On Tuesday, July 21, American aerospace company Electra announced plans to construct a new aircraft production facility to be sited at AirPark Ohio, adjacent to Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport and three miles north of Yellow Springs.
The planned 96-acre, $850 million facility will produce nine-passenger, fixed-wing, hybrid-electric aircraft — a model dubbed the EL9 Ultra Short — capable of taking off and landing in small spaces.
According to a press release from Gov. Mike DeWine, design work on the new facility will begin immediately, with construction to start next year. The first phase of development will support production of up to 400 aircraft per year, with a second phase planned to boost capacity to 800 annually.
Once completed, the Electra facility will be a site for an estimated 1,975 jobs.
“Ohio is where flight began, and the Dayton-Springfield area has become the national epicenter for advanced air mobility — the place where the next generation of aircraft is being designed, tested, and now built at scale,” wrote DeWine in the release. “Electra’s decision to bring nearly 2,000 new jobs to Springfield will be transformative for Clark County, demonstrating Ohio’s unique ability to lead America into aviation’s next era.”
Photo via Electra.aero
The release notes that Electra’s EL9 Ultra Short model aims to meet demand for “direct aviation,” an emerging genre of “point-to-point” travel between places such as parking lots, barges and sports fields. The model’s propulsion and blown-lift technology allows the aircraft to take off and land in as little as 150 feet.
According to Electra’s website, Springfield was selected from among 140 potential locations in a year-long competitive bid; it was favored in criteria that included workforce availability; infrastructure readiness; long-term expansion capacity; state and local partnerships; incentives; and proximity to aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing.
Electra’s contracted customers include the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and NASA along with over 2,200 letters of intent from more than 60 commercial customers, including both airlines and helicopter operators.
Miami Township Trustees voted 2–1 Monday, July 6, not to seek additional legal advice on whether the Township can reimburse Township staff and officials for health insurance premiums, likely closing a months-long dispute over the legality and propriety of the practice.
During their regular meeting, Trustees Marilan Moir and Lori Askeland voted against moving ahead with a tax attorney consultation, while Trustee Chris Mucher voted in favor. The vote came after trustees reconsidered action taken at their June 15 meeting, when the board had initially voted 2–1 to accept Greene County Prosecuting Attorney David Hayes’ recommendation that the Township consult an attorney experienced in tax law before approving any premium reimbursements.
The issue dates back to April, when trustees voted to discontinue the Township’s practice of reimbursing health insurance premiums for elected officials who opted out of the Township’s group health insurance plan. Mucher said at the time that he had accumulated about $6,700 in unreimbursed health insurance costs for his family under the prior practice, and trustees agreed to ask Hayes to review whether there were any legal options for reimbursing premiums already paid in 2025 and 2026.
Hayes’ May 14 written opinion, obtained by the News via public records request and reported last month, pointed to ORC 505.601, writing that Ohio law allows townships to reimburse employees or officials for health care premiums “with no danger of a legal action” if the township “does not offer a healthcare plan to its employees.”
“Alternatively, the Township may continue to offer healthcare coverage to its employees, but may not offer premium reimbursement,” Hayes wrote.
Hayes also wrote that Miami Township could offer both a group health plan and premium reimbursement if trustees passed a resolution authorizing reimbursements, but that doing so could “potentially violate provisions of the Affordable Care Act and subject the Township to penalties by the IRS.” He advised trustees to consult an attorney experienced in ACA and tax law before proceeding with such a resolution.
At a May 18 meeting, Mucher moved that the board seek that additional legal advice, but the motion expired without a second. At the June 15 meeting, Hayes appeared before trustees and restated his advice in person, telling them that his office’s role was to provide its best reading of the law.
“The policy decisions are yours to make,” Hayes said. “They’re not the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office’s to make.”
Hayes told trustees that the safest course would be to offer employees a group health insurance plan without premium reimbursements, or to not offer a group plan and instead provide reimbursement for employees who obtain health insurance elsewhere. If trustees wanted to continue the Township’s past practice — or authorize a retroactive reimbursement — he said they should first consult a tax attorney who could better assess potential exposure under federal law.
“Stay away from it, because it is unknowable,” Hayes said of the potential risk of ACA violation and IRS penalties.
Moir argued June 15 that the question of retroactive reimbursement was not only a tax question, but also a question of whether the reimbursements had ever been properly authorized by the board. Askeland raised similar concerns, while Mucher said past boards had understood the practice to be lawful and cost-saving.
Ultimately, Mucher and Askeland voted in June to seek advice from a tax attorney on “those items referencing medical reimbursement” that Hayes believed merited further review. Trustees then voted unanimously to expand the prospective consultation to include how the Township handles insurance matters and pre-tax premium issues.
On July 6, after two residents raised concerns during public comment about Township spending and the prior reimbursement practice, Moir revisited the issue. She said the practice of reimbursing Medicare premiums had not been unusual among Ohio townships and, in Miami Township’s case, had saved money, as paying Medicare premiums was less expensive than paying coverage under the Township’s group plan. She added, however, that the Township had not approached the practice “properly.”
Mucher objected to public criticism of the practice, saying it had begun about 10 years ago by board action and had been used by several former trustees. He said the purpose had been to save taxpayer dollars while providing coverage comparable to what the Township offered employees.
“I am personally offended that someone is going to say that I personally took advantage of the board of trustees financially or for coverage that I was not supposedly entitled to,” Mucher said.
Askeland said she believed the trustees who began the practice had acted in good faith, and that Hayes had acknowledged that advice from county prosecutors on the matter had changed over time. But she also said the legal landscape had shifted and that the Township’s more recent motions and resolutions had been unclear.
Moir moved to reconsider the June 15 vote, saying she had reviewed prior records and found a 2018 resolution that referred only to reimbursement for Medicare Part B premiums, while the Township had also reimbursed Part D and supplemental coverage. She also noted that trustees had already voted earlier this year to end health insurance premium reimbursements for elected officials.
If the board asked a tax attorney whether it could reimburse past premiums, Moir said, “we’re going to run into thousands of dollars worth of legal fees,” and added that she would not vote to approve reimbursement she believed was not lawfully authorized. To that end, Askeland said the amount not reimbursed to Mucher ahead of voting to end the repayment of premiums — about $6,500 — would likely be matched or exceeded by the cost of additional legal advice.
Mucher opposed the reversal, saying no legal or fiscal authority had previously told trustees a resolution was required.
“Neither the fiscal officer of Miami Township, nor the prosecuting attorney, nor the county auditor, nor the state auditor, nor the state attorney general ever told the board of trustees that a resolution was required to reimburse for Medicare,” Mucher said. “Never, never, never.”
Data center moratorium approved
Later in the meeting, trustees voted unanimously to approve a 12-month moratorium on any new data center seeking to operate or locate in Miami Township, waiving a second reading of the resolution.
Askeland read the resolution aloud, defining data centers as facilities that primarily house infrastructure for “building, running, delivering, or transmitting technological applications and services” or storing associated data.
The moratorium is intended to give the Township time to study potential effects on “health, safety, utilities, and infrastructure,” and directs the Zoning Commission and Zoning Administrator Bryan Lucas to develop a section of the Township Zoning Resolution addressing data centers during the moratorium.
MTFR update
Fire Chief James Cannell reported that Miami Township Fire-Rescue has logged 677 runs so far this year, an average of 3.6 runs per day. Trustees approved the hiring of Anessa Stamper as an as-needed part-time member of the department; Cannell said the department has recently been able to fill three daily staffing positions 88% of the time, and that additional part-time personnel are needed to support that goal.
Cannell also reported that MTFR shift personnel have begun a trial 48/96 schedule — working 48 hours on and 96 hours off — while maintaining a 56-hour work week. Trustees also approved a contract with Fire Manufacturing Innovations LLC for custom shelving and tool mounts for Engine 82, at a cost not to exceed $21,320.28 from the department’s capital fund.
Gov. Mike DeWine has announced the dates for this year’s sales tax holiday: midnight Friday, Aug. 7, through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9.
“Ohio’s Sales Tax Holiday comes at a time of year when families are getting ready for back-to-school,” DeWine said in a press release, and the sales tax break is meant to provide savings for families as they buy school essentials for the new school year.
