Grants Pass, Ore.– More than 100 volunteers and paid petitioners are covering the streets of Grants Pass, working to collect as many signatures as they can in support of a public safety tax levy in Josephine County.
And they’re not alone. Set up right next door outside the Grants Pass post office is another table where a volunteer is handing out flyers against the proposed levy.
“People don’t seem to want it,” says Judy Ahrens, against the levy. “What part of no don’t you understand.”
Ahrens is spending her day handing out flyers titled “Be Aware”. She says a levy would hurt senior citizens pocketbooks and says the measure language is too vague.
“We don’t have any break down on spending,” explains Ahrens.
But others disagree.
“The community is ready for this, ready to get our county back,” says Coleen Martin. She works for the Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce and she’s also helping head up the collection of levy supporter signatures.
“The support that is coming in is pretty incredible.”
We told you last week that a discrepancy over the clarity and length of the proposed safety levy, led to the filing of a complaint against the measure. A county judge overruled that complaint on Friday. Levy supporters had to wait until that day to start collecting the 2,038 signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.
“I feel like we are pretty on target for where we want to be,” says Martin. “We have a long way to go and we have a really short time to get there. This has to work.”
They’ve only got until Wednesday at 5 pm.
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