Association News – Friday, February 24, 2023
February 2023 Edition of the King Farm Chronicle
The February edition of the King Farm Chronicle is here. Please visit our website under Stay Informed / King Farm Chronicle to read past editions (https://kingfarm.org/king-farm-chronicle/).
February 2023 Edition of the King Farm Chronicle
- Architectural Design Trust (ADT):
- Wednesday 03/08/2023 – 4:30 PM
- Deadline to submit DRAs is Wednesday 03/01/23.
- Board of Trustees (BOT)
- Wednesday 03/15/2023 – 7:30 PM
- Wednesday 03/15/2023 – 7:30 PM
- Board of Code Compliance (BOCC)
- Tuesday 02/28/2023 – 7:00 PM (covenants hearing)
- Wednesday 03/01/2023 – 7:00 PM (covenants hearing)
- Monday 03/13/2023 – 7:00 PM (regular meeting)
- External Affairs (EA):
- Thursday 03/02/2023 – 7:30 PM
King Farm meetings are held virtually. Residents can find the Zoom registration links for all upcoming King Farm Board of Trustees and Committee meetings online by visiting King Farm website on the “Zoom Meeting Links” page. To attend the Zoom meetings, you must register in advance. Each meeting will have an open forum for residents to ask questions or make comments (limited to 3 minutes speaking time per resident). If you would like to speak during open forum, please provide the topic you will be speaking about.
**If you need assistance registering for a virtual meeting and for all other questions, please contact Management by phone (301) 987-0122 or by email at management@kingfarm.org.
2023 Annual Meeting and Election
2023 King Farm Annual Meeting & Election will take place at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, April 26th via Zoom meeting. For more information about the meeting, please visit the Farm website: https://kingfarm.org/annual-meeting-election/.
Candidate Information:
- There are four (4) open seats for the Board of Trustees (BOT). Three (3) seats are two-year terms and one (1) seat is for a one-year term.
Registering to Vote:
- As a reminder, All Citizen [resident] Titleholders of single-family homes, townhomes, and condominium units, as shown on the Assembly’s records, are automatically registered to vote.
- More information about registering to vote can be found on the website: https://kingfarm.org/registering-to-vote/.
- UPDATE: Please note that non-resident Titleholders are NOT eligible to vote in the election per the governing documents.
- Non-titleholders must register ANNUALLY!
- All other persons who wish to vote, including tenants and other occupants of a King Farm residence who are not the record owners of the residence, are required to complete a Citizen Registration Form in order to register as Citizens with the Assembly and to vote in elections (registration forms can be found on the website).
- Citizen Registration Forms must be submitted by 12:00 pm, Monday, March 27th, 2023. You can submit your form to the Management Office via email at management@kingfarm.org or by placing it in the drop box to the right of the front office door (300 Saddle Ridge Circle).
- All forms will be verified (signed lease, state issued driver’s license, and/or owner verification).
Please note: If you are NOT a Citizen Titleholder and have not registered by the deadline you are not permitted to vote in the election
City & County Updates:
Increased Car Break-ins – Tips from RCPD:
- Keep Your Vehicle Tidy – Thieves like to window shop! Avoid leaving anything visible in the car. Almost any item that’s visible from the outside – even if you think it is worthless – could be seen as valuable to a thief.
- Your spare change, sunglasses, even an empty bag (a thief may think there is something inside the bag) could be valuable in the mind of a thief.
- Keep valuables out of sight or store them inside your home. Purses, credit cards, and cell phones in plain view only help attract thieves.
- Secure Your Vehicle – Roll your car windows up all the way and engage the car alarm, but do not depend on it as the only way to deter a thief. A car thief can break into your car and be out in about 30 seconds, fast enough that an alarm doesn’t scare most of them away.
- Park Smart – If you have a garage, park your vehicle inside your garage and not on the street. Otherwise, park your vehicle in a well-lit area.
REPORT BREAK-INS TO RCPD
If you see a break-in in progress, call 911 immediately! Provide the 911 dispatcher with as much information as possible, such as:
- Location – Provide an address, block number, or specific location in a parking lot.
Description of the suspect – Provide as much information as you can, i.e. sex, race, age, height, weight, hair color and length, color and length of facial hair, colors and style of clothing, and identifying marks such as tattoos and piercings. - Direction – If the suspect flees, give the direction of travel. If they flee on a bicycle or in a vehicle, describe the color, make, model, and license plate number, if it is safe to do so!
- RockView Program – if you have a ring camera (or other front door/doorbell camera), you can register it with the RCPD. The RockView program allows residents and business owners to voluntary register their privately owned video security camera systems with the RCPD. Registration in the RockView program does not enable law enforcement to view camera footage without an owner’s permission. However, the RockView program will allow city police to quickly identify security cameras that may have captured criminal activity when a crime is reported nearby. For more information about the RockView program, visit the City of Rockville’s website for more information: https://www.rockvillemd.gov/2247/Security-Camera-Registration.
Town Center Master Plan
The City of Rockville will host four interactive listening sessions to kickoff outreach and engagement for the Town Center Master Plan update, which will help guide the area’s success in coming decades. Join the discussion and sign up to receive updates about the project at engagerockville.com/towncenter.
7-9 p.m. Thursday, April 13, Rockville Memorial Library, second-floor meeting room.
7-9 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, Rockville Memorial Library, first-floor meeting room.
10 a.m.-noon, Saturday, April 22. WebEx virtual meeting.
7-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 25. WebEx virtual meeting.
City Manager to Present FY24 Budget to Mayor and Council
City Manager Rob DiSpirito is scheduled to present his proposed Fiscal Year 2024 operating budget and Capital Improvements Program on Monday, Feb. 27, followed by Mayor and Council public hearings and work sessions in March and April. For information about how to testify at hearings, find agendas, posted the week before each date at www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter. Read more here.
Centenarians Will Be Honored at Special Montgomery Recreation Celebration in May
County residents who are ages 100 and older or will turn 100 in 2023 will be honored in May at a special celebration. Montgomery County Recreation is now seeking to identify those residents so they can be invited to the event. Read more here.
King Farm Neighbors Village News (KFNV)
KFNV Events:
Yesterday evening from 7:00-9:00 pm, the King Farm Neighbors Village (KFNV) hosted its second Games Night. Participants enjoyed playing board games with fellow King Farm game afficionados. Look for upcoming Games Nights in the spring.
Future events for March are:
- On March 2, 2023 from 2:00-3:00 pm, KFNV Movie Club participants will review the 2017 biopic, Woman Walks Ahead, starring Jessica Chastain as Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter who leaves her home in Brooklyn, New York to travel to South Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull. The average Rotten Tomatoes audience score was 61%
- On March 9, 2023 from 12:30-2:00 pm, KFNV Book Club members will discuss the 2021 novel, Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. In Oh William! readers return to the fictional town of Amgash, Illinois from Strout’s previous novel, My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible. Oh William! was a New York Times and IndieBound best seller.
- On March 15, 2023 from 10:00-11:30 am, the KFNV will host a special Coffee and Conversation where the topic will be: What is happening with King Farm’s Town Center? Cade Weiler, Property Manager with Sterling Organization in King Farm will discuss with participants the plans for the King Farm Town Center. Please join the KFNV at Coffee and Conversation to get your questions answered; and finally,
- On March 23, 2023 from 1:00 to 2:30 pm, KFNV will host its monthly highlight event: “Off the Beaten Path in Montgomery County,” a slide show /lecture of the “Top 10” lesser-known spots in Montgomery County with historical importance. The lecturer will be Mr. Ralph Buglass, a speaker for Montgomery History, the county’s historical society, as well as a volunteer researcher for Peerless Rockville, the city’s historic preservation organization. Mr. Buglass is known to the KFNV; for this will be his third presentation for KFNV. Through his presentations, Mr. Buglass offers not only his knowledge of the history of the area, but shares beautiful photographs to accompany his lectures. The KFNV is looking forward to another engaging and informative presentation by Mr. Buglass.
