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ICCC bond issue fails

$29.5 million measure falls short by 1.4 percent

A proposed $29.5 million bond issue that would have paid for a variety of building upgrades at Iowa Central Community College was rejected by a slim margin during a referendum Tuesday.

Unofficial election results from multiple counties showed that collectively 58.6 percent of the voters supported the bond issue.

However, that was short of the 60 percent margin required to approve the bonds.

“I’m disappointed,” college President Dan Kinney said Tuesday night. “We’re going to have to sit back and regroup.”

“I’m disappointed, but does this result make us any less of an institution?” he added. “No, it doesn’t. I’ll put this institution up against anybody in the nation.”

In Webster County, 59.7 percent of the voters supported the bond issue.

Unofficial results released by the Webster County Auditor’s Office showed that 1,498 people voted yes while 1,011 voted no.

In Buena Vista County, voters approved the bond issue by a margin of 60.3 percent. There, 79 people voted yes and 52 voted no.

In Calhoun County, voters favored the bond issue by a margin of 68.7 percent. In that county, 251 people voted for the bond issue and 114 voted against it.

In Greene County, the bond issue was supported by 44.8 percent of the voters. There, 134 people voted for it and 155 people voted against it.

In Hamilton County, 58.1 percent of the voters supported that bond issue. There, 264 people voted for it and 190 voted against it.

In Humboldt County, 42.4 percent of the voters supported the measure. In that county, 96 people voted for it and 130 voted against it.

In Pocahontas County, 66.8 percent of the voters supported the bond issue. In that county 137 people voted for it and 68 people voted against it.

In Sac County, 47.1 percent of the voters supported the bond issue. There, 115 people voted for it and 129 voted against it.

In Wright County, 55.1 percent of the voters supported the bond issue. There, 108 people voted for it and 88 voted against it.

The bond issue money would have been spent on these projects:

• Student services center — $9 million

• Career academies — $5 million

• General building upgrades — $5 million

• Decker Auditorium renovations — $4 million

• Safety and security upgrades — $3 million

• More classroom space — $1.5 million

• Reserve fund — $1.5 million

• New elevator at Webster City site — $500,000

Kinney said all of those are needs of the college that must be addressed in some way.

“We’re still going to look at these projects,” he said.

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