By Kendra Evensen, kevensen@journalnet.com
It was a tough night in Bingham County, with only one bond passing and three other requests failing.
While Firth will get its $3.7 million special revenue bond, Bingham County won’t be joining the new community college district, Blackfoot won’t be getting funds to renovate and upgrade its pool, and Snake River School District won’t be getting more money to improve school sites and facilities and address other needs.
Voters approved Firth’s special revenue bond that will be used to improve sanitary sewer system facilities. More than 60 people supported it and only 4 voted against the request.
But an effort to add Bingham County to the College of Eastern Idaho’s community college district failed with 3,046 (more than 60 percent) of voters disapproving of the idea on Tuesday. Only 1,964 people voted to join the district.
While Blackfoot’s request for a $5 million bond to extend the life of its 40-plus-year-old indoor swimming pool garnered a majority 1,163 votes (more than 61 percent), it came shy of the supermajority it needed. There were 739 votes cast against the proposal.
The city sought a similar swimming pool bond earlier this year, which also narrowly failed to pass.
Snake River School District, which was seeking a $750,000 school plant facilities reserve fund levy each year for 10 years, also garnered a majority of votes on Tuesday, but not enough.
That request also failed to get a supermajority approval, with only 521 voting for the levy and 433 voting against it.