The Ashland City Council has made the city’s $5.15 monthly parks fee permanent, ending its scheduled expiration next June.
Created last year to help avoid major cuts, the fee now supplies 10% of the parks department’s budget. The fee is charged on the monthly bills sent to customers of Ashland's municipal power utility.
The council decision preserves that funding, but some council members wanted the city to explore other funding options before making the charge permanent.
The mayor broke ties on two votes, supporting the permanent fee and rejecting a proposal to have it expire in 2029.
Council Member Bob Kaplan said Ashland was the last major city in the area to adopt a parks fee.
“There's further work that needs to be done,” he said. “Our neighboring jurisdictions have shown that you know this is a fee that is useful and probably here to stay.”
Council Member Dylan Bloom questioned making the fee permanent without examining alternatives.
“We have been talking for over two years that Parks needs a dedicated funding source,” Bloom said. “We have not looked at any other alternatives. And so, at what point are we going to hold ourselves accountable to do so?”
Households enrolled in the city’s low-income utility assistance program will receive help paying the parks fee, with the program covering half of their monthly charge.
Nearly 500 households already participate in the assistance program. Interim City Manager Jordan Rooklyn said the city has money available to help more residents.
“We have allocated more towards providing financial assistance than is currently being used,” she said. “So we are doing an effort right now as a city to get the word out.”
The fee had been scheduled to expire in June 2027. Losing that revenue could have meant major cuts to the department.
