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Even residents who voted no will end up with a new library By DANI DODGE Some areas across Jackson County will get new libraries in spite of themselves. A majority of voters in Central Point, Butte Falls, Shady Cove and Prospect rejected the county's $38.9 million library bond despite the fact that it will pay for new or expanded libraries in their towns. "Actually, I think our current library is plenty big enough," said Roberta McClanahan, the owner of R & R Cafe in Butte Falls. ``I don't feel we need a $400,000 library. If it had been for administrative costs instead of just the building, it would have looked a whole lot better." Remarkably, even in Ashland, where passage of the library bond actually meant a lowering of taxes, some 1,135 people voted against the measure. Ashland Mayor Cathy Shaw chalked up the "no" votes to people who just didn't understand the impact of the vote, or don't trust the government. "It was a leap of faith to believe that taxes would really go down," Shaw said. In all, 53.5 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the May 16 ballot, according to unofficial numbers from the county. Official numbers are not yet available. Of those, 59.1 percent voted for the libraries. It failed in 22 precincts, including precincts in Butte Falls, Prospect, Trail, Shady Cove, Lake Creek, White City, Central Point, Wimer and outside of Rogue River. It also failed in two westside Medford precincts. Some pockets of opposition were predictable. In White City, for instance, residents are getting a new library through urban renewal funds, so passage of the bond doesn't directly benefit them. On the other hand, personal interests didn't always hold sway across the county: for instance in the outskirts of Ashland. In the city of Ashland, voters approved their own library bond in November. With passage of the countywide bond, the overall cost to Ashland residents went down. Basically, the people living just outside Ashland would have gotten a new library without paying for it if the bond had gone down. Yet, a majority of voters in those areas approved the measure. Support for the bond measure was the highest in Ashland and on the east side of Medford Bill Kirtley, a Medford resident and professor of government for Central Texas College, said the voting patterns may seem unusual, but they also say something about democracy. "It tells us it's all about what is the greater good for the community," he said. "Different people have different perceptions of what the best interest is ... but that is decided by the majority." Kirtley, who studies voter participation, said some patterns across the county do make sense. In Shady Cove, for instance, many people's property has gone up dramatically in value even though the people themselves are on a fixed income. "They look at their tax bill and say, `Wow we are really going to get hit by this,"' Kirtley said. In Central Point, residents will get a new library right next to City Hall, and yet the "no" voters were in the majority. On the street, though, most people said they voted for the measure. One Central Point resident buying flowers said she didn't want to give her name because while she voted for the libraries, her husband voted against it. "He opposed it because he sees a lot of government waste," she said. "I think a lot of folks have reached their limit with taxes." Librarians in the no-more-money-for-libraries islands said they had no idea there was opposition swirling around them. "I heard nothing but positive," said Laura Smith, the Prospect librarian. "That really surprises me that we would come up that way. "But then again, in Prospect there's a lot of people that don't know we exist. We're so small you could blink and miss us." But maybe not for much longer. Like every other community in Jackson County, Prospect is destined to have a bigger, better library. Thanks to the majority. "In looking at a map, you find a lot of differences in our county," noted Kirtley. "To me, it's just an amazing thing that it passed. Everything was against it." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA