Citizens to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace

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Citizens to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Citizens to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace, Community Organization, PO Box 638, Yellow Springs, OH.

“To permanently preserve greenspace at Mills Lawn as a public park for future generations.” This site welcomes positive comments promoting the preservation of Mills Lawn greenspace while fully supporting Quality Schools in Yellow Springs.

03/18/2024

Hi All. We have been misrepresented many times in the past few days, so here are some facts about the greenspace group's efforts.

1. Originally, a conservation easement to preserve Mills Lawn was only proposed because the schoolyard greenspace was at risk under the previous school board. A study was done recommending 62 houses be built in the schoolyard greenspace. Superintendent Basaro recommended selling it if the levy did not pass. (Documented in YS News and more links on millslawngreenspace.org ).
2. At the time a conservation easement idea was the only way to fully protect the land. and at the same time provide significant funds to the schools, and the schools remain in full ownership of the land.
3. There are restrictions. But the boundary lines of an easement would be determined by the schools - this could be a cut-out allowing for possible permanent structures.
4. Some citizens, along with school board members, have proposed educational additions such as a band shell, an outdoor classroom space, a practice bicycle path, to repair the baseball backstop, and so forth.
5. Note that the greenspace committee painted the soccer goals, and purchased and installed new soccer nets in 2023, so we agree with a well-maintained greenspace.
6. An easement is one option and it comes with significant funds. Another option might be to forego the grant money and continue to budget educational improvements in the greenspace.
7. With over 500 Yellow Springs citizens favoring keeping the greenspace, would the school board act to get the property rezoned to educational and also issue a public statement that they are committed to improving the greenspace for educational purposes and not for resale for development?

The Committee to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace supports quality schools and maintaining a natural-as-possible green space in the heart of the village.

01/13/2024

We welcome our newly updated Yellow Springs School Board with Judith Hempfling as the new President. Everyone working together can advance the citizens' wishes to preserve the Mills Lawn greenspace for the future.

10/30/2023

We want to share an update we sent out to Mills Lawn Greenspace supporters recently. Several candidates for the school board and Village Council visited with our committee to share their views on the value of greenspace to the future of Yellow Springs. Candidates for the school board who spoke at our greenspace meetings were Kim Reichelderfer, Rebecca Potter, Amy Bailey, and Pat Peters. Candidates for Village Council who spoke with us are Trish Gustafson, Scott Osterholm, and Gavin DeVore. It was great to hear all of the candidates expressing positive general views on greenspace and its place in the future of Yellow Springs! But among the candidate responses were some very specific comments on the historical significance of Mills Lawn greenspace, value to residents as well as visitors, importance as a central park for the whole community, and ideas for possible future uses as a more developed accessible public park. These specific comments were from Rebecca Potter, Kim Reichelderfer, and Trisha Gustafson. Clearly, these candidates have given serious thought to the meaning of greenspace and value it in their platforms. We had lively positive discussions with all who visited and we hope to continue meeting with local officials as their work intersects with the preservation of Mills Lawn greenspace.

04/12/2023

Volunteers needed May 24-25.

03/13/2023

As spring approaches, Mills Lawn soccer enthusiasts are ready to take to the field! Last Thanksgiving, we noticed that there were no soccer nets. We inquired if the school district had nets to install, and we were told they did not have any new nets at this time -- so they accepted our offer to buy new nets. Since the old steel goals were rusted, we refurbished them with cleaning and new paint, then we installed the new soccer nets at the beginning of March. Now the fields are alive at recess AND after school hours!

06/14/2022

The Citizens to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace committee donated a tribute tree honoring the original owner of Mills Lawn, Judge William Mills, who preserved many of its old-growth trees and created a virtual park behind his mansion on this property for the use and enjoyment of the Yellow Springs community. The new tree is a bur (sometimes spelled burr) oak (Quercus macrocarpa), a type of lobed-leaved oak tree. Leaves are somewhat fiddle-shaped. It is also called Mossycup oak because its acorns are nestled in unique shaggy-fringed cups. Bur oaks are long-lived, large hardwood trees, up to 80 feet tall. This tree is a fine companion to the many other oak trees that have thrived on Mills Lawn for many years. It was planted on May 31, 2022. A commemorative plaque has been ordered for the tree.

Tribute trees are donations to Yellow Springs to memorialize loved ones or to honor persons or groups. In consultation with the school administration, the Yellow Springs Tree Committee helps to select the type of trees and the planting sites, purchases, and plants the trees and installs commemorative plaques that identify the trees, their donors, and their honorees.

02/12/2022

Our group presented a written detailed plan on Feb. 10 to the School Board for providing funds for the schools and preserving the Mills Lawn greenspace under a conservation easement to Tecumseh Land Trust by which the schools would maintain ownership of the property. A 3-minute overview of the plan was presented by Mary Eby. The text of that overview follows. It is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzPXOEB_Ao0 at the 6:07 mark. The board discusses the proposal later at the 2:53:56 mark. They determined that this could not be acted on right now due to priorities for facilities needs.

“Dr. Holden & School Board members:
Our citizens group sent a letter to each of you earlier this week, meeting the deadline for review and inclusion in tonight’s agenda. Yet the way it turned out… it arrived in your spam folders. When we discovered this two days later, we promptly re-sent our letter to each of you. The letter you received this week, supersedes any previous communications. This letter describes in detail our vision for preserving the Mills Lawn greenspace AND two immediate funding opportunities that could accomplish this.

The grant opportunities are first - the Capital Budget program, and second - the Clean Ohio program. Each of these grants could bring significant revenue into the schools, through the sale of a conservation easement, that would be funded by state grant monies and private donations.

We see this as a powerful win-win for the schools and our community, I’d like to note 5 primary wins:
# 1 The schools would receive the Full Fair Market Value of a conservation easement on this historical, park-like, piece of land.
# 2 The schools could receive the grant monies and matching donations as early as this fall, 2022.
# 3 Future school proposals could move forward with the greenspace off the table.
# 4 Mills Lawn School would continue to use the conserved greenspace as their schoolyard during school hours.
# 5 The greenspace would be preserved, as green and open land, for our community, now and in the future.

We DO recognize the many demands on school district leadership at this time - especially regarding facilities decisions. The only step the school board needs to do, to take advantage of this opportunity for funding, is to sign a
letter of intent to sell a conservation easement at FFMV to Tecumseh Land Trust, by the March 10 board meeting. This letter of intent will authorize Tecumseh Land Trust to act on both of these grant opportunities. Our citizen group is willing to fund the required appraisal, assist with grant writing, and lead the campaign to raise matching funds. Many citizens have asked our group for a plan. Well - Here it is - Ready to go! Again - We see these two grant opportunities as a powerful win-win for the schools and our community! THANK YOU “

The full letter with specific details is available via the School Board website under their Board Docs for the Feb. 10 Meeting.

01/25/2022

As we enter 2022, we would like to thank all of our supporters - whether it was signing our petition, informing others of the preservation effort, displaying a yard sign, providing information for our website, letter writing, helping staff our table at the Farmer’s Market or donating money to help with expenses. Your involvement has been crucial to our success in demonstrating the community’s support for the preservation of the Mills Lawn greenspace. Owing to your kind donations, we were able to cover the costs associated with our weekly ads, the full-page signature ad and our insert in the Yellow Springs News. Your donations also funded our other expenses associated with the yard signs, our website and post office box.
As an all-volunteer, citizen led organization, our goal was to raise and demonstrate community support for preserving the Mills Lawn greenspace. This was accomplished with over 520 petition signatures from local residents and through developing significant visibility in the community via yard signs, our presence at the farmers’ market, regular ads in the Yellow Springs News and more. It is imperative that preservation of Mills Lawn greenspace does not fade from public awareness. In the coming year we will continue our efforts by working proactively with school board members and others to seek a path forward to assure preservation. We will also be continuing our work to further build and demonstrate community support. Some of these efforts will require financial resources. A review of our expenses ($5188.52) and remaining balance ($305.52) indicate that our continuing efforts will require a budget of approximately $5000 for the coming year. We are hopeful that we will be able to count on you for whatever financial support you might be able to provide.
We have several ways of making a donation. You can use the PayPal button on our website. Checks or money orders made out to Citizens to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace can be mailed to PO Box 638, Yellow Springs or deposited to our account at the Yellow Springs Credit Union. Cash or check donations can likewise be dropped off in the secured lock box at 326 Phillips Street. As promised when we started this effort, any unused funds will be donated to the Yellow Springs Tree Committee once success is achieved.

11/02/2021

Election Day! People will vote as they decide on what to do next with YS schools. Regardless of that choice, we hope all citizens stay committed to preserving the greenspace at Mills Lawn as a public park for future generations.

09/20/2021

You may have read in the newspaper that the Yellow Springs Development Corporation (YSDC) has enlisted a company to study what might be the "best use" of Mills Lawn property if the school is no longer there. An anonymous donor has funded this effort and because we are concerned, we have one of our members on the YDSC subcommittee only to reinforce that we are focused on preserving the greenspace. To repeat: We are not anti-levy, we are not pro-levy: we are for the greenspace. The community will decide with its votes and its best judgment how best to manage school improvements.

09/02/2021

Citizens to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace values both education and preserving the village greenspace of Mills Lawn. These are not mutually exclusive ideals. Many of our members are current or former educators. We are levy neutral because we have over 500 supporters with varying opinions on the levy who signed the petition to preserve greenspace.

We are NOT anti-levy. We are levy neutral. https://millslawn.squarespace.com/letters-page

08/30/2021

The word is spreading. Kisha Obey moved to Yellow Springs three weeks ago and has already joined the Mills Lawn preservation effort, donated to the cause, and posted 2 signs on her own lawn. Watch for her new fresh farm produce business in the area. She'll be using a food truck model to be at various outdoor venues and markets.

Address

PO Box 638
Yellow Springs, OH
45387

Website

https://millslawngreenspace.org/

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