2025_YSNElectionGuide

6 OC T OB E R 3 , 2 0 2 5 H H H 2025 E L E C T I ON GU I DE H H H Y E L L OW S P R I NG S N EWS systems come along and old ones become obsolete. There’s a lot of learning to do; luckily, I’m a researcher, and I really enjoy getting down in the weeds on new topics. … I would always prioritize health and well-being, and the health of the land. …And I think if we had a better structure at the federal level, they could really be working on how to integrate solar and farming, because most farmers really do need another income stream. Com- modity grain production has always been a very difficult way to make a living; it’s always been subsidized. 4. ���������� ������������������������ Back when I was on Council, Tecum- seh Land Trust hosted a smart growth workshop, and it made a very good case that the sprawling kind of development is what you want to avoid across every entity. It’s not good for municipalities to stretch too far, so having a clear urban service boundary, and being willing to develop a little more den- sely within that boundary, is a good thing. That doesn’t mean ever y development that could happen within that boundary should happen. … So thinking about how to encourage particularly affordable growth, recognizing that there is a severe housing shortage in the village that has contributed to driving prices through the roof, when [a potential development] is within the urban service boundary and the idea is for annexation, I tend to look at environmental impacts, whether it’s feasible, if there are logistical issues and whether emergency vehicles could get to the area. That’s really where it all interfaces with the Township. … Annexations tend to happen when there’s not yet a clear development plan. … I think if we figured out ways to open channels of communication [between the Village and Township] we could get a much better understanding of, and public education for, what’s going on and why. JED HANNA BACKGROUND: Jed Hanna has spent most of his life rooted in the land. He grew up on his family’s farm in Cedarville Township, and has himself raised grass-fed cattle and goats and worked fields of wheat, corn and soybeans across Greene County. He’s lived inMiami Township for 25 years, settling into a house he renovated and later expanded when he married his wife, Angie, and star- ted a family. Farming, Hanna said, has shaped his res- pect for the township’s rural character. “I’ve seen the township as being like a farm; people think you’re just harvesting crops, but it’s a lot of maintenance,” he said. “Maintaining the land and taking care of it. I see the township trustee job as that, too.” Over the years, Hanna has added to his hands-on knowledge of township work. As a young adult, he was employed by Cedar- ville Township, maintaining roads, mowing ditches, trimming trees and tending ceme- teries. The experience, he said, gave him an appreciation for the breadth of responsibili- ties trustees oversee. Hanna has also served on a committee of Tecumseh Land Trust, where he has advocated for sustainable land management practices. His background, he said, has given him both a respect for local history and a forward-looking view of land stewardship. Now raising two children, Hanna said he sees serving as trustee as a way to contribute to the community in the same spirit as the farmers he looked up to growing up — inclu- ding former Miami Township Trustee Lamar Spracklen, who Hanna cited as an inspiration. “I’ve always kind of wanted to be a trustee because I knew Township trustees were looked upon as honorable,” he said. Question responses: 1. It seems like a combined meeting with everyone would be beneficial, especially if there’s an upcoming levy. Even if it’s once a year, or prior to a levy, everyone should get together in the same room. Hopefully there’s not too much conflict, but the bodies can decide on things that way. There’s so much where we can stay connected by phone, email and text. If there’s an issue, we should figure it out together. 2. You’ve got to be kind to each other, because you’re all doing the same job. You may have dif ferences of opinion … but you’ve still got to get along, because what you’re doing is not for you — it’s for the township and for the people. You can’t hold grudges or go after each other. There’s going to be conflict in almost every deci- sion, but you’ve got to hold it together and not fight against each other. 3. I’m very against [utility-scale solar], to be honest with you. The beautiful area behind our house, we don’t own, and it’s signed up for solar. We were part of Citizens for Greene Acres [a grass-roots group that has opposed utility-scale solar farms in Miami, Cedarville and Xenia townships] because we were against the solar. We’ve been in turmoil for several years, [wondering if] we need to sell our place and get re-established because of not knowing the future of our backyard. Solar, I think, is very necessary in its place, but it’s like they’re trying to put a factory in my bac- kyard, and I’m not for it. 4. We’ve got our farm in the Tecumseh Land Trust, so we’re trying to preserve the natural beauty of this land. At one time, this was all trees, of course, so through time things have changed. Now we farm the land, but it’s so beautiful and we don’t want to see houses. At the same time, there’s a need for housing; maybe after everything in town is filled up, then you have to expand — but until that point, why do you need to esta- blish houses galore? MARILAN MOIR* BACKGROUND: Marilan Moir has lived in Miami Township for 37 years, first moving to Clifton in 1988 — where she recalled that she painted the