Mason Hill Newsletter

Newsletter — July 2026

July 5, 2026

Please find the July 2026 edition of the Mason Hill Citizens Association Newsletter below. Hopefully everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend and is enjoying the summer season!

Your 2026-2027 MHCA Board Members

President — Shawn Lucas

Shawn and Jen Lucas have been Mason Hill residents for over 9 years. They moved to the community after Shawn retired from 26 years of service in the U.S. Army. Shawn recently served as the MHCA Vice President and Jen has been helping out with the Social Committee and often represents MHCA at the Fairfax County Planning and Zoning committee meetings.

Vice President— Kyle Houff

Kyle and Lindsay Houff moved to Mason Hill in the fall of 2020 and live between the Leith cul-de-sac and the MVUC driveway with their two children, Charlotte and Max, and their dog, Albie. They're a dedicated Bluefish swim team family at the Hollin Hills Pool, which is currently in the middle of its annual season.

Treasurer — Nadine Wren

Returning as our Treasurer, Nadine moved here in December 1983. Raised a couple of kids, dogs, cats, and rabbits. Lifetime member of Girl Scouts. Extension Master Gardener since 2021. Serving as MHCA treasurer under a 3rd president. Really lucky to have such amazing neighbors!

Secretary — Michael Blonsky

Michael and Thida Blonsky moved to Mason Hill one year ago and are excited to be part of such a vibrant and friendly community! Michael and Thida own Change Real Estate and are licensed in Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Nevada and California. Michael is also a seasoned software developer who spent years in Silicon Valley with both large public technology companies and small tech startups. He has been working on the new MHCA website to help keep our community informed and engaged.

MHCA Website Migration

MHCA, under the direction of Michael Blonsky, is in the process of migrating the MHCA website to a new domain and using custom developed software Michael built for our community with more features, more interactivity and reduces our annual cost for the community website from over $500/year down to a few dollars per month (depending on usage). He is donating his development time and gifting MHCA a free perpetual license for the software. The new website's URL is already live @ https://mhca.us

The migration will occur in three phases:

Build and test the features in the new website — DONE
Enroll Mason Hill residents in the new website. This month, residents will be sent an email invite to enroll in the new website and can begin using it and providing us feedback.
Improve and sustain the new website — this includes the decommissioning the old website (the old website address will forward to the new website) and the continuous improvement of the new website to give it the functionality to make it useful for all.

Screenshot of the new MHCA website

Summary of Annual Meeting with MVUC and RFCS

MHCA, represented by Mike Rioux and Shawn Lucas, met with leadership from the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church (MVUC) and the River Farm Cooperative School (RFCS) on June 23^rd.

The Director of RFCS states that she continues to reiterate to school parents to watch their speed in the neighborhood and come to a complete stop at the intersection of the church entrance and Windmill Lane. They made it clear they value the relationship with our community and have made it a priority to minimize any impact they may have.
MVUC leadership stated, in writing, that they are contractually limiting the number of students that can use MVUC facilities to 70. As you may recall, Fairfax County zoned the property for nearly 100 total students, but MVUC and RFCS do not intend to realize that number. RFCS leadership is satisfied with their current enrollment of approximately 60 students as that meets their desired student/teacher ratio. This is the number of students that are planned for the 2026-2027 school year.
All three parties expressed their concern about the safety hazards present from the unfenced pool and fire debris at the Mason Hill property along the road to the MVUC. All parties are in unanimous agreement to work together to revisit and reinforce the issue with Fairfax County authorities. More to follow as we seek resolution to this issue.

