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Antioch College gets OK on solar array

Antioch College cleared a major hurdle this week in its plan to build a 1-megawatt solar array on campus.

At its meeting Monday, three regular members of the Planning Commission, plus two alternates who had earlier deliberated on the issue, unanimously approved a five-acre solar photovoltaic array at Antioch as a conditional use. The solar panels will be erected behind a fence on the northeast corner of the land just south of campus commonly known as the golf course.

Because non-residential solar facilities are a conditional rather than permitted use in Antioch’s E-1 educational district, the college needed Planning Commission approval before proceeding.

Antioch Physical Plant Director Reggie Stratton said after the meeting that once Antioch finalizes a contract with developer Solar Power & Light, construction could begin later this summer and the system could be online by late fall. The solar array would provide enough electricity, coupled with two geothermal heating and cooling systems, to make the college one of the first in the nation to produce 100 percent of its own power needs from renewable sources, according to Antioch.

At the same meeting, the commission also approved the Antioch solar project site plan with a few conditions, including that Antioch erect vegetative landscaping along the fence on the west side to shield panels from the view of homes some 550 feet to the west.

Voting for the project were Planning Commission chair John Struewing and regular members Bill Bebko and Tim Tobey, along with Council alternate Gerry Simms and Planning Commission alternate Chris Till, both of whom joined in voting because they had participated in earlier Planning Commission discussions on the topic while substituting for absent members, Struewing said.

Solar plan a fit for the village

Planning Commission determined that since the solar array will serve Antioch’s educational mission, it is compatible with the character of the general vicinity and that it is also consistent with the intent of the Village’s zoning code and comprehensive land use plan.

“I am satisfied that the proposed solar array does fit in as an educational tool,” Till said at the meeting.

Till acknowledged that while there is “competing language” in the Village’s comprehensive land use plan about the need to support both open space and alternative energy, that since Antioch had a power plant in the past, the “stronger argument is for the solar array fitting in,” he said.

Struewing said that he struggled with his decision to approve the project since the solar array is “not necessarily compatible” with the nearby residential area to the west. However, he said that the panels are too far from the homes to cause problems and that some permitted uses on campus, like large buildings and parking lots, would impact area residences much more.

“What takes me over the edge is these folks can build as a permitted use a huge building with a huge parking lot with lots of light, and then I look at this,” Struewing said.

After the meeting, neighbor Phil King said he disagreed with Planning Commission members’ interpretation that the solar array is an educational tool, saying that by the commission’s line of reasoning, anything that the college erected on campus could be deemed to have educational value.

“The idea that solar panels are educational is a huge stretch,” King said. “Anything the college does can be considered educational — a cess pool, or a garbage dump. It is absurd reasoning.”

A number of villagers spoke in favor of the solar array at the meeting, saying that Antioch’s solar plans will establish the village as an energy model, that other colleges have solar arrays directly on campus and that because Antioch once had a coal-burning power plant on campus, they should be supported for replacing it with less-polluting solar technology.

Debate over noise and nuisance

After some debate, Planning Commission agreed that the noise from a power transformer at the array would not affect residences to the west and also that glare from the panels and stormwater runoff caused by the array would not impact neighbors. Several members said they visited a solar field at Cedarville University that is more than twice the size of Antioch’s proposed array before coming to these conclusions.

Several immediate neighbors of the campus spoke before the commission voted to dispute the idea that the solar array would have minimal impact on neighbors, saying that the solar field would be noisy, cause glare and be an eyesore.

Mike Kelly, who lives on Kurt Street, said that sound carries differently on the “golf course” and that comparing the Cedarville project, which is located in a more industrial area, is not appropriate.

“To say that the hum [of the transformer] is not going to reach our house is not specific to the site,” Kelly said.

Kelly urged the commission to both conduct detailed studies of the potential noise and glare from the project and to ask Antioch to scale back its project to reduce the impact on neighbors, calling it “a big industrial complex on the golf course.”

During the meeting, King suggested that Planning Commission seek a more thorough study of stormwater drainage issues on the site before approving the conditional use. Commission members, however, said that an independent study conducted by local engineer John Eastman was conclusive in showing that the project would not affect rainwater drainage on the property or create flooding problems for neighbors. In a letter to Planning Commission, Eastman argued that erecting solar panels on the site wouldn’t reduce soil permeability at all, adding that because rainwater flows west to east along the property, homes to the west would not be affected by potential drainage issues anyway.

At a previous meeting, neighbors expressed concern about the presence of sinkholes under the proposed solar array. This week, Stratton reported that Antioch has since filled in several sinkholes with gravel and also slightly altered the location of several rows of panels in its site plan so they are no longer located directly above sinkholes. The new layout did not change the footprint of the 20 rows of panels, added Solar Power & Light CEO Brent Boyd at the meeting.

Next steps for college, neighbors

According to Interim Village Manager Kent Bristol, this week’s conditional use and site plan approval from Planning Commission were the final steps of the Village process and that short of legal action, the solar project is slated to proceed.

King said after the meeting that neighbors have not yet discussed taking further action to halt the installation of solar panels, including the possibility of legal recourse. He added that neighbors will more than likely now focus their efforts on “the farm fight” to keep Antioch from adding more and larger animals to the rest of the golf course property.

Stratton, Antioch’s physical plant director, said after the meeting that the Antioch community is “ecstatic” about Planning Commission’s unanimous decision, that he believes the process was fair and complete and that Antioch worked to satisfy the commission’s concerns.

“I think [Planning Commission] felt like we did our homework and we were able to satisfy and address all the concerns the neighbors had,” Stratton said.

Stratton said Antioch hopes to sign a power purchase agreement with Solar Power & Light later this week and that construction of the solar field could be complete three to four months later. Once an agreement is reached, Solar Power & Light will file the necessary permits with Greene County before breaking ground, Stratton added.

Stratton said that Antioch has no problem complying with the Planning Commission’s request for a vegetative buffer along the eight-foot chain link fence on the west side of the array, which the commission added as a condition of approving the solar project site plan. Antioch had already planned to add vegetative screening to the east of the solar array between a line of mature sycamore trees and also along the perimeter of the “golf course” where it borders residential areas, Stratton said.

Because Antioch will not expand its livestock operation on south campus in 2014, it is not planning to make any additional requests of Planning Commission this year, Stratton said.

A sneak peek of the new Antioch Wellness Center

Last weekend Antioch College opened to the public its 44,000-square foot Wellness Center currently undergoing a yearlong $8 million renovation. Antioch employees showed visitors some of the features the center will boast when it opens in September:

A renovated six-lane competition-length pool that uses a UV filtration system to minimize chlorine.
A therapeutic whirlpool.
Renovated locker rooms, a “grab and go” snack bar, and lounge area.
Numerous indoor courts on which to play basketball, volleyball, racquetball, badminton and “pickleball,” a 1960s game played with a racket now in vogue.
Several spaces for group classes like yoga, Pilates, Zumba and more.
The “South Gym” area renovated into a multipurpose room with banquet and conference space.
A preserved 1930s mural in the East Gym.
A large workout room in what was formerly the West Gym.
Use of re-purposed gym floors throughout the facility.
An office space for visiting health care practitioners.
Areas for massage and childcare.
ADA compliance throughout with an elevator that accesses all three stories.

Antioch will announce its membership rates in an insert in the July 3 issue of the News. All membership passes are “all in one,” providing access to the entire facility.

The center’s official grand opening is slated for Saturday, Sept. 6.

For more, read the News’ latest article on the Antioch Wellness Center: http://ysnews.com/news/2014/05/wellness-for-body-mind-community .

College big news: wins victory on path to accreditation

Antioch College has been successful in achieving candidacy status in its pursuit of accreditation, College President Mark Roosevelt announced to a standing ovation at the college’s Alumni Dinner on Saturday evening. Candidacy status is a critical step in the college’s rebirth that has taken several years to achieve, and that allows significant benefits, including students now being eligible for federal financial aid..

The announcement was made during a playful and festive presentation that included a surprise visit from the college’s first president, Horace Mann, who arrived at the event in a golf cart.

“If Antioch College can back from the dead, so can I,” Mann said.

The college had just received the accreditation news the previous day, Roosevelt said. And the Higher Learning Commission, which grants accreditation, also allowed the college to take the fast track to accreditation from here on out, on a two-year path rather than the traditional four-year process.

See the June 19 Yellow Springs News for a more detailed story.

Applause, pleas at farm forum

In some ways last week’s public forum regarding the Antioch College farm was a pep rally for environmental sustainability and the resurgence of a unique liberal arts college. Upwards of 200 villagers attended the event in the Bryan Center gym on Wednesday, May 7, mostly clapping and cheering for the seven administrators, staff and student representatives who spoke of the model production farm and planned solar array on the 36 acres known as the college golf course.

In other ways, the forum appeared to be a standoff between the farm proponents and a smaller group of villagers, mostly neighbors of the farm, who continue to state their belief that the golf course is an inappropriate place to raise animals and should remain the open space that has benefitted the community for the past several decades.

For both farm supporters and detractors, long-time villager Richard Cook asked a provocative question: “How do we integrate the village of Yellow Springs” into the college’s plans for this property central to the town?

For its part, the college had a well rehearsed answer in the seven presentations laying out its plans for a small, tightly managed vegetable and animal raising operation to feed and power its campus and develop “new and better ways” of farming, eating and living. College President Mark Roosevelt, physical plant director Reggie Stratton, Glen Helen Ecology Institute Director Nick Boutis, farm manager Kat Christen, admissions director Micah Canal and several students spoke about the reasons the farm is a necessary academic and environmental focus for the school and needs to occur in the location of the golf course.
“It’s abundantly clear that the way we live in America is not sustainable … it’s our obligation to address these issues — to take them on in an Antioch manner and serve as a model for others,” Roosevelt said, to much clapping throughout the room. “The location is pedagogically important — this is not an ancillary activity for us.”

In addition, the college had a small panel of several faculty members and Brett Henderson, of Miamisburg’s Solar, Power & Light, which is developing the solar array, to help field questions and comments from the audience.

Antioch almuna, Yellow Springs native and college neighbor Jalyn Roe spoke about her deep professional and cultural connections to the college and also about feeling disrespected when the college failed to consult its neighbors regarding the farm’s location. Her support for the college is unrelated to her opinion that the farm, while good, doesn’t belong on the golf course, she said.

“I am a villager who gets this — but not on this particular open space property,” she said. “The farm and sustainability are excellent ideas but with so many stakeholders involved, we need to reach out and see where the best spot for this project is … I doubt seriously that students and faculty wouldn’t support 50 acres outside the village.”

But Antioch alumna Lynn Sontag said the college had tried that approach with its farm along Grinnell Road, which she helped manage in the early 1980s. And retired Antioch professor Peter Townsend agreed that few students made the relatively short trip to that off-campus farm, a situation that would repeat itself today if the farm were moved from the current location.

“If the farm isn’t on campus, it isn’t gonna happen,” he said.

But what about animal smells and noises, villager Steve Hetzler and neighbor Betty Ford said, with Ford asking, “How would you like to have cow and pig waste in your back yard?”

And how about the college’s original commitment to protect natural resources, neighbor Lauren Miller asked with a plea to purchase part of the golf course.

“Antioch College said it had an opportunity to use the golf course without destroying resources, but the natural resource of land was left out,” Miller said. “And your plans keep changing — first there was a dog park, now there is no dog park — when your plans change it’s hard to trust you.”

Glen Director Boutis asked villagers to withhold judgement until the results were clear.

“We’re not here to say, ‘trust us,’ but give us the opportunity to earn your trust,” he said.
Boutis pointed out that the supposition that having animals on the farm would result in harm was unproven.

“We are managing the farm in a way that that doesn’t happen … so that the farm doesn’t create ecological harm to the environment and to the community.”

Many villagers applauded the unique work the college is doing for the environment, energy conservation and for the community. Anisa Kline is excited to be able to walk to the farm and show her baby Layli the animals — “That’s why we live in Yellow Springs,” she said.

Community Solutions Director Pat Murphy asked if the college had approached the Department of Energy for funds to publicly promote the farm project. Nadia Malarkey feels the farm is needed to educate people about the ecological disaster industrial farming practices and energy consumption have created. Michael Jones is sad to see the tranquil open space erode but likes that the farm “is cultivating a sense of intimacy with the town” and hopes the farm will revive an old idea for an Antioch culinary institute to “exalt” its harvest.

Villager Ed Amrhein, parent of a current student, said, “I’m with you all the way — I’m with you and I’m delighted to see the plan articulated so clearly.”

Regarding the solar array, neighbor Steven Roe asked if the college had considered alternatives to the golf course. According to solar rep Brett Henderson and facilities director Reggie Stratton, the cost of moving the solar off campus or onto existing rooftops would make the cost prohibitive for the project’s investors.

