In Paper Packet and On Line:
Housing Coalition of Greene Co. re: Support of Affordable Senior Housing Chief Grote re: Beggars’ Night: SATURDAY, OCT. 29.Chief
Grote also responds to various criticisms of the event, including the
charge that too many people come from outside the village, saying that
people come because it's family friendly and feels safe, and it's not
unlike 4th of July or Street Fair: part of who we are is about being
welcoming to visitors.
All Previously Received Letters Referencing Barr Property Proposal
Anna Bellisari re: Barr Property Trees
Alan Macbeth re: Barr Property Trees
Steven Bognar re: Support for Senior Housing
Suzanne Patterson re: Support for Senior Housing
Vicki Hennessey re: Forum on DEFEATING ISSUE 2 (SB 5): THURSDAY! (this week!) Sept 22, 7:30 pm, YS Senior Center (227 Xenia).Rudy
Fichtenbaum (AAUP/Wright State), Aurelia Blake (YSHS); Ellis Jacobs
(local attorney--will also address the opposition to HB 194--be sure to
sign a petition opposing this bill.) Please attend! This is the first event sponsored by a new groups calling itself Progressive Yellow Springs.
YS Arts Council re: Seat on Economic Sustainability Commission: Requesting a seat for one of their Board of Trustee members.
E-Packet Only:
Greene Co. Library re: October Programming
PUBLIC HEARINGS/LEGISLATION Reading of Resolution 2011-48 Authorizing $40,000 for Operations and Maintenance Manuals for WWTP: This
should have been included in the original budget, it's necessary; I
support it. The funds will come from the loan that we are taking out to
cover the cost of building the new additions to the WWTP, required by
the EPA. I will vote yes. Reading of Resolution 2011-49 Adding Streets to the 2011 Paving Program:
This is correcting a discrepency between documents, due to human error,
rather than adding streets we did not initially intend. I will vote
yes.
First Reading of Ordinance 2011-24Approving Amendment to the Village Organizational Structure:I
realize that this has been controversial in the village, and last week I
shared Judith's thoughts on this. I believe strongly that this new
structure is both the appropriate model for our work in the village, and
that it will better serve business interests to have the point person
on economic development (who, yes, will have other responsibilities) be a
full time employee, rather than a part time employee who is only in the
office 20 hours a week. I do not see this as a loss to the economic
development interests of the village but as a plus. I will vote yes.
First Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-25Amending the Zoning Code to Permit a PUD-R for Barr Property:
I will vote yes for this project, urging the developers to save as many
old-growth trees as they can. But this is the right kind of project
for our economic prosperity. If successful, this is a $6.25 million
dollar grant that will come into our community from the outside. It
fits with our goals of infill and re-development, and it serves the most
frequently selected need arising from our recent visioning process:
affordable housing. Many seniors in our community are eager to move
into these apartments, which would allow a life that is integrated into
the community, near important amenities like the pharmacy and the
grocery store, and down town shops. Finally, let's be clear: this is not
a shortened process, but a lengthened one. The developers have agreed
to go through the whole, required process after we give our (initial)
blessing for a project of this scale to be considered as they seek grant
money, with the understanding that if there are significant problems
with making the site work, based on engineering, they will have to
re-plan. I hear the concerns, but I believe it will be a win for the
village if we can help to facilitate it. I will vote yes.
Apologies for the delayed posting. The fastest way to get these is to sign up for my email list--just drop me a note. I post these after I send the email, but sometimes time is very precious and it takes me awhile to get to the blog. -----
Dear People: And suddenly it's fall. Our last meeting fell on
the evening of my first day back to school, but the chill in the air
since yesterday, following last week's blast of summer heat, and the
encroachment of the dark on both ends of the days, says it's time for
autumn rituals. Maybe we'll finally deal with all those stacks of empty
plant pots on the back porch, pick up the sticks that have fallen in
the yard, roast vegetables, make stew.