The following items qualify for the sales tax exemption during the three-day break:
• Clothing priced at $75 or less per item,
• School supplies priced at $20 or less per item,
• School instructional materials priced at $20 or less per item.
More details, including commonly asked questions and guidance for consumers and retailers, are available on the Ohio Department of Taxation website.
For additional assistance, taxpayers may contact the department at 1-888-405-4039 or by email through the website.
The YS Senior Center reported this week that the planned sale of its Livermore Street property has fallen through, leaving the nonprofit with what it described in a press release as a “critical, $325K shortfall” as a deadline approaches for its purchase of 108 Cliff St.
According to the press release, the prospective buyers of the Livermore lot withdrew from the $325,000 contract just days before the sale was expected to close this week. Reached via email this week, Executive Director Caroline Mullin said the nonprofit is not identifying the buyers, who “had no issues with the land, but had to make a business decision.”
The $325,000 in proceeds expected from the sale of the Livermore lot would have provided the remaining amount needed to purchase the former lumberyard property on Cliff Street. Mullin said donations already received, combined with the expected sale proceeds, would have been enough to complete the Cliff Street purchase. The Senior Center’s contract for that property expires Sept. 1, and Mullin said the organization does not expect the sellers to extend the agreement.
As the News reported in March, the Senior Center signed a contract earlier this year to purchase and rehabilitate the existing Cliff Street building, changing course from an earlier plan to construct a new facility on a half-acre lot at 722 Livermore St.
The nonprofit purchased the Livermore property from Antioch College for $300,000 in December 2023. According to an email Mullin sent to campaign donors, the Senior Center has since paid off its loan on the Livermore property.
The Senior Center’s Capital Campaign Committee has been soliciting donations in recent months toward an initial fundraising goal of $850,000. According to the press release, that amount, in addition to the sale of the Livermore property, would help cover the cost of purchasing 108 Cliff St., as well as engineering assessments and design work by Dayton-based LWC Inc.; the press release stated that the “design studies and cost estimates are essential for the final design and construction phase.”
The Cliff Street property emerged as a potential alternative last year after Senior Center leaders heard concerns that moving to the Livermore site would take the organization away from downtown. The former lumberyard is located along the bike path and within the village’s central business district.
A space usage study completed by LWC identified a need for about 11,000 square feet — roughly three times the size of the Senior Center’s current 3,700-square-foot building at 227 Xenia Ave. Senior Center leaders have said the Cliff Street building could accommodate the needed space on a single level.
The Cliff Street site would include as many as 30 on-site parking spaces, with more public parking spaces available within a block. Senior Center leaders have also said that rehabilitating the existing single-story structure would be more cost-effective than the two-story design developed for the Livermore property, allowing for more efficient use of space and eliminating the need for an elevator.
The press release stated that the Senior Center will continue seeking a buyer for the Livermore property while raising funds to complete the Cliff Street purchase. In her email to donors, Mullin wrote that another sale is unlikely to be completed before the Sept. 1 deadline.
Mullin also reported that Antioch College has made plans to correct utility-line connections that remained beneath the Livermore property after it was sold to the Senior Center. She said the related plumbing work is expected to be completed by the beginning of September.
Information about the Senior Center’s Capital Campaign and ways to donate is available at http://www.ysseniors.org/newbuilding.html
By Coach Rob Gay
The Fourth of July holiday traditionally marks the midpoint of summer vacation for local schoolchildren, a sure sign that summer is in full swing. It also marks the point in the Perry League season when time seems to accelerate. With just four short weeks remaining, another memorable season is already entering its final stretch.
Due to preparations for the Fourth of July festivities at Gaunt Park, there were no Perry League games Friday, July 3. Instead, our players joined the Yellow Springs Youth Baseball League in the annual Independence Day parade on the Fourth. While we had planned to walk the route, the extreme heat convinced us otherwise. Thanks to the generosity of the Odd Fellows, we were able to ride on one of their floats — a much appreciated lift on a sweltering day.
As we made our way through the village, we heard countless cheers and words of encouragement from parade spectators. Baseball continues to thrive at every level in Yellow Springs, and it’s exciting to see so many people embracing America’s pastime. We are grateful for the tremendous support from our community.
