COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – For the second time in six months, voters in the Coldwater Community School district have turned down a bond proposal that would have been used to fund improvements and upgrades at Coldwater High School and other buildings in the district.
The final tally was 1,989 to 1,781 in favor of the no votes. That compares to the 1,929 to 1,686 edge for the no votes last November which indicates not a whole of minds were changed in the last six months.
Things looked good for the supporters of the $53 million bonding proposal early in the evening as it passed in the City of Coldwater 901-717.
But that optimism faded as returns from the townships in the C.C.S. district came in about two hours after the polls closed. Those results showed that all of the townships said no just like last November. Outside of the City of Coldwater, the proposal went down in flames 1,272 to 880.
The measure was voted down despite a large push by a local citizens group known as Citizens for Coldwater Schools.
But angry Branch County taxpayers are apparently fed up after they approved millage requests for a new jail and a new fourth and fifth grade school as well as a phone surcharge for the Enhanced 911 project in recent years.
While it was pointed out there would be no millage increase, those who opposed the proposal were under the impression their taxes were going to go up.
The request also could not have come at a worse time with the stock market dropping in recent months, gas prices going up to $4.39 a gallon this week, the continuing war in Ukraine and the country enduring its the worst inflation in four decades.
District officials and backers of the bond proposal claimed it would have allowed the district to issue a new bond and raise approximately $53 million with a zero mill net increase. It would have funded a full remodel and new two-story addition to the high school which was built in the 1950s including a new main entry, dedicated STEM learning space, multipurpose athletic space and reconfiguration of the pickup and drop off loop. It would have also included air-conditioning throughout the building.
Meanwhile, voters in Algansee, California and Butler Townships helped defeat a Hillsdale County Intermediate School District Special Education additional millage proposal of two mills for 20 years. If approved, the funds would have been used for the education of disabled students but it was turned down 3,107 to 1,607. That included a Branch County vote of 34 no, 17 yes.
Ironically, the school proposals were voted down on National Teachers Day.
The Branch County Clerk’s office says about 21 percent of registered voters in the county cast ballots.
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