But, the meeting tonight. Here's the full packet if you're interested in any of the topics below.
PETITIONS/COMMUNICATIONS AMP re: Standard Solar Project Update: The AMP
solar project has been canceled (this is not the one that we are
working with YSRE, Melink and SolarVision for here in town--see below). There's the possibility of AMP-owned, "behind the meter" solar installations. Ohio EPA: Approval of WPCLF Application (plans for Sewer Lift Station approved at Waste Water Treatment Plants) AMP re: AMP Hydro Update: new budget available for viewing. Kathryn Van der Heiden re: Budget Concerns: Would like to hear more discussion of budget. Suzanne Clauser re: Reorganization: Opposes the plan. Jeremy Chapman re: Solar Update: they
are hopeful that a final agreement can be made with a major financer of
the project soon, so that the final engineering contract between Melink
and SolarVision can be signed and that a majority of the construction
can still be completed by the end of the year. Mayor’s Monthly ReportDave Conley re: Milling/Paving Schedule: Happening this week. Affected streets include: North College, Herman, Randall, Stafford, Greene, Xenia Ave..
PUBLIC HEARINGS/LEGISLATION Second Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-22 Authorizing Village Manager to
Sign Addendum to the Trailside Museum Inter-Agency Agreement. See last week's note. I support. Second Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-23 Supplemental
Appropriation for Flatter Hereford Farms (Glass Farm property--needed
for Solar project). See last week's note. I support. Resolution 2011-44 Accepting
the Amounts and Rates as Determined by the Budget Commission and
Authorizing the Necessary Tax Levies and Certifying Them to the County
Auditor. (Pro-forma, basically) Resolution 2011-45 Authorizing the Village Manager to Enter into a
Contract with Pavement Management for 2011: $18K for street
sealcoating. (Last year this was $50K--it is a way to make the new
surfaces last longer). I support. Resolution 2011-46 Authorizing the Village Manager to Enter into
an Agreement for Property Casualty Insurance for 2012. $52K. Rates are
increased by $2K next year, partly due to increased property value out
at our waste water plant. For the last several years, our insurance has
been through our membership in the Public Entities Pool of Ohio, which
helps us to keep rates lower. I support. Resolution 2011-47 Resolution to (re)Appoint John C. Chambers of
Coolidge Wall as Village Solicitor: Rate: $165/hour. I am not sure what
rate we paid last year--have submitted a query as to whether this is
the same as last year. In principle, I support this resolution.
SPECIAL REPORTS Treasurer’s Report: Our treasurer,
Rachel MicKinley, has done a good job of getting our bank
charges/interest earned back in order. Earnings from interest and
investments are extremely low. The investments committee is looking at
the possibility of retiring the bond debt on the Bryan Center, which is
$650K and still costs us interest charges (although it's primarily
principal payments at this time, so that makes it a closer call.)
OLD BUSINESS
Discussion of Reorganization of Village
Operations: We have received a handful of letters expressing concern
about this plan. I do hear the concerns expressed. I still support
this plan for reorganization. Judith has written eloquently about this
to a citizen expressing concerns, so I would like to share it with you:
"Thanks for your email regarding this important issue. I am writing
to clarify my thinking, although I realize you may not be satisfied
with my response. I have always supported policy and Village action
based on what I believed was best for the village citizens, and at
times they are difficult decisions. Also, I am very cognizant of the
current economy.
Obviously, this is a very difficult situation and it is not a case
of just needing to cover the Village Manager for his vacation. We
are a very small community with limited resources and as I'm sure
you are aware, the State has cut our funding in a way which will
make meeting the needs of our citizens that much more difficult.
And we have a village manager who needs support. That support is not
there at the present and something needs to be done if we wish to be
fair to our village manager and be able retain a village manager
over time. If money were not an issue, we could just enlarge our
staff. The new assistant manager position would be given the
responsibilities for planning and economic sustainability while
being someone that the village manager can also rely on for backup.