2026 MHCA Dues

Annual dues payments of $50 per household provide MHCA with the revenue necessary to accomplish the following:

Maintain the grass and landscaping at the front entrance to our neighborhood
Conduct neighborhood social events
Perform the desired capital upgrades the Mason Hill residents vote for
Pay for the expenses needed to operate continual activities in support of the community - such as the MHCA website, Welcome Wagon, fees to state/local organizations, etc.
Maintain reserve funding in the event of a contingency

Dues payment status - as of July 2026, there are 67 of 112 homes that paid 2026 MHCA dues. Please make your 2026 dues payment by using one of the three following options:

Mail $50 check made out to MHCA to Nadine Wren at 2009 Windmill Lane, Alexandria, VA 22307
Drop off your payment at 2009 Windmill Lane — for drop off use the small black mailbox just below the primary mailbox.
Venmo - contact Shawn Lucas via email to arrange for payment. Please note that one of the features we are working on for the new website is for online payment of dues via Venmo. More to follow on this.

Reincorporating MHCA as a Virginia Non-Stock Corporation (not for profit)

MHCA was incorporated as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in 2017, however that status has lapsed and the MHCA Board has agreed to reincorporate MHCA with the Virginia State Corporation Commission under the provisions of a non-stock corporation. This affords the Board, and residents of Mason Hill, acting on behalf of the community personal liability protection, keeping with the spirit of the MHCA Bylaws. This action is currently being pursued and once established, will require an annual $25 registration fee to maintain this designation. This is important for tax reporting purposes as we pursue a high-yield savings account to hold MHCA's reserve funds.

MHCA Financial Report

Budget — the annual budget is currently $5,000 per year (subject to revision at the start of fiscal year based on dues received and projected expenses).

Expenses — MHCA expenses include:

Front entrance mowing on Mason Hill Drive, Rippon Road, and the area on both sides of the stone wall along Fort Hunt Road.
Front entrance clean-up and planting and mulching each spring and fall with volunteers helping with that effort.
HOA Express annual fees for the Mason Hill Website (soon to be cancelled)
Annual dues for membership in the MVCCA and Fairfax Federation
MH Welcome Wagon
Community Social events

Balance — As of July 1, 2026, the MHCA Wells Fargo Bank account balance is $26,474.32.

At the 2026 Annual Meeting it was approved that we move $10,000.00 from the MHCA checking account and put it in a high-yield savings account for it to serve as our reserve account.

Action — MHCA Board is currently pursuing reincorporation as a Virginia non-stock corporation and, once incorporated, establishing a high-yield savings account with SoFi to give MHCA the benefits of holding our reserve funds in an interest-bearing account while maintaining necessary liquidity.

Front Entrance Mason Hill Sign Replacement and Landscape Stones

The Mason Hill sign at the front entrance has reached a point where it needs to be replaced. A special committee has been formed, under the leadership of Stevan Jackson and Lee Robertson, and they are currently seeking proposals from two sign vendors. The goal is to provide the MHCA Board, and community, with several options for consideration, ranging from a replacement similar to the existing sign, to an upgraded and more visible design, to a more substantial entrance concept that could help better distinguish Mason Hill from surrounding communities.

The committee is also exploring the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of adding two smaller complementary Mason Hill signs — one along Rippon Road and another farther into the neighborhood on Mason Hill Drive.

Once vendor concepts and preliminary cost estimates are received, the committee will provide its findings to the MHCA Board for consideration and next steps.

The MHCA Board understands funds will be set aside for this project and the one-time cost will very likely exceed the $600 threshold requiring approval by a majority of the households (per MHCA Bylaws). More to follow on this topic as these design options (and associated costs) are explored and prepared for decision by the MHCA residents.

MHCA Social Committee Updates

Movie night is scheduled for August 9^th!
MHCA Social Committee Presents:

Outdoor Movie Night!

Saturday, August 8, 2026
2015 Windmill Lane
From 7pm to 10ish
PLEASE RSVP to erbrimhall8@gmail.com
Grab your lawn chairs, a blanket and join us for a night under the stars! We will provide: popcorn, popsicles, watermelon and kid-friendly drinks.

Featuring Toy Story 5

MVCCA Record— The latest issue of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Associations Record is now available at https://www.mvcca.org/record/record_current.pdf

To ensure future emails from Mason Hill Citizens Association go to your email inbox, please save the sender of this email to your contacts. You may also open the following link to download the vCard with this contact info: https://mhca.us/mhca.vcf — or scan the QR Code below to download this vCard.