In a two-day long budget meeting this week, Ashland city council members addressed a $3 million shortfall in the city鈥檚 current budget.
$1 million of that deficit already existed in the 2022-23 budget, while another $2 million came from an adjustment made by City Manager Joe Lessard, who said the city was allocating money from the food and beverage tax in ways that voters didn't originally approve.
On Tuesday, Lessard $1.5 million in cuts across city departments.
One of the biggest cuts proposed is to the parks department, slashing $350,000 from its $8 million budget.
Parks and Rec commission Chair Rick Landt says these cuts, on top of previous ones, are delaying maintenance in the city鈥檚 parks.
"Unfortunately you can see it in our parks," says Landt. "Over the last few years there has been deterioration, subtly, but there鈥檚 been deterioration because there isn鈥檛 the same level of maintenance that鈥檚 going into the parks.鈥�
Other proposed cuts include $156,000 to the finance department, $138,000 to the administration department and $62,000 to the public works department.
The city鈥檚 is around $136 million this year.
Lessard says the cuts are designed to avoid laying off full-time employees. Ashland anticipates saving $780,000 through hiring freezes in the police and fire departments, and smaller freezes within Parks and Rec, Public works and other departments.
Council members also approved a survey to be sent to Ashland residents, to help guide the city鈥檚 budget priorities.