Lori, the VP of Council, and I have reviewed with Mark, our options.
In spite of the unpleasant realities of this proposal, we believe
Mark’s proposal is the best option.
I
believe we have been compassionate leaders of this community. That
compassion did not suddenly disappear with the event of this
proposal. It is an awkward situation, and I am sorry that to
address the needs of our community, we will negatively impact, at
least in the short run, two of our staff members. However, I have
been on the Village Council for six years, and I believe Mark’s
proposal is the way to solve this problem while being fiscally
responsible.
Mark
has done a very good job. He is a workhorse. On top of the areas
he oversees, which he has enumerated in his report, he coordinates
and provides much of the staff support for planning commission. He
has recently been asked to meet monthly with Community Resources
to keep the Center for Business and Education project moving
forward in a timely way. He is coordinating the work on a new
zoning code. He is coordinating the work on the Barr Party
proposal.
I've
been reviewing in my mind the major projects he has lead during
this calendar year. Early in the year he presented and worked
with the Village Council on our 2011 budget. We were then
approached with a proposal for a solar farm, and he switched gears
and put a huge amount of time into that proposal. He provided
reams of information for the tax levy renewal. He made
recommendations on sidewalk policy and any number of other smaller
projects and decisions made and carried out by the Village. He is
our HR department. He oversees our infrastructures, which include
the water system, sewer system, electric system, and the streets
and parks system. He is even the supervisor of our police chief
making him the person Chief Grote turns to with problems and
concerns. And he frequently is called upon to do much of the grunt
work as well, to meet deadlines and needs of projects at hand.
He
writes reports on every piece of legislation that comes in front
of Council. He is our point person on all of the AMP legislation
we have seen in the last many months. He oversees all the
departments of the Village. He is the main person citizens want to
talk with about the issues that they have.
This is way too much work for one
person from day to day. It has been an ongoing problem well before
Mark's arrival. It was also a recognized problem during the
employment of Eric Swanson and the Interim Manager, John
Weithofer.
Mark
spends way more than 40 hours a week to barely keep his nose above
water. He also needs to be able to get away from time to time to
refresh himself and spend time with family and friends, without
all of the work he is responsible for, stopping until he gets back
to mountains of unanswered emails, and snail mail and phone calls
etc.
We are
friends and neighbors of two persons who will be negatively
affected by this change. Loyalty and friendship are powerful
energies that run deep, and I know that many of us are unhappy
about the negative impact on them. However, if there were another
way to solve this problem, it would have been proposed.
I trust Mark, and he knows more
intimately then anyone else can, the full picture of our staff’s
responsibilities and what it takes to meet those responsibilities. It can be a lonely and heavy
responsibility and he has shouldered his responsibilities well.
Therefore, I support his proposal.
Sincerely, Judith
I hope you will also read
Mark's memo in the packet. I will add that with no one able to back the
Manager up and take on some responsibilities as needed, the potential
for extremely costly errors or lost details goes way up, as does the
potential for all-out burn out. When our last manager left, we were
faced with a fine of $80,000 from the EPA because work simply wasn't
moving forward to deal with our sewage plant violations, and raw sewage
was flowing into the Glen. It is hard to find and keep a healthy
manager, because right now there is too much pressure on this one
position. This is not an easy decision, partly because it's way
overdue.
NEW BUSINESS
Discussion of Purchase of Pole Setter for Electrical Distribution : Dave Conley will explain the benefits of a model that he recommends. Funds available in Electrical fund to pay for it. Review of 2011 Work Plan: Judith
has created an overview of what we've done, what's ongoing, and what's
still to do--including work specific to the Clerk, Manager, and the
committees and commissions of Council. Discussion of Naming of Arboretum at Ellis Park: Plan to honor
Lloyd Kennedy for his work on this committee since 1967 by naming the
Arboretum at Ellis Park after him, using Tree Committee funds to create a
new sign. LABOR DAY POEM
<--This is a Jafabrit picture of the sunflowers at Whitehall Farm. Soon they will be blooming again, with that painful joy of the refulgence of the end of summer.
Dear People: It's a lovely day! Hope you're out enjoying it as those on a semester schedule face "The End of Summer" (see poem below!). Ok, so there's a lot going on in this meeting, even though the agenda looks pretty light at first glance. I've highlighted the major items for discussion that I think people may have thoughts about. Do feel free to read the whole or parts of the packet by clicking the blue link above. So here goes:
PUBLIC HEARINGS/LEGISLATION
First Reading of Ordinance 2011-22 Authorizing Village Manager to Sign Addendum to the
Trailside Museum Inter-Agency Agreement: We entered into an agreement in 2009 with the Trailside/Glen Helen Ecology Inst. to help them get a grant from the Ohio DNR by serving as a "pass-through" for the money (money had to go through a governmental agency); the project is now complete but the ODNR wants to be sure that the museum and restrooms will be open to the public when the museum is open. I support this ordinance.
First Reading of Ordinance 2011-23 Supplemental Appropriation to Flatter Hereford Farms for Fertilizer applied to Farmland: This is a result of the solar farm proposal. That land had already been leased to a farmer who had already applied fertilizer for the upcoming season--which is standard practice in industrial farming. Per contract agreement, since we canceled the contract, we will pay them $2,951.39 in reimbursement costs for their receipted expenses.
Resolution 2011-39 Adopting a Statement of Services the Village Will Provide to Territory Proposed to be Annexed (Dayton-Yellow Springs Rd. ROW) Resolution 2011-40 Consenting to the Annexation of Territory (Dayton-Yellow Springs Rd.ROW)These two resolutions are regarding the annexation of 1.77 acres of land which currently is the right of way for the Dayton-Yellow Springs Road west of the village, a peninsula of land that is surrounded by village property on three sides. This will allow for construction of a safe entrance to the CBE (Antioch Midwest, etc.) and allow us to extend the 35 mph speed limit to west. (If it stays at 55 mph there, a whole new and much more expensive and larger intersection would need to be designed.) I support these two resolutions.
Resolution 2011-41 Approving Annual Wage Increases for Certain Village EmployeesWe directed the manager at our last meeting to bring forward a resolution raising the pay of all employees by 2% (except the village mgr., clerk of council, village treasurer, and law director), as their annual cost of living raise, retroactive to July 3. This is in keeping with (actually a hair less than) the average raises for public employees in Greene County. I support this resolution.
Resolution 2011-42 Approving a Loan to Antioch Company, LLCI am reluctantly in support of this loan. I do not think it was ideally constructed, I'm concerned that the terms could have been better, and the process was not good. It seems very important and valuable to keep the kinds of excellent jobs that eHDS provides, so I am voting yes. I have heard serious critiques of this from community members, and many of the critiques are valid. I will vote yes. NEW BUSINESS Discussion of Planning Commission Recommendation to Council to Approve a PUD-R for the Barr PropertyIn his memo re: this discussion item, Mark explains the revised process that he and Brad Schwab (our planning consultant) proposed, and Planning Commission endorsed at our meeting on Monday, for the Barr Property PUD-R approval request. Staff is alerting us to the Planning Commission's recommendation that we "require that the preliminary plan be reviewed again once project financing is obtained," which is different from our ordinary process. Staff also asks Council to schedule a Public Hearing on the approval request for the Sept. 9th meeting. I support this process and this schedule. Discussion of Purchase of Pole Setter for Electrical Distribution In our budget this year we approved $100,000 to buy a new pole setter. Kelley Fox, Electrical Distribution Supervisor, feels it's needed to access rear yards, where many power poles are located, without having to bring in trucks, which do much more damage. He found one that has a taller reach and better features, including a bucket attachmentso that it can be used for maintenance as well as power pole setting. But it costs more--$124,441. There are adequate funds in the Electric Utility to pay this additional expense, so I tentatively support this, but I'm fairly ignorant about this kind of purchase so I will be interested to hear more. Discussion of Possible Reorganization of Village OperationsThis is the most contentious item I suspect. Even before Mark's arrival, the structure of the village operations has been a concern--both of our previous managers