Document text
County may put library, juvenile bonds on ballot By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ County Administrator Burke Raymond urged the Jackson County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday to move quickly to put a library bond on the ballot before voters in several Rogue Valley cities pursue independent initiatives. "We've got to give them a date," Raymond said after a meeting on countywide capital improvements. "Otherwise, we're going to have everybody splintering off." Raymond proposed fixing two dates. First, a revamped juvenile facilities construction bond, to be put on the November 1999 ballot. A previous effort failed by 500 votes last November. Second, he called for a countywide library construction bond on the March 2000 ballot. That date plainly was not soon enough for the many Friends of the Library volunteers who turned out for the meeting -- and who previously deferred a library bond campaign to give the county juvenile bond a first bite at the apple. Library Advisory Committee chairman Scott Rayburn told the commissioners the proposed order of the bonds should be reversed. "We agreed as a group to stand down while the juvenile facility bond was tried," Rayburn said. "Now is not that time. Too much work remains to be done on the juvenile bond. We should revisit the juvenile bond when it's better prepared, and commit to a 20-year capital improvement bond for the Jackson County Library." Rayburn said Oregon voters from all points of the state had passed 20 different library levies in recent elections. Libraries enjoy strong support, and the various "Friends of the Library" groups are ready now to launch a campaign to pass a bond in November, Rayburn said. Mark Soderstrom, of Medford, told the commissioners that the county should pursue the same strategy for a library bond as Medford schools superintendent Steve Wisely pursued with the school bond. Wisely followed a strategy of convincing opinion leaders, meeting with many members of different community organizations and detailing each school's needs one by one. Soderstrom called for a September or November ballot, and urged the county to pursue no more than two capital improvement levies at a time, giving top priority to the library and juvenile bonds. Ashland Mayor Cathy Shaw has proposed that her city place a library bond on the ballot in May, but not issue bonds immediately, in case Ashland voters should opt to support a countywide bond. A county bond would be cheaper per property owner because of higher property valuation. A city bond would be quicker and surer to pass, she said. A countywide money measure on a double-majority ballot would be almost impossible to pass, Shaw said, but she didn't rule out deferring a bond sale to see if the county could pull it off. "I think we could wait until November," Shaw said. "It takes six months anyway before you can sell bonds." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA