Having taken two knockout punches to the jaw, supporters of a new Oak Harbor library are in no mood to immediately get back in the ring with opponents.

For example, Sno-Isle Regional Library board of directors met Friday to discuss the situation in Stanwood, where it looks like voters approved a new $9 million library. But Oak Harbor wasn’t even on the agenda.

In Tuesday’s election, the $12 bond measure to build a new library in Oak Harbor garnered a meager 40 percent of the vote — far away from the 60 percent majority needed to approve the tax increase.

Even a proposal that wouldn’t cost any money — the creation of an Oak Harbor Regional Library District — received only 43 percent support from voters. That ballot item needed only 50 percent approval to pass.

The magnitude of the defeat seemed to catch Oak Harbor library supporters by surprise, although they were aware of concerns in the community. Some people had strongly criticized the proposed library site on Pioneer Way in downtown Oak Harbor as too expensive. An alternative site on Jerome Street near the Senior Center would have cost an estimated $2 million less.

“Clearly, it’s a message from the community,” said Mary Campbell, Oak Harbor Library librarian.

The message she got from the vote? “It’s not about library services,” she said. “It’s about the site.”

The Library Building Committee had originally listed the Jerome Street site as its first choice, but the City Council and other downtown proponents encouraged them to ultimately choose the downtown site.

Mary Kelly, community relations manager for Sno-Isle Libraries, described the Oak Harbor vote as “very decisive . . it makes it clear there’s issues.” Had the vote been close, the Sno-Isle board may have sent the proposal back to voters in November, but not now. “We wouldn’t come charging out again with results like this,” Kelly said.

Cheryl Telford, Sno-Isle’s assistant director of community libraries, said the election results “definitely give us pause,” and that voters won’t be seeing a new proposal in the near future. “We want to be thoughtful and deliberate, get the precinct (results) information and hear from the community,” she said.

From what she heard before the election, Telford said the library site appeared to be the “stumbling block.”

Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory, Sno-Isle director, said it would have helped had the public known the exact cost of the downtown site before the election. That was the case in Stanwood, she said, where a purchase agreement contingent on election results was in place.

“We were in the process of getting an appraisal,” for the Oak Harbor property, Woolf-Ivory said. “I wanted it done in August.” She said a commercial appraiser was not available due to “the hot real estate market.”

Particularly disappointed by the library election results was Terry LeDesky, a local architect who has worked for years with the Harbor Pride group to revitalize downtown. A new library was an important part of their planning.

In a written statement, LeDesky noted that the proposed downtown site was once offered to the city at no cost if a performing arts center was built there. That effort fizzled for lack of financing.

“Why wasn’t this offer given to the library proposal also?” LeDesky asked.

Woolf-Ivory simply said the property owners, led by Bill Massey, “declined” to donate the site for the library.

LeDesky described the cost of the new library, which he estimated at $6 to $12 a month for property owners, as “incredibly cheap … for something so nice as a library in Old Town with a view of the water. You have to wonder how many people shop at Wal-Mart in a day and what they spend and what for?”

Librarian Campbell said the Oak Harbor library situation will be discussed at the next meeting of the Building Committee, Monday, Sept. 20, at 1 p.m. at the library.

LeDesky, for one, will continue to argue for a downtown site. “Those of us who still have this vision for a better Oak Harbor will continue to work for the library downtown,” he said.