Magical Merry Widow

Long time readers of Inverness Forest Today know that I occasionally discuss local live theater productions. The Victorian Lyric Opera production of The Merry Widow starts today at the Fitzgerald Theater in Rockville. This is a magical, delightful production. It has great singing, dancing, and very funny dialog. Director Debbie Niezgoda brings the show to life by recreating the atmosphere of the Pontevedrian embassy in early 20th century Paris. The music bubbles and sparkles under the baton of artistic director and conductor Joseph Sorge.

Ticket Information

The story

The cast and orchestra are so uniformly outstanding that it would be hard to single out specific performers for special praise. Instead I'll let you judge for yourself. Below are links to pictures and musical selections from the Victorian Lyric Opera production.

My Dress Rehearsal Pictures

Listen to Music clips from the VLOC production


Don't miss this show!

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com

Are the herbicides used on our lawns harming our pets and ourselves?

Inverness Resident Danielle Pearson has emailed the board expressing her concern that the herbicides used on the common lawns may be causing severe or fatal health problems to our pets and perhaps to humans. The company that applies the herbicide has responded. Board member Sabine Dohrn, who is knowledgeable about environmental issues, has given her assessment of the issue.

The board wants to hear the views of our residents before making a decision on whether to continue to use herbicides on our common area lawns. So, I am unveiling a new survey tool to make it easy for you to tell us your views and opinions. Whether you are for the continued use of herbicides, against the use of herbicides, or don't have a strong opinion on the matter, please take a few moments to fill out the opinion survey. The greater the participation in the survey, the more useful the results will be toward helping the board make a decision.

Here is an excerpt from Danielle Pearson's email:

"I am the homeowner who has questioned the use of herbicides on our common areas... Within the last two years 5 out of 8 dogs on my court have had cancer, most have since died. It is the feeling of my radiation oncologist vet that this may be a harbinger of things to come in our children. It is difficult if not impossible to stay off the common areas when they are treated".
Click for Danielle Pearson's complete email

The company that applied the herbicide responded in part:

"We have hundreds of customers whose lawns we have treated for over 20 years, literally thousands of services, whose pets have experienced no such problems. The fact that 5 out of 8 dogs on this court have developed cancer suggests they look elsewhere for the cause, radon gas, commercial pet food (which is totally unregulated) or some other problem".
Click here for the complete response

Here is an excerpt from Sabine Dohrn's views:

"While manufacturers and contractors would like to convince us that the herbicides are "safe" when used according to the instructions (which nobody can verify), many people are concerned and find that even minimal doses of toxins are objectionable..."
Click here for Sabine Dohrn's complete respons

Now it's your turn to express an opinion

Please click on the link below to take the survey. I will report the survey results to the board at the March 12, 2009 meeting. Taking the survey not only lets you tell us your opinion on this issue, but it also gives the board a way to judge the effectiveness of this tool for collecting the views of community residents. So even if you don't have a strong opinion on this issue ("No strong opinion" is one of the choices), please take the survey anyway. It will take less than a minute. Here is the link to the survey:

Herbicide Survey

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com

Roof advice needed ASAP!!

Carolyn Hayes has written me an email requesting a recommendation on a roofer. Her roof is leaking so she and her husband need to proceed quickly. Carolyn has posted a message on the Inverness Forest association message board requesting help. Here is the text of that message:

Hi everyone,

My husband and I just purchased our townhome in the spring of last year, and we need to replace our roof ASAP. I thought it could wait until this spring, but we have sprung a leak! Yikes! I have called about a dozen roofers and I have gotten 4 formal quotes, and the least expensive roofer I have found thus far is just under 10k. (We have the interior model with the mansard roof.) I like him, but I want to be sure we make the right decision as the roof is such an important part of your home. Does anyone know of or used a particular roofer that you would recommend? We are looking to hire someone within the next week so quick responses would be much appreciated! I will post my experience afterwards as well so as to educate anyone else out there looking to purchase a new roof in our community.

Thanks in advance for you help!
Carolyn

If you'd like to reply to the message on the message board, click for Carolyn's posting

If you are not a user of the message board, you can click the comment button below to leave your recommendation or you can send me an email at the link below and I'll pass on your information to Carolyn.

Incidentally, the message board can be a very good resource for the Inverness Forest Community. Because the message board is new, not many people know about it and therefore it is not used often. All it takes to post a message is to create a login. Once that is done (it's easy!) you can log in at any time and post a message or respond to a message. You can read the messages without having a login, but you can't post or respond. The link to the IFA webiste (where the message board is found) is in the sidebar on the right

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com

January 2009 Board Meeting Minutes Online

The minutes from the January 2009 board meeting are now online at the Inverness Forest Association's website. Here is the link:

January 2009 board minutes

The online minutes contains a link to a PDF version of the file for downloading a printable copy.

The board has been discussing an experiment (in the spring) to eliminate the paper copies of the minutes except for those people who don't have online access. Anyone who has internet access but who wants a paper copy will have an opportunity to request one. Also they can download the PDF file and print it.

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com