Just Fix The Van

I’m not sure if it’s a trend or a habit or a philosophy, but the city is proposing a lot of expensive projects recently without presenting a basic maintenance option.

The three City Hall proposals are: (1) All-new City Hall in the Plaza — $12 million. (2) Turn Briscoe School into City Hall — $15 million. (3) Civic Center City Hall near the police station — $19 million.

The three Ashland Canal proposals are: (1) Remove the entire ditch and build a new ditch — $2.4 million. (2) Pipe and cover every exposed ditch — $3.1 million. (3) Pipe every inch beginning to end — $4.6 million.

Repair and maintenance don’t seem to be in the conversation lately.

I liken it to someone bringing their van in for repairs and going to the dealer. But the dealer is now selling Teslas. And all the salespeople descend with all the great Tesla options. And they offer three differently priced models for sale. And they are all good people and really believe in the Tesla, but

You just brought in your van to fix a leak. You don’t have the money for a Tesla. Teslas are nice. But you love your van. You just want to fix your van. Maybe, you’d consider a solar panel on the roof? But the salespeople believe that you don’t understand how old your van is and how important a new Tesla is.

In Ashland, most of us are here because we love an old van. And we want to keep it running for the memories it holds. And we’d overpay for repairs for the charming old van because it’d still be way cheaper than that new Tesla.

So let’s focus more on redesigning the old City Hall (which is a great old van that does need a lot of work), and aggressively repairing the Ashland Canal (because that thing is indeed leaking all over the driveway).

Repairing rather than replacing these cherished city landmarks doesn’t just save money, it shows our community’s commitment to something money can’t buy: Ashland’s character.

Jim Falkenstein

Ashland