Tuesday, March 09, 1999
Counterculture town rallies to fight sprawl
Residents buy farm as buffer
BY JAMES HANNAH
The Associated Press
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio — Basking in their success in buying 930 acres of farmland at auction as a buffer against urban sprawl, residents of this Southwestern Ohio village celebrated with their usual quirkiness.
Marchers with kazoos played “Old McDonald's Farm” as tractors pulled floats down the village's main drag. Bystanders joined the Feb. 27 parade despite pouring rain and 30-degree temperatures, Village Manager David Heckler said Monday.
A 1960s style of counterculture thrives in this village, where organic food, tie-dyed shirts and men in ponytails are part of the mainstream.
So when residents found out the sprawling Whitehall Farm north of town was being auctioned, possibly to developers, they responded with rallies, fund-raisers and a 13-hour benefit concert.
In the end, with the generosity of a pair of married lawyers, they gathered $3.27 million to buy all 930 acres on Feb. 22.
“The great fear was that developers were going to come in and destroy the ambiance, the place and basically the life that people have here now,” said Karen Gundersen, 33, pausing as she shopped at a gourmet food store.
“The whole town rallied around. It was really exciting.”
Yellow Springs, a village of 4,000 people 20 miles east of Dayton, is home to Antioch College and saw hippies and war protesters walk its streets in the 1960s and '70s.
Today, shops selling pottery, art and health food line the main street, drawing tourists for a little '60s nostalgia.
Incense burns inside the Second Chance Hemp Co. clothing store, where album covers of the Doors, Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin and other vintage rock groups hang on the walls.
“We're unique, and we want to keep it that way,” said Maria Thornton-Bunkley, 30, as she tended to customers at the Organic Grocer.
“I get all misty just talking about it.”
Residents saw a threat to their identity when they learned in January that the farm would be auctioned off to settle an estate.
The village immediately earmarked $400,000 from a special green-space fund to try to buy the farm. And then residents went into activist mode, organizing fund-raising events, rallies and even protests to try to scare away developers.
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