Ashland City Council & Sustainability Grants
Transition Town Ashland, 31.01.2010 20:47
Advise Ashland to consider funding for sustainability projects
Join members of Transition Town Ashland in speaking and supporting speakers addressing the Ashland City Council on the desirability of providing grants to community organizations working on sustainability. At the regularly scheduled City Council meeting next Tuesday, February 2, the Ashland City Council is expected to continue discussing the process by which Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) proceeds are disbursed through the Economic and Cultural granting process. Approximately $1.7M are available. The Mayor has recommended that at least $25,000 be allocated to groups engaged in sustainability projects.
We plan to post pertinent information to the TTA City Governance (TTACG) working group listserv as it becomes available. To join the TTACG working group, simply send your request in an email to 
ttacontact@gmail.com.
City Council meetings start at 7 p.m. The Council Chambers are at 1175 East Main (near Garfield Park). Members of the public are generally allowed to speak for 3 to 5 minutes each on items on the Council agenda. If you wish to speak at the meeting, submit a Request-to-Speak form, which you fill out with your name and the agenda item you wish to speak about.
In addition to general comments about the need to move forward on sustainability in our community, any comments that describe how small grants ($1,000 - $3,000) could leverage important projects would be especially pertinent.
A staffer at the City Administrator's Office said this issue is scheduled to be the second item under "New Business," so it might not come up until after 9 p.m. She said that some people keep track of the meetings on TV or online, and drive to the Council Chambers when the item before theirs is started.
To learn more, or to contact us, please visit our Website at 
http://transitiontownashland.org/, where you'll find info on Transition Towns and Permaculture, access to our Action Groups, to local CSAs, to the Sustainability Inventory, to our Multi-Media and Links Pages, opportunities to share ideas, and much more.