ASHLAND — The Ashland County Commissioners are the latest to move their meetings to an online platform.
On Monday, the commissioners announced intentions to begin live-streaming their weekly meetings, beginning Thursday, April 9 at 9 a.m. on the Ashland, OH County Government Facebook page.
The agenda will be posted on www.ashlandcounty.org/commissioners on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Public questions pertaining to the agenda can be sent to Gail Crossen, Clerk, at gcrossen@ashlandcounty.org by 8 a.m. Thursday morning.
The conference room will be closed to the public during the meeting.
“We appreciate your patience and cooperation during this temporary transition,” the commissioners said in a press release.
Last Thursday morning, only 10 people were permitted within the room where commissioners meet at any given time. Because more than 10 attended, only nine were permitted to sit in the meeting space. This included the three commissioners, three local reporters and three others.
Additional people in attendance stood in the hallway and an adjacent office space. Doors to the hall and office stayed open so those in the other rooms could listen.
These individuals rotated in and out of the meeting space when addressing the commissioners.
One individual did express concern of being “unsafe” and opted to remain in the hallway while addressing the commissioners.
Both Ashland City Council and Loudonville Village Council are also moving public meetings to an online platform.
As usual, the Ashland City Council will livestream its Tuesday, April 7 meeting via the city of Ashland’s Facebook page and Armstrong Cable’s channel 2, but starting Tuesday, the city’s municipal building will be closed to the public during the meeting.
Anyone who wishes to address a matter with Council is asked to contact the council clerk at least one hour prior to the meeting at (419) 289-5524 and special arrangements will be made, said Community Outreach Coordinator Amanda Patterson in a Friday morning press release.
In the southern part of the county, Loudonville Village Council made a similar decision Thursday evening. At a special, online meeting, Loudonville Village Council unanimously passed legislation allowing the online communication to replace its in-person meetings for the foreseeable future.
Beginning Monday, April 6, Loudonville Village Council will hold its regular meetings through Zoom video conference calls, which will allow public to attend, but not offer comment during the meeting.
Instead, residents are asked to the village office at (419) 994-3214. Mayor Steve Stricklen suggests following the prompts to connect with Elaine VanHorn, who is regularly at the office and could take and relay messages as needed.
The contact information for Loudonville Village Council members is posted also at loudonville-oh.us/council.