“Unless we cut down every tree on campus and restored every roof … and then we’d only get half of what we need” to power the college and the geothermal HVAC system, Henderson said.

Others asked about the power arrangement with the Village, with former Village Manager Laura Curliss voicing her concerns, including using a prime location for a purely utilitarian cause and changing the feel of the once open and natural field in town.

In terms of the power contract, according to Stratton, the college negotiated with the Village a net metering arrangement in which the college will initially supply 50 percent of its power from the solar field (with excess going to the village grid). The college will also absorb the $10,000 in annual “demand charges” the Village will incur because of reduced power demand. Henderson believes the deal will “more than make up for” the loss in Village electric revenue, and though the Village has a power contract for 84 percent of its power from renewable sources, Stratton wants a truly green energy source for the college, not green energy credits.

“The electrons coming across the grid [to the Village] are coal and gas based,” he said. “We want energy we know and can verify.”

To the initial question from villager Richard Cook about how the college and village will work together on the farm project, Roosevelt said this:

“Our future and your future are intimately tied; we know there are some things in this plan that some of the neighbors object to — we know that and we worry about it,” he said. “But we think that 95 percent of the time our interests are going to be in common, and we believe that we and the village will succeed. … It won’t mean it will always be kumbaya, but it will be respectful.”

Wellness for body, mind, community

In its former life, the Antioch College gym had lots of windows but most were covered with boards. Now, the boards have been removed and the windows upgraded. Light streams through the 26 large, newly-visible windows in the building’s east and west wings (formerly the east and west gyms) while more light cascades from the swimming pool’s south wall of glass, as well as from new windows added to the pool’s north side. And light pours from new windows into the multipurpose room where yoga and tai chi classes will be held, as well as in studios soon to be available for classes and other gatherings.

Nearing the end of its $8 million, yearlong renovation, the new Antioch College Wellness Center will have an abundance of light. And that light serves many purposes, according to project lead Dorothy Roosevelt. It illustrates the revived college’s goal, in restoring its aging facilities, to highlight the strengths of a building while upgrading for improved functionality and energy use. The light conveys naturalness, spaciousness and openness, the qualities that leaders seek in the new facility. And light can also be seen as a symbol for the revived college.

“It’s a metaphor for an opening up, an expanding,” Roosevelt said in a recent interview. “It’s the college expanding into the community.”

Hasek new director
Roosevelt and Monica Hasek, the newly hired director of the center, were clearly enthused to take a visitor on a recent tour of the facility, which is expected to open in late summer or early fall. Walking in from the front entrance, a visitor first sees the lobby, soon to have couches and chairs arranged into groupings that provide spaces for people to come together, or just to hang out. Healthy snacks will be available and unlike many fitness facilities, there will be no piped in music or TV. Rather, at best, there will be, along with the sounds of people jogging or playing ball, the low hum of human voices, sharing ideas.

“I’d like things to bubble up here around wellness in the broadest sense, not only physical but social and emotional, and the wellness of the community,” Roosevelt said.

It’s a place where students and villagers, the old, the young and all in between, will be welcome.
“We’re excited to strengthen the connection between the village and college, to provide a meaningful way for people to come together around wellness,” Roosevelt said.

The recent hiring of Hasek, for 10 years the owner/director of Yoga Springs, as the center’s director was a step toward strengthening that bond between college and community, Roosevelt believes.

“That Monica is a villager is fabulous,” Roosevelt said, citing also Hasek’s business experience, energy and expertise around wellness and enthusiasm as strengths she’ll bring to the job.
Hasek, who is married to Yellow Springs News co-owner Robert Hasek, is also a professional interior designer and realtor. She takes the place of Becky Harrison, who was hired in February to head the facility but left two weeks ago. Harrison was not a good fit for the job, according to Roosevelt, even though the college followed an extensive search process before hiring her. When Harrison left just two weeks ago, college leaders wanted to move quickly to find a new director to keep the project moving ahead. And Hasek, with whom Roosevelt had met several times to discuss visions for the facility, seemed the obvious choice.

Thinking big is one of her passions, Hasek said, and she brings to the job a vision of Yellow Springs as a wellness destination, which she has nurtured for many years in her capacity at Yoga Springs.

