WARD III

Here we are, Ward 3 in Ashland, Ohio, the city with a wonderful past, present and future.

I would like to share some interesting items from our history, our present, and the future we are moving toward. Since this web page is especially for Ward 3 residents, I will focus on that, but I will also add some things of general interest. If you have any comments, please email me at brdetrow@zoominternet.net, fill out the feedback form, or call 419-289-7504

. When I was a City Councilman before, I held a ward meeting once a year in the spring. I like that plan, but in Ward II where I was Councilman before, participation was good the first year and declined after that. Do you think a meeting would be a good idea, or should I just wait until some citizens ask for a meeting because of some specific concern?

I'm going to publish some pictures of things that interest me in Ward 3 and Ashland as a whole. If you have a suggestion of something to add to this informal current history of our city, please let me know.

We are headed for winter and the Street Department is getting ready to gear up for a completely different type of work. They have been repairing streets and alleys, resurfacing some, and working on the many details of giving us good streets to drive on. Leaves are all picked up. Soon they will be ready to salt and plow those same streets.

The City is starting a program which will last for 10 years to upgrade the condition of sidewalks. There are ordinances to cover all this, and I will be glad to email you a copy of the pertinent laws, but the short form is if you have a sidewalk which is in really bad repair, it should be replaced with a good sidewalk done to City specs. At a recent work session, Council felt that perhaps the best place to start this first year of the program would be a center city area which includes a part of Ward 3 and incidentally my own house. Not all the details have been worked out yet, but it is a way citizens can help improve the appearance and livability of our city. I will update this as more information becomes available.

The installation of sidewalks in places where there are none and the two year variance has expired is a completely different program.

Our City Development Director is hard at work planning ways for us to benefit from the many advantages we have here in Ashland. Evan Scurti is our Economic Development Director..

Among many other things, Evan is in charge of the Synchronist survey, and with the help of many people from business and government that is coming along quite well. It is so important to work with the business and industry we have and try to help them grow. Their view of where we are today is the essential place to start. I have helped with two of the interviews. We are asking leaders to rate our city and county services, tell us what plans they have for the future, tell us how we can help and what they think of our town as a place to live and run a business. I must say after my experience as an interviewer, I am very encouraged.

This is becoming a hot topic in Ashland. As a Councilman I have received a petition saying the signers want, "to persuade Ashland City Council not to annex the property ." One of the major problems with the position the petition urges is that we as a council don't know what business wants to build on the land in question. We all have heard the gossip just as many other people in town have, but the only one we have heard from is a development company.