A century after the Ashland Springs Hotel opened its doors, the hotel invited a couple dozen guests to mark its 100th anniversary on Saturday, Sept. 20.
Victra, a Verizon-authorized retailer announced the opening of its newest store at 1678 Ashland St. The Verizon store will be the new store front to what was formerly Ashland Electric Bikes in the Ashland Shopping Center. Verizon will offer a lineup of services and mobile plans.
A metal sunflower now stands in front of the Oregon Cheese Cave in downtown Phoenix as a tribute to the community’s resilience five years after the devastating Almeda Fire. Cheese cave owner Mélodie Picard, who spurred the idea, said the metal sunflower is a “sign of hope” that the town has made it five years since the Labor Day blaze.
The former president of the consulting firm ECOnorthwest said a survey of the state’s current condition is “sobering.” Five critical issues were most troubling — housing, education, wildfires, taxation, and attitudes toward growth, including land use laws and permitting processes.
The art of fermentation takes center stage again Sept. 20-21 as Fermentopia, Harvest Edition, serves up a second helping in Phoenix — a weekend celebrating flavor, culture and connection.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival is moving forward on two fronts this fall: keeping audiences engaged with a lively monthly screening series and welcoming longtime programmer Aura Johnson as its new director of programming.
Jim Flint: A decade after Rick Robinson and his wife, director Valerie (Val) Rachelle, stepped into ownership of Ashland’s Oregon Cabaret Theatre, the pair has transformed the intimate playhouse into one of Southern Oregon’s most vibrant cultural hubs.
Ashland will face another shift in its local pharmacy landscape as Rite Aid closes its doors on Sept. 22. Ashland Drug will remain the town’s only locally-owned pharmacy as ongoing pressures from insurance companies and rising costs threaten the profitability of small pharmacies.
John Compton Schweiger, a former Ashland businessman who built a chain of movie theaters across small and mid-sized towns in the West, bringing big-screen entertainment to communities far from the multiplex sprawl, died on July 30 at his home in La Fayette, Georgia. He was 81.
After fulfilling a long-held dream of leading sales and marketing reins at a regional theater by serving in upper sales and marketing management at Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the past three years, Javier “Javi” Dubon’s appointment by OSF’s Board of Directors to interim executive director on June 23 launched him into an expanded role and then some as he became the sixth person in less than seven years to take on responsibility for operations, finance, IT and human resources and more.
The Oregon Legislature is meeting this week to consider some major cuts to current spending levels as a large revenue deficit looms. That’s because the state’s tax code automatically replicates new federal tax cuts, including ones passed by Congressional Republicans this summer that will reduce state revenue
Michael O’Looney: Trump and the Texas Legislature are responsible for a partisan power grab that has unleashed bitterness and partisan vindictiveness, all in an effort to subvert an electoral system for partisan ends.
Councilor Bob Kaplan: While the cost of delivering kilowatt-hours to our homes has risen, Ashland Electric has been able to hold our rates steady with just one increase of 5.1% in 2021. I’m sorry to say we’re due for an increase, but fortunately it’s not likely to match recent increases elsewhere.
An estimate for the cost to abate asbestos found in the shuttered Lincoln School recently should be available as early as sometime this week, according to Steve Mitzel, operations director for Ashland School District. The cost to remove asbestos would be separate from the as yet-unknown cost for structural repair.
“We are still here” was the theme for Saturday’s Native American Heritage Celebration at Southern Oregon University, hosted by the SOU Native American Student Union (NASU) and SOU Native Nations Liaison Kenwanicahee (Kenwani) Kravitz (Madesi Bandi, Pit River Nation Winnemem, Nomtipom and Nomsus Bands Northern Wintu).
As Oregon lawmakers stare down a deficit of at least $373 million over the next two years — and brace for the possibility of a bigger shortfall in the state’s next quarterly revenue — they asked state agencies to create lists of ways to cut 5% of their approved budgets.
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