white.  Rather than use black fencing, the Board decided that white aluminum fencing would provide a more compatible visual appearance to the Charlotte Park neighborhood and Goddard school.  This factor justified the additional cost for the white powder coated aluminum fence, Since the earth retaining wall on the east side of the BMP is lower and less steep than the Olive Drive BMP we decided to leave it unfenced.  Only the existing wooden fence will be replaced along Rollison Drive.  This work will take place in November 2024.

 

 

Several years have passed since any paving repairs or seal coating have been done to the NTRA’s alleys and parking areas and they were beginning to deteriorate.  When one neighborhood requested that their alleys be seal coated, the Board decided that it was time to evaluate at all of our asphalt surfaces.  The inspections revealed that ALL of the alleys and parking spaces needed some level of maintenance. This spring, inspections occurred and bids were received from three contractors.  The Board assisted by the NTRA manager negotiated additional repair work and lower prices from the bidding contractors.  In August the NTRA Board approved a contract with Finley Asphalt and Sealing that was executed in September.  All NTRA neighborhoods, except Shirley Park (still under developer control) have had the alleys and parking spaces repaired and maintained with a quality seal coating.

 

The current swimming pool cover is the original one from 2012 and it is beginning to show its age and is close to the end of its useful life.  The cover protects the pool during the winter and keeps the water clean.  It makes opening the pool in the spring easier and significantly reduces the yearly water costs. The NTRA Board is planning to replace the pool cover at the end of the 2025 swimming season.  

 

Remedial maintenance to the Olive Drive and Rollison Stormwater Retention Ponds (BMPs) is planned for 2025.  This work will include the removal of the small trees and brush that have the potential for weakening the earth filled dams on the sides of the BMPs.  The Board attempted to do this work in 2024, but James City County 2024 BMP support funding had already been allocated before our applications were approved.  The applications for 2025 funding have already been submitted. Assuming approval, James City County will pay for half of the tree and vegetation clearance from these BMPs thereby saving the Association significant financial expenditures.

ITS BACK!  Due to popular demand and with additional support from the New Town Residential Association Board, the Activities Committee is sponsoring a Holiday Party on Friday, December 6, between 6:30 and 9:00 at Legacy Hall, which will be decorated for the season.

 

The Holiday Party will feature heavy hors d’oeuvres from Williamsburg Catering, desserts and candies. It’s BYOB. So, feel free to bring your favorite adult beverages as well as your appetite. NTRA owners and tenants are invited to attend.

 

We look forward to kicking off the Holiday season with you and your neighbors. Be sure to RSVP by November 27th to Susan Schlimme:  skschlimme@hotmail.com. 

 

Extra help is always appreciated. To volunteer for the Holiday Party contact Susan Schlimme.  

Are you a Halloween enthusiast? Or, eagerly awaiting the outcome of this year’s local, state, and federal elections? Do you observe Veteran’s Day and, later in November, keep a traditional Thanksgiving family gathering time? Do you love the Advent-Christmas season or look forward to celebrating Hanukkah, or Kwanza, or some other holiday that usually falls in December? In November, December, and early January, will there be family birthdays, or an expected new birth, or anniversaries, or even a mid-year graduation? Will someone who has been away for a long time be coming home? Might you soon watch college or national league playoffs in some sport, especially if your favorite team is involved?

 

All of these special times may inspire New Town residents to decorate inside or outside New Town homes in ways that can help all of us catch the spirit of a season, and add visual interest to many a morning or afternoon walk! Our family always would take a pre-Christmas evening drive around my hometown to look at Christmas decorations. Perhaps you might do something like this in New Town, starting with Halloween.

 

After a holiday or other special time passes, however, there shortly comes a day when most decorations that have gone up probably should come down.

 

• October has been Halloween season; most homeowners decorating for Halloween will probably be glad to take down the witches, ghosts, and giant spiders within a couple of days after October 31. Carved pumpkins, rotten pumpkins, or uncarved ones that animals have feasted on, of course need to be trashed as soon as possible.

