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PAGE 4 J ANUARY 9 , 2020 C O M M U N I T Y F O R U M YE L LOW SPR INGS NEWS YELLOW SPRINGS NEWS An Independent Community Newspaper 253½ Xenia Ave., P.O. Box 187 Yellow Springs, OH 45387 (937) 767-7373 email: ysnews@ysnews.com Web: www.ysnews.com Monday–Wednesday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Megan Bachman .............................. Editor Audrey Hackett ............................ Reporter Carol Simmons ............................ Reporter Lauren Shows............... Village Desk Editor Suzanne Szempruch.... Advertising Manager, Circulation, Classifieds Matt Minde................... Production/Layout Reilly Dixon .....................Production/Layout Kitty Jensen, Karen Gardner .... Proofreaders Jeanna GunderKline ..............Bookkeeping Jeff Vawter .................................Distribution Editor Emeritus: Kieth A. Howard, 1946–1976 Publisher Emeritus: Ken Champney, publisher 1950–1992 Bookkeeper Emeritus: Peg Champney, 1951–2019 Printed on recycled newsprint E D I T O R I A L Making connections “Everything is connected, and everything is changing,” wrote Kate Marvel in an article in Scientific American last month. Marvel reviewed the decade’s news about extreme global weather events, and offered that even though the decade proved that climate changes were coming to pass, “there is no consolation in being right.” At the Yellow Springs News, we attempted our own “decade in review,” the first of its kind. My conclusion? Everything is connected, and every- thing is changing. First, the connections. It’s perhaps more obvious in a small town how interwoven our lives can be — we share the land and our governing bodies, along with one another’s joys and traumas. Yellow Springs is also connected to the wider world. Although for generations we have stood somewhat apart from the prevailing economic and social trends, over the last decade, that separation seems to have eroded. Our economy, too, has lost manufacturing jobs and is increasingly reli- ant on the tourist industry, while those living here commute further and further distances from their “bedroom community.” Here, too, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. At decade’s end, one-third of local households were making more than $100,000 per year while 25% of local children lived in poverty. The affordable housing crisis, a national one, hit our town hard as well. A figure that floors me spans a longer period of time, 2001–2017, when home sale prices rose 81% while incomes only grew 21% over a similar frame. And despite a decade of warnings and worries over the growing lack of affordability, the Village now has the most expensive combined water and sewer rates of 63 Miami Valley jurisdictions — a significant barrier to affordability. But there is no consolation in being right, only a confirmation that more work is needed. It’s not all bad news. Connected and facing change, villagers shored up the foundations of some beloved institutions. When an industrywide shift to digital threatened the future of the Little Art, more than a half million dol- lars was raised to upgrade it. All 1,000 acres of the Glen were permanently preserved in a true gift to future generations. Antioch College invested tens of millions in its campus, including a long-desired fitness center for the com- munity. New ventures sprang up too, including events like Porchfest that showcase our village in authentic ways, pioneering ideas like Agraria and compassionate efforts like the Beloved Community Project. When everything is changing, it’s helpful to remember that everything is connected. And that it is our connections with one another and the natural world here that make us resilient. —Megan Bachman OPINE. Submit your letter to ysnews.com/submissions JANUARY 10–16 These are the days The sun Is swimming back to the east and the light on the water gleams as never, it seems, before. —Mary Oliver The Second Week of Deep Winter The Pussy Willow Cracking Moon becomes completely full at 2:22 p.m. on January 10. It reaches perigee, its position closest to Earth at 3:22 on January 13. Rising in the JANUARY 10 Sunrise/set: 7:57/5:29 Record hi/lo: 59 (1890)/–15 (1982) Average hi/lo: 34/19 Moonrise/set: 5:29 p.m./7:49 a.m. Age of Moon/Year: 16 days/10 days JANUARY 11 Sunrise/set: 7:56/5:30 Record hi/lo: 67 (1890)/–14 (1886) Average hi/lo: 34/19 Moonrise/set: 6:36 p.m./8:44 a.m. Age of Moon/Year: 17 days/11 days JANUARY 12 Sunrise/set: 7:56/5:31 Record hi/lo: 68 (1890)/–16 (1918) Average hi/lo: 34/19 Moonrise/set: 7:48 p.m./9:31 a.m. Age of Moon/Year: 18 days/12 days JANUARY 13 Sunrise/set: 7:56/5:32 Record hi/lo: 67 (1890)/–9 (1912) Average hi/lo: 34/19 Moonrise/set: 9:01 p.m./10:12 a.m. Age of Moon/Year: 19 days/13 days JANUARY 14 Sunrise/set: 7:55/5:33 Record hi/lo: 68 (1932)/–2 (1994) Average hi/lo: 34/19 Moonrise/set: 10:14 p.m./10:48 a.m. Age of Moon/Year: 20 days/14 days JANUARY 15 Sunrise/set: 7:55/5:34 Record hi/lo: 65 (1932)/–13 (1893) Average hi/lo: 34/19 Moonrise/set: 11:25 p.m./11:20 a.m. Age of Moon/Year: 21 days/15 days JANUARY 16 Sunrise/set: 7:55/5:35 Record hi/lo: 59 (1928)/–17 (1977) Average hi/lo: 34/18 Moonrise/set: —/11:51 a.m. Age of Moon/Year: 22 days/16 days Some sandhill cranes may still fly south over Yellow Springs. If you see or hear them, call me at 937-767-7434 or send an email to wlfelker@gmail.com. A Y E L L O W S P R I N G S A L M A N A C K B Y B I L L F E L K E R SUBMIT A LETTER The News welcomes letters from read- ers on topics of current interest. • Letters