The final results are in and no doubt about it Renton wants to keep its beloved downtown library right where it is, over the Cedar River.

The final vote tally is 76 percent, or 12,231 votes, to 23 percent, or 3,781 votes, for a new library just west of the Piazza.

And what’s satisfying is that the vote total amounts to about 38 percent of Renton’s 44,400 registered voters. Anyone probably would like to see a bigger turnout on such an important issue, but that’s pretty darn good.

Look at the returns this way. That huge 76 percent didn’t budge at all from when the first results were posted on Aug. 7 to when the results were certified on Tuesday. That tells me the 76 percent truly represents the will of Renton’s voters.

Now Renton and KCLS need to get down to the work of renovating the Cedar library and building a new one in the Highlands. No doubt, those who worked so hard to keep the library over the Cedar will watch those talks closely.

Since I have you, I’d like to talk to you a little bit about our position favoring the west Piazza site. We based our decision on the cost of each site and, importantly, the fact the city had already agreed to build a new library just west of the Piazza. That’s enough to get everyone up to speed.

What I really want to write is that the Renton Reporter has a close relationship with our readers.

You experience your city through the words that Tracey Compton, Adam McFadden and me write in our news columns and the photographs we take.

Through our editorials, Publisher Ellen Morrison and I give you something to think about as you mull the big issues of the day, such as the library location. I know you won’t always agree with us; that’s to be expected and much desired. The only outside pressure that Ellen and I feel is what we put on ourselves to express our opinions in a thoughtful way and only after weighing all the information available to us.

I write our editorials, which is part of my job as editor. Editorials always appear under the header Our View, so you will know that it is the opinion of the Renton Reporter.

I also write a column, which I see as a conversation with you about Renton. I’ve been your editor since January 2007 and before that I covered Renton at various times during my many years with the King County Journal and its predecessors. I have a pretty deep understanding of Renton and how it fits into the larger Puget Sound community.

Those decades of experience have helped forge my deep commitment to fairness and the important distinction between unbiased reporting and the by-definition biased writing on the editorial page. I do know what hat I am wearing – reporter or editorialist or columnist – when I am sitting at my keyboard.

All that said, I sometimes hear concerns expressed that what appears below my byline is biased. I take those concerns seriously. However, my first question is always, Are you referring to a news story or to an editorial or column? If it’s a news story, I’ll listen closely and, if necessary, I’ll figure out how to do a better job next time.

If it’s an editorial or column, well, yes, that’s opinion.

Thanks for reading.

Dean