Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Operation budgets hang in the balance as officials at Farmington hold out hope that three levy proposals will somehow get over the 60 percent approval mark in the final count of general election ballots Nov. 28-29.
The last ballots to be counted are ones which were deemed problematic by the county elections staff. Late postmarks, signature matchup with registration, and other problems put the ballots in front of the canvass board for their ruling. Right now the county has 166 ballots in the stack.
Returns on the three Farmington levies are now at 56 percent, 57 percent and 50 percent; all are short of the 60 percent required for approval of funding measures.
“We can’t guess whether there are even more Farmington votes remaining in what’s left,” said Elections Supervisor Debbie Hooper.
The 166 ballots come from all over the county, and election officials won’t know which counts will change until the ballots that do pass the canvass board get counted and added to returns for their respective districts.
Farmington’s special levy requests are for $15,000 for the town’s current expense fund, $12,000 for streets and $5,000 for equipment.
None of the three passed in the August primary, and they were placed back on the ballot Nov. 8.
“We’re just waiting,” said Farmington Mayor Laura Hokenson. “I’m hoping they’ll squeak by. The numbers are looking the way they did last time, so we’ll see.”
In the meantime, Mayor Hokenson and the city council have worked out two different budgets, one with the levy revenues, and one without.
They decided on things they won’t do if the levies fail.
For example, work on streets will be limited to roads that buses from the three school districts travel when serving Farmington. These existing gravel roads in town will be maintained.
“None of the school districts run little buses; they all run big ones,” said Hokenson. “The rest of the roads will just have to go without.”
The mayor said building maintenance work in town would also be suspended.
The town has several particularly old buildings which require maintenance. For example, the cement-block jail building, which is now used for storage, has cracks in it.
In addition, some hours and salaries may be cut.
That includes the mayor’s salary of $150 per month.
The county elections canvas board is made up of the county auditor, a representative from the prosecutor’s office and one of the county commissioners.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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