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School bond voted down for second time

Sanders wins Republican county seat nomination; voter turnout greater than expected

The Sidney school bond was defeated again on Tuesday, this time by a margin of just 64 votes.

The $16.95 million bond would have funded the construction of a new K-4 school to replace the three aging facilities that now house those grade levels, the oldest of which was built in 1929.

The initial count after the polls closed on Tuesday was 953 votes against the bond and 889 in favor of the bond.

“We knew it was going to be a pretty close election,” said Sidney schools superintendent Jay Ehler.

Although Ehler and the school board were optimistic that the bond would pass this time around, they knew that voters in the district were evenly divided on the issue.

“It’s disappointing,” he said.

While those in favor of the school argue that Sidney’s children need better facilities, those against it worry about higher property taxes. Taxes would go up around $10 per month for property worth $100,000, if the bond passed, the school claimed.

This is the second time within the past year that Sidney voters have decided against funding a new school. A special election on a bond of almost $16 million was held by mail in September 2013. Last year’s bond election saw a higher voter turn out, with 1139 votes for the bond and 1244 against. The 2013 vote was also lost by a narrow margin of only 105 votes.

Usually mail-in elections see a higher turn-out, according to Cheyenne County clerk Beth Fiegenschuh.

Without a vote to fund a new facility, the school will continue to pay large bills for maintenance on its older buildings. Ehler doesn’t know when another vote to fund a new school will come before the public again—that decision is up to the school board—but he does know that Sidney needs a new school sometime in the near future.

“Our fear is that it will only get more expensive,” he said.

Ehler hopes that construction costs and interest rates don’t continue to rise. Tuesday’s bond election was for around $1 million more than the election last September.

In other local election news Philip Sanders beat out Thomas Dorwart for the Republican nomination for the Cheyenne County Commissioner district three seat, which represents Potter. Sanders garnered 406 votes to Dorwart’s 180.

All of the four rural fire districts passed a levy override. Voters in the Potter rural cemetery district also voted in favor of a levy override.

Unofficially 2,390 Cheyenne County voters turned out for this year’s primary. There are 6,949 voters registered in the county. This makes for a turnout of around 34 percent, which is better than Fiegenschuh predicted.

“It was higher than I expected, which was nice to see,” she said.

About 36 percent of voters in the Sidney School District voted on the bond election.

 

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