Barrington-area voters reject plan for larger library

Barrington Area Library District voters were not in a spending mood Tuesday. With all 47 precincts reporting, unofficial results in a library expansion referendum showed 10,508 voters, or 59 percent, cast ballots against the proposal.

The $34.3 million measure would have added about 53,000 square feet to the Barrington library.

The new plans called for the addition of amenities like a children's pavilion, coffee shop, meeting rooms, quiet adult areas, outdoor program space and a 24-hour service window.

Environmentally friendly features like green roofs, rain gardens and "geo-exchange" wells to heat and cool the library more efficiently were also added to the proposal.

Faye Sinnott, co-chairwoman of an independent committee called Citizens for the Library Referendum, had said she believed that the details of this plan were more specific than a more vaguely worded, $28 million, 43,000-square-foot expansion which voters rejected in 2004.

Referendum supporters couldn't be reached late Tuesday.