Of rights-of-way, loans, raises, reorganization, and summer's end

<--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 Employees We 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, LLC I 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 Property In 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 attachment so 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 Operations This 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:

The End of Summer

by Rachel Hadas

Sweet smell of phlox drifting across the lawn—

an early warning of the end of summer.

August is fading fast, and by September

the little purple flowers will all be gone.

Season, project, and vacation done.

One more year in everybody’s life.

Add a notch to the old hunting knife

Time keeps testing with a horny thumb.

Over the summer months hung an unspoken

aura of urgency. In late July

galactic pulsings filled the midnight sky

like silent screaming, so that, strangely woken,

we looked at one another in the dark,

then at the milky magical debris

arcing across, dwarfing our meek mortality.

There were two ways to live: get on with work,

redeem the time, ignore the imminence

of cataclysm; or else take it slow,

be as tranquil as the neighbors’ cow

we love to tickle through the barbed wire fence

(she paces through her days in massive innocence,

or, seeing green pastures, we imagine so).

In fact, not being cows, we have no choice.

Summer or winter, country, city, we

are prisoners from the start and automatically,

hemmed in, harangued by the one clamorous voice.

Not light but language shocks us out of sleep

ideas of doom transformed to meteors

we translate back to portents of the wars

looming above the nervous watch we keep.

Rachel Hadas, “The End of Summer” from Halfway Down the Hall: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1998 by Rachel Hadas. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.

Source: Halfway Down the Hall: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 1998)

PC: Barr Property Plans

<--Traditional Finnish sauna!

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.

Watched a wonderful PBS film, "Steam of Life," about Finnish men in the sauna (available for free streaming until Nov. 1

) last night after our sauna. So I thought I'd end with a poem about women and sauna:

The Bodies

By Elizabeth Spires

Here, in the half-dark of the sauna,

the bodies of the women glisten ...

Naked, disproportionate, lush,

hung and burdened with flesh, they open slowly,

like orchids blooming out of season.

Sweat beads my forehead.

Heat rings my breasts, like circlets,

and I am my body, all shimmering flesh.

Secrets are whispered here. Stories told.

The bodies, alabaster, abalone,

relax, give up their pose, to ask,

How shall we be joined?

How shall we know each other?

By doors, by chains and linkages

through which we shall be

entered, touched, possessed.

I see them, row upon row, the rank and file

of generations moving without pause:

—the bodies of the young girls, the willows,

complete unto themselves, androgynous;

—the great bodies of the mothers,

circled by their little moons, adoring;

—the mothers of the mothers,

the old wise ones, ponderous and slow.

And in another room, not far from this one,

the restless bodies of men, searching

without knowing what it is they search for.

Body of the world! Body of flesh!

Leaving this room, I leave the orbit of women.

I dress and walk into the snowy night,

into the great body of the world,

cold, still, and expectant.

Bodying forth, I am taken by the dark.

What am I? Asked, shall I say:

Struck by a spark, I quickened

and was born to flashing

days and nights, a small significance

of one. I did not wish to change,

but changed, feeling desire and fear

and love, failing many times.

My meaning made, I died,

the windows darkening for the last time.

We move, we love, we cry out,

we hold or cannot hold to what we are

and finally wake to find ourselves

changed beyond all imagining.

Was it enough to have lived?

In that moment of still approach,

will it be given to us to know?

Elizabeth Spires, “The Bodies” from Worldling. Copyright © 1995 by Elizabeth Spires. Reprinted with the permission of W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

VC: Short Meeting, Exec Session, Funny Poem

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:

Life Story

By Tennessee Williams

After you've been to bed together for the first time,

without the advantage or disadvantage of any prior acquaintance,

the other party very often says to you,

Tell me about yourself, I want to know all about you,

what's your story? And you think maybe they really and truly do

sincerely want to know your life story, and so you light up

a cigarette and begin to tell it to them, the two of you

lying together in completely relaxed positions

like a pair of rag dolls a bored child dropped on a bed.

You tell them your story, or as much of your story

as time or a fair degree of prudence allows, and they say,

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

each time a little more faintly, until the oh

is just an audible breath, and then of course

there's some interruption. Slow room service comes up

with a bowl of melting ice cubes, or one of you rises to pee

and gaze at himself with the mild astonishment in the bathroom mirror.

And then, the first thing you know, before you've had time

to pick up where you left off with your enthralling life story,

they're telling you their life story, exactly as they'd intended to all along,

and you're saying, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

each time a little more faintly, the vowel at last becoming

no more than an audible sigh,

as the elevator, halfway down the corridor and a turn to the left,

draws one last, long, deep breath of exhaustion

and stops breathing forever. Then?

Well, one of you falls asleep

and the other one does likewise with a lighted cigarette in his mouth,

and that's how people burn to death in hotel rooms.

"Life Story" by Tennessee Williams, from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, copyright © 1937, 1956, 1964, 2002 by The University of the South. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Source: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2002)

VC tonight: Solid Waste and Creative Memories

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.

POEM(?)
I am going to go swimming now. In lieu of a poem, I give you a quotation from and link to the magnificent short story, "The Swimmer," by John Cheever, and urge you all to go read it now

, in some cool place:

"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."

--"The Swimmer" by John Cheever

Peace!
Lori

PC meeting on Mon: Parks Master Plan and New Barr Property Plans?

<--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,
  
• more importantly, we're having our first discussion of a PUD proposal from Home, Inc. and Buckeye Community Hope Foundation. You can download the packet with all the details of this plan to this email.

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—insist​s—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)

Peace,
Lori

VC tonight: Internet Cafes, Land transfer (Peach's), Solid Waste, Affordable Housing, eHDS(?)/office space, Tree Trimming, Manager Eval.

Dear People--I saw many of you as I marched for Planned Parenthood in yesterday's parade. Thanks for the shout-outs! It was a feel-good experience for an organization that needs some feel good support. (If you want to support them in any way--time, treasures, or talents--talk to me! or go to ppswo.org

!) And ended with an amazing show of fireworks as usual by the Township fire fighters and the Lion's club. Thanks!

Wow--a massively big schedule for tonight.

PUBLIC HEARINGS/LEGISLATION
First Reading of Ordinance 2011-18 Amending the Zoning Code to Allow Internet Cafes as
Conditionally Permitted Uses in the General Business District. I will vote yes.
First Reading of Ordinance 2011-20 Approving Transfer and Sale of Land to Peaches, Inc. I will vote yes. This is a tiny, narrow "bowtie" of land that is part of the Peach's lot (it's the part of their lot that basically abuts the bike path, running the whole length of their property), that is technically owned by the village, which makes it difficult for them to expand their business. Peach's have spent $1800 having this property surveyed and appraised, and its value is only $600. This ordinance sells it to them for $1. I support this Ordinance.
Resolution 2011-26 Awarding Solid Waste Contract to Waste Management. The manager suggests ending our 20-year relationship with Rumpke and awarding this contract to Waste Management. This will likely change your trash pick up date (so beware!) but it is a lower cost bid than Rumpke, so it would save you money. I support this resolution.
Resolution 2011-28 Approving the Selection of Home, Inc. as the Development Partner for the Cemetery St. Affordable Housing Project I co-sponsored this proposal, and support this resolution. Home Inc has a good, achievable small-scale plan that will create revenue, eventually, and cost very little in the short term, for a needed goal.
Resolution 2011-29 Approving a Farm Lease for Sutton Farm I support this lease agreement. It covers 43 acres of village-owned land.
Resolution 2011-31 OEPA Planning Loan Application for I &I Elimination Inflow and infiltration--I&I is a problem that unnecessarily taxes our waste water treatment plant (wwtp) and system, and can lead to overflows. Storm water goes through the sewer treatment that should not be treated. This was part of why we had to do major improvements to our sewer system. This loan, if successful, will help us do the testing that will help us eliminate this problem.
Resolution 2011-32 OEPA Planning Loan Application for Sanitary Sewer Lift Station
Improvements As part of our EPA required improvements to our WWTP, and resolution 31 above, we also need to evaluate our lift station. I support this.
Resolution 2011-33 2012 Tax Budget This is basically pro-forma. I will ask some questions, but I will vote yes.

Important: In addition, in our paper packet was initially included a resolution (2011-34) regarding a proferred loan to eHDS, a local business that provides many well-paying jobs but that may move from YS as a result of lack of space. (See this week's excellent YS News article on the challenges.) This offer was rejected, so the resolution and loan offer were removed from the online packets. From my very limited involvement in this negotation, I believe it is likely that we may consider a revised proposal or at least a report of some sort tonight, but negotiations are on-going.

Due to the confusion of the process, I asked our legal Counsel to weigh in on whether it was proper to remove that legislation, by Sunshine laws. He saw no violation of Sunshine, and provided helpful counsel for how to approach our negotiations with businesses in keeping with the law and the rights of business owners.

