Malheur County library district fails

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Now the members of the Committee in Support of the Malheur County Library District must decide the next move regarding a search for stable funding for the library.

“We didn't really think past this (the election),” Diana Ewing, treasurer for the Committee in Support of the Malheur County Library, said.

“It's a little early to comment,” she said, during a phone interview late Tuesday evening, before the final results were known. “I don't think we thought about it negatively.”

Members of the committee, she said, realized there was not much support for the district in the rural areas.

“We had hoped the cities would carry us,” Ewing said.

The final verdict on the proposal was close most of Tuesday night and the lead - between “yes” and “no” votes - continued to shift depending on whether the ballots were from cities or rural areas.

“When the first partial results (mostly city) came out, it was ahead,” Deborah DeLong, county clerk, said, adding that the proposal fell behind when the rural ballots were counted.

It was clear the rural vote was critical, she said. Precinct by precinct results will be released today.

“We struggled to get out the message the rural areas would get an extensive increase in services,” Ewing said. “I'm disappointed, but this is why we put these out - so the people can decide what they want.”

Supporters of the district said it would provide more stable funding for the three public libraries in the county - situated in Ontario, Nyssa and Vale - and allow them to be open more hours, plus have the bookmobile making more trips to the rural areas in the county.

The Malheur County Library, which was almost entirely funded from the county general fund last year, is only co-funded by the county and city of Ontario through the end of December.

In other county election news, Adrian will acquire a new elementary school following Tuesday's vote, but the project will not include everything school officials wanted.

Adrian School District patrons approved a bond issue in the amount of $3.7 million to build, furnish and equip a new school, plus make site improvements.

However, by close to the same margin, Adrian area voters shot down a proposed bond issue of $4.9 million which would have included a new multipurpose gymnasium.

The vote was 266 “yes” and 255 “no” for the school only and 278 “no” votes and 254 “yes” to include the gym.

For the Nyssa City Council race, Pat Oliver paced all candidates with 413 votes, followed by Sue Walker, 382 votes; Diego Castellanoz, 377 votes; and Kathleen Flanders, 336 votes.

Oliver, Walker and Castellanoz will have four- year terms and Flanders was elected to a two-year term on the City Council. Anne Shuster received 313 votes.

In the Vale city races, Mayor Bill Lawrence was unopposed in his re-election and elected to the City Council were Michael Bannon and Kimberly Speelman.

However, the third council member to be elected will be decided after the 100 write-in candidates have been identified and their votes tallied. The ballot machine does not read the names of write-ins.

Adrian City Council candidates were led by Adele Dockter with 60 votes, followed by Clay Webb's 54 votes and Mike Heller's 50 votes. Phillip Webb received 30 votes. There were only three seats up for election.