during my tenure argued that the manager position has too many demands on it and this makes it likely that some work is done poorly or never attended to, and makes it virtually impossible for the manager to leave for more than a day or two. He has 8 direct reports, and has to back up most of them when they are gone, but there's no one to back up the manager when he's gone. If we could just hire more staff, the solution would be simple. We cannot afford that--and our budget is about to be reduced. The Manager proposes, and I strongly endorse, that we eliminate the full-time planning assistant position and the 24 hour per week economic sustainability coordinator position and combine them into one assistant manager position with a focus on both of those areas. The full package for this one position should cost less than the two positions combined (with all the attendant costs of two positions). The two people in the positions have been contacted and have offered to be of assistance in the transition. MANAGER’S REPORT: Lots of information in his report about the CBE, the vandalism at Ellis Park, deduct meters (rules have been set, you should be able to get the rules and a list of approved devices, which a plumber needs to install, at the village offices), tree trimming, and the delays to street paving. Take a look!
POEM: Feeling melancholy as I enter this last week before classes begin, when the meetings really kick in. But the ABBA rhyming in this modern poem is lovely, refreshingly old-fashioned. I am glad there's a formalist movement in modern poetry, bringing back the old structures with some nice resistances, such as the 5th stanza below:
Dear People: This morning I turned in 80 signatures (I needed 35) for my Village Council nomination petition, two days ahead of the deadline (yahoo!). Thanks to all who signed and/or sent in good wishes. I find it's actually pretty heartening to speak to villagers. My experience is that even most people who have disagreed with me on a single issue or vote, or a few votes, are very appreciative of those of us who stick our necks out and try to fill this role to the best of our abilities and with integrity.
Thanks for recognizing our efforts, and don't be afraid to let me know your thoughts on any vote. I really do listen, and hearing your arguments--even if I ultimately disagree--is helpful as I try to have an awareness of the 'pulse' of the village. It may shape a future vote or project in future ways even if the immediate vote doesn't go your way.
Tonight the Planning Commission will be voting on the "Preliminary Plans" for the Barr Property being put forth by Home Inc and their partner for this project, Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, which we discussed conceptually at our last meeting. While I have some logistical concerns, I was impressed by the plans, in general, as was the rest of the Planning Commission, I believe. Home Inc and Buckeye would like to get initial approval for use, density, parking, and open space, and then be able to delay submitting more detailed preliminary plans until after they have secured the tax credits from the highly competitive process. Brad Schwab, our planning consultant, argues that this is a reasonable request due to the uncertainty of the tax credit process, and suggests we allow this. Additionally, as I see it, it allows for a little more time for us to fully digest the plans. I support a modified plan approval process.
Mr. Schwab also recommends that we suggest some design modifications to help make the building fit better with the neighborhood and to keep the units usable for seniors for at least 15 years. They seem reasonable, and I look forward to continued discussion tonight. If we decide on the modified process, we could focus on these kinds of details at a later date.
The only other item of significance on our agenda is Tim Tobey's work on examining the Parks and Rec Master Plan with local people who have a particular interest. I suspect that agenda item could be delayed if the Barr Property plans take a significant amount of time.
Hi, folks--Very short meeting tonight, so this will be a short email.
SHORT MEETING:
Resolution: We're discussing only the decision we basically made last meeting to again issue a contract for our trash collection/recycling with Rumpke. New Business: Raises for our village staff. (We have a new system in place for determining raises, which we created last year on Mark's recommendation. He's recommending a 2% across the board, cost of living increase for all staff, which is in line (slightly less than) with salary increases for public and municipal employees in Greene County. Executive Session: Evaluation of Mark's work and contract negotiation, litigation.