I suspect this issue, including the broader issue of the lack of "A-1 office space" in YS will be discussed under New Business.

SPECIAL REPORTS
Chamber Marketing Plan for 2011-2012. Report of activities and request for our support of $2400 for the Chamber's cooperative marketing of the village and local businesses.

OLD BUSINESS
AMP Tree Trimming Update We are under contract with AMP's forestry division to do some major line clearance work (this is on top of our regular, annual line clearance in another section of the village, which would be done by competitive bidding). The AMP foresters have looked at the area south of Allen Street, and estimate $179,000 to do so. This would come out of the electrical fund, which has money to cover it. I will vote yes, because prevention is the best cure: the electrical outage problems that overgrown trees are creating, cost a lot of money and time and sometimes are even dangerous for people's lives.
Solar Farm Update The solar partners visited the proposed site on Thursday with staff and Council people Hempfling and Walkey. We will have a report on what they saw.

EXECUTIVE SESSION: We will be doing our annual review of Village Manager Cundiff. Feel free to send in input, as well as discussing pending litigation.

POEM
An immigrant's decision to love this country, painfully. Happy day after Independence!

Learning to Love America

By Shirley Geok-Lin Lim

because it has no pure products

because the Pacific Ocean sweeps along the coastline

because the water of the ocean is cold

and because land is better than ocean

because I say we rather than they

because I live in California

I have eaten fresh artichokes

and jacaranda bloom in April and May

because my senses have caught up with my body

my breath with the air it swallows

my hunger with my mouth

because I walk barefoot in my house

because I have nursed my son at my breast

because he is a strong American boy

because I have seen his eyes redden when he is asked who he is

because he answers I don’t know

because to have a son is to have a country

because my son will bury me here

because countries are in our blood and we bleed them

because it is late and too late to change my mind

because it is time.

Shirley Geok-lin Lim, “Learning to love America” from What the Fortune Teller Didn’t Say. Copyright © 1998 by Shirley Geok-lin Lim. Reprinted with the permission of West End Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Source: What the Fortune Teller Didn’t Say (West End Press, 1998)

VC tonight: AMP, Water Deduct, Gambling, Library Evaluation, Affordable Housing, Tree Trimming, Solid Waste

Dear People--I went to a wedding this weekend where for once I wasn't the cynical one in the corner, but was instead totally swept up by the whole ritual, romance, generosity, and intimacy of the event, and periodically made misty-eyed. It's quite possible I'm losing my edge.

Anyway, love is in the air and I hope that all the men out there who have loved and raised children, by playing an active and generous role in their lives, regardless of whether you were a biological father or not, had a great fathers' day. (Special shout out to adoptive and foster fathers.) So I'm ending with a poem for fathers (with a reference to John and Yoko...)

Here's the whole packet if you want to follow along at home!

PETITIONS/COMMUNICATIONS
The Clerk will receive and file:
Mayor’s Monthly Report
Christine Roberts re: Natural Gas Prices (concern that newly allowed exports of natural gas will cause the prices to skyrocket)
Christine Roberts re: Renewable Energy (against locking ourselves into natural gas, ideas about how renewables may become storeable)
Pat Murphy re: CO2 Estimates (gas lower than coal)
Pat Murphy re: Greenhouse Gas (excellent analysis from the National Energy Technology Lab--a federal agency. While there does need to be better reporting of fugitive gas emissions, etc., gas is better than coal on basically every measure)
Pat Murphy re: Fracking and Methane Contamination
Pat Murphy re: Policy Recommendations (scientific paper from Duke center on Global Change/Environmental policy noting that gas has more energy per pound than coal and producing almost none of the mercury, sulfur dioxide and particulates of burning coal; "bridge to a carbon constrained future"; urging study, regulation and caution, but not rejecting fracking outright.)
Fritz Leighty re: Support for Affordable Housing Project (Cemetery St. project for which Home, Inc., has turned in their Qualifications--sees it as a no-brainer and necessary)
OML re: Legislative Updates (The current budget is really a disaster for local jobs and budgets--please contact your state reps: Hackett--Ohio House of Reps; Widener--Ohio Senate)
Sharon Potter re: Investment Summaries (banks are providing little interest on our money but our investment possibilities are limited by statute. Treasurer and Finance director are working to do what they can.)
Greene Co. Public Library re: July Programming
Lori Askeland re: Thanking Marc Gerken (AMP CEO, for coming to speak to us last meeting)
Jerry Papania [for the ENERGY BOARD] re: Membership in Fremont Facility (the EB recommends that we participate at the .5 MW level)
Bob Moore re: Tree Trimming Practices (recommends that we develop good policies around tree planting and trimming, and use certified arborists.)

