Do you deck the halls? Trim the tree? Make your front yard so bright that the electric company sends you a thank-you card? Well, ‘tis your time to shine (literally). Whether you go full Clark Griswold, prefer an elegant winter wonderland, or just want to hang a few festive lights, we want to see your holly-jolly creativity glow! Dust off those string lights, untangle that tinsel (we believe in you), and get ready to sleigh the competition.
Know a neighbor with a dazzling display? Nominate them for a chance to win, too!
*Helpful hint: Make sure your lights and decorations are on in the evenings*
🎁 But Wait, We Need Volunteers! If you have a keen eye for sparkle, style, or inflatable snowmen taller than your garage, we’d love for you to join the judging squad. No prior experience necessary, just good cheer and the ability to say things like “ooh,” “wow,” and “is that… animatronic?”
Volunteer judges will receive: ✨ bragging rights, and ✨ warm, fuzzy feeling of bringing cheer to the neighborhood (side effects may include humming holiday songs for weeks)
📅 Judging will happen from Thursday, December 18th, through Monday, December 22nd. Hot cocoa and cider while judging are highly encouraged. Ugly sweaters optional (but strongly celebrated).
The OHECA fall calendar is a busy one. We have already had our bi-annual membership meeting, a successful yard sale, and the membership drive is underway. Still on the schedule are the Halloween and holiday lights contests and Adopt-a-Highway litter cleanup. Also, your board started drafting a 2026 budget for membership approval, which will be massaged further at its November 18 meeting.
The emphasis in this newsletter is on the 2026 membership drive. Each fall OHECA recruits members for the following year. We encourage existing members to re-up, but, importantly, we need to bring on new members. A particular challenge is acquainting new residents to OHECA’s existence and the benefit of membership. Our membership team, Jody and Les Terry, is busy working on this issue.
OHECA will have two officer vacancies scheduled between March 2026 and March 2027, treasurer and president. Filling these is critical, and it’s not too early to interest our members in serving a community role in the civic association.
Patti Alf is hard at work soliciting advertising for the 2026 membership directory. Read how you can help.
School redistricting is a hot topic in Fairfax County, and it impacts our community. A group of concerned Orange Hunt Estates parents educate members on this topic with an open message in this newsletter.
We address updates on some ongoing actions.
Fall is a wonderful time of year in our region. Enjoy the pleasant temperatures, blue skies, fresh air, changing colors, and the rustle of fallen leaves. When we meet again in this spot in January, these will have changed significantly!
Regards, Gary Koblitz
2026 Membership Drive
The start of the 2026 membership drive approximately parallels the sign up rates of recent years. We have 128 member household as of October 18. The challenge always is to sustain the pace after the initial 30-day surge when enrollment slows somewhat and finally levels off in late December. The rate of enrollment hints at an earlier slowdown compared to the 2024 and 2025 drives. Folks, keep the energy up and enroll now!
As in the past, we do all we can to promote membership in the civic association. OHECA depends on voluntary annual dues from less than half of community households to preserve the appearance, life style, and desirability of our community to the advantage of all 927 residences. We encourage current members to re-up, and we strive to acquaint new residents with our civic association. We disseminate emails; we post signs; we provide information on our website OHECA.net; we promote membership on Facebook; and we hand out flyers and knock on doors of some new residents.
We start the drive with a postcard mailing to all households not yet enrolled for 2026. You should be receiving these postcards any day now. We realize that your lives can be busy, and it’s easy to put off actions not as critical as others on your schedule. Mail can pile up on a flat surface somewhere in your home! Consequently, we follow up with a reminder postcard later in the fall. Throughout the process, occasional reminders will be mass emailed to the membership. We hope you don’t mind these gentle reminders.
We strongly urge you to join online. The online process is much more efficient for our volunteers. Voluntary membership dues are $35 annually, the same as it has been for many years. Go here for all the membership information you need.
Upcoming Board Vacancies
In 2026 and 2027, two vacancies will open on the OHECA Board, treasurer and president.
Don Irvine’s term as treasurer will terminate in March 2026, and he has decided not to be a candidate for a new term. OHECA has had a history of excellent managers of our finances, and we are fortunate to have maintained a healthy bank account throughout. We need this tradition to continue.
President Gary Koblitz has decided that March 2027 will end his several years as president. This may seem like a long way off, but we don’t want March 2027 to sneak up on us without adequate preparation. Candidates for this position can come from the current board or the resident population. Leadership experience or a desire to serve can exist in either pool.
The vacating of these offices opens room for new blood to serve in any of several roles. There is a lot of talent in our community to bring new energy and ideas to the civic association. We must not become complacent as a community to leave active roles to the same persons year after year. Active community level governance is one foundation of a strong society.
You’ll be hearing more on this in the coming weeks and months.
2026 Directory Preparations
It’s still months away, but Patti Alf is getting her ducks in a row now for next year’s community directory. Here’s what she wants you to know: A LOT OF BANG FOR YOUR ADVERTISING BUCK!
We are gearing up for production of our next Orange Book—a place where residents look for merchants. Do you have a business or know of a business that would like to advertise in our 2026 directory? Have you used a business or service that I could contact to see if they have any interest in advertising? Past referrals from our members have resulted in ads! Advertising rates are very reasonable. Interested? Contact Patti Alf at pattialf@gmail.com.
A FUN WAY TO GET A BIT OF EXERCISE AND MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS!
Why not become an Orange Book deliverer for OHECA? It’s super easy. Next spring I will contact you to pick up directories for your immediate area (no more than 30 or so books, usually a lot less). You deliver the books to the members on the list I provide you. If you are a new resident, it’s a great way to make new connections.
