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Beer garden scaled back for Fourth By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings A combination of citizen complaints and the old Hillah Temple becoming city property has led to a scaled-down beer garden for this July 4 celebration. According to Chamber of Commerce marketing director Mary Pat Parker, the changes were a reaction to concerns from residents over the proximity of the beer garden to the nearby dunk tank managed by Ashland's United Methodist Church. "We got comments that maybe we should separate those two out," Parker said, adding that the Chamber receives a deluge of comments from residents every year about a variety of issues. She could not recall who raised the complaint about the beer gardens location. "I also think that because the building used to be the Hillah Temple and wasn't used for anything, the parameters are different now that it's city property," Parker added. Chris Allard, principal of Medford-based Cascade Concessions - the firm that runs the July 4 beer garden in Ashland as well as Eagle Point - said she faced a more significant level of red tape this year. She feared that the beer garden was in danger of being cut altogether from future celebrations. "I was working with Mary Pat at the Chamber of Commerce, and because the beer garden is smaller this year, and I had to jump through so many hoops with the City, I just asked her if they were trying to phase it out," Allard said. "She said they're going to put other vendors in (the Lithia Park site) this year because some church groups had said they were offended by the beer garden. I don't know who they are, which ones, or what booth they had. But in terms of promoting a bar atmosphere, we run a pretty clean event. It's out in the sunshine, it's over-21 only, and we have jazz music. It's much more festive than a dark bar with intoxicated people." In addition to carrying a $1 million insurance policy, Allard said she signed documents indemnifying city employees from damages as a result of the beer garden's activities. She also inked a use permit which includes among its special conditions that "the permittee shall use positive action to assure that its use of the property in no way interferes with or embarrasses sidewalk users or limits their free and unobstructed passage by the property." Graham Lewis, director of Christian education for Ashland's First Methodist Church said he had not heard of any such complaints about the proximity of the beer garden. Haylene Campbell, who runs the dunk tank, which serves as a fundraiser for the church's youth missions, said she hadn't heard of any complaints either. "Even if the dunk tank isn't nearby, those people will come find us anyway. Having the dunk tank near the beer garden actually serves us well. You get a lot of people coming in and trying to hit that little target. And if they've had a few beers, they might buy an extra ball," Campbell said. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -