STEUBENVILLE–Jefferson County voters chose to continue funding their public library Tuesday, passing a 1-mill, five-year levy renewal considered crucial to maintaining operations and services.

Unofficial tallies show 6,630 votes (52.18 percent) of the ballots cast were in favor of renewing the levy, with 6,075 votes (47.82 percent) against.

Library Director Mike Gray said he was thankful for voters’ support, although “anti-LGBTQ and anti-property tax sentiment made the results closer than we would have liked.”

“I’d like to think that 123 years of being good library stewards is being rewarded,” he said. “I hope people think we’re doing a good job and the controversy of the books didn’t turn too many people off.”

Gray said they “plan on providing quality library serve to Jefferson County residents regardless of how they voted and look forward to the Bergholz branch opening in 2026.”

“We tried to keep the message positive,” he added. “We did try to tell people if levy fails, ‘This is what’s going happen.’ I didn’t want anyone coming to me in six weeks saying, ‘I didn’t know …We do a lot of good, we try to get out in the community and let them know what we do and the services we provide.”

He said much of what the library stuff does is “passive, we wait for somebody to walk in the door or call or e-mail.”

“It’s not sexy, it’s not real standout stuff,” he said. “But we’re the place people come when they just don’t know what else to do.”

A statement issues by the Committee for Decent Libraries, which waged a well-orchestrated campaign of postcards, windshield fliers and texts against the levy’s passage, said members were “proud of our campaign to inform the taxpayers of Jefferson County of the extreme books being purchased by the libraries with our tax dollars. With only a few weeks and a shoestring budget, we narrowed the margin of passage for the library tax levy from 40 points the last time it was on the ballot in 2019 to just four points in 2025.”

“We nearly won, and the massive swing against the library levy assured us that we must continue the fight,” the statement continued. “We are not going anywhere and will continue our work to hold the PLSJ accountable.”