March 3, 2005

 

Pitstick to step down from Council

By Lauren Heaton and Robert Mihalek

George Pitstick

Village Council member George Pitstick announced Monday that he is resigning from Council at the end of the month because he and his wife, Eloise, are moving out of town.

Pitstick made his announcement, which appeared to catch the other four members of Council by surprise, during a special Council meeting on Feb. 28.

In an interview Tuesday, he said that he and his wife have purchased a home near two of their children in Mason. They have spent several years considering a move closer to their family, Pitstick said, and the decision to leave after 43 years in the village was not an easy one.

“We’ve lived here all of our lives, and the town’s pretty important to us,” he said. “A lot of thought with mixed emotions went into this decision.”

The Village Charter stipulates that Council will have 30

days to fill Pitstick’s seat once he is off the five-member board.

Candidates wanted for Village Council seat

Village Council is seeking candidates to serve the remainder of George Pitstick’s term on Council, until the November general election this year. Applicants should be Yellow Springs residents.
To apply, send a letter of interest and a resume to the clerk of Council, Deborah Benning, at the Bryan Community Center, 100 Dayton Street, or dbenning@yso.com.
The deadline for applications is Friday, March 18.
Council members indicated that they plan to interview candidates for the position.

 

The remaining Council members — Tony Arnett, the president, Mary J. Alexander, Jocelyn Hardman and Denise Swinger — will choose Pitstick’s successor. At least three Council members must approve the new Council member, who will serve until this November’s general election.

Pitstick came to Yellow Springs with his parents in 1959, married and raised four children here, he said.

In that time Pitstick has served the Village for 25 years in many different capacities. He served on Council from 1981 to ’89, then ran successfully again in 2001 and in 2003. He also served on the Board of Zoning Appeals from 1978 to ’81, was a member of the Planning Commission for eight years in the ’80s, represented Council on the plan board during his current tenure on Council, and was a member of the Village Cable Advisory Panel. He also spent nine years as Village treasurer.

In addition, Pitstick has been a member of the Lion’s Club and the Yellow Springs Men’s Group.

“I’ve spent a lot of my life sitting at home reading material trying to figure out how to build things better,” he said. “I had no personal gain in this whatsoever. I just wanted to try to make things better than I found them.”

Though Pitstick is resigning from Council at the end of the month, he will remain in Yellow Springs until late May or early June, which will allow for an “orderly transition,” he said.

He said he has enjoyed his years of serving the Village and has learned a lot about how to listen and work with people to find better solutions to the community’s problems.

Pitstick retired in 1992 after 38 years as an industrial engineer and CFO of Morris Bean & Co., where he gained public engineering and communication skills to use as a village leader.

Since then he has worked part-time in Dayton as the CFO of Adams Robinson Enterprises, Inc., where he plans to keep working.

“I’ll miss this place. I walk downtown and half to two thirds of the people you meet on the street, you know who they are,” he said. “Though we have a great interest in this town, if you’re not there to live it every day, it’s hard to stay involved.”