ONE OF THE FUNNIEST POEMS I'VE READ IN A LONG TIME:
Dear People: We have a light agenda for tonight's Village Council meeting. The main issue I would like feedback on is the issue regarding our solid waste (trash collection) contract--see yellow below. I also give thoughts about the Creative Memories deal, which I will endorse with some reluctance, as I explain below.
Second Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-18 Amending the Zoning Code to Permit Internet Gaming Cafes as Conditionally Permitted Uses in the General Business District--I will vote yest. See my last VC meeting note.
Emergency Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-19 Supplemental Appropriations. This looks like the standard shifting of funds midyear--it does look like costs are running a little higher than expected in some areas, but it's a little hard to tell--I will ask about this. (General fund budget is up by $30K, e.g., but it looks like we have more funds coming in to our Special Revenue sources--up by $35K; and quite a bit of small shifts in the Enterprise funds--but I'm not 100% sure what it all adds up to.)
Second Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-20 Approving Transfer and Sale of Land to Peaches--I will again vote yes; see last VC meeting note from me.
Emergency Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-21 Transfer from Electric Fund to Bond Retirement Fund--This is a transfer of $215.01 from Electric Fund to the Bond Retirement Fund. I will likely vote yes, because this is likely a minor blip--I'm not sure why such a small amount is even coming before us, unless perhaps it was inadvertantly left off the original budget.
Resolution 2011-26 Awarding Solid Waste Contract: We have competing proposals from Rumpke and Waste Management. The contract offers are very similar, with Waste Management's offer (probably) being slightly lower, although there are some variables that we can't be 100% sure of. Mark Cundiff, our manager, reasonably argues that the "intangibles" are arguably pretty equal, so he would suggest simply going with the lower of the two bids. However, I am leaning toward Rumpke because I'm hearing some positive feedback, they have been our provider for about 20 years, and they are a more regionally based company I would like to hear from you if you have strong feelings!
Resolution 2011-30 Approving Planning Services Contract with Schwab Planning Group LLC. This looks like a cheaper and more local source for Planning consultation; we've been working with Mr. Schwab for a long time through Woolperts, a national group, and he's now breaking off and becoming his own independent consultant--charging half as much as Woolperts. He's been a good consultant; I will be voting yes.
Resolution 2011-36 Waiving Section 206.01(b) Requiring Formal Bidding for the Purchase of a Police Cruiser. One resident is raising concerns about possibly getting a more energy-efficient alternative to the Crown Victoria cruiser (likely with a higher initial cost), which I hope we will have answers to, but on the face of it, this seems to be a reasonable request as a way to get the car we need and at a lower cost than our normal procedures.
Resolution 2011-37 Approving a Loan to Creative Memories: Pros and Cons: Here's the issue as I see it:
Pros: We need the tax revenues that the excellent jobs provided by companies like eHDS represent. Even if those employees do not live in town, and some of the do and will, we will get their municipal tax dollars by housing their jobs here. We know that good, beyond-minimum wage jobs are key to our sustainability as a community, and we are short on "A-1 office space"--office space that is in good shape, fully furnished, and ready for modern electronics and e-communication networks--of useable dimensions. This wall would create two such "A-1" spaces of a more useable size for most companies, and thus help to promote our economic growth. The forgiveness in the loan is contingent on CM's getting and retaining excellent employers in our community. Thus, there's incentive to getting both sides rented out. So on those levels, this is a reasonable loan.
Cons: I am aware, however, of the sentiment out there that Creative Memories is a big corporation that many would argue has caused pain and even damage to many residents of our community when it closed YS operations awhile back, and it seemingly could use its own funds to make the building more leaseable. The loan has had to be pulled together at the last minute and with some pretty major changes each time I received any new communication about it. So I am a little uneasy about it. I am also uneasy about whether this is good practice for the future--I believe we need better advice on these issues and it's hard to come by clear answers in economic times that are difficult--there's a "bidding wars" context for companies like eDHS between communities that can start to feel a little like blackmail--leadership from the state and national level on this would be helpful but is unlikely to be forthcoming. Finally, it seems frustrating that this is our current capitalist context in which the richest get the easiest access to funds, on the best terms, and those who are poor or just getting started have to go begging and can be easily reviled for any need for government support.
