Voters reject aquatic center, MP issues

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Election Day wasn’t a good day for city issues, with a proposed aquatics center bond issue and issues that would lengthen City Council terms from two to four years all defeated at the polls.

The aquatic center bond issue was defeated 1,473 to 1,093, with only four of 15 city precincts favoring the issue. The only precincts that voted in favor of the bond issue were 2D, 3D, 4A and 4D, with the largest margin of defeat coming in Precinct 4B, an area that used to be a bastion of support for city issues. The measure failed in 4B 150-48, a margin of 102 votes (see a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of the aquatics center vote further down in this story).

Mayor Don Farmer, who spearheaded the issue, said the issue is likely a dead one, at least for the foreseeable future.

“This was the ideal situation,” the mayor said of having a maintenance fund and also money donated by Scott Niswonger to use if the facility showed an operating loss. “This was the best scenario that could be presented.”

Mayor Farmer gave much credit to other supporters who obtained pledges for more than $1 million to defray future maintenance costs of the proposed facility, but said he feels it would be very difficult to put that much effort forth to do so again, considering the size of the issue’s defeat.

“We felt this was laid out very nicely, with the individual people who had raised over a million bucks,” the mayor said, adding, “I don’t know whether the private sector that cooperated with us on this could put it (maintenance funding) back together again.”

Mayor Farmer noted that city officials would not even look at the issue without money set aside for future maintenance – even if someone donated the money to build a water park and gifted it to the city. “We cannot, as a city, build without that,” he added, while thanking local business people Chuck Koch, Andy Czajkowski and others who were part of the Friends of the Aquatic Center for their efforts on behalf of the issue.

Two issues seeking to lengthen terms for Van Wert City Council from two to four years also met with significant defeats, possibly as part of the voter backlash against the aquatic center project. An issue extending Council members’ terms to four years lost 935-1,541, while a measure to lengthen the term of council president was also defeated by a vote of 975-1,483.

Elsewhere, a bond issue placed before Middle Point village residents to construct a new fire station also was defeated, 53-104, while a Delphos income tax increase also was defeated by Van Wert County voters 231-333. Delphos voters in Allen County also defeated the issue.

There was good news for county schools, though, as Crestview voters approved renewing the district’s 1-percent income tax 472-322, while Lincolnview voters approved renewing the district’s 2.5-mill, five-year permanent improvement levy by more than a 2-1 margin. The vote was 658 for and 262 against.

In fact, the only other money issue defeated by county voters was an additional half-mill, five-year current expenses levy sought by the village of Willshire, although it isn’t clear yet whether a replacement levy in the village of Scott was approved, since a vote tally for residents living on the Paulding County side of the village weren’t available. Van Wert County residents of the village approved the levy 9-3.