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No on Talent ‘urban renewal’

The deceptively named Almeda Fire Recovery Plan is not a recovery plan and has nothing to do with fire recovery.

Thanks to Phoenix-Talent School District, nurses’ union, Talent businesses, and firefighters for informing voters and encouraging a no vote on Measure 15-216, the misguided urban renewal scheme.

Never has there been unified opposition to an urban renewal plan by a school district, by the county and by a fire district.

Homes, apartments, manufactured home parks, and viable businesses will have recovered long before 2026/2027.

None of the 16 proposed urban renewal projects would be completed before 2026 or 2027. The plan has no effect on fire recovery.

$1,138,000 to upgrade Rapp Road’s railroad crossing, $730,000 to extend Wagner Street to the “roundabout to nowhere” and other projects have nothing to do with fire recovery.

Stripping fire department funding is irresponsible. Please be responsible and vote no on 15-216.

Chris Luz / Talent

No on Ashland Parks measure

Supporters of Measure 15-214 are desperately fighting to convince voters to trust them. The proponents are deceptive when they aren’t honest about why the Ashland Parks and Recreation Department has requested the remaining 73% of the Food & Beverage tax with a 10-year extension to 2040.

Supporters want voters to trust them and not ask why this measure was hastily added to the Jackson County off-year Special Election — an election many voters did not know was occurring.

Perhaps proponents are hoping Ashland voters will quickly scan the Voters’ Pamphlet and not notice that the proposed end date of 2040 on Measure 15-214 is not mentioned in any of their arguments.

Luckily, when voters read the “Vote No” arguments in the Voters’ Pamphlet and read content on www.saveourparks-ashland.org, it becomes crystal clear why Measure 15-214 supporters don’t dare tell voters the truth about the dark side.

Vote NO.

Susan Hall / Ashland

No on Ashland Parks measure

As the former director of the Senior Program for Parks and the City of Ashland, I’d like to extend a big thank you to all who worked on the grading of Glenview Drive a few days ago.

This street is heavily used by the community every day; people walking, jogging, walking their dogs, people with strollers, mountain bikers, and mountain bike transports. It was rife with potholes and the street department took great care to make it usable again.

The funding for this project was no doubt provided in part from the Food and Beverage Tax. A Yes Vote on 15-214 would remove these funds.

Our streets department needs the funding for basic maintenance. Parks does not. That’s why I’m voting No.

Christine Dodson / Ashland

KTVL piece was sad reading

Trish Glose’s article on Sinclair and the death of KTVL news was sad reading.

Hoping that KDRV and KOBI manage to avoid becoming the right-wing propaganda machine that is now KTVL.

Gerald Murphy / Medford

‘Running out of time’ in climate change fight

I have become increasingly sad and even angry at climate science deniers. How can anyone now ignore all that is happening?

Climate disasters are occurring almost daily all around the world. And right here on the West Coast we have had worsening atmospheric rivers causing floods and snow damage in the Sierras with hurricanes battering the East and Gulf coasts.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently published dire warnings about the state of the Earth and how rapidly we are approaching a “tipping point” beyond which no remedy will be possible. Yet, we sit on our hands and whine.

The local weather forecasters hardly ever mention climate change, as though it’s taboo. Meanwhile, year after year the few open green spaces in my Medford neighborhood are bulldozed to lay more concrete.

And federally, the Biden administration, after promoting the need for climate action, has approved oil drilling in Alaska. And then, one of the worst economic sectors for generating climate pollution (air travel) has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Surely, the video conferencing technology that blossomed during COVID could substitute for much business airline travel?

Why are we still subsidizing oil companies? They are still the most powerful oligarchies in this country. And what about all the wildlife that is disappearing? As we watch, climate change is driving the sixth extinction. How many of us have at least one pollinator plant in our yard?

People claim they care but do nothing. We are running out of time.

Trisha Vigil / Medford