Twelve candidates explore issues at Men’s Group event

By Lauren Heaton

About 75 people attended the Men’s Group Candidates Night on Thursday, Oct. 25, to hear 12 of the 14 candidates who are running for local office speak about their strengths and answer questions from audience members. Several representatives also spoke about the local issues that will appear on the ballot on Nov. 6. Each participant was given five minutes to present before moderator Bill Alexander addressed questions submitted anonymously by audience members to the candidates.

Council candidates present
According to Village Council candidate Lori Askeland, the vital job of Council members is to be tolerant of and listen to the voices of the citizens they represent. In order to solve the issues of rising costs, decreasing population, affordability, environmental protection and job creation, the village will need all of its strengths, expertise and diverse opinions, she said on Thursday.

Coal is one of the issues that deserves analysis from multiple perspectives, Askeland said. She is skeptical about choosing coal as a power source for Yellow Springs, she said, and though she has spoken to some about its benefits, she favors a smart growth approach for the village in general. On all issues she aims to be informed but will be “unafraid to take a principled stance when necessary.”

Council candidate John Booth is concerned about the decline in economic and racial diversity, and if elected to Council, he will work to bring business and people to Yellow Springs. Along with some growth inside the village limits, Booth believes that a portion of the development should be aimed at the lower end of the market. He also supports adding to the village’s strengths by helping local businesses expand, serving the cyclists, Red Hat Society members, and others who visit regularly, and supporting the arts and alternative healing communities that thrive in Yellow Springs.

Booth also said that he does not agree with signing on to AMP-Ohio’s proposed coal plant before gathering more data, and that though Council’s relationship with Antioch is unclear, keeping the college open is in the best interest of all stakeholders.

The focus of Council candidate Brian Chase is creating an affordable, diverse and self-sustaining community. To that end, Yellow Springs needs economic and population growth in order to reduce village property taxes over the next four years. The Center for Business and Education is a promising source for business and job growth, both of which could bring more people to town to share the cost burden of local services, according to Chase.

“We need Council to be friendly toward business development, and we need reliable, affordable power, too,” he said.

Council candidate Jerry Sutton has a vision for Yellow Springs that is “peace, order and good government,” he said on Thursday. That vision includes Council working in a “timely, business-like manner,” and using a “predictable process” to frame an issue, hold a public hearing and render an informed decision.

Sutton also challenged Village Council for the purpose of raising revenues in the next three years, to grow the village population to its 2000 status and increase jobs to the number the village had in January 2007. Land use planning and zoning are the most effective tools to accomplish those goals, as well as helping existing businesses to expand, he believes.

“There’s no time for part-time amateurs here; we need an economic development group” to help guide this process, Sutton said.

Incumbent Council member Kathryn Van der Heiden has served since January of this year and has tried to make balanced decisions after listening to a wide array of opinions, she said on Thursday.

Coal is a major source of baseload power for all of Ohio, Van der Heiden said, adding, “The bottom line is we have coal; how we acquire it is the question,” meaning on the market or as a municipal owner of the new AMP-Ohio plant. Neither hydroelectric nor wind power is sufficiently reliable or available to replace coal, and, therefore conservation is essential for everyone in order to reduce our dependency on coal, she said.

Van der Heiden also supports proactive planning for economic development. “Don’t let growth scare us; we can define how we grow,” she said.

Council candidate Brian Harris did not attend the Candidates Night.

School board candidates present
As a 10-year resident of Yellow Springs, the father of three children who attend or will attend local schools and the executive director of the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education, school board candidate Sean Creighton said he understands the importance the village places on education. And having served on several levy campaign committees, he also understands school finance. Creighton is not running to change the agenda of the already excellent local schools, he said, but rather brings fundraising and collaboration skills as well as connections to young families in the village to balance financial constraints with the need for a high quality education system.

With years of commitment and experience as a leader, incumbent school board candidate Richard Lapedes described his style of leadership as “action-oriented,” “progressive pragmatism.” Lapedes has lived in Yellow Springs for 23 years, sent two children through the local school system and chaired about six local levy campaigns. He understands the need to leverage human and financial strengths in the village to handle expectations that exceed needs in the local schools, he said. He also has ideas for creating a local arts magnet school and instituting a program modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship, which provides high school graduates the opportunity to attend college with up to 100 percent tuition assistance.

School board candidate Judy Parker grew up in Yellow Springs, left to start a family and returned in 2006 with one of her daughters attending Yellow Springs High School. Having been involved with the PTO at schools in Tennessee for many years, Parker feels that the schools need to be proactive about forging partnerships with parents and community members in order to address young people’s needs. The schools also need to develop anti-bullying programs for K–12, Parker said, adding that the district needs to facilitate access to college and upper level courses for high schoolers, perhaps through partnership with Antioch College.

School board candidate Dave Triplett has worked extensively with youth as a rehabilitative and prevention counselor in the juvenile justice system in Clark and Greene counties. Though he now works as a physician assistant, he has a 13-year old daughter at the McKinney School and has been involved with youth as an assistant coach and a Sunday school teacher. His experience with Yellow Springs schools has been good, he said.

The challenge for Yellow Springs schools, according to school board candidate Dave Turner, is to “take a little money and do wonderful things with it.” An engineer by profession, Turner is a creative problem-solver and a self-described “pragmatic idealist,” who would take a big picture approach to the schools’ issues. He hopes to be able to work with school leaders to increase student engagement in the classroom environment, improve communication between the schools and parents, and get feedback from all stakeholders on the system’s effectiveness.

Unopposed candidates present
Speaking as the unopposed candidate for the seat on the Miami Township Board of Trustees, incumbent Chris Mucher spoke about the Miami Township Fire-Rescue squad’s need to expand its facilities in the next four years. Under the current leadership of Colin Altman and Denny Powell, the emergency response team has quadrupled its response numbers over the last decade, and the current building is “exploding” with personnel, emergency vehicles and equipment, as well as Township government personnel, he said. The biggest problem with expanding at the current site is lack of sufficient parking.

The trustees are also nearing completion of blacktopping all of the township’s 14 miles of roads, as well as progressing on the long-term project of revising the Township’s comprehensive land use plan.

Unopposed mayoral incumbent Dave Foubert is running for his ninth term after 16 years as Yellow Springs mayor. He spoke on Thursday about his aim to run an honest courtroom with integrity and the Yellow Springs values of tolerance and openness.

Unopposed incumbent Township Clerk Margaret Silliman did not attend the forum.

Issues on the ballot
The Village Charter Amendment, or Issue 20, is largely a fine-tuning revision to bring the charter up to date from its original 1950 version, according to amendment committee member Kent Bristol, who presented the issue at the meeting. The revision included eliminating obsoletions and reducing redundancies, such as extracting from the public documents section the Village budget, which is, by remand of Ohio law, already a public document. The revised charter would also require competitive bidding for public services, such as brush trimming, and it stipulates that unless otherwise regulated, local personnel policy is to take precedence over state law.

Greene County Career Center representative Eric Ulmes spoke about the .76 mill renewal levy. The five-year permanent improvement levy will not increase taxes from the current $17.46 per $100,000 property valuation residents currently pay, and revenues will be used for ongoing facility maintenance and technology upgrades for the county’s 40-year old vocational school.

Questions from the audience
The first question posed to Council candidates asked what could be used to replace coal as an energy resource. Van der Heiden said that coal would not be replaced but could be supplemented with wind when and if it became available, but that conservation was the key for Yellow Springs. Askeland said the Village has time to make “thoughtful choices” as it has four years to go “smart shopping” for alternatives before its currently contracted energy services end. But according to Chase and Sutton, coal is the best business proposition for the village because the risk of being subject to market prices is too high.

Council candidates were also asked what kind of policies they would pursue in order to support principles such as neighborhood walkability, conservation, affordability and completing the village green belt. Answering first again, Van der Heiden said that getting a task force to make the zoning code more flexible and encouraging property owners to sell open land would make some of these things possible. Similarly, Sutton prescribed an “orderly process” to spend four years and $20,000 to revise the comprehensive plan. Askeland advised a collective envisioning of Yellow Springs as an arts and college community “in the Arthur Morgan tradition that gave sustenance to this town.”

Asked if they would support affordable housing on the Village-owned Glass farm, Sutton said there was a “defined process” for distributing Village property and that “you don’t just give it away.” Booth and Askeland both said the Village could and should do more for affordability, while Van der Heiden encouraged property owners to think about reducing the sale price of their homes instead of conforming to the more self-serving model. Chase advised spending wisely, given the precarious nature of Village finances.

All of the candidates were asked to address how they would increase business and industry in Yellow Springs and whether diversity in village leadership was important. Sutton said that diversity was important to him, and also suggested the village should evaluate its business climate in the model of a study conducted by Wright State’s Center for Urban and Public Affairs 10 years ago. Lapedes said that the school system is one of the largest employers in the village and that growing it would attract more people to add to the village and school tax base, as well as add diversity to the village. Creighton echoed the importance of investing in the schools to boost the economic activity of the town.

Regarding the same question, Van der Heiden advised advertising Yellow Springs’ strengths to the particular types of businesses villager want to draw here and using the Yellow Springs Alliance for Economic Development to bring economic development to the area. Booth suggested focusing on helping local business expand to provide local jobs and encouraging young people to get involved in public decision-making. Chase put his faith in the ability of the Center for Business and Education to draw business to town.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com