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RCC bond tops county measures on ballot Jackson County voters will decide on three local measures in addition to a slew of candidates in the May 21 primary election. All county voters will decide on a $40 million bond measure to expand Rogue Community College's Medford facilities. Gold Hill residents will be asked to approve a five-year, $54,000-per-year levy to fund a police department. Jacksonville voters will choose whether to establish an Urban Renewal Agency. The deadline for placing measures on the ballot was Thursday. Ballots will be mailed out May 3. Those who wish to vote in the election must be registered by April 30. Registered voters who move can update their addresses until election day. RCC Measure 17-85 The $40 million will be used to pay for new facilities to accommodate enrollment that is projected to jump from the current 5,000 full-time students to as many as 8,000 by 2011. RCC wants to build a $22 million technical facility, possibly in the White City area, and to expand the downtown Medford campus with the remaining $18 million. The bond must meet the requirements of the so-called "double majority," in which at least 50 percent of voters must turn out for the election, and a majority of those must approve the bond. The measure would raise property taxes by 25 cents per $1,000 of valuation, or about $38 a year on a $150,000 house, for 20 years. Gold Hill Measure 15-27 If approved, the $270,000 total levy would help fund the second member of a two-man police department as well as reserves to provide 24-hour coverage for five years. A police chief was hired with existing money earlier this month. Until now, the city had relied on emergency-response-only service from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. Jacksonville Measure 15-28 The measure would establish an Urban Renewal Agency, the first step toward using property taxes to improve blighted areas. Urban renewal projects are funded through tax-increment financing, which works as follows: Assessed values are frozen for a 20-year period. Taxes on property values above the frozen level are used for projects in the urban renewal district. The proposed district in Jacksonville would stretch along California Street, from the city limits near the Texaco gas station to a block past Oregon street. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.