Ashland City Council returns to its roots with homecoming

WRDL Feature News Reporter Steve Shrenkel

ASHLAND – Ashland City Council returned to its roots on Tuesday, Oct. 1 in the newly renovated meeting room at City Hall on Claremont Avenue after meeting in the Ashland Schools’ Administrative Office Building for nearly two years.

Before returning to the new hall, the building had to be renovated in order to accommodate the city council.

Ashland’s Mayor Matt Miller said that they were very pleased to be back at city hall, especially since it wasn’t in the best of shape before they left.

“We are so pleased to be back here in city hall holding our council meetings in what used to be our council chambers,” Miller said. “Prior to us leaving two years ago, this room had very dim lighting, ceiling tiles falling from the roof, water stains on the walls and plaster piles. Everything changed thanks to the hard work of our city employees. Now, we have state of the art technology. We’re all very pleased to be back in city hall.”

The room now has technological advances including a projection system, iPads for every councilmen, a projection system and Ashland’s ‘A’ logo on the wall.

The first issue discussed during the meeting involved updating the city’s tax filing system by implementing a new software from Civica. The software would allow Ashland residents to submit their tax returns in a more modern way while also providing a more automated system for online payments.

The Civica software would also include a remote backup system if data cannot be accessed. There are plans in place to implement the new system in 2020 but those who still want to submit their tax returns the old fashioned way can submit them in person.

Miller said that he believes the new software comes with all sorts of benefits.

“Income tax collection is the most important part of funding for city government,” he said. “There’s all sorts of benefits that come with the new system, not the least in which people are able to file their income taxes online.”

The council also approved the exterior renovation of the 16 East Main Street Building. This would include a complete renovation of the front side of the building along with the back side of the building being restored as well.

Miller said that he’s excited for the project and hopes that it can be completed by July of next year.

“This is another exciting project,” he said. “For the last several decades we’ve been looking at the building located on main street that has continued to deteriorate and crumble. The facade and bricks coming loose have become a major public safety concern. That’s why we originally erected the scaffolding there. We hope once we can get a contractor lined up we can complete this project by July of next year.”

The council also discussed and confirmed speculation about a potential roundabout at the intersection of Cottage Street and US 250. They approved to enter a discussion with ODOT moving forward to help modernize the intersection.

Miller said that this project would really help to make the intersection safer.

“Over the last several decades there have been conversations on how to make the intersection safer by the entrance to our industrial park,” he said. “It is a very busy intersection. There’s all sorts of traffic out there that comes with the manufacturing facilities and businesses. Professional engineering firms were hired to do traffic studies to see if that area warranted a traffic signal. All those studies came back and said they did not but that a roundabout would help instead.”

The roundabout would be a single lane design and include the slip ramp to help make the area more efficient for entering and exiting.

Councilman Steve Workman said that this would really help to move the city forward.

“This is moving the city forward for sure,” Workman said.

ODOT is expected to fund this project with an upwards of $2 million to cover the cost of the roundabout, Miller said.

The project is expected to begin in 2022.

“We are very pleased with this project,” Miller said. “This project will modernize that whole entry way into our city. We’ll be putting our best foot forward on the north side of town.”

Besides being moved back to Ashland City Hall, the council meeting was also live-streamed on Facebook while being put back onto Armstrong Cable’s channel 2.

Miller said that all of the meetings will be broadcast in this way from now on, in hopes that people who can’t make the meetings tune into their TV’s

“There are a lot of important and exciting projects happening in this community right now,” he said. “The more people know about them, the better.”