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Ashland will take a look at night light ordinances By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- A strong showing of people opposed to lighting in North Mountain Park convinced City Council members Tuesday that ordinances need to be rewritten in the city. "Let's look long and hard at night light ordinances," said Mayor Cathy Shaw. "Too many people have complained about it, and we need to get right on it." At a meeting Tuesday, the Ashland City Council was asked to interpret 10 provisions in the city's land use ordinance. The issue was prompted by a Land Use Board of Appeals ruling asking the city to clarify its ordinances regarding the city's golf course and proposed driving range on that golf course. But staff also asked for clarification on lighting issues because of recent controversy over proposed lighting of the sports field at North Mountain Park. And although the council majority agreed for the most part with staff interpretations of ordinances, they were clear that the public deserves more of a say when it comes to lighting. "I don't want anything to do with something that will avoid public process," said Councilwoman Susan Reid. About 24 people spoke to the council or had their letters read into the record at Tuesday's meeting. Most were concerned about the lighting at the park. The North Mountain Park went through an extensive community planning process five years ago, but those at the meeting said lights were never part of the discussion. They heard about a proposal to put lights into the park only last summer when they read it in the Mail Tribune. "I urge you to consider lights as structures and have a public review of them as structures," said Kim Yasutake. "That would be fair and at the heart of the democratic process." Astronomy teacher James Earley said Ashland has "terrible" lighting problems that are dimming his view of the night sky. "You can no longer see the Milky Way from Ashland," he lamented. Bill Anderson said that if the city can put up lights proposed to be 90 feet high without a public hearing on the matter, he should be able to also. "If I could put one in my backyard, I could grow tomatoes all year round," he noted. But Parks Commissioner Teri Coppedge told the council and the assembled lights opponents that the parks commission has not made any decision on lights in the park. "This has not been decided," she said. "And the point of having lights at all is to extend games. We'd like to let kids finish their Little League games." In other action, the city administrator gave the council a memo stating it is best not to change staffing levels in the city's fire department. A consultant had recommended that the city take minimum staffing levels from seven to six firefighters per shift. But after reviewing the fire department's records, City Administrator Mike Freeman determined it would be better to leave the staffing levels as they are now, although he did implement two other consultant suggestions. The firefighters will no longer be paid overtime for nonmandatory training and more employees will be trained in multiple roles so specialized firefighters don't need to be paid overtime for certain calls. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA