Open farmland is a precious feature of Miami Township, whose vast fields, streams and wooded areas many of its residents recognize as valuable and would like to keep. So they’re doing something about it by creating a land use plan for the township, which surrounds Yellow Springs, in hopes of guiding future development practices that preserve and protect its natural resources.

Most art is meant to be viewed by the public, but not all art takes up permanent residence in the public sphere in the way the three pieces that won the village’s first public sculpture contest are about to do. But come Street Fair time in early October, three public spaces in the village will display Beth Holyoke’s three-dimensional yellow mosaic of the word “springs,” Olga Ziemska’s sculpture of the hands of villagers cast in white in the image of a bird in flight, and Migiwa Orimo’s old-style telephone booth that beckons villagers to come inside and create their own experimental artworks.

There is a small movement afoot to allow Sunday liquor sales and consumption in the downtown business district, which could significantly affect village restaurants and also local nonprofit organizations. The local option issue is one for the November ballot that needs approval from a majority of registered voters in the village to allow businesses in the downtown precinct to sell liquor on Sundays.

The Wright State physicians who operate the Yellow Springs Family Health Center at the corner of Xenia Avenue and Herman Street are temporarily relocating to Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia at the end of next month. According to health center Medical Director Cynthia Olsen, she hopes to unyoke the practice from a rapidly deteriorating facility and raise funds for a smaller, more efficient building in the same location as the original.

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.

The senior apartment building that Friends Care Community plans to build downtown has been delayed due to financing issues, Friends Care Director Karl Zalar said last week. Friends had hoped to break ground this spring on the project at the corner of Xenia Avenue and Limestone Street.

An alternative veterinary office will soon be a new business on the corner of Stafford and Union Streets, after Village Planning Commission approved at its Monday, June 8 meeting a proposal to turn an unoccupied house into a small clinic.

Since the Yellow Springs Police Department began arming its officers with Tasers in August 2008, the stun guns have been deployed seldom and according to departmental policy, Police Chief John Grote said in a recent interview.

In the text of the classified ad about a lost puppy, there is a bigger story. In the letter to the editor about a neighbor’s farm that should or shouldn’t be developed, there is a bigger story. In the sports section about a ragamuffin team that clawed its way to state, there is still a bigger story.

Yellow Springs Schools Superintendent Norman Glismann was named one of five finalists for the position of superintendent of Mechanicsburg Exempted Village School District last week, according to a Springfield News-Sun article from Tuesday, May 12. This is the second superintendent position that Glismann, who just finished the second year of a three-year contract with Yellow Springs schools, has applied for this year.