When residents of Great Falls received letters announcing the decision to start work on the Riverside Manor waterline from Fairfax Water, one big question was raised.
If the decision was made on March 10, and the letters were dated March 11, how could the postmark be March 10?
“We’ve heard a lot of questions,” said Jeanne Bailey, public relations spokeswoman for Fairfax Water.
The letters were drafted prior to the meeting a few weeks ago, as had been done in February when the issue was on the agenda for the monthly Fairfax Water meeting, she said. “The letters were printed up after the meeting, not before, and when the boss gave the go-ahead with the project, we were asked the publicize the decision immediately.”
Fairfax Water’s offices are located right next door to the Merrifield Post Office and were “mistakenly” picked up the same night of the meeting, which is why they were postmarked for Thursday instead of Friday, like the letters, Bailey said.
“We had the same batch of letters ready to go in February, in case the decision had been made then,” she said. “This is a work order for us. As soon as the project is approved, we want to get the letters out as soon as possible.”
Concerns over the date of the letters is understandable, she said, but “nothing was done before the decision was made. The prep work was done, yes, but nothing else. I’m sure in any office you can site projects you can do ahead of time. Should our board have voted differently, the letters would have been destroyed,” she said.
Bailey maintains the Riverside Manor project has been approached as openly and honestly as possible by Fairfax Water.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that we’ve been nothing but honest about what we wanted to do, why and our concerns” with the well-water system, she said. “I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, I’ve been honest.”
Crews began installing the waterline near Great Falls Elementary School last week, taking advantage of the spring break for students to get some work done without too much disruption of traffic, she said.
--By Amber Healy