PUBLIC HEARINGS/LEGISLATION

Emergency Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-15 Approving a Contract with AMP for the Fremont Natural Gas Facility: Having looked long and hard at this, and being assured that we can sell if we find a better, greener option, I support the lowered amount of investment in this facility at .5 MW. I hear loud and clearly the concerns about fracking and also about the future costs of gas which are not knowable; I still believe this small amount is our best bet, for now, giving us some control over the way power is being delivered into the grid. I believe it is now up to us to cut our usage if we really want to make selling this small amount back to AMP a realistic possibility, and to get ourselves as close to green and sustainable energy sourcing as possible.

Second Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 2011-16 Approving a Change in Sewer Fees to Permit Residential Installation of Deduct Meters I will vote no, because I believe in conservation above all else. However, of all the ways to allow people who garden to reduce their sewer costs, this is the best mechanism. Please don't water your grass, people. And use covers with pools, etc., to avoid water loss.

First Reading of Ordinance 2011-18 Amending Section 1242.09 General Provisions & Definitions, and Section 1258.02 Principally Permitted Uses, of Title Four – Zoning of Part Twelve – Planning and Zoning Code of the Codified Ordinances of the Village of Yellow Springs, Ohio This is to allow "sweepstakes" internet gambling in the "general business district"--i.e., NOT downtown but out here on south 68, basically, where places like KFC, etc., are. We apparently have little ability to regulate these businesses other than limiting where they may be located.

Resolution 2011-27 Awarding Library Building Evaluation Contract After going through a public bidding process, only one firm applied for the library building evaluation. Ted Donnell's firm has submitted a bid of $12,725 for this project; we originally budgeted $30,000 for it. This is part of what we promised we would spend the levy money on five years ago. Karen Wintrow will recuse herself from this discussion.


OLD BUSINESS
Affordable Housing RFQ Process Update: Home Inc has submitted their qualifications for this Cemetery street development--four affordable houses. We will be discussing the process and voting as to whether they should submit a proposal for the next step. I support this project.
Tree Trimming Discussion The most recent power outages that were not DP&L's fault, are not due to problems with our machinery, they are due to trees. Many branches were lost during the last big ice storm, but many were merely weakened, only to fall later. I believe we need to be much more aggressive than we have been in most places, generally cutting 10' from both sides from the ground all the way up, except when the trees are very mature or even historic. (This is the policy that Piqua uses and they had no outage during the last storm.) I also want to thank Bob Moore (a citizen and certified arborist) for his helpful input and will ask that the information he sent in be sent to the tree committee who can perhaps help us look at our current policies and develop better long-term goals.

NEW BUSINESS
Chamber Marketing Program: We have been paying $2,400 to the Chamber as a cost effective way to market the village's events to the region. This comes from Economic Development money, from the levy. I support it. (Karen Wintrow will recuse herself.)
Solid Waste Contract Discussion We have two bids, from Rumpke and Waste Management. They are very close. Waste Management's is the lower, on many counts, and overall, but there are slight differences in the many areas we need to consider. WM would not charge for any trash and recycling pick up in the downtown, but does basically charge more for the large containers you use when you're doing work on your house, and a little more for "spring clean up" service. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Sutton Farm Leases: Manager Cundiff proposes extending the lease to Flatter Herefords, same price, for 5 more years.
CR Update of Activities


Executive Session: For pending litigation, discussion of personnel issues, and the Manager's annual evaluation.

POEM

My Father Holds the Door for Yoko Ono

In New York City for a conference

on weed control, leaving the hotel

in a cluster of horticulturalists,

he alone stops, midwestern, crewcut,

narrow blue tie, cufflinks, wingtips,

holds the door for the Asian woman

in a miniskirt and thigh high

white leather boots. She nods

slightly, a sad and beautiful gesture.

Neither smile, as if performing

a timeless ritual, as if anticipating

the loss of a son or a lover.

Years later, Christmas, inexplicably

he dons my mother’s auburn wig,

my brother’s wire-rimmed glasses,

and strikes a pose clowning

with my second hand acoustic guitar.

He is transformed, a working class hero

and a door whispers shut,

like cherry blossoms falling.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org

), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted from “Folio,” Winter, 2004, by permission of the author. Copyright © 2004 by Christopher Chambers, who teaches creative writing at Loyola University New Orleans. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Best,
Lori