...the iconic yellow spring, from villagewalkers.orgDear People: I am going to be in my office hours a little early today, from 11:30 (when I'm scheduled to speak with a villager) to about 12:30, because I am heading over to Dayton for the local "No H8"/anti-proposition 8 protests that are going on all over the country for GLBTQ rights.
Our next Village Council meeting is at 7 pm Monday 17th, at the Bryan Center. (If I weren't at this meeting, however, I'd be going to hear writer Sherman Alexie speak at Wittenberg !)
Our next Village Council meeting is at 7 pm Monday 17th, at the Bryan Center. (If I weren't at this meeting, however, I'd be going to hear writer Sherman Alexie speak at Wittenberg !)
Included in the packet this week is correspondence concerning: Michael Shuman's visit (proposed by the Smart Growth group, who is asking for funds to support it); the bankruptcy filing of the Antioch Company and a YSHS student's concern that we do more, as a village, in regard to the peak oil crisis. I suspect that there will be some discussion of these letters.
(In happier news, Risa Grimes of the Non-Stop institute reported two days ago that they have raised $140,075.57 - $5,000 over the goal of $135,000 - and did it 2.5 weeks earlier than planned! Good work!)
LEGISLATION: We'll discuss three resolutions regarding:
(In happier news, Risa Grimes of the Non-Stop institute reported two days ago that they have raised $140,075.57 - $5,000 over the goal of $135,000 - and did it 2.5 weeks earlier than planned! Good work!)
LEGISLATION: We'll discuss three resolutions regarding:
- Vernay Labs is generously donating one of its generators to the Village; we'll use it as a standby for our water treatment plant/wellfield.
- The new clarifier line project at the Wastewater Treatment plant. This is a fairly low cost project, at $62,400, but our advisers believe it may mitigate up to 90% of our current EPA violations. This resolution awards the work contract to Levan's Excavating.
- Changing John Weithofer's status, as of 11/17 to a "management consultant" through the end of the month (11/28), so that he will be able to provide transition assistance to our new village manager, Mark Cundiff. After that time, we plan to authorize an as-needed consulting agreement with Mr. Weithofer.
- We'll be getting an update regarding Verizon's plans to put up a cell phone tower on Village property (the Bryan Center grounds) and probably discussing the proposed location (behind the building).
- We'll be reviewing the Clerk of Council's annual report.
- And, the major item of discussing for the night, we'll be discussing the revised "Request for Proposals" (RFP) that the Visioning Task Force has crafted, with some (somewhat rushed) input from Council and from our village lawyer, John Chambers.
- A request for proposals is a formal document that is sent to contractors who will, inthis case, tell us what they could do, in terms of helping us come together plan for the future. The revised RFP crafted by our lawyer asks for specific outcomes like a new zoning plan, help with strategies for retaining diversity, and ideas for investing in economic development.
- The link takes you to a page where you can download .pdf files of the original RFP, the suggestions Judith and I made, and the revised version created by our lawyer. If you are short of time, I'd read the link "Recommended revisions by village solicitor (clean)" as I believe that will form the basis of our discussion (it's about a 7 page document, but doesn't take that long to read through).
- This seems like a very important discussion: I don't know how much it's on your radar screen, but if you care about the future of our village, and how we ought to proceed, we need to hear from you--both if you are supportive of visioning or skeptical about it (and I have heard from several of you who are very skeptical about this.) Please come!
- MVRPC Comprehensive Local-Regional Bikeways Plan (Karen Wintrow recommends reading the executive summary of this long document that you can link to from that website). This plan has been under development for some time. I believe that some YS bikers would like to see more of a focus on "share the roads" biking rather than the rail-trails that are a little more emphasized in the region.
- On page 10, there's a map of existing and proposed bikeways: YS has 2 rural bikeways proposed for the Yellow Springs-Fairfield Road between YS and Fairborn as a top priority project. This is detailed on page 34-35 of the document.
- Hwy 343 is a lower priority project; our "Safe Routes to Schools" plan for walkers and bikers is also marked on the pg. 10 map in blue.
Peace,
Lori
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