75 years ago: 1949
New Antioch School building. “Work was begun Monday by Mercer and Eckroad on a new $90,000 cement block building to house Antioch School. Max G. Mercer and Saarinen, Saarinen and Associates, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., are the architects who designed the new building.”
Theatre Leaves Opera House. “The last actor’s footfall has been heard, the last round of applause has been sounded in Yellow Springs’ historic old Opera House, it appeared this week as Antioch College announced its decision to end negotiations … toward occupancy of the old playhouse by the Yellow Springs Area Theatre.” [The Opera House was at the northeast corner of Dayton and Winter streets.]
Apple Butter Festival. “Hundreds of local residents and Antioch students took advantage of the warm autumn sun … Saturday to participate in the activities of the Apple Butter Festival on the Antioch College campus. Barbecue sandwiches, cider, and doughnuts were served as refreshments, apple butter brewed through the day over open fires … folk dancing was conducted on roped-off Limestone St., and the first Area Theatre of the fall was produced with Mills House porch as the stage.”
50 years ago: 1974
Furnace Fire. “The Yellow Springs fire department was called Sunday morning to help put out a furnace fire at the James Kane residence, but ended up having only to help ventilate the home as the fire was put out before firemen arrived.”
Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation Saves Life. “A Yellow Springs police officer, Peter C. Banner, who came to the rescue of a young woman whose life was in danger early Friday morning, was commended Monday by police chief James McKee in a letter. … ‘Members of the Emergency Squad have informed me that your quick action possibly saved the life of Miss Kathy Cordell.’”
Cross Country. “The Yellow Springs High School cross country team is gunning for the state championship when it answers the starting gun at the state meet Saturday, says coach Tim McLinden.”
Pine Forest Thinned. “A thinning project in the southern part of the original Glen Helen ‘pine forest’ begins Saturday at 10 a.m. Members of the Yellow Springs High School school forest committee invite spectators as they begin work there on a stand of Norway Spruce trees they have tagged as stunted or malformed.”
35 years ago: 1989
“Farrell K. Ballenger, a former Yellow Springs resident [police officer, Council member, mayor and business owner], died last Wednesday, Oct. 25, in a hiking accident.”
[Ballenger moved to the Village in response to an ad for YS police officers in the Chronicle of Higher Education … or Progressive magazine … or the New York Times. Local history gossip experts can’t agree.]
Freak Fire at Health Center. “A fire late Monday night at the Wright State University Family Health Center on Xenia Avenue proved to be minor.. … The fire was outside, at the edge of the building, where … pinebark mulch had been ignited by the heat of floodlights.”
25 years ago: 1999
Meeting about downtown. “[Dan] Friedman noted that the concerns about young people skateboarding and problems associated with benches and ‘surly teenagers’ are related to having ‘a lively urban space.’ There will always be some ‘disorder’ downtown, he said. People had ‘better get used to it if we want a lively downtown.’”
“Deborah Benning has been hired as the new Village clerk of Council, replacing Barb Swigart. … From 1992 to 1997, she served on Council. … Benning said she was hoping to find a part-time position to help her daughter, Asara, a second year student at Antioch College, through school when the clerk position became available.”
“Don Hollister named interim director of Glen Helen … ‘Hopefully, things are already running well and I can be an encourager and facilitator,’ [he said.] His job, he said, is to ‘buy the board time’ while it searches for a new director.”
10 years ago: 2014
“Yellow Springs Home, Inc. was privileged to host a tour as part of the Ohio Community Development Corporation Association’s annual conference. During the three hour bus tour, attendees had the opportunity to tour the village and a Home, Inc. home, meet Home, Inc. homeowners, learn about the newly reopened Antioch College, visit downtown, tour a Passive House, and visit the Yellow Springs Brewery.”
Antioch Farm sprouts power. “Around 3,300 solar panels were erected behind fences on five acres of Antioch property commonly known as the ‘golf course.’ The solar installation will generate 1.2 million kilowatt-hours per year and is expected to offset the electric consumption of Antioch’s $8.8 million geothermal heating and cooling plant, according to a news release.”
At its most recent regular meeting Monday, Oct. 7, the Miami Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution to contract with consultant Fred Kauser for approximately one year.
Kauser, a firefighter of 40 years and former Mifflin Township fire chief, now serves as a fire instructor, lecturer, trainer and consultant, as well as a professor and researcher with a master’s degree in labor and human resource management and a Ph.D. in workforce development and education.
As the News reported this spring, Kauser was originally hired by the Township as a consultant in May after trustees came to an impasse when trying to determine whether or not MTFR could afford to reclassify three firefighter/EMTs as full-time, pensioned employees — a change proposed by Fire Chief Dennis Powell, who at the time was serving as interim fire chief.
Kauser’s investigation found that MTFR could afford the expense — and that the fire-rescue department would benefit from the additional full-time positions in the long run.
The Township continued Kauser’s contract in May for an additional month, requesting a study and report on the current organizational practices of both the Township and MTFR and ways to improve those practices moving forward.
In late August, Kauser presented the results of his study in a special meeting of the trustees.
“The question that was posed by the fire chief to the trustees to change the classifications of three full-time members would create a change in the financial costs for those classifications,” Kauser said during the special meeting. “That first question raised more questions: What does the future look like? How does the board not only answer this question, but how do they think about retention? What does the staffing model look like in the future?”
Kauser’s final report included an analysis of current and proposed staffing models at MTFR and an overview of revenues and expenses in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
It also included a preliminary report on socio-cultural conditions within MTFR, which Kauser generated following conversations with current members of staff, including Powell, and former MTFR Fire Chief Colin Altman.
These conversations enabled Kauser, according to his report, to get an idea of the MTFR’s history and its years-long transition from a volunteer-only operation to an agency run by career professionals, as well as the challenges that have arisen during that transition. As he noted in his report:
“Organizational change is sometimes expressed or associated with the term ‘dysfunction.’ And dysfunction is almost always associated with unfavorable conditions. Dysfunction, alternatively, allows us to recognize and observe these indicators and the conditions they produce so they can be addressed. … They are not a reflection of the quality nor capability of the current or past firefighters, officers or chiefs. They are sometimes called ‘growing pains,’ and they can be fixed.”
Trustee Chris Mucher noted during the special meeting that one “growing pain” for the organization was the fact that Chief Powell served in his interim position for longer than expected due to a delayed evaluation from the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association that was supposed to have included a recommendation on filling the fire chief position after former Chief Altman retired.
“We did not get this recommendation, and they kept putting us off,” Mucher said. “The personnel who were here were in limbo, because they didn’t know if they had a fire chief or … if they were going to get somebody new.”
Powell’s first official day as interim Chief — Aug. 12, 2023 — was spent helping to put out a massive blaze at Hawthorne Place Apartments. He served as interim chief for more than nine months, until the trustees approved his promotion to fire chief in late May, 2024.
Mucher said the trustees promoted Powell in short order after Kauser made a “strong recommendation” that they do so.
“Making that decision really turned on the organization as it should have been,” Kauser said. “During that interim period, it’s my professional opinion that damage was occurring because that decision had not been finalized.”
Analysis of this situation, and others within MTFR and the Township, prodded Kauser to make a number of recommendations for the Township and MTFR moving forward, including:
• Establishing budgetary parameters;
• Providing performance expectations and feedback for the fire chief, as well as management and leadership opportunities and requirements and job-relevant mentoring;
• Implementing a sustainable wage schedule for MTFR employees;
• Reviewing and updating the Township handbook and MTFR policy manual;
• Requiring all fire officers to participate in supervisory training;
• Implementing internal conflict-resolution practices for all Township and MTFR employees and officials;
• Contracting human resources services and using a third-party payroll system;
• Creating an internal and external communications policy;
• Considering a third-party evaluation of the organizational performance and culture of MTFR.
Trustees agreed with Kauser’s recommendations — particularly the final one in that list. Considering the relationship Kauser had built with both the trustees and MTFR staff thus far, the trustees agreed at their Oct. 7 meeting that he would be an ideal candidate to provide a third-party evaluation — as did Chief Powell.
“The experience with him was exceptionally positive, and I’m thankful for the board for taking this next step,” Powell said, adding that the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association was in the process of connecting him with a suitable mentor in response to one of Kauser’s recommendations.
Looking ahead, Trustee Marilan Moir said the Township aims to engage Kauser to shepherd them as they begin to implement “everything he recommended, essentially.”
“We were a volunteer department, and now we are a professional department, but our systems haven’t kept up with our jobs,” she said.
Trustee Chair Don Hollister noted that Kauser will initially work primarily with Chief Powell and Fiscal Officer Jeanna GunderKline, and eventually with MTFR staff in general.
In other Township news:
• Trustees approved the hiring of Bryan Lucas to serve as part-time zoning administrator — a position previously known as “zoning inspector” — to replace Carrie Smith, who resigned this summer to take a full-time position in Clinton County.
Lucas currently serves as a member of Bath Township’s Zoning Commission, and Moir said he was “highly recommended” to her and her fellow trustees by other Bath Township leaders.
“He’s looking forward to it and appears to be a go-getter,” she said.
Contact: chuck@ysnews.com
For longtime local massage therapist Phyllis Braun, loving and trusting in the power of the human body to heal itself has been a strong foundation upon which she’s built her life’s work.
Now, after a life-changing cancer diagnosis, 74-year-old Braun told the News that she continues to love and trust in the healing process, even as she steps into the unknown.
A GoFundMe fundraising website page has been established by Braun’s loved ones in order to support her as she undergoes treatment.
Six weeks ago, Braun said, she felt sick and went to the emergency room hoping to address the issue. She left the ER with a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL — a blood cancer that produces too many white blood cells.
“It turned my world upside down,” Braun said.
Braun is now enrolled in a clinical trial at the James Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Ohio State University, where doctors are treating her ALL via immunotherapy.
At its core, immunotherapy — an emerging therapy that The James’ website refers to as “the next frontier of cancer treatment” — helps boost the immune system’s ability to fight leukemia and weakens cancer cells, making them more vulnerable to that fight.
“Immunotherapy is cutting-edge — it’s kind of the way medicine is going,” Braun said.
A licensed massage therapist who has practiced for 42 years — about 30 of those in Yellow Springs — Braun said she’s had to put a stop to her work while she undergoes treatment and is immunocompromised. That reality, she said, means she’ll likely have to move away from the home she currently rents on the south end of town, where she’s lived for 12 years.
“I’m in a position I’ve never been in financially where I can’t work,” she said. “My work is one of the things I dearly love, and now that’s taken away.”
But Braun said neighbors, friends and loved ones — including her two sons — have stepped up to help as she begins treatment; she’s currently undergoing the first of four phases of treatment, and is connected intravenously to a wearable medical bag that pumps medicine into her body continuously. She travels to the James every other day to have the medicine “topped up,” she said.
Because she can’t drive while receiving treatment, volunteers make sure she’s able to get to and from Columbus. Folks have also brought her meals and gone on grocery runs.
“I’ve never been so grateful for this community,” Braun said.
She added that some who have learned about her diagnosis through word-of-mouth have asked how they can help support her financially, prompting the creation of the GoFundMe campaign.
“All my life I’ve been very independent, so it can be difficult to ask for help, but people have been reaching out to ask, ‘What can I do?’” she said.
But not everyone in her circles, either personal or professional, is aware of Braun’s diagnosis, recent as it is. She said she hopes that the GoFundMe, and this article, will help spread the word.
“I know there are people in this community who know me who don’t even know this is going on,” she said. “So it’s not about money, but getting the word out.”
Those personal and professional circles extend out from Braun’s work as a massage therapist — work that she said has long informed her relationship with her own body and the human body in general. She pointed out that, though her clients have often lauded her work as itself being a kind of healing, she believes that she’s only a facilitator, and that it’s the body itself that does the work.
“As a massage therapist, my work has been to facilitate people’s bodies in a loving way,” she said. “Their bodies have the intelligence to heal themselves.”
She identified love and trust as the elements that fuel her work — love of the body and the people who inhabit bodies, and trust in the power of touch, which she said is “immeasurable,” to help healing bloom.
With regard to her own healing, Braun said she’s tolerating the immunotherapy treatment well so far, with no major side effects — though she said it’s clear to her that she’s sick, as both her fatigue and a “pharmacy of drugs” beside her on a TV tray in her living room remind her daily.
Even so, Braun said that her diagnosis hasn’t fundamentally altered how she views bodies and the ways they heal.
“My feeling that the body is miraculous in its ability to heal has not changed,” she said. “Even though I’m in the throes of this, I’m watching parts of things in my body that are doing better. … My platelets are up; they’re not where they could be, but they’re better than they’ve ever been. And [the doctors at The James] were very excited about that yesterday.”
Braun pointed out that our bodies are always changing at a cellular level — cells divide, grow and diminish, minute by minute.
“Things are constantly changing in our bodies — we’re different all the time,” she said.
That’s especially true for those living with cancer, for whom unchecked cell generation is a starting point for the disease. And because immunotherapy works directly to identify and eliminate cancer cells, it can be part of that ever-changing process, too.
“So I look at this as an opportunity — not that it’s not hard — to learn and grow, for gratitude, and helping others learn more through this [immunotherapy] study,” Braun said.
She added that, as far as she’s concerned, her prognosis is that she will be well again — and as that happens, she hopes to go back to work. When that will be possible is just one of many unknowns that Braun acknowledged will be part of her healing process — one she chooses to approach with a spirit of inquiry.
“People say, ‘Oh my God, aren’t you scared?’” she said. “But I’m not scared. I’m curious — the unknown has some love in it, too.”
To donate to the GoFundMe fundraiser for Braun, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-a-loving-massage-therapist-and-community-member?qid=c89f275c764f94942ed5a67535da4acb&fbclid=IwY2xjawGLO49leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHf3w8cNxOVzpA8ghjhOEbI05HEcdTst-mtvpakIClXGpnmV_FUhAB3qv4g_aem_VIaHCYOoa3mw7dDnA6bT3A.
The school district and Village government continue to work together to flesh out the details and possibilities of a proposed 50-unit low-income housing development — referred to locally as the “LIHTC” project — near the Yellow Springs High and McKinney Middle schools on East Enon Road on a portion of land known locally as Morgan Fields.
Though steps have been taken to ease the path for the proposed development — including a first reading from Village Council for an ordinance that would rezone the land where the development would be sited and the approval of legal and appraisal fees for the land and its encumbrances by the Village — the district and Village still face a number of hurdles.
For the school district, chief among those hurdles is the question of how the 3.6 acres of Morgan Fields sited for the development — currently owned by the school district, and which play host to a number of community- and school-related activities, including the village’s recreational soccer program — will be replaced.
The school board has affirmed in the past that, in order for the proposed development to move ahead, suitable replacement land would have to be identified and secured for the use of the programs that currently use the East Enon Road land.
As reported in the Oct. 13 issue of the News, stakeholders from both entities have been in conversation with local landowners Rick Donahoe and Julie Jones about the possibility of purchasing some of their land, which is contiguous with the middle and high schools, to potentially replace the fields. Decisions from landowners about those land parcels are due by the end of October.
An Oct. 7 meeting of Village Council also revealed a new potential site for relocating the community groups that use Morgan Fields: the Village-owned Gaunt Park.
It was Gaunt Park that was the leading topic of discussion at the school board’s regular meeting Wednesday, Oct. 9.
School board Vice President Rebecca Potter, who is part of the intergovernmental task force of school district and Village representatives working on the proposed development, spoke about the task force’s burgeoning discussion of the potential use of eight acres of Gaunt Park as a replacement site.
“This, of course, is complex,” she said. “It requires a lot of collaboration; it has challenges and potential benefits, and [the task force has been] generating mostly questions, but also worked out next steps on how to investigate this very preliminary idea.”
In keeping with the idea of investigation, school board member Dorothée Bouquet had a number of questions about how Gaunt Park might — or might not — be a suitable replacement site. Those questions included:
• Will community groups who currently use Morgan Fields for recreational sports have access to locker rooms and restrooms at Gaunt Park?
• How will additional sports uses like soccer affect the demand for the use of Gaunt Park, which is already used by both community and school sports groups?
• Who will carry the financial burden of developing, improving and maintaining Gaunt Park for sports uses beyond what it currently supports?
“If [Gaunt Park] is a community park, how do we make sure that we have access to those spaces?” Bouquet asked.
School board President Judith Hempfling pointed to the fact that the district and the wider community have shared Gaunt Park for some time, because the park hosts the schools’ baseball and softball programs.
“It’s worked fine for 75 years, as far as I know,” she said. “I’m sure there are things that have to be worked out, but we are already sharing it.”
Superintendent Terri Holden noted, however, that Gaunt Park is “not designed as a high school baseball and softball field.”
“We are grateful for the Village — specifically Johnnie Burns and his team working with us for Gaunt Park,” Holden said. “We will continue to use [the fields at Gaunt Park] because we have nothing else, but they are inadequate. That inadequacy has nothing to do with the maintenance by the Village.”
School board members made it clear that, if Gaunt Park were to be considered as a suitable replacement site for Morgan Fields, it would continue to be municipally owned — the school district would not buy the park.
“To suggest that the schools would buy Gaunt Park is not something that’s been discussed,” board member Amy Magnus said.
“Or will be discussed,” Hempfling added.
Board member Amy Bailey, however, expressed concern that any replacement site not owned by the school district — which would need to sell a 3.6-acre portion of Morgan Fields to the Village in order for the proposed development to move ahead — could create complications for the school district down the road. She also pointed out that, though the parcel of Morgan Fields eyed for sale is mostly used by community groups, the boys soccer team uses the entirety of the fields for an annual tournament.
“If we’re selling land and we’re not buying land, how are we making ourselves whole?” Bailey asked.
“I think you and all board members will be part of the answer to that,” Potter responded, referring to the fact that the school board will ultimately approve or reject the sale of the 3.6 acres. “We had a motion that says we secure land for similar use — so what is that going to mean, and how is that going to be solidified in any kind of cooperative agreement?”
Potter went on to say that the intergovernmental task force will work to find “researched answers” to the questions posed by the board, including what “other models look like” between other schools and municipal groups.
“We have to get something that works — I think everyone that was part of this conversation is completely aware of that,” Potter said. “[I] hope for the goodwill of the community to understand that there is absolute commitment to keep a win-win solution as the goal.”
In other school district news:
• The school board unanimously approved a resolution “Condemning Harassment and Violence Against the Springfield, Ohio Haitian Community and Expressing Support for Positive and Proactive Leadership.”
The resolution states, in part, that “since false and inflammatory remarks were directed against Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian community on the national level, hate speech and racist activities against this community have increased dramatically” and that the board “actively supports local efforts to meaningfully engage with the Haitian community members of Springfield, Ohio and will be involved in collaborative initiatives to provide assistance, resources, encouragement and fellowship to our neighbors and friends. … The Board hereby condemns all forms of anti-immigrant and racist expression and implores all to endeavor to truly ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
• The Mills Lawn PTO reported that the annual Bulldog Jog event — a 5K race and “fun run” typically scheduled for November — will not be held this year. The event’s accompanying T-shirt fundraiser, however — which features designs from local students — will continue. The shirts will be given to all Mills Lawn students this year, for a suggested donation, and the PTO will request sponsorships from local businesses to help fund their creation.
