<--This picture is Harriet McBryde Johnson, disability rights activist, who died this week.

Dear People--I always think of Garrison Keillor when I start writing these memos, "Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone..." But, well, this isn't Minnesota, there ain't no lake, and, as usual, it hasn't been all that quiet.

1) Antioch alive?  The Antioch saga has apparently taken another interesting, potentially positive turn. In their meeting in Keene, NH, the university trustees apparently voted to work with the Alumni to create an "independent and separate college", as soon as possible. . . .? . . . But I admit I want to read the fine print before I actually celebrate. (Color me a cool shade of "jaded," I guess.)

For more information about this latest head-scratching turn of events, see the Alumni website--and/or the text of the Antioch Alumni "breaking news" newsletter, below my signature (dated 6/7/2008). [As far as I can tell, the University has not yet issued a separate press release.] 

This comes at a time when:

* Faculty are being forced to move out of their offices this week--and would love your help moving at 10 AM tomorrow (6/9)! (Contact Amy Maruyama to help!)
* So far as I know, tomorrow evening (6/9) we're still planning to have a picnic and speakers (including me!) about the impact of the closing on the village, at the "U" drive in front of Main Building, 5:30 (potluck) / 6:30 speakers. I will speak first, and then race off to the Planning Commission meeting, see below.

2) Consulting Village Manager: Meanwhile, back at our little ranch, many of you probably read that we've hired John Weithofer to serve as a "consulting" manager to the village during these last two weeks of Eric's work with us. We hope that he will also agree to be our interim manager. He's a very experienced manager with long-term connections in the Dayton area, who has had the experience of helping Miamisburg successfully deal with the closing of a major employer, a crisis he describes as not dissimilar in scale and implications to the Antioch situation that we face. He's intrigued by the opportunity. I am impressed by him.

Also at our last meeting we also approved the Barr property plans, which I know is not what all of you wanted. I feel at peace with the decision, but am nevertheless aware of the burden of responsibility I bear for helping to make this project work as best as it possibly can for our village, and to make sure that the developers live up to their promises about minimizing negative impacts on the neighborhood, and possibly even improving the drainage situation. I pledge to do my very best on this.

3) Monday: 6/9, 7 pm: Planning Commission: We'll be discussing our Comprehensive Plan update, the Bike Committee's Management action list, our amended goals, and, finally, and most importantly: Historical Preservation. This is the crucial issue facing our village, long term, as we grapple with the potential for a closed or seriously down-sized Antioch College. We want to make sure that key historic buildings are preserved. Please consider coming to this meeting!

4) Next: Village Council Meeting: 6/16, 7 pm, Bryan Ctr: We will have many things to take up--including, we hope, addressing our concerns about the University's plans for temporary(?) closure of the college buildings, a few resolutions that we postponed from our last meeting--e.g., reappointing our village treasurer and signing up the village utility accounts for Green Pricing, and appointments to several commissions. We'll also approve the Tax Budget for the village, hear a Run-for-Life presentation, and discuss economic development concerns. I will have more details next week, however.

Death remains mysterious.  How can I imagine a world without me?  How can I have survived so many friends, so many family members, so many heroes?  Why can't Mel Brooks live forever?  Death is natural and necessary, but not just.  It is a random force of nature; survival is equally accidental.  Each loss is an occasion to remember that survival is a gift.  I owe it to others to make good use of my time.  When I die, I might as well die alive.  ~ Harriet McBryde Johnson,  8 July 1957-3 June 2008

Update: Antioch etc., Planning & Environmental Commission

Hi, all--It's been a busy week.

1) Village Council update: Our Village Council meeting, including a long executive session, on Monday went til midnight; we moved forward on three resolutions connected to the improvements to our waste-water treatment facilities, finalized our goals for the year (yes, in April!), briefly discussed the noise ordinance and concerns about Antioch College noise, had special reports on the King Street detention basin, our website & the visioning process, and, during Citizens' Concerns, heard from a lot of you on the Antioch College situation. (Exec. session focused on Village Manager employment agreement).

Re: Antioch crisis: We passed a resolution to write a letter urging the Antioch U Board of Trustees to meet with the Antioch College Continuation Corporation, face-to-face. It's now being reported to us that such a meeting will happen. Meanwhile, we're seeing plans move forward for a non-stop Antioch, regardless, which are intriguing and exciting, as reported by ACCC spokesperson Ellen Borgeson and student Jeanne Kay.

I am concerned about the College campus and what the University's plans are for securing it, given the announced layoffs. I am planning to ask our legal council to look into what rights we as a community have to expect that that campus be secured and maintained by the owners if it should be empty for any length of time. If others of you have thoughts about what our community interest is in regard to local consequences to this potential shuttering of the campus at the heart of our town, please let me know.

The Electric System Task Force will be making its Phase I report at our next meeting on the 21st, and we'll be reviewing our Sidewalk Policy.

2) Planning Commission: The proposed planned unit development of the Barr property (321 Xenia Ave) will again dominate our meeting tomorrow night (Mon. 4/14, 7 pm; Council Chambers). Our PC packet is thus thick this week again with letters and thoughts, positive and negative, about the FCC's plans for this property that lies in a key residential area adjacent to our downtown. Our village manager, Eric Swanson included a note in our packet that the PUD process is a two-step process: we are at this point looking at the "concept" stage, not the final plan: we will vote either that we like the concept (go forward with hammering out the details) or we say that the differences are too great to be worked out. But in either case, the plan will then go to the Village Council.

