Weekly Update, March 1 - 7

There has been a lot going on around the City this week. Here are some of the projects.

New Classes at Middle School. The Police Department has begun a couple of classes at Ashland Middle School in the health department. One class is on binge drinking generally. The other one is on sexual assault. The class has been put together by officers Carrie Hull, Terri DiSilva, and Mike Vanderlip. We have had a tremendous amount of help as well from the nurses from SANE in developing the curriculum. (I believe the classes are split by gender) According to Police Chief Terry Holderness, "the kids were really interested and wanted more time on each subject. Due to the subject matter flyers went home to all of the parents who were told their child did not have to attend and could and leave at any time. So far we have not had anyone pulled from or leave the class. As we expected we did get two reports of problematic sexual touching that we are looking into." If you have any questions about these classes or if you hear any feedback from parents and citizens, please let Terry know so we can learn as we develop this program.

More from the Police Department. Sergeant Josh Moulin and Detective Brandon Bloomfield from the Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force are presenting an Internet Safety presentation at the Ashland Middle School on Thursday, March 11th at 6:30 pm. Everyone is encouraged to attend as they will be providing info you may find helpful on investigations and/or be able to pass on to parents when responding to calls. The flyer that is going out to All Ashland Middle School parents can be found here. Please contact Chief Holderness if you have any questions.

Lithia Fountains. Our Water Crew will be working on the Lithia Fountain this week starting Monday. We continue to have drainage problems with the fountain. The maintenance work isn't expensive, but you may get some questions about why the fountain isn't working. It will probably need to be an annual occurance.

Parking Limits Begin Again. You may have seen an email from the Street Department, but the 4 hour time limits on parking in the City's surface parking lots are in place again. When the ice rink is re-converted to a parking lot, the four-hour time limits will be re-imposed on Winburn Way as well.

Update on RPS. The RPS Policy Committee will hold a special meeting to talk with Richard Whitman, the DLCD Director on March 11 at 9:30 at RVCOG offices in Central Point. He wishes to address issues that may become important to this last public hearings phase of the RPS process, and to answer any local concerns he can. Additionally, staff is working on scheduling a time for Council to provide feedback to Jackson County as itit conducts hearings on RPS. This will likely be in April or early May and will likely happen at a regular City Council meeting.

Fire Department Ride Alongs. Chief Karns has invited all Councilors to Ride along with the Fire Department for all or part of a regular work shift. Councilor Voisin has already taken him up on the offer and will be spending time with the crews on July 4. If any of the rest of the Council want to work all or part of a shift, please talk to John Karns directly. It's a great experience even if you are somewhat bleary eyed the next day.

Martha