Mike Gardiner and Fer Mejia say why they’re running, what they’d like to get done
By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news
For the upcoming Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission election, all candidates were contacted by Ashland.news for interviews. All who responded were asked the same questions. Answers from candidates competing for the same position were paired together.
Fer Mejia has never run for office before, while Mike Gardiner was a Parks & Recreation Commissioner before resigning in 2021, as previously reported by Ashland.news.
What prompted you to run for the commission?
Mejia: Really just to give back to my community. Ashland has been great ever since I moved here from Guanajuato in 2010. I coach with Ashland DEVO since the program started, and I work for the Head Start program. That’s a lot of social work, giving back to the community. Part of it was also friends encouraging me as well. I think it would be a great opportunity.
Gardiner: Basically through the request of my friends who are currently on the commission. They asked if I would be interested in running again. You know I was on the commission until 2021. Actually, more probably to the point, I feel there’s a lot of opportunity right now with the commission. I think there’s a lot of opportunity with their relationship with City Council.
I like the fact that there’s a new park director installed. To me, that looks like a real positive move. I think there’s a lot of opportunities to advance some of the programs and issues I was dealing with when I was on the commission. … As well as a lot of new issues that have come on board that I don’t know the whole story on but I’m more than willing to roll up my sleeves, and see what I can do to help build some consensus and move programs forward.
Because APRC has so many various assets and responsibilities, let’s break it into two overlapping halves, parks and recreation. What is your vision for the future of Ashland’s parks?
Mejia: I really want to make all the outdoor spaces inclusive and keep them inclusive and open for everyone. And make sure that’s still happening for the future generations. Make sure everyone has access to them.
Gardiner: As most of us know, Ashland has a vibrant and extensive parks system for a city our size. I mean there’s always room to grow and improve. But really what we have to do, we have to maintain what we have, do the best that we can. But the city is also in the process of developing the new East Main park with features that will help folks all over the community, but especially folks that live on the south side of town. They’ll have a new park here in the next year or two that will have a skills park, a dog park, and some of the aspects of a major park in town.
I think there’s always opportunities that come up for expansion, land acquisition, different ideas that come up, different facilities that people want. It’s a pretty dynamic order to think about building a new pickleball court, a new skills park someplace, building new trails, all those things come into play for the parks division for sure.
What about recreation, what do you feel APRC should be doing or is doing well for recreation?
Mejia: I think they’re doing a great job at listening to what the people in Ashland want to see for recreation. I have a couple examples, one of them is the pickleball courts. People in Ashland wanted to convert those tennis courts in Lithia Park into pickleball and that happened. Also the park that they’re building on the east side of town, the doggie park and the pump track, that’s something that people have been asking for for years and it’s finally happening.
Seeing more of that. I think it’s great what the rec part of the commission is doing. If I get elected I want to just try to help more with that.
Gardiner: Recreation programming is essential to the community. Any programs that the rec division can come up with I think are essential. Think they’re doing a pretty good job with what we have as far as programming for, you know, field use and everything from Little League to soccer, really using the North Mountain Park Nature Center, North Mountain Park fields. I think they’re really doing a good job.
There’s always more programs that people are looking for. If the city had more available space to program more, I’m sure the recreation division would be able to do that. Right now a lot of their programs go on in The Grove. They lost some of the area there at The Grove to utility billing and whatnot, but that might change in the future. I think they do a pretty good job of programming recreation at this point.
How do you see the best possible relationship between APRC and City Council?
Mejia: The collaboration I think is definitely happening and starting. I’ve been to one of those meetings, a joint meeting between APRC and City Council. We need to see more of that, of the operation working as a team. I keep saying teamwork makes the dream work. This is also completely new for me, running for a position, I am learning on the go. It’s a learning process. It’s been pretty cool, pretty educational.
Gardiner: Best possible relationship from my perspective is to recognize that we’re dealing with two elected bodies that have two distinct goals. The Parks & Recreation Commission is elected to manage parks and rec for the city. I think in the past, the City Council has always respected that and actually pushed the park commission to do as much as possible to integrate the city with parks and to support each other. City Council has a tough job, they have a lot on their plate, I don’t envy them at all. I just think it’s important that they respect the autonomy of the park commission to make policy decisions and to make good decisions for the citizens of Ashland given their elected status.
What about the way APRC should fit within the rest of the city, such as working with other city departments?
Mejia: I don’t think they should be just working as like individual little entities, but rather as a whole group, and see how can they interact with all of them, within them and help each other. That’s the way I see it.
The conversation is definitely starting and hopefully continues. I think it’s a positive that it’s happening.
Gardiner: I think primarily working with Public Works where you’re sharing responsibility for city owned land, I think of working with Ashland Fire & Rescue when you’re talking about trails and open space up in the watershed. But it’s also important to be able to work with finance, to be able to work with planning, like this whole process of going through the annexation of the new East Main park. That involved a lot of work working with the Community Development department.
I think APRC, their mission overlaps with all the city departments and the more we can work with everyone from HR and legal to planning and Public Works and finance I think it’s all, we’re a city, we all need to work together. I think it’s important that we do that.
Is there anything you want voters to know that I haven’t asked about?
Mejia: If it’s about me, I’m all about the outdoors. I support the idea of bringing more trails, the idea of bringing more tourism that way, targeted to the outdoor sector. I think it’s happening, to start changing how people see Ashland as a destination. Ashland has appeared in different magazines such as Outdoor magazine for best little town to go biking in. And as one of the cutest destinations. I think Ashland has a lot to offer in the outdoors. Ashland sits in a really unique position where it has the access to the trails, to nature, to parks, has the Shakespeare Festival, being able to utilize all those resources.
If you come to see a Shakespeare play, you can also walk around the Calle or come see the festival of lights. And maybe we can move them to Lithia Park too. There’s all these ideas and opportunities we can explore.
A lot of people say, ‘Lets just keep Ashland quiet, as a little treasure, a little gem.’ But also we need this economy, right? If we have those resources, let’s use them in the best way and the most organic way that we can do it.
Gardiner: I’m really passionate about all the recreation and park opportunities that exist here in town. I’ve served on the Ashland senior center board. From seniors to the children to the pool to trails to generating new parks, new facilities, I would like people to know that I’m interested in all those things. I look at the parks commission in a similar vein to a city councilor. You can’t be a one trick pony, you need to be open to all the options that come forward and you need to do what’s best for the city and the citizens.
Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].
