The Ashland Citizens’ Budget Committee Wednesday recommended a $373 million biennial city budget that avoids drastic cuts to parks and throws a lifeline to a preschool grant program.
A $5 monthly fee to cover funding gaps and prevent large budget cuts to Ashland Parks & Recreation was tentatively approved at a joint Wednesday meeting between APRC and Ashland City Council.
The process to create the City of Ashland’s budget began last November with a meeting of city leadership, said finance director Marianne Berry.
Ashland children can start playing little league at three years old and keep playing until they’re 12 (and sometimes a little older) through the Ashland Little League nonprofit organization, but access to the sport depends on access to fields and facilities, said Ashland Little League Board President Kari Pennell.
Families gathered at Lithia Park’s Japanese Garden on Sunday to celebrate Children’s Day, a traditional Japanese holiday dedicated to the happiness and healthy growth of children.
Boat tours will be again offered this summer on Crater Lake.
A $6.50-per-month parks fee for utility bills — smaller than a proposed $9 fee the City Council narrowly rejected in April — was recommended to the City Council through a unanimous vote by commissioners, but not without discussion and some trepidation.
The scheduled cuts include the elimination of environmental education programs, including the closure of the Nature Center at North Mountain Park, the layoff of one staffer, and the shutting down of the Nature Center’s programs, such as community gardens and the Salmon Festival, according to an APRD budget reduction summary obtained by Ashland.news.
Ashland Parks & Recreation Commissioners struggled to reconcile pleas from staff and dire predictions from the department’s director in the face of 5 to 10% cuts during Wednesday’s APRC business meeting. With 10% cuts, the Senior Center would lose one full time employee and reduce hours to two days per week, the East Main Park project would be cancelled and the city would return funds to the state.
Bryan Deboer was unequivocal that land his family owns and intends to build on on a wooded hillside west of Lithia Park will be protected for public access, not cut off as stated in some rumors circulated on social media warning of impending loss of access to a popular trail.
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Ask Strider: A worried older brother asks our advice columnist’s advice. And a dog’s guardian wants to know if there is any hope getting their hat-hating dog to calm down. As always, Strider tries to give words that help!
After a successful production of “The Vagina Monologues” and raising more than $2,000 for Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, Ashland actor and director Lia Dugal intends for “The Climate Monologues” to premiere in Oregon in late 2025 or early 2026 at the Bellview Grange in Ashland.
It’s complicated.
Herbert Rothschild: Whether visualization and intention by themselves can effect broad social change is impossible to determine, but the question merits sustained consideration.
(It’s free)