must be signed and include a daytime phone number and an address for verification. • The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. Monday. To submit a letter, email the News at ysnews@ysnews.com, mail it to P.O. Box 187, Yellow Springs, OH 45387, or drop it off at our office located at 253½ Xenia Ave. evening and setting in the morning, this moon passes overhead after midnight. On January 11, Yellow Springs sunrise time — which remains at its latest time of the year between December 31 and January 10 (7:57 a.m.) — finally starts to occur earlier. It will continue to recede until June 8, when it reaches 5:06 a.m. Sunrise remains at that time until June 22, when the slide toward winter begins once again. Overwintering Robins My notes about winter robins go back to the early 1980s, and my notations about those resident birds began to multiply with my daybooks of 2006 and 2008, and then become quite common in the second decade of the millennium. This year, robins have been clucking and chirping all around town throughout the late fall and early winter, and the first flock of several dozen was sighted near the Village Artisans store in town on New Year’s Eve. Usually, the robins move in pairs or small groups until late January, and the late Decem- ber sighting was, as far as I can tell, unusual. Since I can’t recall exactly what I was looking for in my nature journey of 30 or 40 years ago, I can’t be sure at all that the robins have changed their schedule. It is likely that a few overwintering robins were not uncommon half a century ago, but my daybook does not suggest the numbers that currently stay through the coldest weather. As to whether any of that matters to any creatures other than robins, the pros- pect of climate change poses a number of questions about the past as well as about the future. If more robins are spending the colder months in town, what does that mean? Robins are known to stay near sources of sustinance in their Northern residences. Perhaps the spread of honey- suckle shrubs, winterberry and bittersweet vines has offered more food for them, enticing more of them to remain in the area. More robins is a wonderful thing. Maybe invasive species, global warming and robins go together. “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” — B E R T R A N D R U S S E L L It was Christmas Eve and it was dark and cold once everyone had left our dinner and gift exchange. My friend and I fixed a plate of food and headed to downtown. Nothing was open, no traffic and only one person sitting outside of Dark Star on the sidewalk looking into a box. He was cold and he was hungry. He was grateful to sit down in my car that was warm and was so grateful that someone thought of him and knew he was hungry. The memories came flooding back of his grandmother, who was a cherished member of the YS community and who, at one time, talked to me concerned about her grandson. Liz Kelly knew a lot about human beings, and knew her grandson Chris was in trouble. I remembered Chris teaching little ones at Mills Lawn how to hold a tennis racket because, after all, he was a professional tennis player. The tennis court is long gone, but he was hired by parents to provide private tennis lessons for their children. Now, on Christmas Eve he was Traffic proposal If this has been proposed elsewhere I apologize, but after perusing the many articles about changes to traffic patterns around Mills Lawn, I have yet to read what seems an obvious solution: As there is already a paved lane and parking lot behind the school, why not simply extend the pave- ment to Elm Street? It might require relocating some play- ground equipment, but drop-off and pick- up would be moved off public thorough- fares completely, enhancing both safety and convenience. Entering from busy Limestone Street and exiting onto less busy Elm Street — with a big yellow gate or two to limit through traffic before and after — would seem to render changes to established traffic pat- terns unnecessary. —Ron Fenton Traffic problem? Regarding the proposed one-way streets and restricted access to so many homes and businesses: Have “our” elected village leaders lost their sense of direction? Is there an ongoing traffic problem that is not being reported in the weekly police report? Or is it that the News is covering up vehicular accidents that we know nothing about on South Walnut? Since the mid 1950s, the current traffic pattern around Mills Lawn school — other than the newly added stop sign — has been operating without a problem. Which invites the questions, “Why is there this desire to disrupt a neighborhood? Why divert more traffic into our pedestrian downtown, cre- ating congestion as people try to turn up Short Street?” This is a major permanent disruption for a large percentage of commuters, all for a problem that does not exist. The issue, we are told, is that traffic becomes dangerous for the children get- ting out of cars. If this is correct, why not relocate the unloading cars from the road and have them enter the school parking lot on West Limestone and use the circle behind the school to drop off and collect their kids in an orderly manner? Remove parking on school days from the current drop off area along South Walnut and have the school buses line up there to set down and pick up kids. The buses will create a wall of steel, with no children on the street at all. Problem solved. We are talking about less than a half hour twice a day without any disruption to all the business owners, commuters and homeowners. —David Roche alone, cold and