New playgrounds are sprouting up across Josephine and Jackson counties as schools and parks departments build new ones or replace old equipment.

At Parkside Elementary School in Grants Pass, workers are installing a new playground with climbing structures, swings, slides and more. They consult a binder filled with diagrams and precise instructions for putting all the equipment together for the playground.

After back-to-back losses to teams ranked in the top six, Grants Pass made a statement on Friday against South Medford: The seventh-ranked Cavemen are still very dangerous.

Grants Pass bolted to a 33-0 lead in the first half and cruised to a 54-14 win over the Panthers in the Southwest Conference finale for the Cavemen (5-3, 2-2).

Medford is hiring a candidate who didn’t get the top job of city manager to become the city’s second deputy city manager.

The city said it hasn’t had two people working as deputy city managers since 2023.

The city announced earlier this month that it has hired DawnMarie Buckland, one of the three finalists for the city manager position, to serve as a second deputy city manager. She will start in January 2027.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Kevin Peer will present an evening of films and behind-the-scenes stories next weekend in Grants Pass as a fundraiser for the Williams Community Forest Project.

The talk and film screening will be on Nov. 1 at the Fruitdale Grange, 1440 Parkdale Drive. Admission is a suggested $5-$15 donation at the door.