Ridgefield School District Superintendent Nathan McCann speaks with the crowd after reading the February election results while gathered at Hooküm Brewing Company Feb. 11.
Mary Ford, a retired teacherfrom the Ridgefield School District, checks election results on her phone while at Hooküm Brewing Company Feb. 11.
Last week’s latest tally of votes for the February 2020 special election are in, and the annexation of the city of Battle Ground into Clark County Fire District 3 is passing by wide margins.
Following last week’s series of counts leaving only a few hundred ballots left to take account for, only one of the three votes affecting North County looked to be approved by voters.
In both the city of Battle Ground and the existing Fire District 3, voters have handily approved the annexation, with about 80.6 percent of city voters and 74 percent of district voters in favor of the measure.
District 3 Chief Scott Sorenson was “thrilled” with the initial results following their release on election night, mentioning that the district and city involved much public participation in the leadup to the vote.
“Obviously (the public) listened to the situation,” Sorenson said.
Both fire district and city officials have said the annexation was necessary to maintain long-term service levels. Currently, the city contracts with the district for fire services; however, apart from being on a more short-term basis than being a full part of the district, the contract cost was anticipated to be more than what the city collects in property taxes through its own levy next year.
Sorenson said the district didn’t expect approval percentages to be as high as they were in the first count. He recalled that one of the public’s chief concerns was whether annexation would affect the district’s service and identity.
“They’ve come to appreciate that service level,” Sorenson said. “I think some of that’s true in the city as well. They do appreciate emergency services and they supported (annexation).”
Sorenson was grateful for the evident support in a strong initial tally.
“It’s a big step for both communities,” Sorenson remarked about annexation approval.
Battle Ground City Manager Erin Erdman said there was much elation at city hall following the annexation votes, and she expressed thanks to the community for showing such strong support for the measure.
The annexation process started about a year ago, Erdman said, ramping up public outreach in the past several months to get the word out on the city’s needs. Following official certification of the election, she said the next step would be boundary certification for the district post-annexation, something that would need to happen by August so that the city and district could start collecting levy revenues in January.
Erdman said estimates on levy rates for 2021 were $1.27 per $1,000 for the city and $1.30 for Fire District 3. Instead of lowering their levy, previously the city had decided to drop utility rate taxes by 10 percent with the idea that it would lead to tax relief to the city’s 30-percent renting population as well as property owners.
The Battle Ground City Council has the utility rate drop scheduled for approval March 2 and it would be effective at the same time residents would be paying the additional fire levy.
With increased revenue, Erdman said the city would be mapping out the improvements to city services between now and 2021, including increased park and road maintenance as well as police resources.
Battle Ground Police Chief Mike Fort said that additional financial support would allow the department to address some of the requests from citizens on things like increased traffic enforcement.
“We want to demonstrate that we’ve heard the community loud and clear, and they want and expect more services, a better product for the city,” Fort said.
“I think we have good momentum moving forward and we can continue to build on those relationships and continue to make improvements overall,” Erdman said.
School measures
Ballot measures for Woodland Public Schools and the Ridgefield School District were looking like they would not pass as of last week’s numbers.
A $107 million construction bond in Ridgefield was on the brink of passing as of last week’s count. Though it had close to 59.1 percent approval, it would require a supermajority of more than 60 percent approval to pass.
Money from Ridgefield’s bond would be used to construct a new elementary school and a new intermediate school for fifth- and sixth-grade students and expand classroom space at the high school including a new vocational building. A similar bond measure for $77 million that did not feature an intermediate school managed to get close to 58.1 percent of the vote in 2019, still falling below the threshold.
As of press deadline McCann declined to give an official statement about the bond outcome, given how close the results were as of last week’s count. Election counts showed the ballot measure was short only 70 votes from passing, and with 200 ballots left to count countywide and the potential for challenged ballots to be counted, the outcome was still undecided before certification.
McCann did say he was grateful for the community support on the bond. This year there were about 20 percent more ballots cast than the 2019 bond as of last week’s tally.
A replacement levy for a current property tax in Woodland only had about 44.7 percent approval.
If approved, the levy would raise $5.4 million in the first year, $5.75 million in the second and $6.1 million in the third, according to the ballot proposition. The levy was estimated at a rate of $2.37 per $1,000 of assessed valuation paid in 2021 and $2.36 per $1,000 in the two subsequent years, which the district stated was about the same as the current levy rate paid on property taxes this year.
Information from the district states the levy makes up a 12 percent gap in operations funding between what is provided for by the state and what the district needs to run at adequate levels.
Woodland Public Schools Superintendent Michael Green expressed disappointment over the election results. Though it had yet to be approved, he anticipated the district’s board of directors would approve to re-run the levy for the April election, something that nearby Hockinson School District saw success with last year when their own replacement levy failed the initial time.
Should voters turn down a levy measure if it comes up for a vote again, Green said the district would be looking at upwards of $3 million in cuts to make up for the lost funding.
Voter turnout as of the first count was about 33.8 percent in Clark County and almost 40 percent in Cowlitz County.
