November 3, 2005

By Lauren Heaton

Seventeen of the 18 candidates running for local offices in the Nov. 8 election and two representatives for Issue 6 and Issue 17 lobbied voters during Candidate’s Night, sponsored by the Yellow Springs Men’s Group, on Thursday, Oct. 27.

Sitting on the stage in the Mills Lawn gym before an audience of about 135 people, one candidate running for mayor, five running for Miami Township trustee, five for Yellow Springs school board, seven for Village Council, and two representatives lobbying for the Greene County Public Library levy and the Miami Township fire/EMS levy summarized their election platforms. The candidates and representatives were given three minutes each to speak.

In addition, candidates were asked to respond in writing to three questions, which were compiled into a booklet and distributed at the forum. Copies of candidates’ responses can be obtained at the Yellow Springs library.

Candidates for Village Council
Seven candidates are seeking three seats on Village Council: Current member Bruce Rickenbach and challengers John Blakelock, Kathryn Chase, Frank Doden, Judith Hempfling, Kathryn Van der Heiden and Karen Wintrow.

The two candidates in the Council contest who receive the most votes at the polls will receive four-year terms. The candidate receiving the third most votes will serve a two-year term.

Blakelock said he was impressed with the ability of the Men’s Group to react appropriately to “perceived threats to the village,” and suggested that the group’s next focus should be on the threat of “gangbangers from Springfield” who bring drugs and cocaine to Yellow Springs.

Part of the solution, Blakelock said, is to engage in an urban revitalization of Springfield by working with residents to clean up vacant lots and plant vegetable gardens, and to initiate the use of scrips, or substitute money, in a neighborhood commissary.

Blakelock said that instead of being isolated, Yellow Springs should “reach out to our neighbors.”

Chase said that “Yellow Springs is at a crossroads.” With a decline in population, industry and resources, and increasing Village expenses and capital improvement needs, the Village will need to make choices to avoid being shaped by external forces, she said.

“Growth is the only way to keep Yellow Springs affordable and diverse,” Chase said. Through the proactive pursuit of increasing jobs and population, while supporting downtown businesses and being responsible to the environment, she said, “we can become something more than we are without becoming something we’re not.”

Chase said villagers should have a balanced approach to land use that includes both private property rights and the creative use of government tools to pursue such things as the Center for Business and Education, in-fill development, cluster housing, mixed-use zones and other smart growth ideas.

Doden did not attend Thursday’s forum because he was closing on a contract to purchase The Emporium that night, moderator Len Kramer said.

Hempfling said her commitment to the community involved working to keep Weaver’s Market (now called Tom’s Market) downtown, participating in the effort to preserve Whitehall Farm and joining the Smart Growth Education Task Force.

Hempfling said she supports economic growth and more jobs to boost Village revenue to a sustainable level.

In recognition of the importance of Antioch College, downtown, schools, artists, alternative health groups, diversity and many other aspects of a healthy community, Hempfling stressed the need to make the Village’s Planned Unit Development process more “user-friendly” for use in developing the Fogg farm, for in-fill development and for increasing density at Yellow Springs’ borders.

Rickenbach, who was appointed to Council in April, also used the term crossroads in his statement, indicating that he has demonstrated the experience needed to lead the Village through its current set of challenges and make good choices in response to them. In order to sustain the public services villagers want and maintain the town’s infrastructure, he said, the Village needs to restore population, jobs and economic activity, as well as make hard choices about taxes and public service rates, he said.

Rickenbach said his experience as chairman of the Village Planning Commission and on Council would help him pursue in-fill development, business growth, creative land use, incorporating open space and protecting the environment.

He said he has the “short-term” and “institutional” memory to help the Village transition through changes in Village personnel, including the hiring of a new Village manager, and election of new Council members.

Van der Heiden said she firmly believes that Yellow Springs needs to grow and that better, more open communication was what was most needed to facilitate growth. “We’re more united than divided,” she said.

She said villagers should maintain their openness to entrepreneurship and creative development while getting involved and being proactive instead of reactive and fearful.

Van der Heiden said that even though change makes people nervous, unless villagers want higher taxes or fewer services, change will be necessary for Yellow Springs.

Wintrow said she wants to serve the common goal to make Yellow Springs a healthy and thriving community. She said she sees Yellow Springs as a community whose bent for participation and action can be used to create collaborative partnerships between local government and its citizens to achieve common goals.

She said restoring the village through jobs to stimulate the economy by keeping tax dollars here, reducing transportation needs, and keeping students here for more diversity and energy is good for the village.

Wintrow said she believes in supporting Yellow Springs’ values of diversity, tolerance, citizen participation, the environment, the schools, children and elders whose health will define the community’s future.

Miami Twp. trustee candidates
Five candidates are running for two seats on the Miami Township Board of Trustees: incumbents Mark Crockett and Lamar Spracklen and challengers David Heckler, Suzanne Patterson and John Struewing.

The winners of the Board of Trustee race will receive four-year terms.

Crockett, who has been a trustee for four years, said he has grown to love the job that, he said, affords him an opportunity to work with creative, skilled people in the village and be a part of improving communications throughout Yellow Springs. He said community forums encouraged broad community input that influenced the formation of planning groups and led to solutions and actions later taken by the Village and the Township, many of which, he said, he has enjoyed being a part of.

He said the Miami Township trustees’ biggest responsibilities are to manage the Township budget and maintain a strong fire department.

Heckler said that during his tenure as assistant Village manager and then Village manager he developed good working relationships with his colleagues. As manager, he said, he was involved in local issues as a member of Community Resources and helped Yellow Springs prosper by helping bring a drug store back to town. After moving into Miami Township several years ago, he said, he joined Community Resource’s site committee to search for land for the commerce park and became president of the board at Friends Care Community.

He said his vision for Miami Township is that it have diversity and economic strength and that Yellow Springs’ population and student population be restored to levels of 20 years ago. Heckler said his priorities as a Township trustee would be to maintain a volunteer fire department, complete the Township’s comprehensive land use plan, and establish regular communication between Council, the trustees, and the school board on issues such as taxes.

Patterson said she loves farming at her Rabbit Run Farm in Yellow Springs and is committed to making food production farming an affordable economy by doing things such as compensating farmers for conservation easements on their land.

She said she is for hope, not fear. “I’m passionate about working for you,” she said, and if elected she said she plans to ask residents to become knowledgable about what’s going on.

“This is a hugging town,” she said. “It speaks to the character of the village and the quality of life and our caring about each other.”

Spracklen discussed what he had accomplished in his six years as a member of the Board of Trustees. On his watch, he said, the trustees completed wellhead overlay zoning, established the Cooperative Economic Development Agreement with the Village, acquired and started rehabbing the Grinnell Mill, initiated restoration of the Clifton-Union Cemetery, cooperated with area townships for mutually beneficial projects and services, and kept up with county and state activities that could affect Miami Township.

He said he also has saved the Township nearly $50,000 by not taking the insurance option available for trustees.

Struewing said he grew up in Yellow Springs, left for 25 years and came back because of his love for this area. When he returned, he said, he intended to get involved in the community. As a township resident, he was appointed to the Village Planning Commission seven years ago and has seen plan board come a long way during that time, he said.

The “stable atmosphere” Struewing perceives in Yellow Springs needs to be carried over into Miami Township through the use of a “unified growth management system that transcends the border between the village and the township,” he said. Growth is the issue now, and there is a need to bridge the gap for joint planning, he said.

School board candidates
Five candidates are running for three seats on the Yellow Springs Board of Education: incumbent Angela Wright and challengers Anne Erickson, Aïda Merhemic, David Triplett and Terry Whorton.

The winners of the school board race will receive four-year terms.

Erickson said she has put three children through the Yellow Springs school system and has been heavily involved in the schools as a member of the school board levy campaign committee and as the grants chair of the Yellow Springs Endowment for Education. Through her inside and outside view, she said, she sees that the schools have improved over the last 20 years.

She said that due to decreases in school funding from the state and federal governments, funding will be the biggest issue for the school district. Participating in an effort to encourage growth in Yellow Springs will be an important part of making sure the district receives the money it needs to stay strong, she said. She said she wants to stay connected to and represent the community and its values.

