Ironton may be in financial straits but that doesn't mean the city's voters are willing to pay more in taxes to put boost city coffers.

City residents lined up at the polls Tuesday and defeated three issues on the ballot.

By a nearly 3 to 1 margin, residents rejected the proposed half-percent hike in the city's payroll tax. With all 10 city precincts accounted for, the final tally was 1,461 votes cast in favor of the increase, and 3,607 votes cast against it.

Ironton Mayor John Elam said he hoped that, with the failure of the payroll tax increase, city council would take action on other means of raising revenues to combat the city's budget woes.

"I anticipated the payroll tax would be voted down," Elam said.

"That's why I was such a strong supporter of the municipal fee. It is now time for council to listen again to what the people have been requesting since April. I think this shows once again that the people do not think the payroll tax increase is a viable solution to the problems the city is facing."

The city's proposed one-mil, five-year replacement flood wall levy also went down to defeat- narrowly: 2,530 votes were cast against it; 2,441 votes were cast in favor of it.

The mayor position in Ironton will not see a reduction in pay. Voters also rejected a city charter amendment that would have reduced the mayor's salary to half that paid the municipal court judge.

Again, the margin of defeat was nearly 3-1: 1,790 people cast votes in favor of the amendment; 3,103 cast votes against it.

"If

people are judging this issue based on current performance, I think this means they are well satisfied with the present administration," Elam said. "And I will continue to work hard as a full-time mayor for the betterment of Ironton."

Fairland voters turned thumbs down on a proposed bond levy that would have generated money for new athletic facilities.

With all precincts accounted for, 2,862 votes were cast against the bond levy, 1,587 votes were cast in favor of it. The 15-year, 2.6 mil bond levy would have provided monies to replace the Fairland High School stadium and build a new playground at Fairland West Elementary School.

Fairland school board member Bob Mayo said that in spite of the voters' disapproval of the bond levy, school officials still have to come up with a plan to address the need for the new sports facilities.

Mayo said he thinks the board will discuss what to do next at next week's regular board meeting if not before then at a special meeting.

"I feel certain we will come up with a way of completing that job," Mayo said.

"The next step is to get together with the superintendent and sit down and discuss how to go about this. We've still go the same problems we've had before and we need to take care of them. We don't have the money on hand for this, contrary to what has been stated in the newspapers."

Mayo said he thinks voters rejected the bond levy in part because they are already paying for new school buildings and because the economy is not very healthy.

Voters in Lawrence and Upper townships were in a more generous mood when they went to the polls: Fire levies in both townships were approved.

In Lawrence Township, 908 people voted for that levy while 277 voted against it. In Upper Township, 782 people voted for that fire levy, 378 voted against it.