hungry. I know that he is a big issue in this commu- nity. His world is strange for us and our world is strange for him— but can’t we do better? The day after Christmas, my friend from Grand Rapids and I went to the Emporium and asked to prepay for soup, muffins and coffee. An account has been set up for anyone who would like to donate so he does not go hungry. It is also stipulated that no alcohol is to be purchased with this money. However, it is apparent that some folks believe it is OK to provide him with such, which only creates more problems for him. I do remember the good old days when, in Yellow Springs, this would not be an issue, but those days are long gone. Please be kind. Please understand that his brain chemistry does not allow him to live in our “normal” world. And a big dose of gratitude to those who do care. —Pamela Davis The Village of Yellow Springs is devel- oping a new Comprehensive Land Use Plan that will serve as “the road map for guiding public policy, land use and public investment decisions.” The newly formed Yellow Springs Development Corporation is advancing and promoting the economic and civic development of both the village and township. The Chamber of Commerce is working to support existing businesses and bring in new businesses to the village for both tax purposes and job creation. Antioch College is reinventing itself. Under my direc- tion as the new superintendent, the Yellow Springs school district is addressing the academic, financial and facility needs of the school system. These five organizations rep- resent a fragile ecosystem, where action by one group significantly impacts the whole. We are dependent upon one another if we want to build a successful future. Yellow Springs Schools are at a cross- roads. We are working to improve aca- demic performance, but as we do so we acknowledge that these efforts do not exist in a vacuum. Providing a superior educa- tion for our children not only involves peda- gogical and curricular changes, but it also involves facility changes. Today’s world is different. A classroom designed in 1952 (MLS) or 1963 (MMS/YSHS) does not meet the needs of students in 2020. Think just of the technological advances that have occurred in the past 68 years! This is an issue of educational adequacy. To address this issue takes money. For school systems in Ohio, there are only two ways to generate income: property taxes and/or income taxes. The district is acutely aware of the tax burden of district residents. As I mentioned earlier, there is a fragile ecosystem that exists in Yellow Springs. The village’s land use plan to bring in affordable housing (and families) will have a positive impact on the village and on the school district. We know that when there is more affordable housing for families in the village, there are more stu- dents in the schools, thus broadening the tax base for both the village and the school district. More families and children bring more customers to local businesses and diversity in opinion and thought to civic life. School funding in Ohio is complex and inadequate. In 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the state’s method for fund- ing public education was unconstitutional and failed to provide for a thorough and efficient system of common schools. The Ohio Legislature has refused for 22 years to address this issue. The Ohio Department of Education has frozen all school funding at the 2018–2019 levels for the next two fiscal years. The newly proposed Cupp- Paterson plan may provide some relief, but the plan, once enacted, will be phased-in over six years. In short, there is currently no school funding formula in Ohio. We have funding problems to which we must find creative solutions. I am encour- aged, however, because within problems we find opportunity. I ask everyone to attend our school finance meeting on Monday, Jan. 13, from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Mills Lawn Elementary School gymna- sium. The Yellow Springs district Interim Treasurer Tammy Emrick and I will pres- ent general information on how schools are funded in Ohio, as well as more detailed information about how Yellow Springs Schools receive funding from the state. As always, thank you for supporting the children of Yellow Springs. In the words of John Donne (Meditation 17): “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main ... any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” —Terri L. Holden, Ed.D. Superintendent, Yellow Springs Schools YS schools at a crossroads I am happy to announce that the previ- ously discontinued #5 Recycling Project has returned. The blue collecting cans are back in their previous locations: the Bryan Center parking lot, next to the dumpster; the Wellness Center entryway; and the library back parking lot near the alley. They may — or may not — have the #5 identifica- tion sign attached, as I am having difficulty getting them to stick in the rain and cold temperatures. Anyway, the story is this: On Dec. 31, I took what I thought was my final load of plastics (109 pounds) to Whole Foods. And despite the fact that they no longer will accept these from the general public and have removed their “Gimme 5” collection containers from the store, they told me that they will continue to accept our #5 plastics, primarily because they are clean, uncon- taminated and abundant — a minimum of 100 pounds per month. I know that they are bending the rules for us and that this privilege could be revoked at any time, but for now, let’s keep it going! Since the begin- ning, on March 1, 