• General autumn decor, including intact natural pumpkins, is common at least through Thanksgiving  which is November 28 this year.

• According to New Town Rules, political signs allowed in people’s yards as early as 60 days before an election should be removed two days after Election Day.

• Our national flag (appropriate for Veterans Day) or another flag may be displayed any time provided it is bracket-mounted on the front of the house.

• Many New Towners may be starting to decorate for Christmas or Hanukkah by mid-November (or, at least think about it). New Town rules state that such holiday decor should be removed by January 7, or the day after Epiphany which is on a Monday this year. And, if you want to delay putting away decorations inside your house beyond that, it’s nobody’s business but yours.

 

• What about the host of family or friend events people may decorate for? The best approach may simply be to use common sense. When the balloons deflate, take them down. After the birthday party, don’t leave the Happy Birthday signs up for weeks. Don’t wait for the newborn to sleep through the night before the joyous announcement signs go away.

Finally, remember that decorating for any special occasion should be lots of fun, and “undecorating” might be as well. When the time comes to clear the detritus of a recent celebration, why not put out some snacks and make a party of it. After all, in New Town, isn’t purchasing for a party as easy as going for a walk!

This year’s Fall Festival was different.  First, it was the biggest crowd yet with an attendance of over 150 residents, ranging from seniors enjoying the mild weather, music and happy vibe to awed and grinning toddlers crawling through the colorful tunnels and gingerly stepping from box to box of the obstacle course.       

 

Second, there were mummies in Village Walk!  About a half hour after the event started, I was walking on the green with the crowd and suddenly saw two mummies swathed in white strips, making weird noises and walking towards me.  It was scary!  I heard people yelling:  “They’ve been turned into mummies!”  I was turning to run away in fear when suddenly I realized that I was in the midst of the Fall Festival’s new Mummy Wrap race.  This timed race involved two teams with the contestants creating a mummy by wrapping a volunteer in toilet paper.  The teams with the most convincing mummy won prizes.  It was great fun.

 

     

 

Less scary but equally fun were the three rounds of the Cake Walk, during which, as in musical chairs, participants marched to music around a circle of numbered fall decorated signs.  When the music stopped, cake walkers rushed to stand by a numbered sign.  Our emcee and musical director extraordinaire, Rick Byrnes, then picked a number from his hat, and the cake walker next to the number was out, but as a consolation prize won a cupcake.  The last surviving participant won a giant decorated cookie cake.  

     

New Town residents also played corn hole and croquet and painted pumpkins while enjoying popcorn and home-made frosted Halloween cookies and drinks.  Kids searched for pumpkins during the pumpkin egg hunt, played toss games, and participated in races.  NTRA Board member Ruth Burgess patiently taught little ones the best method for tossing balls into buckets and through holes, and they all came away with candy and prizes.   Other children built brick castles (ok, cardboard bricks), and competed to see which castle lasted the longest under a barrage of their competitors small bricks.  Also popular again this year was the game, Pie Face Showdown.  One little girl wearing a blue-decorated shirt, played at least six times, recruiting her dad for her last contest.  She howled with laughter each time she lost the game and was hit by the whipped cream. It was a fun afternoon for adults and children alike. There were so many great photos, that there is a new Photo Album on this website filled with memories of the event. 

     

The Activities Committee next is event is a Holiday Party on Friday, December 6, 6:30-9:00 at Legacy Hall. Look for more details in this month’s Town Crier as well as eblast reminders.

     

Please join me in thanking members of the Activities Committee, including Susan Schlimme, Mary Jo Mulligan-Kehoe,  Jon Thomas, Terri  Finn and Virginia Barch, for organizing and staffing the Fall Festival. They and 14 other volunteers, Judy and Rick Byrnes, Angela Lesnett, Kurt Schlimme, Brooke Schlimme, Reagan Schlimme, Merry Thomas, Nikki Thomas, Justin, Jennifer Morgan, Mark Reckham, Pei Han Shih and Ken Fones-Wolf, made the Fall Festival possible.   

