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Ex-councilman Don Laws to lead July 4th parade Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 at 12:01 AM ASHLAND — Longtime City Councilman Don Laws will be grand marshal of this year's Fourth of July parade. By Michele Mihalovich ASHLAND — Longtime City Councilman Don Laws will be grand marshal of this year's Fourth of July parade. The Ashland Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that Laws, 72, who served as a city official for 29 years, had been nominated and selected by the community for the honor. Laws, a 1949 Ashland High School graduate, returned to Ashland in 1968 to help establish the political science department at Southern Oregon University. The associate professor retired from the university in 2002. Laws said Monday that he became interested in city government in the early '70s when the mayor was moving in a direction he didn't like. "In those days, the town was in pretty bad shape," Laws said. "Almost all the sawmills had closed down and half of the downtown was boarded up." Laws was first appointed to the council in 1975 and was repeatedly re-elected until his defeat by Jack Hardesty in 2004. Laws took a one-year hiatus from city government when he ran for mayor in 1988, losing to Cathy Shaw. Laws joined the council just after the city had received two economic development grants, one to build the first indoor theater for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the other for downtown beautification. He said things had gotten "pretty messy" during that time period, when the council ousted a city administrator and a recall election was held. Laws said he probably has two claims to fame as a city council member — helping rewrite the city's comprehensive plan and implementing a controversial sign ordinance. "I thought the key to rebuilding the city was the beautification of downtown," he said, admitting the sign ordinance then, as today, wasn't very popular with the business community. "We did away with all the neon signs, and I think that helped," said Laws, adding that he thought the current council should grandfather in businesses that are currently being hit with sign code violations. Laws said he's honored that the community selected him as grand marshal for the parade. "I guess I'm a little proud," he said. "I feel I did my very best to help the city and I'm still very interested in what's going on." Michele Mihalovich is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. She can be reached at 482-3456 or [email protected].