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Bond vote goes for recount; School board member beats opponent to filing
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · April 30, 2008
In a surprise move Monday, the West Branch Board of Education endorsed a recount of the $3.35 million bond issue approved last week.
Superintendent Craig Artist suggested the proactive measure after resident and opponent Norm Bickford said he would consider filing for a recount himself to challenge the 402-264 vote, which gave the “yes” side only a two-vote margin, or 60.3 percent of the vote. It needed a 60 percent supermajority to win.
“When it’s right, we move on,” Artist said.
The school board, itself, could not file for the recount, so board member Chad Fiderlein volunteered to gather signatures and file the proper paperwork.
Cedar County Auditor Cari Gritton confirmed Tuesday that Fiderlein had filed the petition and that the recount is scheduled for 8:40 a.m. Thursday, May 1.
Bickford said he was not surprised by the move.
“Nothing surprises me,” he said. “But I would sure love to find a two-vote error.”
Bickford noted that this is only a count of the votes themselves, and not to verify whether they were cast properly by only qualified voters.
Gritton said that once a citizen files for a recount, no other requests are accepted.
“There’s only one recount,” she said, “No other.”
There is also no appeals process, she said.
“The recount is final,” Gritton said.
Fiderlein, Cedar County Election Clerk Tarah Gates and County Treasurer Gary Jedlicka will make up the recount committee, Gritton said. Gates was appointed by Gritton; Jedlicka was chosen by an agreement of Fiderlein and Gritton.
Bickford said last week he would not have picked a bond issue supporter as the third person on the recount committee, but he still wonders why Fiderlein, knowing Bickford’s interest, did not suggest him as the third committee member.
“I guess turnabout is fair play,” Bickford said. “All’s fair in love and war.”
He said he does not plan to attend the recount, though it is open to the public.
Gritton said she expects it to take about two hours.
Bickford had approached Gritton on Wednesday, April 23, the day after the bond issue passed, to discuss what was necessary for a recount. At the time, there were three absentee ballots still unreturned and one ballot that was questionable. Since then, the state approved the questionable ballot for counting. The unreturned ballots did not arrive before the county board officially canvassed the votes on Monday, April 28.
Bickford said he is “a little bitter” about the way supporters went about promoting the “yes” vote.
“They won the thing with a whole bunch of scare tactics,” he said. “It’s all crap.”
He said Shive-Hattery engineer Jim Knowles was more like a “geothermal salesman.”
Board member Richard Paulus said the recount will put the bond issue, which largely pays to install geothermal heating, ventilation and air conditioning in Hoover Elementary, “on solid ground.”
Artist called the bond issue approval “an exciting time” for bringing the HVAC system and other improvements to the district.
The school board also approved a “pre-levy resolution” to add the bond issue to the next tax levy.
The board will levy $432,500 the first year and is assuming a 5-percent interest rate, Business Manager Angie Walter said.
That rate is up from the 4.4 percent estimate the board heard in March. Those early figures expected a tax rate of $1.72 and total 10-year payback of $4.21 million.
The new figures show a tax rate of $1.77 and a 10-year payback of $4.34 million.
Walter said the new figures are conservative.
“If we bring in more than we need this year, we can adjust it next year,” she said.
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