Ashland Fire & Rescue has warned of more intense fire seasons in years to come as local impacts of climate change become more apparent. Division Chief Chris Chambers told the City Council Tuesday, Aug. 2, that coming fire seasons could see an increase in acres burned of between 200 and 400 percent.
With filings due by Aug. 12, the field of candidates for Ashland City Council is becoming crowded as eight candidates, including one incumbent, have filed for three open positions. Seats currently held by councilors Tonya Graham, Stefani Seffinger and Stephen Jensen are set to be filled during the Nov. 8 General Election. Graham is running for reelection; Seffinger and Jensen are not.
Voters in Ashland will be able to expand allowable uses of funds raised via the city’s 5% food and beverage tax, which will be sent to the November ballot following Tuesday night’s Ashland City Council meeting. The tax, under the referendum, would last through at least 2040. It’s currently set to expire in 2030.
The city of Ashland has put out the welcome mat for psilocybin treatment within city limits, following the lead of 80% of Ashland voters who voted in favor of Measure 109 on the 2020 ballot.
Sharing a communications person currently on its staff with the city was added to a list of budget cuts unanimously approved by Ashland Parks & Recreation Commissioners at their regular meeting Wednesday. The recommendations will go to Ashland City Council for final consideration.
Ashland Parks & Recreation Commission could soon drop its lease with the city for Pioneer Hall as part of $350,000 in budget cuts being proposed to help balance the city’s structural deficit. The proposal is up for consideration at the commission’s regular meeting Wednesday, July 13.
Ashland Friends of Parks & Outdoor Spaces, a group that initially set out to put an initiative on the November ballot that would dedicate most food and beverage tax funding to Ashland parks, has suspended its efforts for the time being and asked the City Council to take it off at its July 19 meeting.
Ashland City Councilor Tonya Graham and Mayor Julie Akins traded barbs as Tuesday evening’s council meeting was coming to a close over a comment the mayor made online about wanting the city to consider a “forensic audit.”
Some weighty decisions await Ashland voters this fall regarding who’s the boss of city parks employees and, probably, on where money raised by the city’s food and beverage tax is spent. The majority of Ashland City Council on Tuesday agreed to let voters decide this November whether to let City Manager Joe Lessard oversee all city employees or keep it the same. Councilors also voted to direct city staff to bring back a dual referendum to let voters decide whether a portion of or all of the city’s 5% food and beverage tax should go to parks.
Ashland Parks & Recreation Commission is facing the possibility of cutting up to four personnel, due to 10% budget cuts recommended by City Manager Joe Lessard, according to Michael Black, executive director of APRC, who plans to present potential cuts during a special meeting via Zoom starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 6.
Don Bieghler, beloved Ashland City Band Director for 25 years, leads his last performance this Thursday night in Lithia Park. He’s been with the band for a total of 60 years.
Southern Oregon University President Rick Bailey presented SOU’s highest honor on Monday in Guanajuato to two prominent supporters of the university exchange program between SOU and the University of Guanajuato. An SOU delegation and about 200 guests representing wide segments of the Guanajuato community looked on as the awards were presented to Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, holder of two master’s degrees earned at SOU before he embarked on a distinguished political career in Mexico, and his wife, Francis “Faffie” Romero Siekman, a prime mover behind a scholarship program supporting student exchanges.
Ashland Fire & Rescue has warned of more intense fire seasons in years to come as local impacts of climate change become more apparent. Division Chief Chris Chambers told the City Council Tuesday, Aug. 2, that coming fire seasons could see an increase in acres burned of between 200 and 400 percent.
Birds’-Eye View: Ashland-based nonprofit Klamath Bird Observatory keeps on eye on bird life in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California. Since birds are a key indicator species and migratory paths from much of the Western Hemisphere pass through this area, KBO data helps inform natural resource management on a broad scale.
The 77th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, was marked in Ashland for the 38th year on Saturday. A capacity crowd gathered at Thalden Pavilion, site of an eternal World Peace Flame, to hear remarks and celebrate the planting of a gingko tree sprouted from seeds from a tree that survived the Hiroshima inferno.
Alan Journet: “Today’s Republicans have jettisoned the traditional conservative adherence to democratic principles and have committed themselves to thwarting the will of the voters if they don’t like it.”
(It’s free)
