Fayetteville Millage Passes; Springdale Millage Does Not

By Jon Schleuss

Posted: September 21, 2010 at 10:11 p.m.
Updated: September 21, 2010 at 10:35 p.m.

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Bentonville

FAYETTEVILLE — Bentonville School District voters chose Bryan S. Vernetti for position 6 on the school board, beating Matt Zachary and Misty Insco.

Unofficial results from the Benton County Election Commission showed Vernetti with 257 votes (55 percent). Zachary received 134 votes, or 29 percent, and Insco received 75 votes, or 16 percent.

Travis L. Riggs ran unopposed for Position 5 on the school board. He received 364 votes.

Fayetteville

Voters in Fayetteville approved the millage increase to build and equip new schools. Meanwhile, a runoff race will be scheduled to fill the Zone 2 seat on the school board.

4,875 votes (55 percent) passed in favor of the millage, while 3,912 votes (45 percent) were against.

Bryn Bagwell and Jeanie Hill will compete in a runoff election in October because neither candidate received 50 percent of the vote. Bagwell received 1,032 votes (40 percent) and Hill received 1,249 votes (48 percent). Helen Garst, the third candidate, received 326 votes (12 percent).

Justin Eichmann ran unopposed for the Zone 3 position. He received 749 votes.

Fort Smith

Fort Smith voters elected Dr. David Hunton, the incumbent, to head Position 5 on the school board. Hunton won with 444 votes (81 percent) beating Larry H. Willis who had 101 votes (19 percent).

Barbara J. Hathcock ran unopposed for Position 4 on the board.

Springdale

Springdale voters turned down a millage increase that would have supported construction of a new middle school, junior high and improvements for facilities at Har-Ber High School.

4,077 (56 percent) voted against the increase while 3,173 (44 percent) voted against it.

The proposal would have included $22 million for a new middle school, $32 million a junior high, $12 million for a Har-Ber athletic complex and $3 million for improvements to the Springdale High School football stadium.

Mike Luttrell scored a victory for the At-large position 1 spot on the school board. Luttrell received 4,060 votes (62 percent), beating Edge Nowlin who had 840 votes (13 percent) and Heather D. Crossland who had 1,692 votes (26 percent).

Danny Dotson ran unopposed for the Zone 5 seat. He received 1,027 votes.

Van Buren

Van Buren voters supported rededicating and restructuring the same 39.6 mills the district currently collects to support purchases of Qualified School Construction Bonds.

145 votes (60 percent) supported the measure while 96 votes (40 percent) opposed it.

Voters in that district also toppled the incumbent Christy W. Mayo by one vote for the Zone 3 position.

Voters elected Jeff Lambert to the position with 22 votes (51 percent). Mayo received 21 votes (49 percent).

Results will remain unofficial until they are approved by the county's election commission. Check back at nwavote.com this week for results in more districts.

Comments

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My hat is off to springdale residents. Finally they got out and voted in some larger numbers.And they finally voted the right way and stopped this, excessive spendig of tax payers money.Maybe now we can start working on other problems that caused this school millage vote.

Posted by: 101stvet

September 22, 2010 at 7:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

The millage did not pass, hence they cannot "start working on other problems that caused this school millage vote." The money that was to pay for the athletic facilities/upgrades was the money the state was going to GIVE Springdale. Too late now. All of this will still happen, they'll just find another way to do it and it might take a little longer, but it will happen.

Posted by: AngieM

September 22, 2010 at noon ( permalink | suggest removal )

I still don't understand how the state can GIVE Springdale something if it requires us to pay for it. If the State is going to give you something you should not have to be made to pay higher taxes to get it.

Posted by: melbai

September 22, 2010 at 12:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

If the city council in Springdale would start working to promote businesses and expand the sales tax base, it would help to increase property values and they could get the tax dollars that they need, but as long as they are not promoting Springdale as a business friendly town, don't look for that to change! They ran Sam's out of town and a few of them tried to keep out Macadoodles, and who knows what other businesses that they keep out that we never hear about! I have to wonder how the property value and taxes changed once Macadoodles opened? When they get smart about growing Springdale, they will have the money that they need, until then, look for our money to be spent in Rogers, Bentonville, and I hate to say it, Fayetteville and look to those cities to have higher property values and more taxes collected.

Posted by: DRIDENOURE

September 22, 2010 at 4:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Pssst....the state doesn't have any money. Those are STILL tax dollars! People act like it was just $16M in free money. It's THAT exact attitude that has our entire country in the shape we're in.

You see a handout from the government, and everybody gets in line. Problem is, everybody has to pay for it, so it still costs you the same amount of money (and actually more, once you factor in government waste in administering the handout).

Same can be said for the $29M that Fayetteville will "save" with the millage increase they passed. Someone has to pay the interest on those bonds. Guess who? Yep, John Q. Taxpayer. Still sounds like a deal since we won't pay NEARLY $29M in taxes...until you realize that we're not the only recipients of the handouts...they're being handed out nationwide!

Posted by: x3

September 22, 2010 at 4:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Springdale will continue to implode and fall behind with this vote. Already widely known as the armpit of NWA.

Posted by: ddozc

September 22, 2010 at 6:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

x3 i think you are RIGHT. now to put it another way - FUDVILLE DONE IT AGAIN.

Posted by: maxxey

September 22, 2010 at 9:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )