ASHLAND SOURCE: What would you say has been your top accomplishment as mayor to date?MATT MILLER: I would say first and foremost, one of the things that we talked about a lot during the campaign was being more transparent and openly sharing city business with city residents, city taxpayers.One of the first things we did when we came in was move the city council meetings to a new location, a more modern location, and we partnered with the schools so that we could place our council meetings on cable television. The feedback we have received from that has been nothing but positive.Over and over again, people will come up to me and tell me, “Hey, you know, I've lived in this city 30 or 40 years and I've never been to a council meeting, but the other night I went to one and all I had to do was go into my living room and flip on the TV.”Also, with our use of social media, we’re able to give more timely and accurate updates to folks that maintain Facebook accounts.AS: Another thing you stressed in your campaign was job creation. You promised to help existing businesses expand here and to help bring in new businesses to the area. Have you begun that effort?MM: When I was sworn in as mayor, I became the newest member of the Ashland Area Economic Development board. Over the last three months, I have attended those board meetings and actively participated in trying to shape the discussion about what the future of economic development looks like here in Ashland.I would like to see the economic development board increase the size of the board from the current five members to at least seven or nine members, and to include more of our local business leaders and entrepreneurs on that board. That is a discussion that is underway currently.Also, believe it or not, in the short three months that I've been here, we have already sat down with several prospects that are looking to relocate their companies here in Ashland.This week was probably the most significant discussion that I've had with one of those prospects, because according to the president of this company that's based out of Columbus and looking at our area as a possible new site, it's between us and one other community.They are looking to make an investment of $18 to 20 million, with the potential of having 75 to 100 employees, and the minimum wage they pay is around $14.75 an hour.I hope that day comes here very soon where we can share all those details.AS: You vowed to attack the opioid epidemic. What are you doing on that front?MM: I requested that the police chief and our top narcotics detective, Brian Evans, meet on a routine basis or regular basis so that I can get an update on how the fight against opioids and against drug abuse in the community is progressing.We had our first meeting about a month ago, and one of the interesting facts that came out of that first meeting that as we have focused on trying to eliminate heroin abuse and heroin use, we have been fairly effective. The problem is, now crystal meth cases are on the increase.Another thing is I worked with the chief of police and (Ashland City Schools superintendent) Dr. Doug Marrah to get a long-awaited school resource officer in the city schools.I've also met with Project One and a variety of other faith-based leaders or people that are involved with faith-based treatment organizations.We met with two individuals from Columbus who are interested in bringing a drug treatment type center here to discuss whether or not this is something that makes sense here in our community.We've also talked with a number of people in law enforcement as well as folks at the Samaritan Hospital Foundation about possibly teaming up and putting together, for lack of a better way to describe it, an anti-drug campaign.Back in October of last year, working with Louise Fleming (of the Center for Civic Life at Ashland University), we applied for a grant to lead community discussions on the opioid issue.We had the first of those and we've got more coming up here very soon.So that's a long answer to your question, but we haven't forgotten that issue. It would take a little bit more time to claim a victory.AS: You said you would enlist the services of a professional community planner to help create a blueprint for key areas of the city. Can you provide an update on that process?MM: We're very fortunate that the Ashland County Community Foundation Board of Directors, along with the executive director and president Jim Cutright, did agree to provide funding for the city to hire a professional planning firm to come in and help us develop a targeted plan for the future of our community.Myself, Jim Cutright and Rick Ewing of our city planning commission made a trip down to Columbus to meet with the firm OHM. They have prepared a number of plans for communities our size and much bigger all across Ohio. You can see their handiwork in places like Wooster, places like Newark, and even in a variety of other states, particularly in the Michigan area.What they specialize in is helping a community decide where development should take place and how to do it in a way that the final product is something that the whole community values.Right now I'm in the process of putting together a steering committee to lead that process. And I'm hoping here within just a few weeks we'll have more of a formal rollout of what that planning process will look like and what areas we hope to target with that plan.AS: You pledged to clean up vacant, abandoned houses and commercial properties. Any news in that area?MM: Obviously, the property that we've been most focused on is the Pump House area. We have looked at the options that are available to us, and that's why we're moving forward with the Land Bank that should hopefully be an operation here within a month or so.One of the other items that comes to mind is right after arriving in the mayor's office, I met with the city planning commission and requested that the commission take on the task of reevaluating and updating all of our zoning codes and our signage regulations.We have a committee appointed of planning commission members, some local developers, realtors and other interested community leaders, and basically they intend to take no more than one year to go through all of our zoning regulations and signage regulations, figuring out which ones are not needed any longer and which regulations we need to put into place to protect the community.The reason that came to mind is in the course of that discussion, the topic came up whether we should further develop or update our property maintenance code. The group has determined that is a separate project, and I agree with that decision. So right now, we're going to focus on zoning and signage regulations, and then maybe property maintenance is a future project for the group.AS: You said you would sit down with each city employee to listen to their ideas for improving operations and services. Have you done that, and if so, have you chosen to implement any of those ideas?MM: I started with the parks department. The parks employees have been without a director since 2013, I believe, and also during that time have had more than one park supervisor. That's kind of number two in command, and in fact, that job is vacant right now.So after talking with them, they do believe that it is time for the city to have a parks director, someone who can devote their time and energy to managing the day-to-day operations of the parks, developing new programming and recreational activities to take place at the park, reevaluating the fee structures and the amount we're charging for various services and going after grants that will help us improve the parks.I was glad they all felt that way because I did too.When I came in, I worked with Larry Paxton to make sure we had money set aside for that. And the reality is, by not having a park supervisor for several months, there's money in the budget to cover the cost of that position.AS: As the city was making appropriations for 2018, you pulled Brookside Golf Course out for separate discussion. That discussion resulted in the elimination of the golf pro manager position and the raising of course fees. Can you walk us through your thought process on that?MM: During the campaign, that was an item of major discussion across the community, whether or not we should continue to fund Brookside Golf Course. With the election of a new mayor and the new council, we did what we promised we would do.Number one, we got all the numbers out there before the public. We had a Saturday morning hearing, shared the numbers with everyone and gave the leadership of the golf course the opportunity to explain them so that we were all working off the same spreadsheets.After doing that, as you know, the council and myself decided that we would make some changes out at the golf course to make it more financially viable.At that time I made three recommendations. Number one, that we look at the staffing at the golf course. Number two, that we adjust the fees that we charge at the golf course. And number three was to seek private sponsorships for the golf carts and the golf holes.We took a look at the staffing and basically what we determined that we could really no longer afford to have a full-time golf pro out at Brookside golf course. We did increase the fees, and then finally, a group led by Gene Haberman is busy soliciting sponsorshipsWe’ve got a great team in place right now. So I think it's going to be exciting to see if the golf course breaks even this year. A lot of that of course can be determined by the weather we have this golf season, but with the changes that we've put into place, I think we're certainly heading in the right direction when it comes to the golf course finances.AS: Some people are concerned about the cost and operations of the 9-1-1 dispatching center. How are you handling WARCOG?MM: Hopefully before the month ends, the city council, the county commissioners, myself and maybe even several others are going to go over to Wayne County and tour the WARCOG facility. We want everyone to see firsthand how the dispatch center operates, ask any questions they might have and so on.I've had conversations with Ashland and Wayne county commissioners about their dispatch centers. I've met with the sheriff.I'm sure the council will do their homework, and we're going to figure out what's best for the future of the city of Ashland.The thing that is very promising to me is that the city and the county, and even the city and the county and in Wayne County, everyone is at least talking about it together with all the players at the table.AS: What’s next on your to-do list?MM: There has been a lot of discussion over the last six months about consolidating the Ashland County and Ashland City health departments for folks in the community.We have the city health board that was established by the city charter, and we have the Ashland County health board. Believe it or not, when an Ashland City-County Health Board meeting takes place, we have two tables in the room at the same time. The county board members sit on this side, the city sits on that side.That model has kind of grown out of date, and now as the health departments seeks to get accredited by the state, basically it doubles the amount of work and expense that will go into that process because they have to do the exact same thing for both boards.As a result, the city and county leaders began, around six months ago, talking about consolidating the two.The city and county are working very closely to make that happen, and the first step is for the city of Ashland to contract with the county health board to offer services.AS: We’ve been hearing a lot of people, particularly young people, saying they want to be more involved in efforts to improve our city and community. How can they get involved?MM: I've got a notebook here right now of the different commissions and boards and entities that exist here in the city of Ashland, and in some instances in the county of Ashland, where the mayor makes appointments.The way I am approaching all of those appointments is, it's time to bring some new people to the table. We have a lot of smart, energetic, enthusiastic, intelligent people in this community of all ages that have never been invited to serve on some of these commissions and some of these bodies. And now's the time, in my opinion, to start bringing them to the table.And so that's one way that I hoped to get some new voices, young voices involved in city government and in community planning and so on.If you're interested in getting involved, then it requires action on your part. You need to make yourself available. You need to make the decision to come to the council meeting, come to the Chamber of Commerce events, support the Ashland Main Street activities. If you’re interested in serving, reach out to me or let the mayor's office know.I’m the next speaker for Ashland Young Professionals, so stay tuned for that presentation.