The results are in from one of the longest-running, civilian-led scientific initiatives — the annual Christmas Bird Count.
Flocks of keen-eyed hikers, veteran birders and pedestrian ornithologists fanned out across 48 Greene County sites on Saturday, Jan. 3, with a straight-forward mission of logging every bird they saw.
This year, participants spotted a total of 10,493 individual birds from 67 unique species.
That’s the most species participants have found in one year, said local count organizer and Glen Helen Executive Director Nick Boutis.
It was a big year in Greene County for some species — a “veritable red-hot sapsucker winter,” Boutis noted. For the third year in a row, counters spotted a merlin, which is a relatively uncommon falcon for the area. Other novel birds included a herring gull, a red-breasted nuthatch, a fox sparrow and two bald eagles.
Unsurprisingly, the common grackle, European starling, American robin and Canada goose were the most frequently spotted.
This was the 126th year of the bird count, which is organized by the National Audubon Society. Glen Helen began participating in county efforts in 2010, and has been coordinating local efforts since then in collaboration with the Beaver Creek Wetlands Association, Greene County Parks and Trails and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The 51 birders who participated this year were spread out from individual backyards with bird feeders to large areas like the Glen, which Boutis explained was divvied up between five search parties.
Boutis said the year’s high count could be explained by several factors:
• A growing number of skilled observers in Greene County;
• A growing quantity of healthy protected areas in Greene County, thus providing adequate habitat for a greater diversity of wildlife;
• Owing to that increase in wildlife, there’s more to see in the natural world, thereby drawing more people to look for birds and other wildlife; and
• From that boon in public interest, so grows the interest in protecting natural habitats, which in turn leads to the growth in the abundance and diversity of birds.
“Lather, rinse, repeat,” Boutis said.
Common grackle — 3,138
Canada goose — 1,329
European starling — 1,247
American robin — 1,185
American crow — 315
White-throated sparrow — 309
Mallard — 289
Mourning dove — 247
Rock pigeon — 237
Northern cardinal — 209
Red-winged blackbird — 150
Carolina chickadee — 144
Dark-eyed junco — 144
White-breasted nuthatch — 122
House sparrow — 117
Blue jay — 114
Red-bellied woodpecker — 112
Carolina wren — 101
House finch — 92
Tufted titmouse — 92
Downy woodpecker — 90
Black vulture — 77
Song sparrow — 73
American goldfinch — 55
American tree sparrow — 46
Golden-crowned kinglet — 45
Eastern bluebird — 38
Northern flicker — 36
Red-shouldered hawk — 25
Yellow-bellied sapsucker — 25
Horned lark — 24
Cedar waxwing — 21
Pileated woodpecker — 19
Red-tailed hawk — 19
Brown creeper — 18
Hairy woodpecker — 18
Swamp sparrow — 17
Eastern towhee — 16
Hermit thrush — 16
American kestrel — 11
Belted kingfisher — 11
Northern mockingbird — 9
Sandhill crane — 9
Brown-headed cowbird — 8
Cooper’s hawk — 8
Ruby-crowned kinglet — 7
Gadwall — 6
Turkey vulture — 6
Great blue heron — 5
White-crowned sparrow — 5
Winter wren — 4
Great Horned owl — 3
Lesser scaup — 3
Sharp-shinned hawk — 3
Yellow-rumped warbler — 3
Bald eagle — 2
Chipping sparrow — 2
Field sparrow — 2
Gray catbird — 2
Northern harrier — 2
Barred owl — 1
Fox sparrow — 1
Herring gull — 1
Merlin — 1
Red-breasted nuthatch — 1
Snow goose — 1
Wilson’s snipe — 1
With a few strokes of a pen, it became official Friday, Jan. 9: Yellow Springs Development Corporation purchased the downtown buildings at 252 and 254 Xenia Avenue.
In doing so, YSDC assumed ownership of two vacant storefronts — most recently Yellow Springs Hardware and the Yellow Springs Toy Company — as well as the six residential apartments on the second stories of the two properties.
YSDC, a quasi-governmental nonprofit and community improvement corporation, bought the adjoining properties from the trustees of the estate of the late Bob Baldwin for $630,000 — money loaned to YSDC from Yellow Springs Community Foundation.
As previously reported in the News, YSDC members sought to purchase the buildings in the interest of economic development in the downtown corridor, and to maintain local control over their fate — that is, beating out-of-town buyers to the purchase.
What’s next for the properties — specifically what will occupy the ground floors — remains to be seen, YSDC representatives told the News earlier this week. What is certain, though, is that the six tenants upstairs are not in imminent jeopardy of losing their apartments, despite the change in ownership.
“Nor are their rents going up,” YSDC Executive Director Lisa Abel said.
Overseeing the living situations for the tenants and collecting their rents on behalf of YSDC is a newly hired property manager, Kimberly Wattermann, who said she intends to disturb the ongoing rental agreements as little as possible.
“I think we all have the best interests of the tenants at heart,” she said.
Wattermann has been a property manager in the Dayton area for 35 years. Locally, she has managed rental agreements for dozens of homes in Yellow Springs over the years, and she also manages some student apartments near Wright State.
Wattermann added that, should YSDC renovate its properties so extensively in the future that the tenants would need to temporarily vacate their apartments, she would directly assist in rehoming those six individuals.
“Since I’ve been doing this so long, I’ve been through most scenarios you can imagine,” she said. “But this is still a unique situation. I think I can help, provided I have direction from YSDC.”
On the ground floor of 252 Xenia Ave. is the former Yellow Springs Toy Company, which closed at the end of 2025 after eight years of business. Above are two apartments. On the ground floor at 254 Xenia Ave. is the former hardware store space, and above are four more apartments. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
According to the findings of a number of site surveys and evaluations, the buildings will require considerable repairs and renovations.
Ahead of Friday’s purchase, YSDC sought the following consultations: a structural engineering survey, asbestos evaluation, architectural assessment, fire safety report from Miami Township Fire-Rescue, environmental impact study, as well as surveys on the buildings’ roofs and electrical and plumbing systems.
Taken together, these studies were what Abel and other YSDC members have, up to this point, referred to as their “due diligence” phase of the project.
While the two buildings are in a “prime location and have historical relevance to the community,” the architectural assessment notes, they have nevertheless “suffered the consequences of continuous deferred maintenance over a long period of time.”
According to county records, the three-story brick building at 252 Xenia Ave. was built around 1853, and is one of the oldest buildings in Yellow Springs. The adjoining structure at 254 was built sometime in the following decades; a Yellow Springs insurance map from July 1895 depicts both buildings in their current locations.
The architectural assessment — penned by Earl Reeder Associates — continues: “A successful restoration would require a measured approach, beginning with correcting the most serious liabilities.”
Those include rectifying:
• Structural issues with the buildings’ foundations — particularly in the corners, and as evidenced by cracks in walls, bowing bricks and warped floors in the upper levels due to overloading;
• Asbestos in the plaster and flooring;
• Old “knob-and-tube” electricity circuits, with exposed wires and outdated panels;
• Undersized water service lines;
• A deteriorating and leaky aluminum roof;
• Out-of-code egresses from the residential spaces;
• Standing water in the basement;
Additionally, the fire report found that the buildings were not in compliance with code on eight counts, including broken or outdated exit signs, an insufficient number of alarms and amount of lighting in hallways, as well as a fire escape that doesn’t fully reach the ground.
It’s a daunting list of to-dos, but Abel remains steadfast.
“There’s nothing in these reports that we find insurmountable,” she said. “Sure, there are some nights when I lie awake at 3 in the morning wondering how this will all work. But then there are these moments when I get so excited about the opportunity we have here to bring something really cool to Yellow Springs — that we can make this work.”
YSDC Board President Michael Slaughter was inclined to agree with Abel — fixing up old buildings is just a part of living in Yellow Springs, he said.
“That’s just how it is here,” Slaughter said. “And you don’t see folks tearing down their old homes, do you?”
Slaughter said that, at an earlier stage in the buying process, YSDC had approached the Baldwins with an offer lower than the asking price, owing to the extensive anticipated repairs. The Baldwins declined the offer with the intention to sell the buildings “as is,” and YSDC’s purchasing agent — village resident Shelly Blackman — advised YSDC members against continuing to pursue a lower-cost sale. According to Slaughter, repeatedly asking for a lower cost could have spurred the Baldwins putting the buildings up for auction.
But that didn’t happen, and now, with the keys in YSDC’s hands, some of the needed improvements are underway.
Recently, YSDC members have installed more fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, and brought in additional fire extinguishers. Soon, there will be more hall lights and better exit signs. Also brought into the mix is village electrician Paul Larkowski, who was recently tasked with replacing the old “knob-and-tube” wiring.
Meanwhile, YSDC is still actively searching for a project manager — a paid position that, according to the job listing, will “lead the predevelopment process, including due diligence, planning, financial analysis and stakeholder coordination.” The project manager’s work will ultimately “culminate in a development recommendation and construction readiness.”
Beyond making structural improvements and complying with codes, there’s still the tailor-made renovations needed for whatever eventually occupies the downstairs retail spaces. Past suggestions from inquiring villagers have included a local history museum, a visitor’s center, another hardware store, a gathering space, a unique retailer and more.
For now, nothing is determined and anything is possible, Abel said.
“We have quite a bit of flexibility,” Abel pointed out. “The two-year bridge loan from the Community Foundation also buys us a good amount of time to hear more from the community — What do you want? What do you not want? We have two years to figure that out before the foundation collects their note.”
Slaughter added: “So, this means we have time to hold more town halls, have more conversations with folks. In a lot of ways, we’re trying to do this project differently than other recent ones that have happened in town. There have been recent happenings where someone comes in, says, “This is the plan,” and they go forward without any community input. We’re trying to do the right thing and involve the village in this process.”
To that end, a second town hall regarding the fate of 252 and 254 Xenia Ave. has been set for Wednesday, Feb. 11, 6-8 p.m., in the John Bryan Community Center. Like the previous town hall earlier this winter, this will be another chance for village residents to articulate their wants and visions for the downtown spaces, Abel said.
Mike Montgomery didn’t plan to be the kind of executive director who stays behind a desk.
“I’m involved in everything,” he said. “I don’t have that corporate structure of a lot of my peers.”
This week, after more than eight years leading the nonprofit Friends Care Community, Montgomery is stepping out from behind the desk one last time, officially retiring from the position Friday, Jan. 9. In speaking with the News last month, he said he had expected to stay in the position “maybe a couple more years,” but that illness within his family has pulled the timeline forward.
“The board has enabled me to retire earlier than I had planned,” he said.
Montgomery’s departure from Friends Care comes during a time when long-term care is getting more expensive to operate, harder to staff and, he said, more dominated by corporations that can centralize services and spread costs.
“Especially on the for-profit side [of long-term care], many of them own not just four or five buildings in Dayton, but maybe 45 buildings in eight or nine states,” he said. “That’s one reason I wanted to be here; I prefer the independence that we have here.”
In his time at the helm of Friends Care, Montgomery said he’s learned that independence can protect something hard to measure: a facility’s ability to respond to the people who live and work there, rather than directives from far away.
“In other places, you might have somebody who comes up with something simple, like menu plans, and they’re out in New York; that might be great food for New York, but, you know, we’re meat and potatoes people here,” he said. “Dictates from outside the community just don’t work.”
As it happens, during his first years as executive director at Friends Care — a position he came into in 2017 after 13 years at the nonprofit, faith-based Grace Brethren Village, in Dayton — food service for residents was one of a number of issues Montgomery tackled to help boost morale for both residents and staff members. In addition to bringing food service back in-house to improve meal quality, Montgomery also worked to stabilize staff levels and hired more permanent staff, as well as overseeing feasibility studies for future expansion and spearheading renovation of the facility’s front entrance to make it more welcoming to visitors.
He also promoted longtime Friends Care employee Hannah Moorman early in his tenure, and for much of his time at Friends Care, she has been one of his closest operational partners. Moorman has been at Friends Care for 13 years, beginning as a licensed practical nurse before moving to management positions. After she received her registered nurse licensure, Moorman said, Montgomery hired her as director of nursing within a few months of his becoming executive director.
“He did not know me from Adam,” Moorman said. “He just said, ‘I see something in you, and I think you could do great things, and you’ve got the heart for long-term care.’”
