Good news for Dayton, Washington, and Columbia County. Residents of Dayton voted yesterday to annex into the Columbia County Rural Library District (CCRLD). This is a win-win for both the city and the library district. Voters approved the annexation by 74%. Trustee Chair, Tanya Patton, reports relief and joy after 4 years of work on this issue.

Columbia County Rural Library District is the newest library district in Washington, formed by voters in 2005. Starbuck, the other of the two incorporated areas of Columbia County remains outside the library district. The Library District will assume ownership of the Dayton Memorial Library building Jan 1, 2010 and will receive their first tax money in 2011. The city will continue to contract for 2010.

You can learn more about CCRLD at their web site (http://www.ccrld.lib.wa.us/). Janet Lyon is the Director.

On a similar vein, the levy vote vital to keeping Castle Rock Public Library alive remains too close to call. The vote is just shy of the 60% super majority required. At the time of this writing 500 votes remain to be counted but some of those may belong to another primary election for the city of Kelso. This is not the first time the Castle Rock Library has found itself in a tight place. You can read more in today’s The Daily News Online (http://www.tdn.com/articles/2009/08/19/area_news/doc4a8b85b672d7f595513726.txt).