Latson to leave Council

Council member Hazel Latson announced Monday that she will resign her seat on Council later this month.

Speaking briefly during Council’s meeting March 3, Latson said that her last meeting will be March 17.

She said that she is resigning because she and her husband, Wilbur, are leaving Yellow Springs and moving to a house they are building on Trebein Road. They plan to move later this month.

Council member George Pitstick told Latson that he would miss working with her.

Latson said she did not intend to leave Council early, but must now that she and her husband are moving. They had hoped to sell their old house and purchase another home in town, Latson said. But they could not find a house they could afford that was in good condition or one that did not need a lot of work. Latson said she does not have the energy to buy a “fixer-upper.”

“At this stage in my life I just want to move in and live for the time I have left,” she said.

Latson had retired from Antioch College last year, but was asked to come back for this school year to serve as the interim director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Latson’s announcement came on the heels of the news that Police Chief Jim Miller will retire in September.

According to the Village Charter, Council will have 30 days to fill Latson’s seat once she is off the five-member board. The remaining Council members — Tony Arnett, the president, Joan Horn, Pitstick and Denise Swinger — will choose Latson’s successor. At least three Council members must approve the new Council member, who will serve until this November’s general election.

Arnett said Monday that Council will discuss the vacancy at its next meeting, March 17, in executive session.

Latson was elected to a two-year term in the November 2001 election. In the spring of 2000, she was appointed to Council, after Bruce Rickenbach resigned. She also served on Council during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The two biggest issues Council must address, Latson said, are business development and affordable housing.

She said the village needs businesses that are compatible with Yellow Springs to move here and also needs a broader range of housing. “We need to have houses that are affordable for people like me — who are moving down — that are of quality. We need starter homes,” she said.

As a Council member, Latson said, she enjoyed talking to people and solving problems.

Latson and her husband have been married for 46 years, and they have lived in Yellow Springs for 28. They have one son, Mark, who is 36.

She served as the head of the Education Department and taught education at Antioch. Before coming to Antioch, she served as the principal of the Morgan Middle School. In 1994, Latson received a Ph.D. in education administration from Miami University.

—Robert Mihalek

Candidates needed
Yellow Springs residents interested in serving out Hazel Latson’s term on Council should send a letter of interest to Deborah Benning, the clerk of Council, 100 Dayton Street, or debenning@yso.com.
The term will expire after the November election.
For more information, contact any member of Council or Benning, 767-9126.