I have already stated that it is my intention to support this effort, although I recognize the plan is not perfect and that many of my supporters oppose the plan--my stance is posted in the previous entry on this blog. I respect all of you who disagree with my position on this issue. Please know that I am still listening to all the voices and reading the letters of folks on all sides of this public debate. In general, I believe that it's been a healthy debate and that people have engaged in it in good faith. I genuinely thank everyone for making me feel the complexities raised by this plan, which are not trivial.

3) No office hours tomorrow: I have to be at Wittenberg for an interview during my normal office hours, and also have to meet with students who are working on end-of-term projects. So I will be at Wittenberg all day.

4) Environmental Commission: We are also a busy group with several important events planned ahead of Earth Day. First, I hope you all received the notice about "green pricing" in your utility bill this month, which allows you--if you wish--to pay a little extra as a support for building and investing in greener energy resources. We need 10% of us to sign on for the project to fly, so let's do it.

Corrected costs: It costs only $0.015 (1 1/2 cents) per kilowatt hour to add this optional plan to your bill. So, if you use 500 kilowatts of energy, it would only cost you an extra $7.50 that month (that's 500 multiplied by .015--there is a typo on our original flyer). This is a great way to start on a path of greater energy efficiency, to put pressure on yourself to reduce your family's usage--and reduced, more efficient usage is the best source of energy we have. Given that our Council voted against coal, we need to move in this direction, right now.

"Spring Fling" Earth Day Events this coming weekend:

Friday night 7-9: Death to the Incandescent! That's our rallying cry. We'll be stationed at a table on Xenia Ave, in front of Living Green, with information about green pricing, the value of switching your regular bulbs to compact fluorescents (CFL), and how to recycle CFLs responsibly.
Saturday early afternoon 12-2:30: More death to the incandescent! Same as above.
Sat. late afternoon 3:30-5:
FREE Film Screening: "Garbage: The Revolution Starts at Home!" Little Art Theatre! Co-sponsored with other good people/groups. Bring friends! Bring family! Bring people you don't even really like! Here's the film's website: http://www.garbagerevolution.com/
Immediately following: SHORT Panel discussion of the issues raised by the film, with local experts Bob Brecha, Donna Haller, and others, centering on the plan of starting with the concrete, practical step of turning entirely to the CFL.

Council Notes and Office Hours this week

1) OFFICE HOURS I have to move my office hours up an hour this week to accommodate meeting with my Wittenberg students Monday afternoon. So, Monday 10-11:30am is when I'll have coffee/brunch at the Emporium.

2) PLANNING COMM. MONDAY @ 7pm: We'll be considering, again, the Friends Care Center's proposal for the Barr property. In the Planning Commission packet there are several impassioned letters speaking against the current plan, largely but not exclusively from neighbors (we received none in favor of it this time). Also included in the package is a drawing indicating what looks to me like a fairly significant redesign. Please let me know your thoughts.

2) VISION / ECON DVPT: I've been reading Howard Zinn and several other historians today (see my new signature quotation below for a flavor!), and wrestling with the notion of a) what ARE the roots of our Council/manager form of government--both the truly progressive elements of its history and also its conservative, socialism-busting elements--and b) with envisioning our village's future. Basically, the conflicts we're experiencing today have long roots, and involve significant differences in political and economic philosophy.

I hope that you all had a chance to read the articles in the past two weeks of the Yellow Springs News about differing notions of economic development: first on the Shuman model adopted by St. Lawrence County NY, Ann Arbor MI, and Carborro NC and others (1/31), and, second, the vision being proposed by the YSA described in this past week's paper (2/7). Please do share your thoughts with Council on this important issue.

3) REGENESIS? The Regenesis group, from Santa Fe NM is another group that Ted Donnell and others have been working to bring to Yellow Springs:

"Ben Haggard of The Regenesis Group is visiting Yellow Springs next weekend. He will be giving a presentation to all interested community members on February 16 on the Regenesis approach to community planning. The specific time and location will be announced as soon as it is determined. Please share this with other community members you think might be interested.You might be interested in visiting their website http://www.regenesisgroup.com/index.php."

4) REVIEW OF VILLAGE MANAGER: The Council will be doing an annual review of the work of manager Eric Swansen, and we invite public input. Many positive letters were in our packet last week.

5) BUDGET: HELP? If any one out there is good at reading complex budgets, I'd really love some help when I finally see ours, with examining it and thinking through how to make it fit our community's values. Let me know if you can assist!

Peace!
Lori

Here's a fuller version of the quotation I'm now using as part of my email signature:

"There can be no doubt that democracy distrusts the expert . . . and there is no doubt also that much of this distrust is well grounded and thoroughly justified. This is due partly to the air of unwarranted superiority which the expert too frequently assumes and partly to the fact that history presents a long record of self-constituted experts who have been discredited. . . . In earlier times there was an expert class in theology that proposed to do the thinking for the human race in matters religious. There have been military castes, self-confessed experts who have succeeded more than once in imposing not only their professional but their class interests upon the civil population. The only kind of expert democracy ought to tolerate is the expert who admits his fallibility, retains an open mind, and is prepared to serve."

--Charles Beard, "Democracy and the Expert" 1916 (Charles Beard is one of the most respected historians of the early 20th century; he helped work out many progressive era public policy changes, including the development of the council-manager format. He went on to found the New School, in NYC).