HAYDEN — With two strikes you’re not out, but a cold seat in the dugout can feel uncomfortably close to it.

Hayden city officials are keenly aware of that after Tuesday’s defeat of a request to bolster its law enforcement efforts, which would have provided 24/7 Sheriff’s Office coverage for the first time in this city of about 15,000.

Technically, support for the request to increase the city’s base budget by $400,000 annually — which would have essentially doubled Hayden’s law enforcement expenditure — was positive. The “yes” votes exceeded the naysayers 880-806 for 52.19% approval. To become law, however, the request needed 60% support.

The failure follows a ballot request a year ago that sought $1.6 million a year for additional law enforcement and street improvements. Voters squashed that one in a big way, in part because the city leaders themselves urged citizens to reject it based on a poorly worded request and weak communication.

So after two strikes, now what?

“It’s too early to say,” Mayor Steve Griffitts said Wednesday. “It’s really going to be up to the City Council to figure out how to move forward.”

Griffitts didn’t sound like the manager of a batter facing two strikes. He was upbeat, and not just because he won re-election Tuesday.

“This process was exactly the way I hoped the community would want it to be,” he said.

Going back, Griffitts noted, the process included detailed input from Sheriff Ben Wolfinger, intense deliberation and research from a citizen task force that fashioned the final recommendation, the council’s acceptance of that recommendation and finally, Hayden voters having their say.

“And 52 percent wanted it and 48 percent didn’t,” he said.

One suggestion that was floated in the latter stages of the campaign was an even more modest proposal of adding two deputies, rather than four.

“The [task force] recommendation was for 24-hour coverage, and two would not provide that, based on feedback from law enforcement and the task force,” Griffitts said. “But anything’s possible for the benefit of the citizens. Two is better than none, but again, that’s going to be up to the council.”