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Search Menu Login Reset Password Home Weather Archive Sign Up for Alerts Full Site Close Menu From left, Wendy Seldon, Roy Sutton and David Sherr are working to raise money and make a plan to improve the Ashland Plaza. Daily Tidings / Bob Pennell ASHLAND PLAZA RESTORATION PROJECT Grassroots group campaigns for Plaza paver do-over By By John Darling For the Tidings March 25, 2015 - 8:44 PM A group of Ashland citizens is collecting money pledges on Facebook to pay for an overhaul of the recently refurbished Plaza, starting with replacement of the dark gray paving stones with something more colorful.  The group Ashland Plaza Restoration Project posted a Facebook of that name on March 7 and is pushing 500 “likes” and $7,200 in pledges, toward a goal of $35,000. City Councilwoman Carol Voisin has pledged two years worth of her council stipend or $550. Backers plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign for it soon, said David Sherr, a main organizer of the project, with the first $35,000 going for pavers and further fundraising for new trees (several were cut or died during or after the city’s Plaza remodel), landscaping, hanging plants and changes or reduction in benches. Sherr said he envisions lots of citizen input into a more attractive and welcoming Plaza, with a cooperative, back-and-forth design process with the city, which would carry it out. “So many people don’t like it (the city refurbishing of the past few years) and we want it changed. I think the pavers are ugly,” said Voisin, adding that the city, not citizens, should pay for it. Sherr said pledges will be collected and the group will consult with park designers, then a “cohesive plan and design” will be presented to the city. "No money will be collected," he adds, "until citizens and the city agree on the design ... I can’t imagine they wouldn't be supportive of the community effort.” Asked about the effort, city Administrator Dave Kanner said citizens and the city already had an extensive back-and-forth in shaping the present redesign.  “I have no idea what the city council will do with this,” said Kanner, “but I would recommend they say ‘thank you, but we’re not going to do anything.’ It sounds to me like a group of citizens trying to influence public policy-making by purchasing the outcome and that is anathema to democracy.” Sherr defended the external initiative, noting there’s much precedent for it, both nationally and locally, with the successful 1908 drive of the Women’s Civic Improvement Club to establish the now-iconic Lithia Park in the city’s heart instead of the planned shops. The current drive was kicked off by a letter last August from Roy Sutton calling for more citizen input and pledging $100 to a fund to “reassess the whole project and fix the Plaza to make us all proud.” Project member Wendy Selden said, “I’d like to see the Plaza be a community place with a stage, music, entertainers and tables for the surrounding coffee shops, giving it a friendly, useable European feel. The city would have to be in agreement with what we want to happen.” Sherr added, “That would take the pressure off the city. We want a real dialog with the city.”  Selden noted, “We’d like to believe the city would want it to be something the community would be happy with ... done as a collaborative effort.” The citizen fund drive, says Sherr is “a positive, proactive effort to improve the Plaza. It’s the only chance we have of restoring (it),” Sherr said in a letter to the Tidings editor. “Our city government, for whatever reasons, has only taken insufficiently small steps to continue to improve its downtown Plaza and to address the concerns of many here who feel it needs major additional improvements.” Voisin said the Plaza re-do came out of city administration, not a commission, and “the process was flawed.” If the proposed changes end up before the city council, Voisin said, “the votes aren't there for it, so it doesn’t much matter what I think.” "We are not proposing a radical change in the use of the Plaza, just more beautification," Sherr summed up. "Once we have more pledges, we will go to the Planning Commission and the council majority and say, 'this is what we have, this is what we can do for our city, for our Plaza.' It makes more sense to have something in hand to offer the city, first."  A locally-produced documentary about Plaza changes, “Where Have All the Colors Gone?” will debut at 7 pm, Wednesday, April 1 at Havurah Shir Hadash, 185 N. Mountain Ave. John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected] .   Fact Box Documentary premiere Documentary premiere A locally-produced documentary about Plaza changes, “Where Have All the Colors Gone?” debuts at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, at Havurah Shir Hadash, 185 N. Mountain Ave., Ashland. "Canyon Songs," a cinema journey through the National Parks in Southern Utah, will also screen. Total time for both films is about 45 minutes. A $5 donation is requested. What do you think? Have an opinion on this story? Send a letter to the editor at  www.dailytidings.com/sendletter . 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