At the June 11 Yellow Springs Board of Education regular meeting, board member Richard Lapedes announced the beginnings of a new pilot program to encourage collaborative inter-district programming throughout Greene County, spearheaded by Governor Strickland and Jane Dockery of Wright State’s Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA).

The excitement of last year’s presidential election should only serve to underscore the importance of the local elections that are scheduled at the end of this year. On Nov. 10, 2009, three Village Council seats, Village mayor, three seats for Yellow Springs Board of Education and two seats for Miami Township Board of Trustees will be up for election.

Recent weeks have been like “the last leg of a relay race” that organizers hope will result in the creation of an independent Antioch College, leaders of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation, or ACCC, said last week.

Richard (Dick) Miller died at Community Hospital in Springfield on Thursday, June 18. He had turned 94 on March 31 and celebrated the event with a gathering of friends. He was born in Spencerville, Ohio, to the late Elizabeth and John Miller.

A powerful Twins team remained undefeated in the Major League after scoring their first win over the Royals, 7–3, on Wednesday, June 17. The Twins’ Jared Scarfpin led the way by going two-for-two, including a home run, one other run and three RBIs. Scarfpin, Aakeem Truss and Liam Weigand all scored on a bases-loaded triple by Grant Reigelsperger in the first inning.

The McKinney Middle School and Yellow Springs High School girls basketball program is offering open gym sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The sessions begin Tuesday, June 23, and are open to any middle and high school girls interested in playing basketball.

The Street Fair Shootout 3on3 basketball tournament featured round-robin play within divisions followed by mix-division, double-elimination bracket play.

Rose Elizabeth Chernick passed away on Sunday, June 7. She was 92. She was a resident of Friends Care Assisted Living and was previously a resident for many years of Waukegan, Ill., North Chicago, Ill. and Oconomowoc, Wisc.

Martha “Marty” J. Givens of Enon died on June 10. She was 65. She was born on Oct. 24, 1943, in Bellefontaine, the daughter of Mary (Johnston) Corry and the late Eugene Corry.

After almost five decades as an optometrist, there’s just one thing that still knocks the socks off Dr. Robert Englefield — and that’s the miracle of human sight. “When you realize there’s this never-ending light that comes in and stimulates the eye and then sends messages to the brain that lets it become a vision — I’ve never stopped being amazed,” he said.