August 14, 2003

Filing deadline is Thursday, Aug. 21—
Just 4 have filed for election

With just one week to go before the filing deadline, only four people have filed to run for local office this fall.

An official on the Greene County Board of Elections speculated that most people were waiting until next week to file with the board, which seems to be the trend in local elections.

Eight seats will be listed on the Nov. 4 ballot, including three seats on Village Council, the position of Yellow Springs mayor, two seats on the Yellow Springs Board of Education, one position on the Miami Township Board of Trustees and the post of Township clerk/treasurer.

To have their names listed on the ballot, local residents must file signed petitions with the Board of Elections by next Thursday, Aug. 21, at 4 p.m. The board charges a $30 filing fee.

Official petitions for Village Council and mayor are available at the office of the clerk of Council in the Bryan Community Center. Petitions for both positions must have 32 valid signatures of registered Yellow Springs voters.

Petitions for the Yellow Springs school board and the Miami Township Board of Trustees and the clerk/treasurer are available at the Greene County Board of Elections, 651 Dayton-Xenia Road in Xenia. Petitions for these positions must have 25 signatures. For more information, call the board at 937-562-7470.

In the Council race, only Mary Alexander, who was appointed to Council in April to fill a vacancy, has filed a petition to run. The terms of Alexander, Joan Horn and George Pitstick expire the first Council meeting after the November election.

Horn said that she plans not to seek re-election, while Pitstick has said that he may run again.

The two candidates in the Council race who receive the most votes will serve four-

year terms, and the candidate with the third most votes will receive a two-year term. The winners of the Council race will join Tony Arnett, the Council president, and Denise Swinger on Council.

Yellow Springs Mayor David Foubert has filed a petition seeking re-election. Foubert will be running for his seventh term in office.

The mayor’s position is a two-year term. Under the Village Charter, the mayor of Yellow Springs is the head of the Village government for all ceremonial purposes, and oversees the local Mayor’s Court. The mayor may attend Council meetings and participate in discussions, though the mayor cannot vote on Council issues.

As of Tuesday, Richard Lapedes was the only candidate to have filed a petition with the Board of Elections to run for the school board.

The terms of Rich Bullock, who has taken out a petition to run for re-election, and Tom Haugsby, the board president, will expire this year. Haugsby has said that he does not plan to seek re-election.

The winners of the school board race will receive four-year terms, and will join members Mary Campbell-Zopf, William Firestone and Angela Wright on the board.

Chris Mucher, president of the Miami Township Board of Trustees, is the only candidate to have filed a petition with the Board of Elections.

The winner of the trustee race will receive a four-year term and will serve with Mark Crockett and Lamar Spracklen on the Board of Trustees.

The Miami Township clerk-treasurer, Margaret Silliman, has taken out a petition seeking re-election, but has not filed. No one else has taken out a petition for this position. The clerk/treasurer job is a four-year term.

—Robert Mihalek