**Please note that the KFNV has changed its monthly Movie Club, Book Club, Coffee and Conversation gatherings and highlight events to in-person meetings and has reserved the King Farm Community Center, 300 Saddle Ridge Circle, Rockville, MD 20850 for these events. In accordance with the policy adopted by the KFNV Board of Directors, people attending KFNV sponsored, in-person events must be vaccinated per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID recommendations. Wearing a mask is optional. In case of inclement weather and if there is time to notify participants, the KFNV may opt for a Zoom presentation for any meeting or event. Therefore, the KFNV will not be offering a hybrid option for any future events. Finally, the KFNV offers transportation to many of its monthly events for KFNV members. Please contact the Operations Coordinator at kfnvinfo@gmail.com, or leave a voicemail at (301) 799-8104 to arrange for transportation.
Services
The KFNV community services are in full-swing with KFNV services such as transportation to appointments and simple household chores being the most popular services. As one grateful recipient of transportation to an appointment raved:
- “Hi, (KFNV) (Volunteer 1) was delightful and did a great job shepherding me to and from. I was quite anxious about the procedure and, bless his heart, (Volunteer 1) kept an eye on me and kept me distracted. I hope (think) he might have enjoyed himself a bit too. He’s a retired dentist and my dentist conversed with him a bit. (Volunteer 1) even stayed at the dentist’s office until I was ready to go home!
- (Volunteer 2) was lovely. He (and all the volunteers) arrived on time, got me there in plenty of time (I like getting somewhere early rather than late.), and was there waiting. [I had let him know my appointments were running a bit late and we agreed (I’d) phone/text him when I was done.] Very thoughtful. Thanks very much, (Service Recipient)
Please feel free to avail yourself of this service as well as any of the following KFNV community services:
- Simple household tasks
- Friendly phone calls
- Transportation to appointments
- Friendly visits
*Please note that services are open to KFNV members only; however, membership is free and an easy process. See below on how to contact the KFNV to schedule any of the services or with any questions that you may have about the services as well as how to become a KFNV member.
Contacting the KFNV
For most of the KFNV monthly events as well as the services, membership is required; but membership is as easy as filling out an on-line or mail-in form with residency in the King Farm Community being the only membership requirement.
Although there is no fee to become a KFNV member, the KFNV does, however, accept. and welcome donations; for these donations help defray the cost of KFNV services and events.
For information on how to register for any of the above events, to request a service or a ride, to become a KFNV member, or to make a donation, please contact the Operations Coordinator by calling (301) 799-8104 or leaving a voicemail, or view the KFNV website at www.kfnv.org.
RCPD News Report: February 14, 2023 to February 21, 2023
Click here to read the Weekly Crime Report courtesy of the Rockville City Police Department.
If you have a crime or concern to report, please contact the Rockville City Police Department at:
Non-Emergency: 240-314-8900
Emergency: 9-1-1
2 W. Montgomery Ave, Rockville, Maryland 20850
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
RCPD Update: Kia & Hyundai Auto Theft Trend
Do you own a Kia of model years 2011-21 or a Hyundai of years 2016-21? Does it start a steel key instead of a push-button ignition?
Law enforcement and national media outlets have recently confirmed a common design flaw in these vehicles that allows auto thieves to easily hotwire them with a screwdriver or USB cable. Thieves have quickly become aware of this flaw through social media, particularly on TikTok. Perpetrators exploiting this flaw typically force entry through the vehicle’s window and use the stolen car for dangerous and costly joyriding.
The BBC reports that these Korean automakers have released a free software patch to help protect their drivers.