Moorman said that her position and Montgomery’s have been complementary, and as such, she’s learned a lot from his people-first style of administration — an approach she said she shares — and that both jobs require “a lot of patience.”
“And he has taught me that you don’t have to know everything, and it’s OK to ask questions,” she said. “When there were times I felt like I failed, he told me it’s part of the process and lessons will be learned every day. He allowed me to be able to grow and learn. Keeping residents at the center, which is what I have always done — he’s done that as well.”
Working to maintain a staff who keep residents at the center of their approach has been a consistent during his tenure, Montgomery said, even as wage increases haven’t been matched by comparable increases in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements from the state and federal governments. Though Friends Care has kept on board a number of long-term employees, like Moorman, the rising difficulty of retaining a full staff has been “the biggest change” during his time at the helm.
“In the past, I would always do wage studies against other facilities; now I have to do them against Walmart, against McDonald’s, because everybody’s competing for the same employees,” he said. “Ever since COVID, staffing has been hard.”
Montgomery cited the pandemic as the defining challenge of his career with Friends Care. Though he said protecting the organization’s resident-centered mission while keeping it financially stable in an industry that increasingly rewards scale and revenue has always been part of the job, the pandemic years brought that work into sharp relief, while also presenting a host of other hurdles. He credited Friends Care’s board, which by design draws representation both from Quakers and the broader village population, with helping the facility eventually clear that hurdle.
“We had no COVID cases [during lockdown] for our residents, but some of our staff members had COVID,” he said. “[The board] said, ‘We don’t have to fill a bed if we don’t have the staff’ — if we had been on the for-profit side, they would have wanted the revenue in here from a filled bed.”
Moorman said Friends Care’s goal during COVID was to keep residents safe, and that both she and Montgomery stood firm behind that goal.
“It made us one of the last 64 facilities in the country to get COVID,” she said. “We didn’t lose people to COVID.”
Though Montgomery said he looks back on the worst of the pandemic with a sense of pride at keeping residents safe, when he was in the thick of it, it was one of the most difficult times of his life.
“I’d always loved this work,” he said. “And then once COVID hit, I felt like I became a police officer: ‘You can’t come in the building. Are you wearing your mask? Do you have your vaccines? Did you wash your hands?’”
And though staffing and supply shortages were part and parcel of the pandemic experience, he said, the most painful task was telling families they couldn’t come visit their loved ones.
“One of my hardest days was the visitor ban,” he said. “That was my worst day, because I had to tell people, ‘You’re not allowed to see your mom.’ That’s not what I signed up to do.”
And yet, he said, those same months deepened his connection to the residents and staff. With families kept out and staff stretched thin, he said, the work became more personal — sometimes literally, as staff stepped into roles outside their usual duties.
“I really got close to our residents, because I was out passing out meals and helping on the floor,” he said. “We became their family.”
He pointed to a tradition he said reflects Friends Care’s culture: “When somebody passes away, here, they do what’s called the ‘walk of honor.’ All our staff line the halls. And especially during COVID, because I got so close to them, when they passed, it really hit home — not that it didn’t before, but by that point, I was their family; it was the same with all the staff, not just me.”
Montgomery’s respect and visibility are also what Friends Care board members say they’ve heard about, consistently, from residents, families and staff. Diane Chiddister, the longest-serving current board member, said Montgomery’s approach has been defined by “a lot of caring and attention and the Quaker value of respect for the individual.” She said residents have noticed that he has been present on the campus and willing to listen.
“That wasn’t always the case with previous directors,” she said. “Respect for residents and staff is just Mike’s style.”
Kristine Hofstra, who joined the Friends Care board in October 2024, said Montgomery has been “passionate about the care of the residents and really keeping morale up within the staff, making them feel supported.”
With Montgomery’s departure, Friends Care will move into an intentional transition period. An interim executive director is set to take over from Montgomery temporarily; Chiddister said the interim director was recommended by AQORD, a senior services network created through a merger between the former Mennonite MHS Association and the Quaker friends Services Alliance, and that the board will launch a search for a permanent replacement during the interim period. Hofstra added that the board hopes the interim director will “bring a fresh perspective” and help the board “hone a solid strategic plan.”
