For decades, programs that offer public dollars to businesses as incentives to create jobs have played a prominent role in state and local economic development strategies. Now a new approach has begun to gain popularity: offering incentives to individual workers instead. As remote work becomes more prevalent, more communities are offering financial incentives to workers to entice them to relocate.

There could be some new faces on the Medford City Council this spring. With less than a week to go for people to submit candidate paperwork, City Clerk Ashley Lemke reports that two incumbents have filed that they will not seek reelection and two incumbents have taken out papers to run for reelection. Second district council member Greg Knight who represents the southeastern quarter of the

A new tender truck may be in the future for the Medford Area Fire Department. Fire Chief Mike Filas alerted commission members at their December 21 quarterly meeting that they would be beginning to talk about the truck purchase at their next meeting scheduled for March 15. A tender is a specialized vehicle designed to bring water, foam, or dry chemicals to fire trucks in the field. Water tenders