There is a saying that the only permanent activity in life is change! Well, here in the Dayton View Triangle, change is taking place all around. We see change in this year's fall foliage, we see the change that is taking place at UTS, change in the departure of neighborhood activists, and with a new slate of officers for 2004! See the masthead where in is a list of these new officers who have volunteered their time to make the Dayton View Triangle a better place to live.

With the departure of our friends Debby and Jay Hahn and Bill and Jane Patterson, we have lost trustees from several districts, in addition to districts that already lack trustees. If you are interested in joining a happy band of activists, then please consider nominating yourself for a year as a trustee. The duties are few (monthly meeting on the 4th Tuesday of each month and pass out flyers in your district). Depending on your skills and desires, you can volunteer to help out with any one of around a dozen or so activities sponsored by the Association each year. Come to the General Meeting Sunday, November 23rd and join up. We are often blessed and need to consider how to give back. Being a trustee is one way!

Very soon you will receive a letter asking you to join the Triangle Federation. We keep the dues low ($10 family and $5 single membership) so that anyone living in the Triangle can participate. The money is used for activities throughout the year: flyers, Halloween party, Spring Egg Hunt, ice cream socials, and such. If you join we will ask for a telephone number and if you have one, your e-mail address. These will only be used to contact you for Triangle events and if you desire, to become a member of the crime watch e-mail information/alert list.

When the City of Dayton proposed to remove a traffic light at Kipling and Cornell due to budget cuts, Cynthia Spearman, who drives that route every day, felt it was it was a bad plan. Spearman, a trustee in District 1, began by asking her fellow trustees to drive along Cornell with an eye on pedestrian traffic.

She also wrote a petition to keep the lights, pointing out the heavy population of children and an RTA stop. While collecting signatures door-to-door along Cornell, she discovered that many people felt strongly that they wanted to write letters. She helped them get the letters done.

The holiday season is fast approaching and its time once again to prepare for our annual Adopt-A-Family fund raiser. Please help those less fortunate than you and start off your holiday season with a generous (tax deductible) donation. Last year we raised $315 to provide families with Kroger gift certificates. If you know of any family in our Triangle that needs assistance, please contact Cynthia Spearman at 279-0472.

We hope that friendly reminders can save neighbors from a ticket as well as keeping high levels of curb appeal. We are writing directly to a number of owners, asking them to comply with existing city ordinances. In many cases the response has been positive, and Triangle residents quickly react. We all get overwhelmed at times.

Second, we are working closely with the city Housing Inspectors and our inspector, Mike Johnson, in particular. Eleven cars have been removed from the neighborhood and 3 unoccupied structures have been boarded up. There have been approximately 20 warnings and citations issued. This is the first step of a yearlong effort to nudge property owners to maintain and upgrade the areas structures and yards.

Plans to demolish the Troutman buildings inch along. The City has given permission to demolish them, and we hope this will happen by March of 2004.

The Housing Committee has been meeting at Steve Blatt's house. The committee is comprised of Mike Dolinski, Chair; Marsha Sargeant, Vice Chair; and Steve Blatt, Ted Scheidt, Kay Rizer, Catherine Hawkins, Jerry Shultz, and Jay Hahn. A number of issues have been identified and strategies are being formulated.

Spiderman came, as did Peter Pan, accompanied by Tinker Bell, and there was the cutest nurse less than 3 feet tall. There was a very realistic Freddy Krueger, too. More than 50 children attended the Dayton View Triangle Halloween party late in October. Hosted by District 2 Trustee Gloria Hudson, it was a family affair for them. Her daughter helped with the party games, and granddaughter came dressed as a fairy princess. There were the games, and the parade of costumes, followed by punch and cookies. Goody bags filled with candy completed the day.

United Theological Seminary may leave the Triangle, but until December, nothing is definite. UTS has been an important part of Upper Dayton View for 132 years.

In May of 2003, neighbor Edwin Zeiders, President of UTS, told the Triangle Board of Trustees that the Seminary's Comprehensive Plan questioned whether it was possible to save the campus and the likely cost of saving it.