exterior of Clifton Mill in the summer of 1989 — before settling in Yellow Springs in 1990. Moir now lives with her wife, Dawn, and their daughter, an eighth grader at McKinney Middle School. She also has a daughter in Boston, Massachu- setts and a son in Taos, New Mexico. Moir was first elected trustee in 2021, and said she’s proud of the work she’s helped accomplish in her first term. That work, she said, has been centered on strengthening Miami Township Fire-Rescue and reorga- nizing Township departments for the long term. She sought out a consultant, later hired by the trustees, to help reorganize MTFR and create a new staffing model and wage schedule for the department. “We established the department’s first transparent, forward-looking budget,” she said. Moir said the department has seen major improvements: employees now have clearer channels to be heard, a new chief is in place and the staffing and wage structure is sustai- nable into the future. She added that part-time staff are being recruited and retained. Beyond fire and rescue, Moir pointed to progress in the Township’s zoning department which, under her leadership, has become “more cus- tomer-friendly, organized and accountable.” “I’m proud of the fire department work; I’m proud of the zoning department work,” she said. “There’s still work to do in how decisions are made.” With the work ahead in mind, Moir said her focus, if re-elected, will remain on gover- nance, sustainability and transparency. “What I discovered after getting elected is that trustees had a governing problem; without clear processes, there can be no good decision-making,” she said. “We need more policies and procedures, and to actu- ally follow the ones we already have so that we can function better and continue to be transparent.” Most of all, she said: “We need to watch the money so that we’re sustainable in the future.” Question responses: 1. One of the ways I stay connected is that I serve on boards where I’m [a Township] representative; I serve on the active trans- port committee, which has a representative from every branch [of local] government and organizations in town, and the YS Development Corporation, which also has two representatives from every body. That keeps me connected — and I’m also a natural networker and a curious person, so I can’t imagine not being connected to what the others are doing. … We don’t want to duplicate efforts or work at cross purposes. 2. We’ve got to give other people grace [when working through conflict]. … In our organization specifically, conflict arises because a lot of the procedures and processes are in people’s heads, and things aren’t written down … so we’re not playing by a shared set of rules. I’m finding that, with each policy we put in place, it gets a little bit better. …Part of our conflict [as Township Trustees] has been people bringing items to the agenda at the last minute, and we were being faced with agenda items as we walked in the door, and then we only had a few minutes to make a decision; now we have agenda rules [that items have to be added] a week ahead of time. … So a lot of conflict can be solved by having a clear, agreed-upon set of rules. If we’re not on the same page with the agreed-upon set of rules, of course there’s going to be conflict. 3. I think statewide, there hasn’t been cla- rity on how a large solar development should be carried out. There is no central planning from the state or federal governments — people just showed up in our neighborhoods and started making private deals, and so I have a lot of empathy for the neighbors [of those who have signed agreements for utility-scale solar farms]. At the same time, I myself visited different sites and … researched each complaint about solar and, over time, realized that a lot of them were not accurate. But I still understand why it’s daunting to have a 1,000-acre solar facility in your neighborhood. At this point, it may be moot; [utility-scale solar company] Vesper has said that, if they don’t get the permit [currently being considered by the Ohio Supreme Court], then they’re pulling out of Ohio. I was hoping they would plan to go more northward by the Springfield Airport, but my fellow trustees voted to put an exclu- sion zone in that part of Miami Township. … Our [Township] Zoning Commission is open [for membership] to people living in the unincorporated areas of the Township, and that’s the level at which people can be involved and help make land-use decisions. 4. Tecumseh Land Trust recognizes that it makes sense to keep development near the center of population, and it’s sad to see land go in the Urban Service Boundary, but people have to live, so that’s a compromise. It’s more destructive to have development outside of that, and then have everyone building private wells and septic systems. Infill around population centers makes more sense, then we can all enjoy the space outside and Conserve resources by living near each other. And I know that gets tricky with the [proposed] annexation of the the 84 Acres [on East Enon Road within the Urban Service Boundary]. My biggest concern was Jacoby Creek, and that it would be protected. There was a $2 million effort to re-meander Jacoby Creek, and then right downstream, we’re going to put in a development? If the land were annexed, would there be proper protection for that? Maybe it would, but nobody ever answered that question. DEMOCRACY IS LIKE THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE ITSELF — ALWAYS CHANGING, INFINITE IN ITS VARIETY, SOMETIMES TURBULENT AND ALL THE MORE VALUABLE FOR HAVING BEEN TESTED IN ADVERSITY. — JIMMY CARTER CONT INUED FROM PAGE 5