“When you’re used to how things have been run, and especially if they’ve been run well, it can be difficult to hear new ideas, but I think it will open up new energy,” she said. “It’s hard to see Mike go, but we’re optimistic about the future.”
Moorman agreed: “I think working with someone that I don’t have a relationship with yet and fresh eyes is going to be a really good thing for us — and good for me,” she said.
Moorman’s role during the transition is also shifting. Last year, she stepped down as director of nursing to complete the residency required for state licensure as an administrator, and she said she will work closely with the interim executive director during the final months of that program. At present, her title is assistant director of nursing, and the former assistant director has stepped into Moorman’s former role as director.
Ultimately, Moorman said she aims to apply for the executive director position once the board launches its search, though she pointed out that following in Montgomery’s footsteps is by no means a foregone conclusion.
“The board wants to do their due diligence,” she said. “I’ve never been an executive director before, which I respect. … But there isn’t really anything in this building that I’ve not done.”
Looking ahead at retirement, Montgomery said he and his wife plan to spend part of each coming year in Florida, where his wife’s father lives.
“He’s a snowbird, so we’ll come back up here and he’ll live with us during the warm months,” he said.
And though he doesn’t intend to return to a full-time position, because Montgomery maintains his administrative license, he said there’s the possibility that he might serve temporarily as an interim director at another long-term care facility in the future.
“But honestly, I feel I’m at a place where I’m OK with retirement — I think I’m ready,” he said. “I think I’ll spend some time being a kid again, playing golf and softball and running marathons.”
As he prepared for his final day at Friends Care, transferring login credentials and accounts out of his name, Montgomery described it as the kind of place he wants to see thriving — and still independent — a decade, two decades from now.
“If you value what Friends offers you here,” he said, “start supporting us now.”
And he said he knows what he’ll miss most: “I’ll miss the people. Without a doubt.”
The News will follow-up with board members on more of what’s ahead for Friends Care in a future issue of the News.
This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed Monday, Jan. 19. The 2026 theme is “MLK: Man of Action.”
The annual march through downtown, which was scheduled to step off at about 9:45 a.m., has been cancelled due to chilly temperatures in the forecast. The indoor MLK Day programming will continue as planned at 11 a.m. in the Bryan Center gymnasium.
The program will include musical selections from the World House Choir; focusing remarks by Kevin Powell, journalist, activist and filmmaker; essays by Yellow Springs youth; the awarding of the 2026 YS Peacemaker Prize; and spoken word and dance performances. A soup lunch will follow at 12:30 p.m.
At 3 p.m., an open mic for words and/or music inspired by MLK, will be held at the Coretta Scott King Center, 781 Livermore St.
Contributions to support the day’s activities may be made at the365projectys.org. For more information, email the365projectys@gmail.com
(NOTE: Owing to the holiday, the News will be closed on Monday, Jan. 19, and as a result, next week’s paper will be delivered a day late.)
Yellow Springs Senior Center leaders are eyeing the former lumber yard at 108 Cliff St. as a potential site for the organization’s long-planned new building — a possible shift away from a Livermore Street parcel the Senior Center purchased two years ago.
As the News reported in December 2023, Yellow Springs Senior Citizens, Inc. bought a $300,000, half-acre lot from Antioch College at the corner of Livermore and East North College streets, with the aim of building a new facility to replace the current split-level center at 227 Xenia Ave.
The Cliff Street property — a 1940 industrial building that formerly housed a series of lumber companies — was purchased in 2021 by Massies Creek Ventures, whose owners, at the time, aimed to transform the building into a public market and eatery. Massies Creek Ventures cleared and renovated parts of the site, removed asbestos siding and commissioned architectural renderings; however, the property returned to the market in mid-2024 with an asking price of $1.27 million.
The possible change in course for the Senior Center was shared with the center’s 710 members in a late-December newsletter. Executive Director Caroline Mullin wrote in the newsletter that the Senior Center’s board of trustees had “been working to pivot and consider an alternative location for [the] new facility” as part of a “thoughtful process including bringing many experts into the dialogue.”
In speaking with the News this month, Mullin said the Cliff Street property came into focus during conversations about what residents want the new facility to be — and where they want it to be.
