Town Crier Articles

In case you missed it, on Saturday, September 21st, New Town residents held a community-wide garage sale. The goal of the community garage sale was to encourage participation from any and all residents, inspire community engagement amongst our residents (as well as with our broader Williamsburg community) and finally, if you were lucky, to lighten your load or pick up that treasure you just couldn’t pass up. While residential (seller) participation was on the lighter side, the traffic and interest along our New Town streets appeared steady and varied from both within and beyond New Town.

 

This inaugural community garage sale was a great start in what will hopefully become a more regular occurrence. The NTRA Board of Directors enthusiastically supported our ideas and graciously let us move out planning and advertising on a very compressed timeline in order to deconflict from other community events as well as take advantage of the warmer weather before fall arrives.

 

We hope the community enjoyed this event.  We learned several lessons to improve future events:

As a reminder, individual garage sales are not allowed under the NTRA rules. NTRA rules, Section II, Para 43, states: “Yard/garage sales are not permitted within the Properties, except that the Association may sponsor a community yard/garage sale at the discretion of the Board of Directors.” 

 

So this was your chance for 2024.  We hope you were able to participate in the community garage sale in a way that met your needs this time, and we look forward to future opportunities.

 

 

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.

Two major events will take to our residential streets in October!

 

On Saturday, October 5, our streets and trails will be awash in pink as we welcome the Run for the Hills, hosted by Here for the Girls (H4TG.)  H4TG is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of young women affected by breast cancer. You can learn more about them at hereforthegirls.org .

 

This event consists of both a race and a health and wellness expo in Sullivan Square. The race offers a 1 mile fun run, a 5K run (a Colonial Road Runners Grand Prix Event), a 5K competitive walk and a virtual run.  New Town residents and businesses can use special promo code NT2024RUN for a discounted registration fee! Register at hereforthegirls.org/run .

 

The health and wellness expo in Sullivan Square is free and open to the public—all are welcome, and this is a stroller-friendly, dog-friendly venue! There will be nutrition and health demonstrations, fitness classes and activities, educational information, health screenings and wellness checks, kids’ activities and much more.

 

New Town residents are invited to show their support for this event! You can request a Cheer Package, which will consist of a ribbon or other decoration to place in front of your home, a route map, a list of designated cheer spots where residents can gather to cheer on the runners, health info and more. If you would like a Cheer Package, please email your name and street address to sommer3553@gmail.com by September 15.

 

We will be doing additional decorating along the race route! If you would like to volunteer to help “pink up” our streets and trails, please email sommer3553@gmail.com by September 15, and I will add you to the volunteer list.

 

On Saturday, October 26, we embrace purple, as we welcome the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, hosted by the Alzheimer’s Association. This is the world’s largest fundraiser for Alzheimer’s care, support and research.

 

This annual event begins and ends at the Gazebo on Main Street. The walk offers a 1 mile route and a 3 mile route. You can view details of the route here. If you would like to form a Walk team, you can register at the Walk's local website. Many of the neighborhoods in the area have Walk teams, and it would be great to see New Town represented!

 

The Walk could also use your help as a volunteer on the day of the event! Please sign up at https://signup.com/go/FKdadZT , where you will find a list of volunteer opportunities, times needed, and number of volunteers needed for each opportunity. 

 

NTRA residents are invited to show their support for this event! If you would like a yard sign or a purple ribbon to place in front of your home, please email your name and street address to sommer3553@gmail.com by September 30. The quantities of signs and ribbons are TBD, so you may get one or the other, or both!

 

We will be doing additional decorating along the Walk route! If you would like to volunteer to help “purple up” our streets, please email sommer3553@gmail.com by September 30, and I will add you to the volunteer list.

 

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.

For many of us in New Town, our porch may be a sunny place for potted plants, a dry place for Amazon deliveries, or a comfortable space to sit and relax.  Porches have been around for many years, but they started to really take off in the 19th century in America as a means of extending the inside of a house to the outside.  Porches contributed to the sense of community, as neighbors gathered together in the evenings, especially in the summer months to escape the indoor heat.

