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Ashland postpones vote on library Fire station bond could make November ballot By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune ASHLAND -- City council members Thursday postponed the hoped-for May election on a new library and sent the plans back to architects for a structure at about half the proposed $7.8 million cost. At the same time, they put a new fire station on the front burner, voting to include it in the budget with an eye to a $4 million bond election in November. Council members instructed SERA Architects of Portland to simplify library plans and confine them to present library grounds, ending attempts to buy the adjacent brick office building for library parking. Mayor Cathy Shaw said she had a firm verbal agreement with owners of the building a few months ago, but that "people have a right to change their minds." After the council gets back drawings and firm costs, members said, they want to put the more modest library proposal out to a bond issue vote for the Sept. 21 or or Nov. 7 election. The new fire station, to be built on the site of the present 1947 main building on Siskiyou Boulevard, will cost between $3.5 and $4 million, said City Administrator Mike Freeman; that figure includes architects' fees and the cost of buying adjacent land now occupied by the Blue Mountain Cafe. The city had that property appraised at $380,000. Owners have been "cooperative," Freeman said, but the city has not yet made an offer. After hitting a wall on acquiring the land next to the library, council members expressed hesitation about counting on the Blue Mountain land for the fire station. However, Councilman Don Laws said he was willing to acquire the Blue Mountain land by condemnation "if we have to," because fire is an essential service, while a library is not. When Station 1 is demolished, the temporary relocation of firefighters and equipment will be "problematic," said Fire Chief Keith Woodley. "The impact on response time will be significant." Fire Station 2, built in 1966 and also cramped and outmoded, will have to wait at least two years for its replacement, to be built on the same site at a cost of between $2 and $2.5 million, Freeman said. Laws, however, expressed fears about "loading voters down" with expensive capital construction projects. Council members stressed that they didn't want voters to choose between a fire station and a library, as improvement on both was critical in the near future. "I don't want to lump them together on the ballot," said Shaw, "hoping that the one voters like most will win for the other one. That would hold the library hostage." But Laws dismissed the option of including Ashland's proposal in Jackson County's March 2000 bond election to improve all 15 libraries, as "the possibility of it passing are very low." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA