The pandemic reaches YS
In mid-March, the specter of the novel coronavirus prompted swift and drastic actions from the state authorities, affecting every day life within the village.
Native establishments responded to authorities orders and acted proactively to restrict the ways in which villagers are available contact with each other to cut back the unfold of the virus. Beginning on Wednesday, March 11, and persevering with by the subsequent week, almost each group occasion was canceled and public area closed.
Native Okay–12 colleges, the Wellness Heart, the Little Artwork Theatre, native restaurant eating rooms and Glen Helen closed. Antioch Faculty’s campus, the Yellow Springs Library and most retail outlets additionally closed; grocery shops, pharmacies and banks remained open. Studying moved on-line for colleges. Mates Care Neighborhood closed to guests. The first election, set to happen on Tuesday, March 17, was postponed hours earlier than voting was to start.
Yellow Springers have been stocking up and staying residence because the affect of the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak began to be felt right here, even with no confirmed native case of the illness.
Nearly instantly, villagers and native establishments stepped up. The Yellow Springs Neighborhood Basis assembled a group to deal with meals safety and monetary help to hurting group members and arrange a fund to deal with donations. Tom’s Market and the Senior Heart partnered to ship groceries to a whole bunch of native senior households. The native faculty district found out methods to get meals to households in want. The Village started internet hosting “digital city halls.”
From March 23 by the tip of April, Ohioans have been below a “Keep at Dwelling” order, throughout which residents have been solely permitted to go away their houses for important actions.
On April 9, the primary case of COVID-19 was confirmed within the village. Matthew Huntington, 50, who suspected he contracted the illness at his job at a Columbus name middle, fell sick round March 22. On April 5, he was transported from his residence within the village to Soin Medical Heart in Beavercreek. When his situation worsened, he was moved into the intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator.
Then, on April 22, got here tragic information. Huntington died after battling the illness for greater than two weeks within the hospital. The Yellow Springs Excessive Faculty graduate was greatest recognized regionally as a musician and as an avid participant of bridge and Dungeons and Dragons. He performed the bass clarinet within the Yellow Springs Neighborhood Band and Neighborhood Orchestra, and repeatedly performed bridge on the Yellow Springs Senior Heart.
Huntington’s demise was the third within the county from the illness. He’s the fourth youngest particular person to die from COVID-19 in Greene County.
Beginning in Might, Yellow Springs regularly opened up with the remainder of Ohio. That led to a midsummer spike of instances, which started moderating by August. Eight native instances have been confirmed by mid-August.
Starting in late August and persevering with by the tip of the yr, instances took off within the village, county and state. Whereas the county was including 10 to fifteen new instances per day in August, by mid-December, it was as much as 150 new instances per day. Beginning on Oct. 15, Greene County was designated “crimson,” indicating “very excessive publicity and unfold” right here. By Dec. 27, Greene County had recorded 9,246 instances, 487 hospitalizations and 109 deaths. Within the 45387 space code, instances almost tripled over a six-week interval, rising from 52 on Nov. 5 to 163 on Dec. 27.
Clusters of instances began appearing within the village, prompting eating places to quickly shutter, highschool basketball video games to be canceled and the Miami Township hearth station to be down to reveal bones personnel. In the meantime, a neighborhood establishment serving a few of the space’s most susceptible residents, Mates Care Neighborhood, remained with none confirmed instances of the virus amongst residents and simply two amongst employees for the reason that begin of the pandemic.
By yr’s finish, vaccines have been starting to be rolled out within the state, however the virus, nonetheless, continued to unfold. Within the last weeks of the yr, the Yellow Springs Neighborhood Basis started to supply native COVID-19 testing for public-facing village employees.
—Megan Bachman
Glen Helen closed to the general public on March 26 in response to the pandemic. When the protect reopened in September, it was below the brand new possession of the Glen Helen Affiliation. (Photograph by Audrey Hackett)
Glen offered to native nonprofit
Glen Helen modified palms this yr, ending months of uncertainty about the way forward for the beloved 1,000-acre nature protect adjoining to Yellow Springs. Going through monetary pressures exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Antioch Faculty offered the Glen for $2.5 million payable over 10 years to the Glen Helen Affiliation, or GHA, a nonprofit group fashioned in 1960 to lift funds and advocate for the protect. The deal was introduced on June 10, and finalized on Sept. 4.
A big a part of the faculty’s historical past and identification, Glen Helen had been owned and operated by Antioch since 1929, when alumnus Hugh Taylor Birch donated the land to the faculty as a nature protect in reminiscence of his daughter. The Glen was among the many belongings repurchased by the Antioch Continuation Company after the faculty’s closure in 2007. And in 2015, a nine-year collaborative effort amongst federal, state, regional and native entities resulted in Glen Helen being completely preserved. However the Glen proved troublesome for the reopened faculty to function and preserve. The state of affairs grew to become vital with the COVID-19 pandemic, which pressured the closure of the Glen to the general public and the cancellation of at the very least a yr of public applications. Eight Glen Helen staff have been laid off by the faculty in April, and a university trustee advised the Information thereafter that Antioch had no plans to reopen the protect.
The GHA board labored with faculty officers by the spring to come back to an settlement for the acquisition of the Glen. Because the Information coated the continued negotiations, concern relating to the Glen’s destiny mounted locally. In mid-Might, an nameless native resident initiated a Save the Glen marketing campaign to lift funds towards the GHA’s buy of the protect. That fund in the end raised over $100,000 from greater than 400 donors.
A purchase order settlement was introduced in June, and the faculty and GHA labored by the summer time to finalize the switch. Days after the preliminary settlement was reached, the GHA unveiled a $3.5 million fundraising marketing campaign, the primary section of a multi-phase marketing campaign to cowl buy prices and safe the Glen’s future. As of late December, present and previous board members had contributed or pledged over $500,000 towards that marketing campaign. Over the summer time, the GHA additionally took steps to revive a few of the furloughed Glen staff, together with longtime Govt Director Nick Boutis. And the Glen’s new homeowners developed plans to reopen the protect to the general public and deal with deferred upkeep and different points.
Native celebration ensued when, days after turning into Glen Helen’s new homeowners, the GHA reopened the protect to the general public on Sept. 9. These re-entering the Glen for the primary time in six months famous delicate modifications in a forest largely unvisited by people since March. As of year-end, the GHA has begun renovations to a number of buildings on the Outside Schooling Heart, is planning to rent a land supervisor and is working towards restarting the Glen’s faculty and summer time applications. In the meantime, a “use settlement” ensures ongoing collaboration between the Glen and its former proprietor, Antioch Faculty.
—Audrey Hackett
Within the prolonged March 2020 major, county voters rejected a gross sales tax improve that might have funded the development of a brand new and bigger jail. Villagers organized to defeat the measure; right here, Pat Dewees spoke out towards the proposal in March as a part of a residents group that continues to hunt legal justice reforms in
the county. (Photograph by Megan Bachman)
Jail tax defeated by voters
Within the delayed March 2020 major, Greene County voters firmly rejected a proposal to lift the county gross sales tax to construct a brand new and bigger jail, with 62% voting towards the measure and 38% approving it. Yellow Springs voters turned down the measure by a good bigger margin, 84% to 16%. In response to county officers, the brand new jail was wanted to exchange getting old infrastructure and alleviate overcrowding on the downtown Xenia facility. The brand new 400-bed jail would have expanded present capability by 25% at a complete development value of $70 million. The poll measure sought to lift the county gross sales tax by 0.25% over 10 to 12 years to pay for the mission.
The outcome was a victory for a gaggle of Yellow Springs residents who campaigned vigorously towards the proposal within the months main as much as the first. Native activists feared that the bigger jail would improve incarceration within the county, in addition to divert funds from wanted psychological well being and substance abuse therapy applications. The group crisscrossed the county to talk out towards the mission, shifting their marketing campaign on-line after the pandemic hit in mid-March and the first was prolonged to the tip of April.
The Information reported extensively on the jail proposal, with a dozen articles spanning as many months starting within the spring of 2019. And the paper got here out towards the brand new jail, arguing in an editorial that the elevated capability was unneeded and the method resulting in the proposed jail was flawed.
Following the measure’s defeat, the native group continued its work on incarceration points, calling for reductions within the county jail inhabitants in the course of the pandemic and past. Adopting the brand new title of Greene County Coalition for Compassionate Justice, group members are at the moment working towards money bail reform within the county.
—Audrey Hackett
Round 400 villagers protested the latest killings of Black folks by police on Saturday, Might 30. (Photograph by Chandra Jones-Graham)
23 weeks of antiracist motion
For 23 straight Saturdays this summer time and fall, a dedicated group of native activists protested, rallied or marched downtown in assist of Black lives and to encourage anti-racist motion within the village.
It began with a protest on Saturday, Might 30, in response to the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis earlier that week. Sparking a wave of protests throughout the nation, in Yellow Springs, an estimated 300 folks lined Xenia Avenue and took part in eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the period of time that the officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck. The next Saturday, greater than 500 folks marched by downtown chanting for change.
Villagers Jen Boyer and Bomani Moyenda organized the primary three Saturday actions earlier than a gaggle of largely younger Black ladies took the reins, with their continued help. The group grew to become “YS Talking Up for Justice” and held weekly rallies and marches by the tip of October. Leaders included Nya Brevik, Julian Roberts, Angela Allen, Julia Hoff and Alaina Hoff. Brevik advised the Information the weekly presence was essential to maintain momentum.
“It’s essential that we proceed to unfold the message and to point out we won’t go away till there’s actual, real change,” she stated.
On the weekly rallies, audio system offered data on themes starting from voting rights to academic disparities to psychological well being points. Villagers additionally shared their private expertise with racism throughout open mics. Moyenda was regularly the emcee, whereas Gyamfi Gyamerah led drumming. March routes by the village diverse by week.
However because the summer time wore on, tensions arose between protesters and Village of Yellow Springs officers, who have been involved that protesters have been gathering with no allow or authorised march routes. Protesters, in the meantime, believed the Village wasn’t taking motion rapidly sufficient in response to its calls for for anti-racist motion. They have been additionally vital of how the YSPD dealt with a name from a purported KKK member who threatened to protest a Black Lives Matter-themed Fourth of July parade, which was canceled, partially, because of the menace. After a number of restorative justice circles and apologies from Council members, tensions eased.
When a few of the preliminary organizers began faculty, a brand new group of youth organizers took their place and rallies and marches continued till the climate turned chilly. The group is planning to proceed the gatherings in 2021.
—Megan Bachman
Molly and Robert “Linsdey” Duncan, who have been concerned in a deadly taking pictures outdoors their residence on Grinnell Street on Feb. 12, held a press convention two days later on the Yellow Springs Library. They have been accompanied by Springfield-based legal professional Gregory Lind, proper. (Photograph by Megan Bachman)
Grinnell Street taking pictures
Described on the time as a “shootout” by the county sheriff, a double deadly taking pictures in mid-February outdoors the Grinnell Street residence of Robert “Lindsey” Duncan and his spouse, Molly, shocked native residents, in addition to household, mates and colleagues throughout the nation of these concerned.
Useless have been Lindsey Duncan’s ex-wife, Cheryl Sanders, 59, and her husband, Robert “Reed” Sanders, 56, who investigators ultimately concluded had pushed to Ohio from their residence in North Carolina with the intention of killing the Duncans.
A number of 911 calls, together with a distressed name from Molly Duncan, reported the taking pictures. Different calls got here from neighbors who heard the pictures or drivers on the street going by. First responders discovered Cheryl Sanders mendacity within the Duncans’ driveway, and Reed Sanders on the bottom throughout the street, by the doorway to the previous Camp Greene. Medics have been unable to resuscitate the pair, and the coroner was referred to as.
Whereas the precise particulars of what transpired outdoors the Duncans’ residence modified barely with the documentation of various retellings, the next state of affairs emerged based mostly on the Duncans’ statements, proof from the scene and investigators’ findings.
The Duncans pulled into their gated driveway at 3443 Grinnell Street, simply south of the village, shortly after 11 a.m., having gone for breakfast and occasional in downtown Yellow Springs. Molly Duncan was driving and Lindsey was within the passenger seat. Lindsey stated he received out of the car to test for mail of their mailbox, and it’s unclear whether or not he was again contained in the car, getting again in, or nonetheless outdoors, when a person carrying a camouflage masks approached Molly’s facet of the automobile with a gun.
In response to the transcript of his Feb. 12 interview with sheriff’s deputies, Lindsey stated he owns a gun, however had left it in the home earlier, and so he requested Molly if her gun was within the automobile. Each Duncans have Ohio hid carry permits, which they advised investigators that they had obtained out of concern that Cheryl Sanders needed to do them hurt. They obtained the permits after they moved about 4 years in the past to the realm, the place Molly has household close by.
With Molly’s gun in hand, Lindsey stated he exchanged hearth with the person later recognized as Reed Sanders. Lindsey stated his ex-wife then pulled up in a car, received out and likewise threatened them with a gun.
The Greene County coroner dominated the Sanderses’ reason for demise as a number of gunshot wounds. Investigators reported discovering three weapons on the scene and a number of shell casings. The Duncans weren’t bodily harm within the altercation.
An almost four-month investigation — slowed significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic — ended with the presentation of the case to a grand jury on June 17.
Only a day after the taking pictures, nonetheless, Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer had already advised reporters that advance planning was prompt by the truth that the Sanderses have been driving a automobile with counterfeit short-term Ohio plates, and Reed Sanders was carrying a number of types of identification. Sheriff’s deputies additionally discovered two small cameras mounted on a publish throughout from the Grinnell Street home with a livestream of the property going to a mobile phone discovered within the Sanderses’ automobile.
Investigators later launched a “guidelines” discovered within the Sanderses’ automobile that spelled out their intention to trigger hurt to the Duncans.
In the middle of the inquiry, investigators additionally traveled to North Carolina, the place the Sanderses most not too long ago lived, and to Texas, the place each {couples} had long-term ties.
Lindsey Duncan is initially from Austin, and it was there that he started a profession advertising and marketing well being and dietary dietary supplements. The previous head of Genesis Pure after which Genesis Right this moment, he promoted his firm’s merchandise on such nationwide tv applications as “Dr. Oz” and “The View.” He left the corporate after settling a 2015 swimsuit with the Federal Commerce Fee during which he agreed to pay $9 million after being accused of “deceptively” touting “the supposed weight-loss advantages of inexperienced espresso bean extract.”
His ex-wife was at one time affiliated with the corporate as properly, and she or he later continued in partnership with Reed Sanders in selling numerous well being and health merchandise. She additionally was a former film stunt lady with credit in additional than 70 movies.
Documented acrimony and lawsuits between Cheryl Sanders and Lindsey Duncan, and investigators’ affirmation of Duncan’s declare that his ex-wife made inquiries about hiring a hitman to kill him about 5 years in the past, led Prosecutor Stephen Okay. Haller to conclude that Cheryl and Reed Sanders have been motivated by “greed and hatred” in in search of to kill the Duncans.
Though investigators discovered proof to assist justifiable murder, Haller stated he selected to take the case to the grand jury largely due to the gravity of the state of affairs. He additionally was conscious of some sentiments within the public suggesting that the Duncans’ tales didn’t add up, that the taking pictures was a set-up of some form.
Letting the grand jury make the choice about culpability helped “put this to relaxation as soon as and for all,” he stated in June.
—Carol Simmons
Award-winning comic Dave Chappelle, who lives together with his household simply outdoors Yellow Springs, hosted weekend comedy exhibits at a property off Meredith Street in Miami Township all through the summer time. The occasions, which usually offered out and sometimes featured different nationally recognized performers, weren’t, nonetheless, inside the parameters of the zoning code, forcing the property proprietor to hunt a brief utilization variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals. (‘8:46’ Screenshot, Youtube)
Dave Chappelle exhibits
Comic and Yellow Springs resident Dave Chappelle was the main focus of native consideration for his actions in and across the village this yr, as a lot as for his award-winning and typically controversial comedy.
The winner of the 2019 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, thought of the very best award in comedy, Chappelle spent a lot of 2020 sheltering in place and placing on outside exhibits at a rural property owned by Steve and Stacey Wirrig simply north of city.
Billed as “An Intimate Socially Distanced Affair,” and familiarly known as Chappelle’s “Summer time Camp,” the performances welcomed nationally recognized comedians and musicians to look with Chappelle at a pavilion constructed by the Wirrigs in 2017. Among the many entertainers was comic and discuss present host David Letterman, who got here to city to movie an episode with Chappelle for his Netflix present, “My Subsequent Visitor Wants No Introduction,” which is now accessible for viewing on-line.
The ticketed occasions started in June and continued two to 4 nights per week by the summer time. A movie of the primary exhibits, offered by Netflix on Youtube and titled “8:46” (the period of time a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on George Floyd’s neck inflicting his demise), was extensively shared on social media.
In July, nonetheless, the actions — which included a big, free July 4 fireworks show — got here to the eye of the Township’s Zoning Inspector, who stated the property homeowners wanted to acquire a brief zoning variance from the Miami Township Board of Zoning Appeals with the intention to proceed presenting a business enterprise on agriculturally zoned property.
Steve Wirrig turned in a brief variance utility July 15, itemizing Oct. 4 as an finish date for exhibits, which have been to not exceed 4 per week. The appeals board listening to was held Aug. 6.
Almost 190 folks logged or referred to as into the listening to performed by the GoToMeeting on-line platform, and about 40 gave testimony, largely supportive of the enterprise, for shut to 2 hours earlier than the appeals board members went into govt session to deliberate. Coming again into public session, the board authorised the request with the stipulation that the present organizers work with neighbors to alleviate their issues, notably by way of late-night noise.
The performances have been halted per week sooner than anticipated, nonetheless, with a press release from organizers saying that the ultimate six exhibits have been canceled “out of an abundance of warning” after somebody of their “internal circle” had been uncovered to COVID-19.
Inside that very same timeframe, Wirrig submitted a request to switch the unique short-term variance request with the intention to prolong the exhibits into August 2021. That listening to was held in early November, and the zoning board authorised the continuation after taking a mixture of constructive and damaging testimony, once more largely regarding the late-night noise.
In response to communication between Miami Township Zoning Inspector Richard Zopf and the county well being division, Chappelle was given permission by the governor’s workplace earlier than the beginning of the sequence to host an unspecified variety of exhibits following sure COVID-19 security precautions.
Attendance was restricted to 400 ticket holders, with patrons required to put on masks and have their temperatures taken earlier than coming into the efficiency grounds, the place seats have been organized at a distance of six ft between pairs. Performers additionally underwent COVID exams after they arrived on the town, in keeping with media interviews with the entertainers.
This month, information broke that Chappelle was within the course of of shopping for the previous firehouse on Corry Road with the intention to flip it right into a restaurant and comedy membership based mostly on a mannequin of the summer time exhibits. The acquisition joins an inventory of latest property buys on the town, together with the outdated Union Faculty Home, the constructing that homes the Smoking Octopus store and two adjoining buildings on Xenia Avenue that assist three storefronts, amongst others.
Chappelle’s yr additionally included two Emmy wins and a internet hosting slot for “Saturday Evening Dwell” the week of the presidential election.
—Carol Simmons
Villagers danced within the streets on Saturday, Nov. 7, quickly after it was introduced that Joe Biden had gained the presidency. Folks waved American flags and Biden/Harris indicators whereas dancing to such tunes as “Hit the Street Jack,” and “I Really feel Good.” The impromptu celebration began after Gyamfi Gymerah and Bomani Moyenda introduced their drums to the weekly peace vigil, which takes place at midday on the nook of Limestone Road and Xenia Avenue. Michael Casselli adopted with a loudspeaker, and the music and joyful whooping attracted folks from round city. The election was referred to as for Biden at 11:24 a.m. that day after 4 days of tallying votes. (Submitted photograph by Matthew Collins)
Elections, by mail
Two elections have been held in 2020 amidst the pandemic, with most villagers taking part within the franchise by mail.
Just a few hours earlier than polls have been set to open for the March 17 major, the state of Ohio referred to as off in-person voting, electing to increase the first by April 28, with mail-in voting as the one option to solid a poll.
Ultimately, 84% of native votes have been solid absentee. About 15% of ballots have been solid throughout early voting, whereas 1% of votes have been solid by way of provisional poll. Not surprisingly, turnout was down, with solely 49% of registered voters casting ballots.
In Yellow Springs, three Village Constitution amendments have been on the poll. Voters have opted to increase the mayor’s time period from two to 4 years and develop voting rights in native elections to Yellow Springs residents who usually are not U.S. residents, whereas voting down an analogous proposal to permit 16- and 17-year-old voters to take part in native elections.
On the difficulty of extending the mayor’s time period, 84% voted for the measure and 16% voted towards. On the difficulty of enfranchising noncitizen residents, 58% voted sure and 42% voted no. And the difficulty of giving the vote to youthful folks was rejected 56% to 44%.
Miami Township voters overwhelmingly handed Problem 6, a renewal levy for Miami Township Hearth-Rescue within the quantity of three.8 mills over 5 years, 83% to 17%. And county voters general firmly voted down Problem 12, a 0.25% gross sales tax improve to fund development of a brand new and bigger county jail, 62% to 38%.
With extra time to request an absentee poll by mail, turnout within the village was up once more for the overall election within the fall.
Most Village voters opted to vote absentee within the fall, 54%, larger than the countywide price of nearer to one-third. One other 19% of village voters voted early in particular person, which meant that solely a trickle of voters solid their ballots at Antioch College Midwest all through election day. General, native turnout was 80%, larger than the county common of 75%.
The one native difficulty on the poll was Problem 5, an 8.4-mill municipal property tax levy, which voters renewed for 5 extra years by a virtually 3–1 margin.
Native candidates Dr. Steve Bujenovic, who ran for coroner, and Mark Babb, who ran for probate decide, each misplaced their races for countywide workplace. Nonetheless, each did properly of their hometown. In most different county and state races, villagers went overwhelmingly (90% or larger) for Democratic candidates who failed to hold the day.
One exception: the race for president. Yellow Springers overwhelmingly chosen Democratic challenger Joe Biden over Republican President Donald Trump, 2,407 to 190 votes, taking 92% of the vote. Though Biden misplaced Ohio by six share factors, he gained the electoral faculty and the presidency.
—Megan Bachman
