By the Lincoln Chronicle staff
Voters kept their pocketbooks open for schools Tuesday, approving the renewal of a building bond for the Lincoln County School District in a county and statewide special election.
But operating levies for Waldport and Eddyville-based fire districts were too close to call Tuesday night after 85 percent of ballots were counted by the Lincoln County clerk’s office.
The school district’s $73 million bond proposal was winning by a wide margin — 5,840 to 2,918 — in the first round of ballot counting Tuesday night. Voters also elected four members of the school board – three of them in contested races.
A proposed five-year operating levy of $1.87 per $1,000 assessed property value for the Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue District was passing by just 20 votes 436 to 416. The levy failed by a 2-to-1 ratio last November and a defeat this time around will mean the layoff of three of the district’s six firefighters and its fire chief.
“Too close to call,” COCF&R board chair Reda Eckerman said Tuesday night. “Too close to call right now. I truly hope that it does pass. I don’t want to lose our chief. And that’s really the crux right there. Losing additional firefighters, but also losing the chief.”
Eckerman said Chief Jamie Mason announced at the last fire district board meeting that he would resign if the measure did not pass.
“We’ve got 15 percent to go so we’ll see,” Eckerman said.
The only other money measure on the ballot was also too close to call Tuesday night. In the Eddyville area voters were narrowly approving the first operations levy of 39 cents per $1,000 assessed property value for the East Lincoln County Fire District 208 to 181.
Lincoln County mailed 40,475 ballots to voters 20 days ago and turnout as of Tuesday night was 23 percent – about average for off-year special elections in May.
For the Lincoln County School District, half of the bond’s proceeds would go towards dozens of repairs to aging buildings, increasing school security, accessibility, and modernizing plumbing, air systems and technology. The other half is earmarked for the construction of performing arts buildings at three Newport, Waldport and Toledo high schools.
After seeing the first results posted at 8 p.m., longtime school board member Liz Martin felt a mix of relief and excitement. For the last few months before the election she gave more than 20 presentations educating the public about the bond.
“This is a win for the students — no doubt about it,” Martin said.
The county clerk’s office has a week to count all the ballots and will update Tuesday’s results at 5 p.m. Wednesday, 5 p.m. Friday and for the last time on Tuesday, May 27.
Here are the results of contested races throughout Lincoln County.
Lincoln County School District
Newport police chief Jason Malloy, who was appointed to the board last July, won the Zone 3 race over substitute teacher George Marrazzo of Newport 4,379 to 2,829;
Mitch Parsons of Lincoln City, who was appointed in January, defeated Lori Lashbrook for a two-year unexpired term representing Zone 1 4,549 to 2,165;
Dave Cowden of Yachats won the open Zone 5 position over Holly Brandwen of Yachats 4,337 to 2,429.
Oregon Coast Community College
Three seats were up for election, but only one had a contested race. In that race, Zone 5 incumbent Chris Chandler of Newport defeated Catherine Roller of Newport 848 to 349.
Three other board members – Rich Emery, Patrick Alexander and Bud Shoemake — were unopposed and re-elected.
Port of Newport
Three positions on the Port of Newport board were up for election, but there was only one contested race – which had an extremely interesting result to fill the remaining two-year term of Position 1. Bob Dziak, who was on the ballot but asked people not to vote for him because of newly-discovered health issues, received 1,364 votes easily winning over Larry Osborne with 541 votes and Curtis Bunch with 322.
Board members Kelley Retherford and Jeff Lackey were unopposed and re-elected.
North Lincoln Health District
In the Position 3 race, challenger Melody Montgomery beat incumbent Peter Mann 1,518 to 537 and Judy Casper won the open Position 4 board seat over Suzanne Baptista-Maresh 1,209 to 888.
Incumbent Estle Harlan was unopposed for her Position 7 seat on the board.
North Lincoln Fire & Rescue District
One of two board seats were contested, with Position 5 incumbent Dan Drayton winning over Dennis Knudson 847 to 626. Jerry Warner was unopposed for the Position 4 board seat.
Seal Rock Fire District
Two of three board positions were up for election with two contested races. Incumbent Paul Rimola was re-elected to the Position 1 board seat with 300 votes. Former volunteer firefighter Jeremy Garbina received 227 votes and volunteer Jeff Steere 84.
In the race for the Position 2 seat, appointed incumbent Russel Harley defeated TiAnne Rios 391 to 244.
Andrea Summerlin was unopposed for Position 5.
Seal Rock Water District
There were three candidates for the open Position 2 board seat. Amy Greer won with 278, beating Daniel Grassick who had 173 votes and Brian Dixon who had 123.
Incumbents Saundra Mies Grantham and Karen Otta were unopposed.
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