“The only detraction we were getting as feedback from people [on the Livermore site] was that we’d be leaving downtown,” Mullin said.
A member of the feasibility group for the planned new building pointed toward Cliff Street as an option, Mullin said, and Senior Center leadership moved quickly to give the site an initial assessment.
“Within 10 days, we had a crew of 12 people walk through [the Cliff Street] property, including our architect,” she said. “And we’re comfortable that it would fit our needs, and the perception is that it would still be downtown.”
She emphasized, however, that the Cliff Street option is still only a possibility.
“It’s still up in the air, and there’s no contract on it,” Mullin said.
Thus far, the Senior Center has worked with Dayton-based LWC Architecture to complete a feasibility study, assessing the nonprofit’s ability to raise capital for the project, and a space usage study, identifying the ideal space needed for current and future operations. According to Mullin, the Cliff Street property’s 11,000 square feet — about three times the current building’s 3,7000 square feet — would fit the bill.
“We’re pretty clear that we need 11,000 square feet,” Mullin said.
The current Senior Center building on Xenia Avenue, purchased to house the center in 1978, presents a number of logistical challenges daily, Mullin said. The Senior Center hosts a wealth of programming within its doors each week, including a number of classes, meeting and discussion groups, weekly meals, public performances and the monthly “Village Voices” speaker series. The majority of scheduled programs are held within two classrooms, Mullin said, which often means a quick turnaround between events, as well as a limit on how many programs can be held throughout the day.
And as a result of the building’s layout, she said, staff, volunteers and members sometimes must pass through other in-use rooms in order to get to the kitchen or storage, and parking close to the Senior Center remains a challenge for those attending programming, even with a few dedicated accessible spots nearby. Mullin also added that accessibility within the building is not ideal: Because the building is split-level, those who use mobility devices must use an outdoor ramp to move between the levels of the building
“It’s not unusual to have 80 people in and out of our building in a day,” Mullin said, adding that the center has had to turn down program ideas because there isn’t room to host them.
“And we also want to have more of a lounge area,” she said. “We don’t have enough space for people to just socialize.”
In addition to location and size, one of the Cliff Street site’s potential advantages is that it may allow the Senior Center to build in phases — a concept Mullin said emerged in the feasibility study as a way to keep moving even if the full project cost can’t be raised all at once; a firm cost for the project hasn’t yet been tallied, but Mullin said an early estimate is around $7 million.
“And the space on Cliff street would allow us to maybe just do the east end of the building, and then remodel the rest later,” she said. “If it’s a phased project, we would have the ability to maybe get started with $3 million, and then over time, get the momentum to finish.”
Mullin said the Senior Center has raised over $250,000 for the building project during its “silent phase” of fundraising, and expects assets from the sale of the current building to contribute to about 15% of the overall cost of the new building project.
Mullin added that both potential sites for the new Senior Center — the Cliff Street property and the Livermore Street land near Antioch College the nonprofit already owns — offer potential advantages for the center’s future: The Cliff Street site, positioned along the bike path, could open up new possibilities for how the center feels and functions, including outdoor space that invites passersby in. Livermore Street, for its part, would offer the freedom to design without the existing constraints of an older structure.
“We’ll be fine in either situation,” Mullin said, adding that a decision on which site to pursue will likely be made within the next two months.
“We don’t want to take so long to make a decision that everything stalls.”
No matter which location the board ultimately chooses, Mullin said the Senior Center’s mission remains the same, as does the invitation to the broader community to be part of it. Membership and programming are open to people of all ages, and the membership fee is $25 per year.
In the meantime, the Senior Center just finished up its annual appeal, raising more than $95,000 for operations after setting a $91,000 goal. Mullin noted that the goal for the appeal was originally set at $90,000 in honor of local resident Donna Denman, following the publication of “Living healthy at 90 and beyond,” a Scientific American profile on Denman penned by Neenah Ellis and featuring photos by Dennie Eagleson.
“And when I told [Donna] that our goal was $90,000, she said, ‘Well, I’m 91 now, so let’s make it $91,000,’” Mullin said. “So we want to thank the community, in as many ways as possible, for helping us exceed our goal.”
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