County wide levies, city schools permanent improvement levy pass
Coshocton County Public Library staff celebrate the passing of the first ever library levy for Coshocton County as Hopewell levy supporters and others watch the results of the Tuesday, Nov. 7 election at the Coshocton County Board of Elections on Tuesday evening. Mark Fortune | Beacon
COSHOCTON – In a nail biting election the Hopewell levy passed by 60 votes in unofficial tallying on Tuesday night, Nov. 7, while the Coshocton Public Library levy succeeded by more than 1,000 votes in the affirmative. Voters also approved several issues for Sunday sales and alcohol sales around the county. State Issue One passed overwhelmingly while State Issue Two failed by about the same margin.
More specifically, unofficial election results reported by the Coshocton County Board of Elections had the Hopewell levy at 3,592 for and 3,525 against. The library levy reported 4,025 votes for and 3,118 against. The Coshocton City Schools permanent improvement levy had 1,343 for and 689 against. The Village of Warsaw levy had 116 for and 29 against the levy. The Three Rivers Fire District levy had 575 votes for and 206 votes against. All five alcohol related issues passed in the county, which included three Sunday sales. All results are considered unofficial until verified by the Coshocton County Board of Elections and provisional ballots are several days after the election.
With 1,222 votes cast in the village of West Lafayette, the top four vote getters for village council seats were Christie Maurer (279), Charles R. Wheeler (252), Timothy Lee Cheney (248) and Craig E. Bordenkircher (237).
Township trustee races were held across the county along with several township fiscal officer races. In a contested city council race in Ward One – incumbent Bob Fetters was unseated by non-partisan Michael Gross. Township trustee incumbents were mostly successful with a couple of races tight enough to not be declared as of Tuesday night.
Coshocton City Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hire said, “We are just overwhelmed again by the generosity and support of this community to help our kids and it – seems like we are always having to go back to our voters – but again, it’s a renewal and we are very appreciative of the community. I want to thank our levy committee and our chairs: Amy Stockdale and Phil and Krista Hunt. Everyone has done a great job. We just couldn’t be happier with the support of the community.”
Steve Oester, superintendent for the Coshocton County Board of DD, said after seeing the final results that showed the renewal ley with a small increase passing by a mere 60 votes, “It was a very tight race. We want to thank the voters for supporting our levy and what we do. We’ve been here 50 years and really appreciate everybody’s support. I would like to thank all of our providers, all of our families, and all of our staff for everything they’ve done and the community for supporting us.”
Eric Taggart, executive director of the Coshocton Public Library, said, “Obviously, we’re thrilled. We’re very excited and very, very appreciative of the support that we received from the community. We tried to be optimistic about the vote and we just feel really grateful for all the people that supported us and for all the people that made this possible. Thank you to all those that supported us. This will make a big difference in terms of what we can do for the community – and we’re very excited. People will see a difference. We know that the services we provide are needed and valued and this just affirms that for us.”
Category: Government