“I feel I’m a pioneer in the community in bringing wellness practitioners together,” she said. Having collaborated with local yoga teachers for the past 10 years at Yoga Springs, she’s ready to expand her vision to create beneath one roof a central location for a wide variety of wellness trainers, facilitators and educators.

Initially, though, Hasek will have a full plate keeping the center on track, with programming activities, scheduling, ordering equipment, hiring an assistant director and filling several part-time positions and developing policies and procedures. She and Roosevelt are also working to create a membership cost structure, which they hope to keep competitive with regional wellness facilities. And Hasek will also soon launch fund-raising activities for the center.

It’s a lot of work, but it didn’t take long for Hasek to say yes to the job offer.

“When I got the phone call, I couldn’t resist,” Hasek said of the opportunity to “expand what I was already doing and create a broader wellness community.”

Flexibility is key
What villagers care about most is the pool, Roosevelt and Hasek agree, and they believe Yellow Springers will be pleased with the result of the year-long renovation. The new pool is seven inches longer than the old, to meet standard Olympic length, and a therapeutic whirlpool has been added. The room has been upgraded in many ways, with new lighting, new windows and the new glass wall to the south, out of which swimmers can see an expansive view of the outdoors, including a patio with tables and chairs.

The former east gym, once home of local volleyball leagues, will be the new home for basketball, volleyball, pickleball and badminton games. Boards were removed from the 14 ceiling-height windows, and the windows upgraded, among other changes. New to the whole building is the open floor plan, which allows those in the lobby to watch what’s going on in the gym. As much as possible in the new center, walls were removed to provide open space.

“The idea is to create a community center where you come to see others, a way to draw people together,” Roosevelt said.

The former west gym, once home of basketball leagues, is now the fitness area, which will house fitness equipment along with a walking/running track around the perimeter.

In between the east and west wings, a multipurpose room with a sprung dance floor that can hold 40 people will be available for a variety of uses, including dance, yoga, tai chi and aerobics. Like many of the center spaces, it is designed to fit many possible uses.

“We’re trying to create spaces that have as much flexibility as possible, to meet the needs of both the college and the community,” Roosevelt said, stating that the center illustrates the philosophy behind the whole campus renovation, in which fewer buildings will be used, but uses will be multiplied, “so that rooms don’t sit empty.”

The building’s locker rooms have been upgraded top to bottom, and the second floor also offers a multipurpose studio space, where classes in such wellness activities as yoga or zumba might be offered. Along with new windows, the floors were refinished and lighting upgraded.

In the whole building, project leaders aim for energy efficiency and hope to meet the standard for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification.

Roosevelt has a masters from Harvard Graduate School in Education in human development and psychology, and spent 10 years working as a researcher for Project Zero, a Harvard Education School program. Her research skills came in handy creating the new wellness center, as she gathered information to aid the planning and building process.

Married to College President Mark Roosevelt, Dorothy Roosevelt first worked in the college admissions office when her family moved to town. But she has practiced, and taught, yoga for years, and when the opportunity to help shape the wellness center presented itself, she immersed herself in the project.

Aside from the satisfaction of creating a new wellness center for the college and the community, Roosevelt is thrilled to help bring the old gym — built in 1929 — back to life.

“I think this building is beautiful,” she said. “I love bringing people together here.”

Yoga Springs owner new director of Wellness Center

Recently, Antioch College officials announced that Yoga Springs owner/director Monica Hasek has been named the new director of the school’s new Wellness Center. The center, an upgrade of the former college gym, will have cost around $8 million when it opens to the public late this summer or early fall.

Hasek, a professional interior decorator and realtor as well as yoga teacher, will replace Becky Harrison, who was hired in February but left the job two weeks ago. According to Dorothy Roosevelt, the Wellness Center project lead, college leaders sought someone local to replace Harrison so as to move forward as quickly as possible. Hasek, who had met several times with Roosevelt to discuss visions for the new center, seemed the perfect choice for the job, according to Roosevelt..

“When I got the phone call, I couldn’t resist,” Hasek said recently regarding the opportunity to “expand what I was already doing and create a broader wellness community.”

The facility has been designed to meet the needs of the community as well as the college, and leaders hope that membership costs will be comparable to area fitness centers, Hasek said. All aspects of the old gym have been upgraded, with new windows, lighting and flooring throughout, a new floor plan, and an expanded pool in a natatorium with a south-facing wall of glass.

See the May 15 News for longer article on the Wellness Center and its new director.