The executive board of the Great Falls Citizens Association gave Dranesville District supervisor Joan DuBois an earful Tuesday night, when she attended a meeting to answer some general questions but ended up discussing the contentious water issue of Riverside Manor.
The meeting began with DuBois addressing some questions that had been e-mailed to her.
“Someone wrote that no one on my staff is from Great Falls so I’m not in touch with the community here,” she said. “I know more about Great Falls than some people in this room.”
Before being elected supervisor, she worked on the staff of the previous supervisor, Stuart Mendelssohn. “I was on his staff during the battle for the library down the road. This property and the one next door, we preserved,” she said of the Grange and Old Schoolhouse properties. “Regardless of your political affiliation, I assure you, I do understand the community.”
Specifically addressing the issue of Fairfax Water’s installing a water main in Riverside Manor, DuBois said that the residents should remember that the Capital Improvement Plan that allocated funding for the project was voted on and approved by the office of her predecessor. “There was someone from Great Falls on his staff,” she said.
She said her office received 73 zoning complaints in Great Falls in 2004, “everything from excessive structures on a property, too many people living in one house, everything you could imagine,” she said. “We have at least one complaint a week. The funny thing is, we don’t have this problem in McLean. It’s all out this way, right on the border.”
Of the 73 complaints, 53 have been settled or closed, she said.
“You’ve remarked that you’ve had a lot of experience in Great Falls,” treasurer Joan Barnes said to DuBois. “We’ve talked about the county Comprehensive Plan. I’d like to know what your opinion of Great Falls is.”
“Great Falls is a wonderful place to be,” DuBois said. “It’s kind of unique because it has a combination of areas zoned a certain way and other parts are very rural. … I don’t see any necessary big changes.”
THE OUTLOOK OF Great Falls may be changing with its newer residents, she said.
“To a certain extent, I think Great Falls is changing,” she said. “We do have a community like Riverside Manor, who really would like the water to come in from the county, and those who don’t. We have to learn how to balance that,” DuBois said.
“When it comes to the water issue, it’s at the forefront of our issues,” said Great Falls Citizens’ Association president David Olin. “One of the things the GFCA is supposed to do is represent the community.”
The plan in question is one proposed by Fairfax Water to install a pipeline to connect the 53 residences of Riverside Manor to their water service. Currently, the residences receive water from wells, controlled by Fairfax Water. The pipeline would connect at Great Falls Elementary School, which is already being served by Fairfax Water, and run down Walker Road to Arnon Chapel Road and end at Chesapeake Road.
“I’m a resident of Riverside Manor, and I remember asking [board vice president] Kathleen Foley what the board’s position on the water line was at a meeting this summer. She said the board would support the residents,” said Gene Herbert. “The residents do not want or need this pipeline. There were some early implications that maybe some people would want it, but they were unsure.”
“We certainly see your point,” Olin said. “There was a motion passed at a general membership meeting where we said we would support what the residents wanted, but my question is, what direction are you taking this?” he asked Herbert. “Every time I say something, it gets put in the press that I’m propagating misinformation.”
“This is something that needs to be resolved within the community,” DuBois said. “It would be presumptuous of me to tell the Water Authority to stop this project when they’re coming to the community to discuss the project,” she said.
In short, she said she “can’t get involved in the Riverside Manor situation. It needs to be resolved within the community.”
DuBois recommended that the residents who are not in favor of having the water line installed need to approach the Riverside Manor homeowners association to discuss its concerns.
“YOU’RE TELLING the people that they need to go to the board, but you’re not telling the board [to go to the residents],” Barnes said. “You’re on the board’s side.”
“No, I’m not,” DuBois said. “You’re putting words in my mouth. They’re adults, they need to figure it out on their own.”
Barnes told the board that Fairfax Water had initially approached the Riverside Manor HOA to poll the 53 homes in Riverside about the water, and the HOA offered to conduct the survey for them. “In my opinion, Fairfax Water should go back and do what they intended to do in the first place. The board doesn’t have the authority to speak on their behalf on this,” she said.
“One of my concerns is anything that can be misconstrued ends up with six Riverside board members calling me up angry,” Olin said.
The issue needs to be a priority of Fairfax Water, not the GFCA, said vice president Kathleen Foley. “You need to make sure they give you the straight-up answers,” she said to the residents of Riverside Manor.
DuBois said the decision to install water pipelines in Riverside is strictly a “business decision,” made once the Water Authority decided “it didn’t want to be in the well-water business anymore.”
“I think your best bet would be to have the Water Authority do a survey,” she said. That way, the Water Authority would have the final say straight from the residents’ mouths, knowing how they feel about the water main project themselves.
“No one is doing any scare tactics [to get the water installed],” DuBois said. “This is strictly a business decision.”
“I’m one of the 63 percent of people in Riverside Manor that voted against the water,” said resident George Gaft. “I voted for you, and I expect you to represent me,” he told DuBois.
DuBois, ironically, was not on the agenda to speak officially at the meeting, only to answer questions, but she stayed for the majority of the 2 1/2-hour-long meeting.