I am so grateful for so many of our directory distribution volunteers who have been doing this for years and years. But we want you too! Please indicate on your membership that you would be willing to volunteer for directory distribution.
Looking forward to seeing lots of new directory distributors this year!! Questions? Contact me at pattialf@gmail.com.
Thank you, Patti Alf
School Redistricting
The following was submitted by a group of Orange Hunt Estates neighbors committed to keeping our community connected through our neighborhood schools. OHECA is lending its support to the hard work of this group with a supportive letter to relevant school officials.
Hi neighbors — important news from Fairfax County Public Schools! The Superintendent’s Comprehensive Boundary Review is now in Phase 2, and new draft maps (known as Scenario 4) are out for public feedback through November 14.Here’s the big picture: Scenario 4 proposes to split Orange Hunt Estates, sending families zoned for Sangster Elementary to Lake Braddock Secondary, while the rest of the neighborhood would stay with West Springfield High School. These shifts could affect school communities, carpools, and long-standing friendships for families currently at Irving and West Springfield.It’s worth asking: How might this proposal shape our neighborhood’s connection to local schools? What would it mean for your family’s daily routine, after-school plans, and the friends your kids have grown up with?You can share your thoughts in three ways — (1) by attending the public meeting on October 27 (6:30-8pm) at Irving Middle School (in person or online), (2) by reviewing and commenting on Scenario 4 using the Boundary Explorer Tool, and (3) by emailing the following interested parties:
This is your chance to have a say before the final map goes to the School Board. Changes approved in January take effect in the 2026–2027 school year, so it’s important to speak up now!If you have more questions please feel free to reach out to me at Heidi.ingraham@gmail.com.
End School Zone Signs Installed
After months of navigating jurisdictional bureaucracies, we now have a full complement of “END SCHOOL ZONE” signs to add to the sole previously existing one on Huntsman Blvd between Spur Rd and Spelmann Dr. Two were added this summer at the 4-way intersection, and the final one was installed this month on Sydenstricker Rd near Spur Rd (photo). Now the school zones on two sides of OHES have entering yellow flashers and all exiting signs to alert drivers to be extra cautious during the start and end of school.
In the end, we learned that VDOT had relinquished its previous responsibility to a department within Fairfax County Public Schools.
Thank you to one of our observant residents on Sydenstricker Rd for pointing out one of the missing signs way back in early spring. That was the impetus for getting all the missing signs installed.
Lower Huntsman Boulevard Grading
In May, OHECA staffed a request for VDOT to fix certain grading issues on the Huntsman Blvd median between Red Jacket Rd and Old Keene Mill Rd. A couple of these are shown below.
In June, VDOT addressed our work request this way: “We will be addressing these issues the week of July 14, 2025. We will be ordering topsoil this week, and the equipment we need to get the work done will be back up and running.”
This never happened, so we asked for a status update on September 3.
On September 9 VDOT responded: “Our Maintenance Manager drove all of Huntsman Blvd today and saw no issues. The repairs that were made have all been seeded and grass is growing.”
It seems the right and left hands in VDOT are not coordinating, because the work the “Maintenance Manager” observed was performed by Washington Gas contractors as part of gas line replacements along Huntsman Blvd. WG did the seeding (photo). VDOT has not touched the median, and the problems still remain.
Since September 9, VDOT has not addressed the inconsistency in their statements and the lack of promised work. This has been frustrating. OHECA has been coordinating with the offices of Delegate Laura Jane Cohen and Supervisor Pat Herrity throughout this exercise and anxiously (and patiently) awaits some kind of resolution.
Next Adopt-a-Highway
Join us for less than a couple hours on the morning (9:00-11:00) of Saturday, November 22 to pick up any trash left after the mowing season along Huntsman Blvd from Old Keene Mill Rd to the Parkway. This is an easy way to make your contribution to the community. There will be a reminder in November that will include more details.
If You Are a Dog Walker
We end this newsletter with an unpleasant issue. It does not apply to the vast majority of our responsible dog owners.
We are all familiar with complaints about the occasional dog owner not picking up their dog’s deposit on someone’s lawn. We don’t pretend to have a solution to this practice other than to suggest that dog walkers always have a poop bag with them. That said, we do have another related, probably more disgusting matter to surface.
One of our households stores their empty trash receptacle in their garage. One day an odor permeated the garage. It was determined that the can contained a bag of dog poop deposited by a dog walker. It’s happened more than once to this resident.
This is certainly rare behavior, but not unprecedented, judging from social media. In fact, just today (October 18) an area resident posted on the OH Community Facebook page that someone placed a dog poop bag in their recycling bin. Apparently some feel that trash is trash, so what does it matter whose trash can the poop is in? Obviously, it matters to the recipient of the deposit.
If you do this, perhaps not realizing the impact to give you the benefit of the doubt, please take your poop bag home with you. It’s the neighborly thing to do.
Our neighborhood is getting into the spirit of the season! Don’t forget to send in your nominations for the annual Halloween Decorating Contest — we want to see who’s turning their yard into the most boo-tiful display on the block.
Nomination deadline: Thursday, October 20
How to nominate: email nominations to ohecacontestchair@gmail.com. We’re also looking for a few ghoulishly good volunteers to serve as contest judges. It’s a fun way to see all the frightful creativity up close and help pick our winners!If you’d like to nominate a home or volunteer as a judge, please reach out to Michelle the OHECA Contest Chair, by October 20th at ohecacontestchair@gmail.com. Let’s make this Halloween a fang-tastic one!
