Elections for 2012-2013 PHCA Board will take place at the annual May PHCA meeting. The meeting will be held Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30 at the Pimmit Hills Senior Center on Lisle Avenue.

If you would like to help serve on the board for just one year (June 2013-May 2014), please use the nomination form to nominate yourself or someone else. The nominating committee will contact all nominees to ensure that they accept the nomination. Nominations will be open until they are closed at the May meeting.
Positions available are: President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. Read about board member duties or feel free to contact any current board member with questions.

It's fun, you get to meet a lot of neighbors and help make our neighborhood a better place to live.

Dranesville Supervisor John Foust has scheduled three town hall meetings in March and April to give Dranesville residents an opportunity to learn about and discuss the proposed Fiscal Year 2014 (FY2014) Budget for Fairfax County. County Management and Budget staff will be present to make a summary presentation of the budget and answer questions. The three sessions are:

Tuesday, March 12 at 7:00 pm
McLean Community Center
1234 Ingleside Avenue
McLean

Tuesday, April 2 at 7:00 pm
Great Falls Library
9830 Georgetown Pike
Great Falls

Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00 pm
Herndon Town Council Chambers
765 Lynn Street
Herndon

For details about the FY2014 Budget visit the County website at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dmb. For more information on these public meetings contact Jane Edmondson in Supervisor Foust’s Dranesville District office at (703) 356-0551, TTY 711 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

From Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust:

Dear Dranesville Resident,

Welcome to the February 2013 issue of the Dranesville Dispatch. I hope your year is off to a great start.

On February 26, the Board of Supervisors will receive the County Executive's Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Advertised Budget Plan. I will include a review of the Advertised Budget in the next issue of the Dranesville Dispatch. Once again, we expect big challenges. I seek your input as we work to set budget priorities and strive to balance the burden on taxpayers while funding the many essential programs and services provided by the County. My citizen budget task force, headed this year by Dranesville resident John Ulfelder, has been meeting since October. They will examine the proposed budget in great detail and submit a report that I will share with the Board. I will be hosting community budget meetings in McLean (March 12 at 7 p.m. at the McLean Community Center), Great Falls (April 2 at 7 p.m. at the Great Falls Library), and Herndon (April 3 at 7 p.m. at the Herndon Town Council Chambers). Public Hearings before the full Board are set for April 9, 10 and 11. I am also available to attend homeowner and community meetings to discuss your budget concerns and priorities. On April 30, after extensive community input, the Board will revise the Advertised Budget and adopt the FY2014 budget.

There will be a special PHCA meeting on Tuesday February 5 at 7:30 in the Pimmit Hills Senior Center.

[Update]
Here is a link to the draft agenda.

The next PHCA meeting is scheduled for December 4, 2012 at the Pimmit Hills School.

Our guest speaker is Michelle Thompson from Fairfax County Consumer Affairs. Ms. Thompson will present on health insurance fraud.

The December meeting is also the annual holiday social meeting. Bring a sweet treat to share with your neighbors and PHCA will bring the punch.

From Dranesville District Supervisor, John Foust:

The National Weather Service is now reporting that Hurricane Sandy is likely to have a significant impact on the Washington DC Metropolitan area beginning on Sunday. The hurricane is expected to be a slow moving/long lasting system with gusty tropical storm force winds, heavy rain and flooding. We all should be prepared for wide-spread power outages, road closures and traffic signal outages and other damage from strong winds, flooding and downed trees and branches.

As the storm approaches and during the storm, Fairfax County will be posting regularly about Hurricane Sandy on the Fairfax County Emergency Blog. This is the very best place for County residents to find Fairfax County-specific information, messages and guidance. To sign up, go to the Fairfax County Emergency Blog, to the right hand side where you will see “Email Subscription.”

We will continue to disseminate emergency information as we receive it, along with other helpful information.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drug abuse is the Nation's fastest growing drug problem. The 2011 Fairfax County Youth Survey reports that 14% of 12th graders in Fairfax County have used painkillers for non-medical reasons.

The Safe Community Coalition and the McLean District Police Station will host a community discussion with local health and law enforcement experts on prescription medicine abuse at a community meeting on October 17, 2012 from 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the McLean Community Center.

In addition, there will be a free Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medicine Drop Off Activity from 5pm until 7pm. Bring your unused or expired medications to the MCC for free and safe disposal.

For additional information please contact:
Nyka J Feldman, Executive Director
Safe Community Coalition
www.safecommunitycoalition.net

Dranesville Supervisor Foust has released the October Dranesville Dispatch (pdf) with news, highlights and important announcements for residents. You can also read past issues on the Dranesville website at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dranesville/.

Supervisor Foust along with VDOT and Transurban/Fluor (builders and operators of the 495 Express Lanes) will host a community information meeting to discuss the new service and answer citizens’ questions on Wednesday, October 10 at the McLean Community Center.

Residents will also have the opportunity to purchase either an EZ Pass, the new Flex transponder, or to exchange their current EZ Pass for the Flex Pass. While current EZ passes will work in the new Express Lanes, carpool drivers will need the new Flex Pass which allows them to change a setting to indicate they are HOV-3, enabling them to drive for free.

When: Wednesday, October 10, 7:00 p.m.
Where: McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean

More about the Express Lanes: https://www.495expresslanes.com/

The following message is a response to the The Save the Pimmit Hills Barn group prepared by Cindy Kwitchoff and does not represent the views of the PHCA.

The Save the Pimmit Hills Barn group has been active promoting saving the old barn on Cherri Drive instead of letting Fairfax County provide the property to a County organization that would build a home for six elderly mentally and physically disabled County residents who have no family members living to care for them anymore. The organization would provide them 24-hour care.

The Save the Barn group instead proposes to turn it into a 1) Community Center, 2) Community Club House, 3) Garden Plots, 4) Museum for Dairy Farming, 5) Children's Park, or 6) Sports Equipment Storage.

The Pimmit Hills Center/School on Lisle Avenue is actually already a fully-functional Community Center. And the barn has been used for years to store sports equipment for McLean sports teams until now. Pimmit Hills has many playgrounds in our parks already.