 

Not every residence in New Town is fortunate to have a porch large enough for socializing, but there is a role every resident can play in building a sense of community nevertheless.  On the second Saturday of each month, porches throughout New Town become the focal point for food donations.  Non-perishable food items are left on porches (by 9 AM) for volunteers to collect and deliver to local food pantries.  It’s a simple process that has a profound impact on addressing hunger in our greater Williamsburg community.

 

New Town is participating in these monthly food drives through PORCH Communities, a grass roots organization focusing on hunger relief.  The organization coordinates over 2,000 volunteers representing 550 communities, across 10 states.  In the two months since New Town joined PORCH, volunteers in green shirts have collected 1,243 pounds of food from New Town porches. This just proves that neighborhoods such as ours don’t need large, wrap-around covered porches to create a sense of community.

 

When you see the green PORCH signs go up each month, please remember the role porches have played in bringing people together in building community and help us put our porches to good use in bringing New Town together to fight hunger.

 

Mark your calendars, the next PORCH food drives will be September 14, October 12, November 9 and December 14.

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.

 

The New Town Residential Association Activities Committee hosted a Social at the community pool on the evening of Friday, July 19 which drew over seventy residents.  They brought their favorite adult beverages and enjoyed a variety of delicious hors d’oeuvres and desserts.  The  temperate weather with low humidity was a welcome relief from the sweltering heat of the last weeks. Conversation flowed easily as neighbors caught up and met new residents.  Adding a special touch to this event was live music provided by  Joe Duggan, who sang a variety of  favorite songs in a mellow voice, which made a beautiful evening  even more special. We look forward to welcoming Joe back to our future socials.

           

Our next event is a pizza pool party on August 24 at 12:00, rain date Sunday, August 25.  We are adding a new touch to this season’s last pool event,  games, races and prizes for adult and kids!!  We hope to see you there for all the fun. 

 

   

 

   

 

In an emergency are you prepared to take shelter in a designated community facility? 

 

 

Because New Town is within James City County, New Town residents will be sheltering at facilities to be announced at the time of the emergency event.  Per our JCC Emergency Management Planner, those facilities may be a number of local schools and he recommends that in an emergency, individuals heed communications from JCC regarding shelter locations and their hours of operation. Another possible option may be what was described as “Power & Shower,” during which non-city residents may be able to go to a Williamsburg city shelter to power their personal devices and take a shower.             

 

When New Town residents take shelter, the sheltering guidance provided for Williamsburg city residents will also be applicable to New Town residents. The most current guidance may be found at https://www.williamsburgva.gov/210/City-Shelter.  Here is an abbreviated version (as of July 2024).     

 

 

Be prepared to take shelter for approximately 1 – 2 days and bring the following in sufficient quantities for a stay of that length:  

The shelter will be staffed by medical personnel to assist medically-dependent persons to maintain their status during the emergency.  Those who are oxygen-dependent should bring extra oxygen. 

 

The shelter will accommodate service animals. As a pet-friendly shelter, there are limited accommodations for household pets (cats and dogs, no exotic animals).  Pet owners must bring: any pet medications, collar/leash, pet crate, pet food, proof of rabies vaccination, water and food bowls.

 

Last month, 51 homes in New Town donated 550 pounds of non-perishable food. Donations were left on front porches and collected and delivered to Williamsburg House of Mercy for its food pantry. Contributions by neighborhood were as follows: Abbey Commons 40 pounds, Chelsea Green 35 pounds, Charlotte Park townhomes 40 pounds, Charlotte Park detached homes 231 pounds, Village Wall 111 pounds, and Shirley Park, 93 pounds.

 

New Town is participating in monthly food drives through PORCH, a grass-roots organization focused on addressing food insecurity in communities across the US.  Next month’s drive will take place on Saturday, August 10th with donations going to FISH.  Look for an e-blast that week indicating what food items FISH needs the most for its food pantry.  Place donations by your front door by 9 AM and PORCH volunteers (all residents of New Town) will pick up and deliver to FISH.

 

Thank you, New Town, for giving back to the greater Williamsburg community through your generous donations. Remember, we collect on the 2nd Saturday of the month, so consider getting in the habit of putting a bag on your porch for those in need.