I will, with some concern and ambivalence, likely support this loan, but I am interested to hear your feedback.
"The sun was hot. Neddy Merrill sat by the green water, one hand in it, one around a glass of gin. He was a slender man—he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth—and while he was far from young he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze backside of Aphrodite on the hall table a smack, as he jogged toward the smell of coffee in his dining room. He might have been compared to a summer's day, particularly the last hours of one, and while he lacked a tennis racket or a sail bag the impression was definitely one of youth, sport, and clement weather. He had been swimming and now he was breathing deeply, stertorously as if he could gulp into his lungs the components of that moment, the heat of the sun, the intenseness of his pleasure. It all seemed to flow into his chest. His own house stood in Bullet Park, eight miles to the south, where his four beautiful daughters would have had their lunch and might be playing tennis. Then it occurred to him that by taking a dogleg to the southwest he could reach his home by water. His life was not confining and the delight he took in this observation could not be explained by its suggestion of escape. He seemed to see, with a cartographer's eye, that string of swimming pools, that quasi-subterranean stream that curved across the county. He had made a discovery, a contribution to modern geography; he would name the stream Lucinda after his wife."
<--Image from the Ohio Historical Society Dear People-- The weather is gorgeous and the summer has suddenly become lush and beautiful. The Iowa farm girl in me noticed that the corn in the field just south of us on Spillan has grown at least a foot in the past week; it's now well over my head, I judge. When I was a kid I swear we could literally hear it growing on very hot, humid, still July nights--there's a kind of popping sound that I think is corn growing. (Although I just tried to verify this fact by consulting Dr. Internet, but I found nothing authoritative, just lots of wonderful anecdata....)
So, looks like we're in for another round of exciting Yellow Springs debate. There's just two things on our PC agenda:
Tim Tobey is working on the old Parks Master Plan draft to see if it can be salvaged into a useable document for us, and,
In a nutshell: Home, Inc. and Buckeye propose to develop 37 units of "high quality energy efficient housing for independent seniors aged 55 and older in Yellow Springs" on the Barr property (321 Xenia, corner of Xenia and Limestone.)
This property has a long Planning Commission history, as many of you are aware. A couple of years ago PC and Council approved a plan by the Friends Care Community to build 30 units on that property (plus space for another building and with retail/community space and 4 more dwellings). This proposal has many similarities to that: it's affordable apartment housing for seniors located near the heart of town. It's a different size and shape--2 stories, not three, and the plan is less of a solid block so to me it is more appealing in several ways.
Assuming we can work out issues regarding storm water management on the property and some other problems, my initial inclination is to support this project. I suspect that some of you will disagree with this position, given the history of the last project proposal--hence my assertion that we're in for a debate.
Do let me know if there are specific questions you would like me to ask of the developers about this project.
POEM
Well, one of the three books I'm reading right now is John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. There's a whole lot of poetry and power in that book, with a verbal aesthetic that evokes the great graphic art of the 1930s, with noble, dignified workers standing larger-than-life in woodcut landscapes. Here's a few great, and timely, passages:
"Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid, and some worshipped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling. If a bank or a finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank—or the Company—needs—wants—insists—must have—as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time. Some of the owner men were a little proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters. ... 'We’re sorry. It’s not us. It’s the monster. The bank isn’t like a man.' 'Yes, but the bank is only made of men.' 'No, you’re wrong there—quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it." (from Chapter 5)
"For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man—when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back. This you may say and know it and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being taken, if the stumbling-forward ache were not alive, the bombs would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live—for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live—for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can know—fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe." (from Chapter 14)
"And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmurings of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes for revolt went on." (from Chapter 19)
