Tuesday morning East Main Street was blocked off from Lithia Way to North Mountain Avenue for repairs that will “add years to the road,” city of Ashland Communications Officer Dorinda Cottle said in a text message.
Childcare providers have until Friday, July 26, to submit applications for Early Childhood Affordability Grant Program grants, according to an announcement by the city on Monday, July 22. The application period opened July 12, the release said.
A master plan tailor-made to guide the city of Ashland’s approach to homelessness was unanimously approved Thursday evening by the final committee standing between the plan and a review from Ashland City Council. A review of the master plan is scheduled for the Aug. 5 council study session.
Ashland City Council approved an update to the buildable lands inventory and responded to recommendations from the Social Equity and Racial Justice Commission but failed to complete an agenda item related to the search for a new city manager and city attorney Tuesday.
In just an hour and half on Monday night, the Ashland City Council strongly affirmed that the city’s future will include major swaths of taller, denser development designed to reduce our dependency on automobiles, adapt to climate change, and provide a greater amount of multi-family and affordable housing, while striving to provide spaces for commercial and small-scale industrial uses.
Ashland’s Street Division installed a colorful thermoplastic artwork piece titled “Walking Upstream.” The work was designed by Glory Salinas Nylander and chosen by the Public Arts Advisory Committee and funded by the Ashland Beautification Initiative.
Ashland City Council will review the process and cost to use a recruitment firm to fill the city manager and city attorney positions at the Tuesday council business meeting, while the Monday study session will focus on an update to the climate friendly areas.
Around 20 people showed up to Ashland’s “Coffee & Conversation” event in the Enders Shelter at Lithia Park Friday morning to raise concerns directly with city councilors and senior city staff in an informal setting, complete with hot and cold brewed coffee.
Ashland Parks & Recreation Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to select Rocky Houston to fill the position of director during an APRC business meeting, alongside statements and announcements regarding best practices for meetings in the city of Ashland.
Ashland Parks & Recreation Commissioners will discuss and vote on whether to hire Rocky Houston to fill the position of APRC director at the commission’s business meeting Wednesday evening. The commission already announced the hiring of Houston at its June 12 meeting.
Southern Oregon University budgeted for a 1-3% reduction in student credit hours this fall, but is now facing the need to restructure its budget by $2.7 million as the university lowers enrollment projections due to a significantly delayed rollout of federal aid applications anticipated to prompt a 6% reduction in student credit hours.
A wind-driven grass fire ignited near Almeda Drive on Sept. 8, 2020, ravaged its way northwest through the wildland urban interface, destroying thousands of structures through Talent and Phoenix. The direction of the wind that day is often credited with preserving Ashland from the fire. But there was also a quick intervention from the south, when firefighters with the Greensprings Rural Fire District extinguished a vehicle fire intentionally set on fire at Emigrant Lake.
The unveiling of the final version of a major mural project in downtown Ashland was a big night for the local art scene. More than one hundred people crowded into the warehouse-sized studio of muralist John Pugh on Helman Street on Friday night to see Pugh’s vision for a mural that will adorn the Ashland Elks Lodge at 255 E. Main Street.
Obituary: Amanda Louise (Butler) Pyle, 80, a longtime Rogue Valley resident and elementary school teacher, passed away Sept. 3 at Celia’s Hospice House in Medford. Teaching was not a “job” for Amanda — it was a passion. She is especially remembered for involving students in creative projects and also for giving every one of them a hug as they left her classroom at the end of each school day.
Local law enforcement agencies say they’d love nothing more than a break in the investigation into the cause of the devastating Almeda Fire of Sept. 8, 2020. Sadly, four years since the fire destroyed more than 2,500 homes and burned 3,200 acres between Ashland and Phoenix, investigators don’t know much more than they did immediately after the fire.
While the mayor’s office and one council seat failed to draw incumbent candidates, council seat positions 1, 2 and 3 and Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission seats 1 and 2 all have multiple candidates filed for the approaching election.
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