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Ashland council has full agenda Panel to finalize plans fostering communication By DANI DODGE Ashland council 7 p.m. tonight -- Decision on communication and marketing plan, citizen communication plan and strategic plan. Noon Wednesday -- Issues and costs associated with hillside effluent spraying plan. 7 p.m. Thursday -- Discussions with Oregon Shakespeare Festival board on lease renewal. All meetings are open to the public and will be held at the Civic Center Council Chambers, 1175 E. Main St. ASHLAND -- City Council members will decide on a passel of plans Tuesday, beginning a series of meetings this week that includes discussions with Oregon Shakespeare Festival board members over a lease and an examination of alternatives to spraying treated effluent on a hillside. Tonight, council members are scheduled to make final decisions on three plans: a communication and marketing plan, a citizen communication plan and a strategic plan. All to some degree address the goal of bringing citizens into the city's decision-making process. The communication and marketing plan sets out the city's marketing and communication goals for the year. The citizen communication plan details responsibilities of the city, city commissioners and members of ad hoc committees. It sets out an 11-step process for decision making that includes "casting the net as wide as possible" to get people involved in the process. It is intended to ease the city into collaborative decision making and address concerns of residents who believe the council doesn't value their views. The strategic plan, drawn up after a series of neighborhood meetings and a survey, lists goals and priorities in a number of categories such as citizen participation, environmental resources and economic strategy. Goals in the strategic plan include expanding the city's conservation program, developing a funding plan to meet the city's social service needs and evaluating the purchase of additional utilities as they become available. On Wednesday, the council will meet again to discuss the city's upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant. On the agenda is discussion how to proceed, and the issues and costs associated with different alternatives on the controversial plan that calls for spraying treated wastewater on a hillside. Several council members have expressed a desire to study alternatives to spraying. The spraying plan is on hold because of legal action by neighbors opposed to it. No decision will be made at the study session. On Thursday, the council will meet with board members from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for preliminary discussions about renewal of the lease for the land on which the festival sits. Although the lease has been fairly routine business in the past, several former council members are suggesting using the lease to limit growth at the festival. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA