August 28, 2003

Local voters will have a full slate of candidates but not many choices when they go to the polls on Nov. 4.

The election will fill six spots on three local governing bodies, including three seats on Village Council, two on the Yellow Springs Board of Education and one position on the Miami Township Board of Trustees. Local residents will also vote for the Yellow Springs mayor and for the Miami Township clerk/treasurer.

Three local people, including two incumbents, have filed petitions to run for the three vacant Council seats. George Pitstick and Mary Alexander, who both currently sit on Council, are running again, as is Jocelyn Hardman. Hardman ran for Council in the 2001 election, and narrowly missed getting a seat.

The two Council candidates who receive the most votes will receive four-year terms and the third will serve for two years. The newly elected Council members will join Tony Arnett, the Council president, and Council member Denise Swinger. The fifth current Council member, Joan Horn, whose term expires this November, chose not to run again.

Two villagers are now officially running for the two open spots on the Yellow Springs school board. Incumbent Rich Bullock filed a petition, as did Richard Lapedes, who is running for his first public office. Lapedes co-chaired the successful 2001 campaign for the school income tax and a previous levy campaign. He also was one of the founding members of the Yellow Springs Endowment for Education.

Bullock and Lapedes will both receive four-year terms.

The two men will join current board members Mary Campbell-Zopf, Angela Wright and Bill Firestone. Board president Tom Haugsby decided not to seek re-election.

Local residents will have a choice in the race for the only open seat on the Miami Township Board of Trustees. Two people have filed for the race, Chris Mucher, who currently serves as president of the board, and David Heckler, the former Village manager.

The winner will receive a four-year term and will join current trustees Mark Crockett and Lamar Spracklen.

Yellow Springs Mayor David Foubert has filed to run again for the position, which would be his seventh two-year term as mayor.

The Miami Township clerk/treasurer, Margaret Silliman, is also seeking re-election for her second four-year term.