     

We also thank the NTRA Board  for its support and our Board liaison, Ruth Burgess, who volunteers for many of our events and always cheers us on.  

      

As October 2024 begins, it’s time to prepare for a new year in the life of our New Town Residential Association. In the mid-November to mid-December time-frame NTRA Members also will be given the opportunity to vote on a potential change in the Village Walk Supplemental Declarations. In addition, the annual Board Elections are coming up - with voting on candidates after Thanksgiving and results to be announced at our annual meeting.

 

This year, two current Board members are completing their term of service. NTRA homeowners thus are encouraged to step up and consider becoming candidates for our two open positions. We hope many owners will seriously consider running since an election process is always better if there are more candidates than openings.

 

 

Candidates may come from any of our neighborhoods, but we cannot have more than two Board members from any one neighborhood. The three Board members who are halfway through their two-year terms are from Village Walk, Abbey Commons, and Savannah Square. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a diverse board comprised of members from nearly all our neighborhoods?

 

• Time: A willingness to serve, and a sufficiently flexible schedule to allow for

• Commitment to taking seriously legal and fiduciary responsibilities associated with attending to the essential business of the community. Do you have sufficient commitment and ability to function as part of a team where members must value, respect, support, and collaborate with one another if the vital work is to get done? How about the self-management needed to keep confidential information confidential? Will you prioritize the Board’s legal responsibilities, and the best interests and welfare of the whole NTRA community, over personal agendas or loyalties to a limited group within the community?

• No Outstanding Violations: Candidates for the Board of Directors or any of our official committees cannot have uncleared or unaddressed violations or unpaid dues. If you think you would be willing to serve NTRA as a Board member — please, please, please! - clear your violations before you put your name forward.

 

Thoughtfully consider what may be involved in serving as a Board member. If you think you can handle the time commitments, the investments of self, and the responsibilities of an NTRA Board member, and are not in violation, you will be doing your New Town community a huge favor by becoming a candidate for our 2025-2026 Board!

 

Do this by sending an email by November 6, 2024 with your full contact information to NTRA.secretary@gmail.com, along with a picture of yourself and a brief biographical statement. The latter might include relevant vocational information, your special skills, or earned credentials, and your reasons for being willing to apply your particular gifts, skills, available time, and energies positively to serving your community in this way.

1. Places homeowners in the NTRA on nearly equal footing regarding maintenance and subject to the same requirements for Maintenance of Property as outlined in Article 7.2 of the NTRA Master Declaration.  Exceptions for Village Walk will be the post tension slab system, irrigation system, fire suppression system, and yearly termite management. These will remain with NTRA and be funded through the Village Walk neighborhood assessment.
2. Reduces confusion regarding the responsibility for various types of exterior maintenance.
3. Allows homeowners to select the contractor that performs maintenance work on their home and also to choose the scope of work, quality of materials, timing and pricing.
4. Allows the homeowner to supervise and approve the completed work.
5. Speeds and simplifies the repair process by removing the management company and Board of Directors from the repair process and eliminating the NTRA contracting requirements.
6. Will significantly lower quarterly assessments and bring them in line with others in NTRA with similar homes.
7. Removes the sharing of exterior maintenance expenses, i.e, Village Walk owners will no longer have to fund the maintenance needed on each other’s homes.
8. Eliminates the possibility of all NTRA members becoming financially responsible for the exterior maintenance of the homes in the Village Walk neighborhood.
9. Retains the marketability of Village Walk homes which could significantly degrade if the neighborhood has very high association dues and continual large additional assessments.
10. Eliminates major yearly increases in Village Walk assessments that will be required if the Association continues to provide exterior maintenance.

2024 is a Presidential election year and all citizens are encouraged to vote. 