Looking ahead, the PTO will hold the Mills Lawn Skate Night on Thursday, Nov. 14, at Orbit Skate Center in Huber Heights; and the annual community Winterfest event will return Saturday, Dec. 14, at Mills Lawn.
• In an update on the district’s ongoing facilities improvement project, slated to break ground in January, the board unanimously approved a resolution acknowledging that the board members had received and reviewed the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, or OFCC’s, comments on the project’s design development.
The OFCC provides oversight and guidance for state-funded school facilities construction projects; the Yellow Springs project will be funded in part by rebates from the state.
Superintendent Holden said she, Director of Operations Jeff Eyrich and the project’s architect and construction manager have also reviewed the OFCC’s comments on the planned design.
“None of [the OFCC’s comments] were a surprise to us,” Holden said, adding that the project’s timeline is still on track.
For ongoing information on the facilities improvement project’s timeline, go to ysschools.org/construction.
• Holden gave an update on the newly founded Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, which features students from fifth through 12th grades. The students meet monthly with the superintendent to give feedback and ideas on the school district’s programs and initiatives.
There are currently 19 students on the council, Holden said, and the group has met with her twice so far this school year.
“There were some interesting, neat interactions and mentoring between younger students and the high school students,” she added.
Holden has also formed a Parent Advisory Council, which currently has 12 members.
By Maria N. Ramirez
On several evenings this fall, in the YS Senior Center’s Great Room, a chorus of shifting paper, scribbling pencils and insightful suggestions are illuminating a string of personal and nonfiction stories. Taking place on the second and fourth Thursdays of September and October at 7 p.m., the Senior Center’s recently launched Local Writer’s Series strives to bring together established and emerging literary voices in the Yellow Springs community.
When asked about the origin of the Local Writer’s Series, Senior Center Activities and Volunteer Coordinator Margaret Dean explained that the center had been “wanting to highlight seniors in our community who are actively writing and creating.” When two local authors walked in asking for that very opportunity, the question then became: “Why not make it a series and bring in some other local writers and poets?”
“So I reached out to Scott Geisel and Ed Davis and it sort of came together,” Dean said.
Last month, Ohio poet and fiction writer MJ Werthman White captivated the audience with her presentation, titled “It’s Never Too Late to Bloom.” White, who began her fiction career later in life, read from her debut novel, “An Invitation to the Party,” and spoke about the experience of writing and publishing her first novel in her 70s. Dean said her personal history resonated deeply with attendees, offering inspiration to those considering creative pursuits at any stage of life.
On Thursday, Oct. 10, Ed Davis — a West Virginia native and author of “I Was So Much Older Then” — will present “A Poet Who Also Writes Prose,” an exploration of the relationship between poetry and flash fiction. Davis, known for his deep and reflective prose, demonstrated how these two forms of writing intertwine to create complex narratives.
Next, on Thursday, Oct. 24, the Local Writer’s Series will feature Scott Geisel, the critically acclaimed author of the “Jackson Flint” mystery series. Geisel — whose series often features Miami Valley locations familiar to local readers — will discuss the latest novel in the series, “Wheat Penny,” and share his insights on the challenges and rewards of using real places in fiction. His talk will delve into how setting influences the mood and authenticity of a story, and how he balances fact with fiction to create compelling narratives.
Dean said it’s possible the series will continue beyond October, depending on community interest.
“The thing that I love about my job here is that things just take on their own life,” Dean said. “I don’t think there’s any shortage of writers in our community and surrounding community, so if the interest continues, I think it’s something we can keep doing.”
Events in the Local Writer’s Series are free to attend and open to the public. For more information on this series and other events hosted by the Senior Center, go to ysseniors.org or see the column below.
*The author is a freelance writer for the News.
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