When a drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico this spring and millions of gallons of crude oil began gushing into the ocean, one local company jumped at the opportunity to monitor the toxic oil’s movement and measure its environmental contamination — YSI Incorporated.

When conflict arises in the village, one local organization stands ready to reconcile differences and make peace — the Village Mediation Program. For 21 years, the program’s trained volunteer facilitators have mediated crises free of charge between neighbors, families and businesses, saving villagers thousands of dollars in legal fees and the frustration of prolonged disputes.

The butter-yellow chicks twittering about in their baby blue swimming pools look and sound happy and healthy. Though in about six weeks, most of them will become someone’s dinner, their brief lives will be spent frolicking with their brothers and sisters with plenty of grains, bugs and grass to eat. The folks at New Liberty Farms would have it no other way.

At their Sept. 7 meeting, Village Council members unanimously approved a grant application for state funding for the widening of a portion of Dayton-Yellow Springs Road, a move that is necessary to create an intersection for entering a new access road to the Center for Business and Education, or CBE.

For more than 50 years until his death, a photographer of international stature lived and worked in Yellow Springs. The work of that photographer, Axel Bahnsen, will be honored this weekend with the publication of a new book of his photographs.

For more than 40 years, John Bryan Community Pottery has been an educational resource and incubator space for developing potters. Now, the local artists’ cooperative is expanding its well-equipped studio by adding a wood-fired kiln, one of a handful of such kilns in the region.

If residents who frequent the U.S. Post Office in Yellow Springs haven’t noticed the mural at the eastern end of the lobby, perhaps it’s because of the grease, grit and grime that has been dulling the paint for the past 70 years.

On Wednesday, Sept. 8, the golf team hosted Bethel at Locust Hills golf course in Springfield. The team drove, chipped and putted their way through the course on a beautiful early fall day, ultimately losing the match by a score of 172–211.

Gwynelle “Ginnie” Philips died Aug. 30 at her daughter’s home in Savannah, Ga., after a brief illness. Ginnie was born and raised in Savannah. She was the widow of Charles Edward “Pete” Philips. Ginnie was a longtime employee of the Yellow Springs school system, where she served as an assistant librarian.

Sonja Reed died Wednesday, Sept. 8, at her home in Yellow Springs. She was 83. Born Sonja Köhler on June 19, 1927, in Thalheim, Germany, she spent her youth traveling around Europe as part of a family circus act. During this time, she also began performing with elephants, a fondness she would hold the rest of her life.