 

New to James City County?  You can register to vote online, in person or by mail.  The last day to register is Tuesday, October 15, 2024. Here is the JCC website with all the details including links if you just need to update your name or local address: https://jamescitycountyva.gov/4015/Register-to-Vote-or-Update-Information

Early voting for the Presidential Election starts on Friday, September 20 and will end on Saturday, November 2. Early in-person voting will be held only at the Office of Elections/Vote Center: 4095 Ironbound Road located behind the JCC Courthouse.  

 

New Town’s precinct is Jamestown B and on November 5, Election Day from 6am to 7PM all New Town registered voters can vote at the JCC Recreation Center, 5301 Longhill Road.

 

All of James City County is located in US Congressional District 1.

 

For more voting information here is a link to Office of Elections.

 

Political Signs – As a reminder, the New Town Residential Association rules permit ONE sign per lot, “not more than 6 feet square expressing support or opposition to political candidates” or other ballot issues. Signs may be placed starting September 6th (60 days before the election) and “shall be removed within 2 days after such election”.  (NTRA Rules, Section II, 36c) 

Do you have a few extra hours to spare now that the kids are back in school?  Perhaps you are new to our community and want to meet more people. Volunteering with one of our various HOA Committees is the perfect way to be engaged with your neighbors. Owners in good standing and tenants are eligible to serve on most Committees.

 

Current critical needs include:

• COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE – HELP!!! Our website and newsletter are dependent on volunteers. Don't you want to know what is happening with your fees? There has not been an active Communications Committee for the past 2 years.  Instead, individuals have been contributing periodic articles for the monthly Town Crier. This Committee is an easy time commitment – just a few hours a month to brainstorm and write an article. We need to reinvigorate information sharing in our community and that means we need you!

• ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW COMMITTEE (ARC) – This Committee reviews all applications for changes to property.  Members serve 3-year terms, so to ensure continuity, the ARC uses an alternate member to learn the process and step in for votes when needed for a quorum.  The ARC currently is seeking an alternate member who will rotate into full status.

There are eight NTRA Committees – (the others are Activities, Asset Maintenance, Emergency Preparedness, Finance, Landscape Advisory and Pool). Surely one of these teams would appreciate your involvement, even on an intermittent basis.  The Board of Directors will have two vacancies in December and also will be seeking volunteers to run for these positions.

 

If you are curious but not sure, now is the time to reach out for more information, perhaps visit a Committee meeting and see whether you are a good fit for their work. All Committee meetings are published on the NTRA website calendar. 

 

Interested or want more information? Send a quick email to ntrawebsitecommittee@gmail.com to be put in touch with the Committee Chair.

In the days before our last pool party of the summer, we had an amazing week of weather with temperatures in the seventies, a welcome relief from the beastly August heat.  Saturday, August 24, it was a bit warmer, low eighties and sunny, but the pool water after that unseasonably cool weather, was definitely chilly.  Normally the pool is a popular spot on July and August Saturday mornings. Young families, with antsy kids ready to get some energy out, arrive at the pool for the early 10:00 opening.  But this Saturday, at 12:00pm when the pool party was scheduled to begin, Activities Committee members, who had tables piled with pizza, watermelon, and dessert and had created plans for water games, looked around anxiously at the virtually empty pool site.  Only one small group of four residents huddled under an umbrella. 

 

 

But, before the Committee could start thinking about plans for all that excess food, residents began streaming through the gates, with over 60 attending.  This pool party featured eating and visiting more than swimming, although some brave souls took to the water, but not enough for the planned pool games.  Still kids enjoyed playing with beach balls bought for the games, other folks played cornhole, and residents Nathaniel David and Susan Byrne won $25 gift certificates, courtesy of the New Town Commercial Association.  Others, like a new Shirley Park family with a three-year old daughter, learned more about our community and met some neighbors.  

 

The pool closes after Labor Day, but please join the Activities Committee at its next major event, the Fall Fest on Saturday, October 5 (rain date Sunday, Oct. 6) at 2:00 at Village Walk.

 

Check out more fun photos of our 2024 pool parties at our latest photo album:  2024 Pool Party Fun.