March 24, 2005

Village Council business—
Five apply for opening on Council

By Robert Mihalek

Five people, including two with previous experience on Village Council, have applied to serve on Council.

A new Council member is needed to serve the remainder of George Pitstick’s term, through the Nov. 8 election. Pitstick, whose last meeting was Monday night, officially steps off Council at the end of the month. Pitstick and his wife, Eloise, are moving to the Cincinnati area to be closer to their children and grandchildren. He was reelected for a two-year term in 2003.

The candidates for the Council opening are Connie Gahagan, Aimee Lunde Maruyama, Bruce Rickenbach, Louis E. Sims and Jeff Singleton.

Council, which will pick Pitstick’s replacement, agreed at its meeting Monday to interview the candidates during two special meetings at the Bryan Community Center: Thursday, March 24, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., and Wednesday, March 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. The interviews will take place in executive session, which is closed to the public, Council president Tony Arnett said.

Council will select the new Council member at its next regularly scheduled meeting, on April 4. Before making the decision, Council members will discuss the candidates in executive session starting at 6:30 p.m. on April 4.

Gahagan, who served on Council from 1987 to 1993, said in a letter to the current Council that she would serve until the Nov. 8 election. She currently works as a program associate for the Kettering Foundation. She has a master of public administration degree from the University of Dayton and a BA from Antioch College.

Maruyama, who served on the Village Environmental Commission from 1997 to 1999, has worked in the environmental field, including as a conservation planner for the Nature Conservancy in Columbus and as a project coordinator for Environmental Enterprises in Cincinnati. She has a master of environmental management degree from Duke and a BS from Antioch.

Rickenbach has been a member of the Village Planning Commission since 2002 and currently serves as the board’s chairman. He was elected to Council in 1999 but resigned the next year, stating that he felt other Council members were not listening to his views. He was the assistant Village manager from 1969 to ’72 and Village manager from ’74 to ’79. Now the vice president of Management Excellence Inc., he has a master of public works degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA from Antioch.

Sims, who said in a letter to Council that he moved to town a little over a year ago, is an adjunct instructor at Edison Community College in Piqua and works as a business consultant. He worked for several technology companies in Washington State. He has a master of electric engineering degree from the University of Washington and a BS from California State Polytechnic University.

Singleton has worked as the administrator of Friends Care Community since 1993 and has served on several local boards, including Community Resources and the Chamber of Commerce. He has a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Cincinnati and has received degrees from George Washington and the Southern Ohio Junior College of Business. He said in a letter to Council that he has “no aspirations to serve any longer than the final few months” of Pitstick’s term.

In other Council business:

• Council unanimously approved, by voice vote, a resolution accepting a bid from Clean Cuts Complete Lawn and Landscape Services to mow Village property. The company, based in Springfield, was the low bidder, out of seven, at $810 per mow, acting Village Manager Phil Hawkey reported.

• Hawkey reported that Greene County has secured a $50,000 state grant for the construction of a bike spur from the bikepath to Ellis Park. He said that the county has told him that construction of the spur could begin this summer.

The bike spur project dates back to the effort to preserve Whitehall Farm. The county agreed then to contribute funds to the preservation effort in exchange for building the bike spur, which will run across the farm to Ellis Park.

Hawkey said that the county has asked the Village to contribute $17,522, the remainder of its original $20,000 pledge, for the project.

• Council unanimously approved the second reading of an ordinance requiring the Village to seek competitive bids for professional services costing more than $15,000. The Village’s requirement is stricter than the state of Ohio’s, which mandates bids for professional services over $25,000.

• Council unanimously approved, by voice vote, a resolution increasing to $400 from $300 the amount of petty cash the Village has available for “day-to-day operations.” The resolution states that both the Police Department and Finance Department may have access to $100 in petty cash and the utility office may have $200.

• The Village Human Relations Commission and the Village Mediation Program Steering Committee presented their annual reports to Council. During a discussion on the VMP’s activities, Arnett, who serves on the program’s steering committee, said that VMP is “very legitimate and cost-effective.”

There is an opening on the HRC. To apply, send a letter of interest to the clerk of Council, Deborah Benning, at 100 Dayton Street or dbenning@yso.com. Residents of Yellow Springs and Miami Township, who live outside the village, may serve on the commission.

• Council unanimously agreed to officially give the clerk of Council the responsibility of clerking plan board meetings.