October 7, 2004

Village Council business—
Local resident terminating caboose lease with Village

By Robert Mihalek

Village Council at its meeting Monday night agreed to transfer the lease for the Village’s two train cabooses from Caboose Bike & Skate to a group called Yellow Springs Cabooses, LLC. Council also accepted Yellow Springs Cabooses’ decision to terminate the lease at the end of October.

Council made both decisions through a resolution, which was passed unanimously.

The resolution allows the owners of Caboose Bike & Skate, Chris and Doug Roberts, to sell their lease for $1,000 to Yellow Springs Cabooses, which will then cancel the lease on Oct. 31. The lease, which Council approved for Caboose Bike & Skate in February 2000, had five years remaining on what was originally a 10-year agreement.

Yellow Springs Cabooses is a limited liability company formed by Bruce Rickenbach, he said after the meeting, “for the specific purpose of acquiring the lease.” Rickenbach said he is the only person involved in Yellow Springs Cabooses.

Rickenbach said he decided to pursue the lease after he learned the Robertses were shopping the agreement. In August the Robertses said they were selling the lease because of declining business. For the past two months, they have been liquidating their inventory.

Yellow Springs Cabooses’ decision to terminate the lease helps solve an uncomfortable and controversial problem involving the yellow cabooses.

Last summer Council agreed to limit the scope of Caboose Bike & Skate’s business to rentals to match what Council said was the Village’s original intention in the 1980s to install an amenity on the bikepath that only rented bicycles and skates. Council, however, later reversed that decision when it determined that it could not legally change its lease with Caboose Bike & Skate. Therefore, in January of this year, Council said that it would honor its lease with the Robertses for the remainder of their contract but would not renew the lease after it expired in 2009.

The controversy surrounding the use of the cabooses centered on a 1986 Council resolution that says “roadside stands and other private installations” are prohibited within the bikepath right-of-way. Part of the cabooses is within the right-of-way. Despite the ’86 resolution, Council had approved three leases with businesses operating in the cabooses. All three leases allowed for both sales and rentals.

In a letter to Council announcing Yellow Springs Cabooses’ intention to terminate the lease, Rickenbach said that the Robertses’ decision to sell the lease “seemed an ideal opportunity to also end a situation that mired” Council, the Robertses and the community in controversy. Purchasing the lease, and then canceling it, allows Council “to start with a clean slate,” Rickenbach said in an interview.

Several Council members expressed appreciation for Yellow Springs Cabooses’ decision to buy and cancel the lease. “I think it’s a really good move to solve the problem,” Council member George Pitstick said. Council president Tony Arnett said he appreciated the group’s “generous contribution.”

In his letter, Rickenbach expressed hope that the cabooses would not be used for commercial purposes again. In addition, he suggested that the Village move the cabooses, and restore and maintain the structures “to preserve and protect their historical value and context in the community.”

Council member Denise Swinger said that whether Council could follow through with those suggestions would come down to available funding. But she said that “at least this Council or future Councils will have options to consider” for the cabooses.

In other Council business:

• Village Manager Rob Hillard reported that he continues to negotiate a price for natural gas for customers who are signed up for the Village’s aggregation program. So far, he said, “prices are coming in high.” Hillard said that the Village’s negotiating strategy “relied on the price dipping.”

“We want to strike a reasonable price for Yellow Springs,” said Hillard, who is working on the aggregation program with the assistance of AMPO, Inc., an affiliate of American Municipal Power of Ohio (AMP-Ohio), the Village’s wholesale electricity supplier.

Last year Yellow Springs voters approved a ballot issue giving the Village authority to start the aggregation program and negotiate natural gas prices on behalf of local residents and businesses. The Village secured a two-year deal with Interstate Gas Supply (IGS) of Dublin to provide natural gas to Yellow Springs but must renegotiate a price for year two of the contract.

After the meeting, Hillard said the Village has a self-imposed deadline of after the Nov. 2 election to decide how it would purchase gas through IGS. The Village could negotiate prices on a month-by-month basis or secure another one-year price, Hillard said. The price last week for natural gas was 95 cents per cubic feet, Hillard said. Last year, the Village negotiated the price at 69.9 cents per cubic feet.

• Council unanimously approved the second reading of an ordinance allowing the Village to accept as identification “matricula consular” and Guatemalan consulate cards. Matricula consular cards are issued by the Mexican consulate to Mexican nationals residing in the U.S., the ordinance states.

The Village Human Relations Commission recommended that Council adopt the ordinance. The ordinance allows Village departments, including the utility and police, to accept the identification cards. The Yellow Springs Library could also accept the cards from people wishing to get library cards. The cards do not replace driver’s licenses and do not function as passports.

• Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Hillard to execute a new agreement with Gypsy Cafe for its Economic Development Revolving Loan with the Village. The new deal was struck after the owners of the restaurant, Guy and Locksley Orr, paid $10,000 on their $50,000 loan over the last two months.

• Council approved a resolution appointing Hillard the delegate and Sharon Potter, the new Village finance director, the alternative delegate to the Regional Income Tax Agency’s Regional Council of Governments. The Regional Income Tax Agency is the Village’s income tax administrator.

• Rickenbach complained that he has been unable to access 24-hour Time Warner Cable customer service, noting that the line is “always busy” when he calls. In light of this problem, he said that he was “appalled” to receive an offer from Time Warner to pay an extra $5 a month to receive special customer service.

Hillard said that he would look into the complaint.

• Council agreed to hold its annual reviews of the clerk of Council, Deborah Benning, at its Nov. 1 meeting and Hillard on Nov. 15. Both reviews will take place in executive session.