The UTS Board of Trustees is not interested in spending money on the Dayton View site in any way -- not for repairs, not for demolition, not for new construction. With the exception of the chapel, the buildings have only 3 years of useful life left in them. They need major repairs such as roofs, replacement of plumbing and electrical, etc. One building has been closed because it is collapsing. This is Fout Hall, the building that backs up to Catalpa Dr.

Over the summer UTS was contacted about the possibility of moving to NCR's Sugar Camp, located on the edge of Dayton/Oakwood. As of October UTS has passed a resolution to purchase Sugar Camp after all "due diligence." A decision will probably be known in early December.

The present Dayton campus cannot be sold before a new location is secured. The present location, some 32 acres, is currently zoned 'University District.' Any other use would require a zoning change.

John Gower, Director of Planning for the City of Dayton, remarked at one meeting that any reuse would not have a negative impact on the neighborhood. But those of us who have enjoyed the greenspace, played with our children at the play ground, attended concerts on the Oval will certainly feel some impact should we lose this special neighbor.

Bill and Jane Patterson (Dist. 6) left their house on Harvard (after 50 years!) for an apartment behind the Dayton Art Institute. Bill, a photographer and graphic artist, has taken most of the photographs of the Home Tour homes and the House of the Quarter pictures. He has at times put together the newsletter, and always does a spectacular job on Home Tour Brochures. He has been membership chairman, and a trustee for many terms. What doe he like best about his new space? No stairs!

Dennis and Kathy Turner (Dist.3) moved to the Oregon District, where Dennis glories in having no yard work. Dennis is the founder and instigator of the Triangle Federation. He is proud of his campaign to get more and better street lights for the neighborhood. Kathy began the annual neighborhood garage sale. Both Kathy and Dennis have been trustees for more than 20 years.

Debby and Jay Hahn (Dist. 5) are heading to North Carolina at the end of the year. In 15 years, Debby has been involved in many Triangle projects, including the street lights, Neighborhood Watch, membership, and the summer concert series. Her most exhaustive and memorable effort is the now-defunct Neighborhood Youth Organization, with former neighbor Debbie Hill. She also provided computers and computer training. Jay, trustee, treasurer, and occasional Spring Bunny, began the ice cream social and family film night, an event we hope will become a tradition.

Alecia Schroedel (Dist. 11), who became a trustee while a student at UTS, now works at Fairview Methodist, across Salem. She ran the Community Garden project and has been our liaison with the Seminary when duties kept Ed and Joan Zeiders away.

Sandi Simmons and Tom Jonak are heading to Miamisburg and the glories of a younger house. Sandi has been an exemplary trustee and officer of the Triangle. She has been president, vice president, writer of grant proposals and strategic planner. Under her leadership, the Federation obtained grants to help refurbish the playground at the Seminary and to hold summer concerts. Sandi and Tom have opened their home to newsletter collating parties and innumerable neighborhood events. Tom handled House of the Quarter nominations for many years.

Meet and mingle with friends and neighbors at the 25th annual Dayton Neighborhood Ball Saturday, Dec. 6 at Sinclair Community College's Ponitz Center. The event starts at 7 with a cash bar. Dinner is 7:30. Semi formal or formal attire is requested. Reserve for dinner by Dec. 1. Dinner and dance is $35.* To receive a ticket order form, contact Gale Heller at 224-5071 or gheller1@prodigy.net or Jill Hamilton at 275-1222 or jill937@msn.com.

Former President and fomer trustee Hal Fox has a new role. He plays Col. Pickering in the Dayton Theatre Guilds production of Pygmalion Nov. 21-Dec. 7. For tickets, call the Guild at or go online at http://www.daytontheatreguild.org/.

Volunteer as a lunch server at House of Bread. Get a friend or neighbor to go with you and spend a fun couple of hours. Call former Dist. 7 trustee Bill Evans at 226-1520 to schedule a time.

Just because they felt like it, Jerry Shultz (Dist.6.) and Jack Bish scraped and painted a house on Otterbein that has been looking sad for over 10 years.