Jamestown  (CSi)  Voters in the Jamestown Public School District voted Tuesday to turn down the $34.4 million bond referendum.

School District Business Manager, Sally Ost reports that, the vote was:

  • Yes: 1140  (21%)
  • No: 2769   (79%) 

The referendum needed a 60 percent  majority of YES votes to pass.

The total vote count was 3909. There were 875 Early Voting ballots cast, and 103 absentee ballots.  She says nine votes will be canvassed, with the canvassing at the October First School Board meeting.

Stutsman County COO Nichole Meland says, as of 2-p.m., Tuesday, voting was  steady since the Jamestown Civic Center polling location opened at 7-a.m.

At 2-p.m, there had been 1552 votes  at the Civic Center.

The vote total Tuesday was more than the 3528 votes cast in the June 2018 elections.

 

Superintendent Robert Lech says  “I would say our community has told us that this is not the correct plan at the right time and as a result we will revisit other possible solutions.”

The school board will refer plans to committees and to the community to determine what can be done to go forward. The school board’s, work now is to prioritize what must be done with the resources available.

 

If approved by voters, the bond issue would have resulted in a 37 mill increase in annual property taxes, based on 2017 valuations. Final rates calculated on the 2018 valuation to be finalized in October 2018.

The school board approved delaying the sale of the bonds until January or February 2019. This removes any tax for repayment of the bonds from the upcoming tax season, and collection would begin with property taxes levied in late 2019.

Superintendent Robert Lech says it’s possible interest rates could increase from the time voters would have approved the bond issue, and the sale of the bond, which would have increased the amount of taxes the school would have had to levy to pay off the bond issue.