Residents voice concern about spraying glyphosates
By Damian Mann for Ashland.news
A proposal to improve the walkability of Winburn Way through Lithia Park has been tabled until Feb. 11 by the Ashland Parks & Recreation Commission.
At its Dec. 3 meeting, the Parks Commission took issue with various aspects of a plan that would create an 8-foot wide pedestrian path that would allow dogs and two 10-foot wide lanes for vehicles with striping to create a buffer with walkers.
The commissioners also criticized the lack of a drawing showing how the disability parking near the Japanese Gardens would affect the 30-foot-wide roadway, which traverses Lithia Park.
“I want to see what the configuration looks like for the whole ADA plan before we say go ahead and do it,” Commissioner Rick Landt said.
Commissioner Justin Adams said, “It’s hard to vote on a proposal that we don’t have a good design for.”
Commissioners wanted to know how vehicles would navigate around the parking areas and how the pedestrian corridor on the other side of street would look like.
Commissioner Dan Weiner said he thought the roadway next to the Japanese Gardens could become a bigger hazard.
“It sounds like, quite frankly, a bit of a mess,” he said.
Some commissioners wanted to table Winburn Way indefinitely but they supported Commission Chair Jim Bachman motion to bring the proposal back at the Feb. 11 meeting.
Weiner, who made the motion to table the Winburn proposal, also asked to study the creation of a decomposed granite pathway next to the roadway. However he withdrew from seeking the study after commissioners expressed concern about it.
In general, the commissioners reaction followed similar skepticism expressed at its Nov. 5 meeting.
The Ashland Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC), which reviewed options for Winburn, recommended no action, particularly because no pedestrian accidents had occurred on Winburn in the past 30 years. The TAC committee said other streets in the city have more pressing needs.
Nick David, a TAC member, said the proposal before the Parks Commission doesn’t accurately represent the TAC recommendation.
He said a proposal to create a different intersection where Winburn meets Granite Street was not disclosed during a site visit along Winburn.
Some of the cost estimates for the project include $80,000 to build disability parking and other disability improvements, $15,000 to re-stripe, up to $30,000 for pedestrian improvement, $50,000 of Y-intersection improvements and $45,000 to create pedestrian paths above the roadway, which would be part of a future projects.
Commissioners were concerned that the Y-intersection at Granite and Winburn was not presented at an open house where plans for Winburn were discussed. The Parks Commission did table the Y-intersection proposal indefinitely.
The parks commission has $250,000 available in its approved capital budget to improve Winburn.
Glyphosate concerns
In other parks commission business, several residents voice concern about spraying glycophosphates, a widely used herbicide, that is banned in many other countries.
Flavia Franco said glyphosate is listed as “possibly carcinogenic” to humans by the World Health Organization. She suggested vinegar-based solutions.
Franco said Jackson County voted to ban GMO (genetically modified organism) crops 10 years ago and suggested the city do the same with glyphosate, an ingredient in Roundup weed-killer.
“We’d be much better off with zero exposure to this,” she said.
Rocky Houston, parks director, said city code allows it to be used on public lands, but he said the parks department goal is not to use much of it.
“I agree it is a poison,” he said, adding that, applied properly, it is safe to use.
Glyphosate helps deal with a 36% reduction in staff in the past few years that lessens the workload, he said.
Houston said his department is considering “pre-emergents,” another product that helps prevent weeds from growing in the first place. Bachman, the parks commission chair, said the parks department is much more restrictive in its use of glyphosate than other city departments.
Reach freelance writer Damian Mann at [email protected].