Merhemic said she has been in Yellow Springs for 22 years and has worked as a licensed professional counselor and as a child advocate in dispute resolution in Greene County Domestic Relations Court. She is the president of the Antioch School board, has worked on a committee to maintain quality educational standards for Yellow Springs schools, and has served as the Village Council Human Relations chair, as the Yellow Springs Theater Arts board chair and has organized the Yellow Springs Aquatic Club for several years. She said her experiences have given her a good perspective on how to foster growth for the whole child and help turn youth into successful, socially responsible, self-directed lifelong learners.

She said growth in Yellow Springs and maintaining quality school staff are important issues she hopes to work on.

Triplett said he supports the current school board and said he is running because community members need to have choices at the polls.

He said he loves Yellow Springs and believes it should be an affordable community for others. He said smart growth and in-fill development are steps in the right direction. He has a broad professional background that has often involved working with children, which is where a lot of his interest still lies, he said.

Whorton said she and her husband, Temba Ngqakayi, have spent a lot of time and energy co-educating one of their sons who is a special needs child and developing an individualized education program for their other son. Raising her children in a biracial household, she said, they struggle to survive in Yellow Springs on one income because the community has things to offer her children that other places don’t have.

She said there is room for improvement in the school district, saying that seventh- and eighth-grade African-American students are encouraged in their sports activities but aren’t being served by extra tutoring in math and science. “It’s time we spread our talents to surprise the national average,” she said.

Wright said an “adequately funded education is a fundamental right,” and one that is needed to maintain the quality of the schools. In the face of pending state and federal budget cuts, she said, funding issues will be crucial to sustain the Yellow Springs school district.

She said state House Bill 66 could phase out business property tax and eliminate state guaranteed funding to schools, which could eventually reduce the district’s state funding by 40 percent. She said her 12 years of experience on the school board would help guide the district to understand the role of funding in the schools.

Mayor candidate
David Foubert is running unopposed for his eighth term as mayor of Yellow Springs. He said he first ran for mayor 14 years ago because he wanted to give back to the community.

He said he supports the values of openness and tolerance and believes that “maintaining a community court is crucial to the vitality of Yellow Springs.”

In Mayor’s Court, young, first-time offenders are afforded a gentler experience with the law, he said, while the court has also worked to “clean up the drug problem in Yellow Springs,” and has one of the highest DUI conviction rates in the Dayton area.

The mayor serves a two-year term. Under the Village Charter, the mayor is recognized as the official head of the Village for all ceremonial purposes and by the governor of Ohio for military purposes. In addition, the mayor oversees the Yellow Springs Mayor’s Court. The mayor may attend Council meetings and participate in discussions, though the mayor does not have voting power.

Issue 6: Library levy
Barbara Heckart, president of the Greene County Library board of trustees, discussed Issue 6, the Greene County Public Library levy.

The library system has branches in Yellow Springs, Beavercreek, Bellbrook, Cedarville, Fairborn, Jamestown and Xenia.

Greene County residents have the highest combined level of education of all Ohio counties and also the highest level of library usage, Heckart said. Ohio cut library support significantly in 2000, and future additional state budget cuts could force the Greene County library system to further reduce personnel, materials and library hours, she said.

The cost to the owner of a home appraised at $100,000 would be $30.63 a year, a price that can help the library system stay strong, Heckart said. This is the first time in 10 years that the library system has requested a levy increase, she said.

Issue 17: MTFR levy
Miami Township Fire Chief Colin Altman talked about Issue 17, the Township’s fire/EMS levy, by telling a story.

Members of the Miami Township Fire-Rescue crew were transporting via ambulance a boy with third-degree burns and his grandmother, Altman said. On the way to the hospital, the grandmother began experiencing chest pains, and the crew improvised in the ambulance to treat the two patients simultaneously. When the crew suggested the boy be treated at Children’s Hospital and his grandmother be taken to Mercy, she protested until the squad agreed to stay with her grandson until his parents arrived, he said.

“This is the service you can expect from your ‘yes’ vote, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Altman said. “Had a ‘no’ vote been cast, that run would have cost between two and three thousand dollars. With a yes vote, it will cost $94.28.”

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com