2019, we have kept 1,189 pounds of plastic out of the landfill. Please let me remind you to make sure you only place #5 plastic into the con- tainer — sometimes I find #1 or #2 water bottles; to make sure that it is clean, i.e., no tomato sauce residue on the sides of the container or dust or dirt of any kind; and that it helps if you stack what you can, i.e., all yogurt containers of the same size, cot- tage cheese, sour cream, etc., as more fits into a bag that way. Some of you are really good stackers! I think if we keep our loads as uncontaminated and as large as possible, we stand a better chance to keep this going indefinitely. I also want to inform you of Kroger’s relatively new recycling efforts for film- type plastics. They now take not just plastic grocery bags, but stretch wrap; plastic overwrap for toilet paper, napkins, etc.; overwrap on most bulk items; bubble wrap and air pillows (deflated); Ziploc bags; and more. There is a drop-off container in the entryway of our nearest Kroger. They don’t advertise, but they accept these things. Go to www.kroger.com/home-tips/cleaning/ be-a-zero-hero for a full list of recyclables. In the near future, I hope to have a separate prescription pill bottle collecting container available. Many of you currently throw your pill bottles in with the #5s, which is fine, but in the future I would prefer to send those to a separate charity that can benefit from the profit and also use them to distribute medication to people in developing countries. Last, and certainly not least, I would like to thank Sue Pfeiffer for taking over this recycling effort during the months of Octo- ber and November. Her willingness and hard work allowed me to travel to Kenya as a volunteer on a project called Elephants and Sustainable Agriculture, and to Uganda to track the magnificent mountain gorillas. Life is good. —Vickie Hennessy #5 Recycling Project is back I entered Antioch as a staunch vegan in 1999 and graduated in 2003. I’ve vol- unteered time on the Antioch Farm each summer since 2013 and I have a few thoughts about the lambs controversy. The nine lambs who lived in the solar panel field were gentle, curious, playful and affectionate. Despite their already idyllic living arrangements, numerous sanctuar- ies offered to give them different homes where they would have eventually died. In the face of a bizarre and misguided national campaign to relocate the lambs, and people called for a delayed death in which they’d probably just be buried and eaten by decomposers in the soil, Antioch College did send the lambs to their death, to be a source of local food. I am proud that the college has been strong in the face of death threats and this ridiculous campaign to stop sustainable agriculture. The broad-minded and forward-looking food program at Antioch College, especially the practical and environmentally friendly raising of animals for food, honors the insti- tution. Ohio has too many insensitive, pol- luting, industrial-sized farms — places that are the antithesis of compassion and animal well-being — and I am more than pleased that Antioch is a green beacon. The field of solar panels continues to represent the promise of a progressive college, and those nine beautiful lambs who have probably been eaten by now should be celebrated as but one facet of a truly sound program. As a former vegan, I can understand the upset — yet despite my years of animal- rights activism, I can’t understand why Antioch would be a target. You don’t have to travel far to find animals living in nightmar- ish conditions, and I’d like to think activists would focus on factory farms instead of smaller scale, organic-style farms. I’ve been involved with farming for nearly 20 years. Plants don’t have a face, but I’m convinced they are sentient beings. Plants communicate with each other in miracu- lous ways that we can’t see. Their growth can be stunted or encouraged based on receiving abuse or kindness. Plants are living beings and make great companions. Many plants need to be murdered to be eaten. Other plants are dismembered. And if we don’t kill or maim the plant to eat it, we may be stealing the fruits of its labor. Given the scale of our agricultural system, it’s nearly a guarantee that animals are killed in the process of raising plants for food. Trac- tors or combines run over rabbits, deer and other animals — and then there’s the potential roadkill as tofu and other foods cross the country on delivery trucks. We are members in a food chain, regard- less of our dietary choices. Some life forms must die for us to eat. We can’t avoid death when nourishing ourselves. But we may be able to choose the conditions in which our food lives before that death: organic plants or those raised with pesticides, foods from farms that build or squander topsoil, local foods or imported; animals that had happy and healthy lives or animals that were raised in cages. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we approached food with awareness and gratitude for everything involved in the process? Disagreeing with an opinion can be done without anger. It’s unlikely that veganism will take over as the world’s biggest reli- gion. The three main monotheistic tradi- tions have a combined roughly four billion followers. They all have scriptural evidence for a God-given right to eat meat. Shouldn’t we encourage lower-impact pasture-raised meat over factory-farmed meat? It is my opinion we should support Antioch College and its sustainable food program. —Yunus Brevik Support sustainable food Caring for one of our own