SCHOOL BOND ISSUES PASSES BY 63 PERCENT

The $5.25 million school bond referendum Tuesday passed by a margin of 62.8 percent.

The day-long vote at the public school ended at 8 p.m. and by about 8:40 p.m., the results were posted, indicating there were 675 voters and 424 of them voted FOR the issue and 251 voted against.

There are 1,518 registered voterds and 111 of the votes were cast by absentee ballot.

"We're very relieved and very happy," said School Board Chairman Dawn VanKeulen.

The bond issue is to repair the elementary school, re-do the lockerroom areas and add new bathrooms.

"I feel like we did the best we could do on it and that's all you can do," said Supt. Dan Deitte.

He said the fact is the district wouldn't have been able to do the projects without the referendum vote. "It would have had to just stay the way it is," said the superintendent, indicating the school district wouldn't have had enough money to do this project without the bond issue.

Three board members, Deitte and Principal Jeremy Frie gathered at the school to await the outcome.

When it arrived, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

A letter to the editor in an area newspaper last Friday seemed to cast some negative light on the election and there was rumour of organized efforts to vote in opposition to the issue.

The school board presented a nine-week series of articles explaining all the issues involved in the bond issue and felt the public had access to all the information available.

They also held several explaination sessions complete with tours of the facility.

No doubt a positive influence on this bond issue was the Ag2School Bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature and signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton. The new law gave tax breaks to all owners of agricultural land and voting for this issue ensured farmers would still get the tax break.

Supt. Deitte earlier indicated if the bond issue did not pass, the work would take 10 to 15 years to accomplish.