Of course, summer baseball in the Midwest always comes with one unpredictable opponent — the weather.
This time of year is the peak growing season. Farmers certainly appreciate the steady rainfall, and the surrounding corn seems to grow a foot every day — almost fast enough to hear it. Those same favorable growing conditions, however, make scheduling outdoor events a constant challenge as pop-up thunderstorms find their way into nearly every forecast.
This past Friday, the 10th, was no exception.
When I arrived at Gaunt Park, the wet pavement and tree limbs scattered throughout the parking lot told the story of a storm that had just passed through. One large limb had fallen onto a parked vehicle. Village crews were already on the scene, removing the debris quickly and efficiently while minimizing any additional damage to the car. Their quick response and professionalism deserve recognition. “Well done.” to everyone involved.
With the return of Perry League Plus games on the adjacent field — known proudly by our young players as “the big field” — both diamonds required preparation before the evening’s games.
Shortly after the fields were ready, our first T-baller arrived. Sully and his father, Eric, had claimed a shady spot beneath a tree where they patiently waited for game time while enjoying HaHa’s pizza. It looked like a pretty good way to spend a summer evening.
Nearby, Cameron, Addilyn and Ainsley Swenberg gathered with their mother, Mandy, along the third-base line. I noticed the children weren’t wearing their Perry League hats and jokingly asked if they had received them.
“Yes,” Mandy replied with a smile, “but we’re committed to wearing our Milwaukee Brewers hats since we’re from Wisconsin.”
That seemed like a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Keeping one eye on the skies, we began warmups promptly at 6 p.m. Coach Yunus led the group through his ever-expanding collection of warmup exercises after a spirited race to the right-field fence. His colorful descriptions, infectious enthusiasm, and natural ability to connect with children never fail to capture the players’ attention.
The evening’s first batter was Miles, who opened the action with a solid base hit.
Next came Kai — introduced, as always, as “Kai, the Barefoot Guy.” His younger brother, Miko, cheered enthusiastically from the infield. There is something especially heartwarming about the encouragement only siblings can provide.
Sarah followed with her trademark spinning swing, a unique approach that regularly produces a satisfying “thwack” as bat meets ball.
Zorin joined us again for the first time this summer, and promptly sent his very first hit through the infield — an impressive beginning to what we hope will be a memorable season.
Cassian, following in the footsteps of his two older siblings who now play in the Yellow Springs Youth Baseball League, confidently picked up a larger bat. The determined look on his face reflected the influence of his baseball family, and his upgraded equipment delivered equally impressive results.
Alyce’s batting routine was briefly interrupted when a gust of wind sent her cap tumbling across the field. After a quick reset, she stepped back into the batter’s box unfazed.
Arlo generated so much momentum with his swing that he spun himself completely around before regaining his balance, drawing smiles from everyone nearby.
Meanwhile, Holly’s father had been volunteering by fielding ground balls at first base before taking a quick break from his duties to help his daughter enjoy her turn at the plate.
On the “big field,” our players were joined by Coach David Miller, along with Judah Shultz, Evan Collier and Otoño Roeth from our middle and high school baseball teams. The seasoned players taught our Perry League Plus participants how to field a ball using a glove, with several of our 6- to 9-year-old players joining in — including Oly, who had been especially looking forward to this day.
It’s always heartwarming to see players from our school teams share their knowledge, experience and love of the game with their younger counterparts. Their willingness to mentor the next generation helps foster not only a love of baseball, but also the sense of connection and community that makes our program strong.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature had one more surprise in store. As another round of threatening weather approached, the difficult decision was made to end the evening early in the interest of everyone’s safety.
No one took the news harder than Cameron. His disappointment was unmistakable, with tears flowing freely as the reality of the early cancellation sank in. Hoping to soften the blow, we offered him a freeze pop, but he emphatically declined. You know the disappointment is genuine when even a cold summer treat can’t mend a broken baseball heart.
We’ll give it another try next Friday. Our all-volunteer program is noncompetitive, free, and open to children aged 2–9, regardless of their race, color, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, spiritual inclination or practice, ability or disability. You are welcome to join us Friday evenings through Aug. 7, starting at 6 p.m. in Gaunt Park.
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