Village Council’s goal to make Yellow Springs a more walkable and bikeable community prompted the Village Bicycle Enhancement Committee to take action on new traffic signs this fall and winter. The signs are a reminder that bicyclists are encouraged to use the entire lane.

As head of the bike committee and an avid bicyclist himself, Dan Carrigan is passionate about educating both bikers and motorized drivers of the laws that give bicyclists greater rights and responsibilities.

“As bicyclists, we’re being assertive,” he said. “The roads are a shared social network -— we all have a right to use them.”

The Home, Inc. board of trustees decided last week to terminate its contract for a purchase option with Rabbit Run Farm on Dayton Street. Home, Inc. needed more time to establish a development partner for its housing project, and Rabbit Run owner Suzanne Patterson could not extend the option past the June 2010 limit specified in the contract signed in October.

If in the past two years there had been urgency around what to do about Antioch College’s physical plant, this year, the attitude of college leaders has resolved into a tempered and reasoned approach to the historic campus. The college took critical steps this fall to protect its buildings from further deterioration, after they were shuttered for a year. And this month, the college administrative staff of about 20 will emerge from their spots in the Olive Kettering Library and the leased space on Xenia Avenue to take up temporary residence in South Hall on the horseshoe at the heart of the campus.

Consumers may have tightened their belts this whole past year, but the longer the financial slump continues, the harder it is for those living close to the bone to get by. An increase in the number of people served by a group of local organizations that provide emergency welfare help reflects the increased difficulty local residents are having getting enough warm winter wear, adequate heat in the house and ample food on the table. Especially in a giving season, the local welfare leaders extend a thanks for the generosity of the community and a note that in an economy such as this one, everyone is dealing with the loss in some measure.

In the interest of supporting energy conservation measures, Village Council members agreed at a special meeting on Friday, Dec. 11, to sign the Village on as a municipal sponsor of a grant proposal to develop an affordable home retrofit process for energy efficiency. The Village will support Community Solutions and an area business in the application for federal stimulus grant money, which if awarded, will need further action by Council to participate in the program.

For each of the several hundred people who attended her memorial service at Bryan Community Center on Saturday, Dec. 5, Deborah Benning meant something unique. But in all her roles as mother, step-mother, partner, friend, Village Council clerk and long-time village resident, she was consistently seen as a supportive leader and a touchstone others could depend on. She served in that way for family and friends as well as for the Village of Yellow Springs, and her death on Nov. 24 is as much a part of local history as the legacy of her family as an early part of the village’s African American community.

The Antioch College Board Pro Tempore announced on Wednesday, Dec. 9, the appointment of Matthew Derr as the college’s interim president. Derr was the chief transition officer who helped lead the two-year effort to win the college’s independence from Antioch University this past summer.

The Village made what some would call a wise and prescient decision last year when it declined to sign on to the coal-fired power plant American Municipal Power, Inc. planned to build along the Ohio River. AMP announced last week on Nov. 25 that it was terminating the AMPGS project due to a spike in construction cost estimates that rendered the project unaffordable for its customers.

Chaos reigned on a recent Wednesday in the Bryan Center gym, where a toddler play group meets each week. Balls were flying and kids caromed off of each other as mothers stood by watchfully. Then a box of curious looking toys were spread out, and one by one, the children came to sit on their mats and check out the shapes, colors and moving parts of the materials before them. The children were rapt, and according to Nacim Sajabi, they were learning in the Montessori model.

According to the most recent business survey update sponsored by Yellow Springs Community Resources, the village is a pretty good place to do business. Business owners like the village’s location, personality and walkability, and even in a slumped economy, a number of local outfits plan to expand here. But business owners also perceive barriers to growth, including the cost of doing business in the village, the lackluster appearance of the central business district and the age-old concern with lack of parking space downtown.