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SATURDAY February 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels January 10, 2004 Local leaders set goals for '04 By Bill Choy Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland City Council met on Friday to go through potential goals throughout the year. The City of Ashland Mayor and Council Goal Setting Work Session, which concluded on Saturday afternoon, is an yearly meeting that gives city staff and the council a chance to prioritize goals and needs they feel are of importance to the city. Throughout the five-hour session, held at the Community Development Building, the council and city staff met in groups, and talked in a roundtable format to discuss and come up with ideas and issues important to the city and its citizens. On Saturday, they narrowed the more than 40 proposed goals to those that the council and city staff plan to work on for the year. Councilor John Morrison said these goal setting sessions are vital in understanding fellow City Councilor Kate Jackson discusses goals for the year at the mayor and city council goal-setting meeting Friday. Satsuki Doi | Ashland Daily Tidings councilors, city staff and the communities priorities and vision for the city. "We have a lot of different opinions," he said. "This is a collaborative effort where we have to look at and examine our priorities." Mayor Alan DeBoer said many companies and organizations have yearly goal setting sessions like this. It's a great way to get together and work as a group to come up with ideas that are valuable to the city, he said. "It's about listening to concerns," DeBoer said. "[The city council] are representing the community. We're goal-setting to see where [each councilor] is coming from" Council member Kate Jackson felt the two-day session was a good way to work together and prioritize goals for the year. At the study session, a number of goals were discussed. On Saturday, the council discussed which goals will be revised, taken off the list or approved. These included: o complete a city charter review and update process; o establish a public safety advisory committee to provide input on police and fire issues; o provide training for commission volunteers in meeting management, chairing and participating in meetings and ethics; o continue with master planning of large underdeveloped properties; o look at land use to create kid-friendly housing; o consider parking requirements for commercial street widths; o have community discussions about aspects of growth, such as population, jobs, housing and cost; o develop more strategies for slowing growth, while locking in the current ratio of affordable housing for all socioeconomic levels; o map the water capacity and its sources in the watershed and enhance the protection of it; o work to integrate riparian preservation, riparian restoration and stormwater run-off requirements into a single city-wide program; o find a permanent solution to clean the duck ponds in Lithia Park; o establish capitol improvement plan for emergency communication equipment; and o continue with goals to improve the Ashland Fiber Network. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: The new search is here! Click here for more information. .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams