Ketchikan Assembly to certify results electing Bolling, Ortiz and Arntzen Tuesday

Ketchikan Gateway Borough voters rejected a borough takeover of the Ketchikan Public Library and returned all three incumbents on the ballot to the Assembly, according to official results the Assembly is scheduled to certify Tuesday.

Inside the cities of Ketchikan and Saxman, the library measure passed 658 to 589. Outside them, it lost 396 to 725. An areawide borough power has to pass in both groups separately under state law, so the measure failed, according to the certification resolution.

The measure, which citizens petitioned onto the ballot, would have moved the library's assets, operations and funding from the City of Ketchikan to the borough. It would also have raised the library levy on property outside the cities from 0.6 to 1.2 mills and taxed Saxman residents for the first time, Alaska News reported in August.

The library stays with the city. The Assembly voted 5-2 in May to end the borough's 40-year library funding agreement with the city as of Dec. 31. With the measure defeated, the borough keeps its existing library power outside the two cities and can keep negotiating with the city over funding, the borough's voter guide said, as Alaska News reported Oct. 6.

In the Assembly race, Kathy Bolling led with 1,501 votes, followed by Dan Ortiz with 1,489 and Sharli Arntzen with 1,324. Timothy Montgomery finished fourth, 8 votes behind Arntzen with 1,316. Arntzen led by 16 on election night, and the gap narrowed when the Canvass Board counted absentee, special needs and questioned ballots on Oct. 12.

Frances Klein, with 1,254 votes, and Marissa Medford, with 1,158, won the two open School Board seats. Vicki O'Brien had 951 and Rob Holston 567.

In all, 2,429 people voted, according to the Canvass Board. New members are scheduled to take their oaths at the Assembly's organizational meeting right after Tuesday's certification.