Union bond issue appears to fall short
Trump wins Tama County for third time while voters elect 5-supervisor board
DYSART — It’s an election unlike any other. Again.
On Tuesday, former president Donald Trump sought to become the second person to serve nonconsecutive terms as U.S. president and Vice President Kamala Harris sought to become the first woman elected president. Down the columns and around the corner in ballots for northeast Tama County was a much more mundane issue: roof repair.
For the first time since consolidation in 1993, the Union Community School District of La Porte City and Dysart voted on a bond issue. It’s a $20.5 million bond, plus $6.95 million from statewide sales tax revenue, for $27.45 million overall. The bond would have a tax impact of $2.70 on every $1,000 of taxable property value.
According to unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, the bond issue fell six votes short of a 60% supermajority. Superintendent John Howard said in a statement late Tuesday: “The result of the Union Community School bond issue is really close. With that fact, a recount of the votes may be requested. We certainly want every vote to be counted to determine the final outcome, as we move forward. Thank you to all who voted in the election and made your voices heard. Go Knights!”
The core of the high school building in La Porte City opened in 1954 after three tries; two previous bond referendums had failed by a combined 40 votes. The two boilers at the high school are now 50 and 70 years old. Nearly half of the money in the bond would go to HVAC, roofing, and infrastructure needs. The bond also covers a new commons area and auxiliary gymnasium, relocation of the media center and renovation of the current space, and renovation of the family and consumer sciences kitchen at the high school. Many improvements were made to the middle school in Dysart in 2019-22, and this bond furthers that with roof replacement. The district is also looking into security systems.
To Robert Elliott of Dysart, the request “reminded me of a kid with a Christmas catalog, they wanted this and this and this.” He was in favor of repairs to the present structures, “but when they start building more building … they don’t need more facilities for less kids.”
The Union, East Marshall, Gladbrook-Reinbeck, and Green Mountain-Garwin school districts all had bond referendums Tuesday. (As part of Iowa’s property tax reform law, bond issues have been pushed into November general elections.)
That’s not the only change here this year.
In 2022, Tama County voters approved expanding the board of supervisors from three to five seats. The catalyst was the potential of large wind farms coming to the area. Since that election, one of the wind projects closed up shop. Three of the five new seats were uncontested, including District 1, where current supervisor Curt Hilmer of Dysart will take a seat on the reconstituted board. In a questionnaire earlier this year, Hilmer came out strongly against both industrial wind and solar: “We need to preserve our farmland, no questions asked!” In District 3, Heather Knebel of Traer, a member of Tama County Against Turbines, will be the county’s first woman elected supervisor. All five supervisors will be Republicans.
With 12 precincts, five supervisors, four school bond issues, separation of city/township voters, and two state House and two state Senate districts, Tama County had 55 ballot variations. This is the third countywide configuration in three general elections after 2020 used the 2010s districts and 2022 had a redistricted state map with three supervisors.
While rain trickled down outside Tuesday morning, voters trickled into the Dysart Community Building. Precinct chairwoman Cheryl Raub said turnout had been steady all morning after an early rush.
Tracie Smith of Dysart said the most important issue to her was her children’s future. The previous generation, she said, provided her with “opportunities that I don’t want my kids and specifically my daughters to have to worry about because they’re young, they’re of reproductive age, and it’s scary to think about living in this state and potentially this country, where that’s headed.”
Dysart is one of only seven Iowa towns not bordering a large city that has a Democratic state senator in 2024, and four of the others are also in Senate District 38. State Sen. Eric Giddens sought to keep his seat against Republican Dave Sires of Cedar Falls. The district had the most expensive Senate race in Iowa outside of the Des Moines metro area. Unofficial results show Sires defeating Giddens by fewer than 400 votes, which combined with Republican Mike Pike’s defeat of Democratic state Sen. Nate Boulton in Polk County (also an unofficial result) would give Republicans a supermajority in the Iowa Senate.
Tama County also voted on a 75-cent property tax levy to support emergency medical services. The county designated EMS as an essential service in February but needs a supermajority of voters to approve funding. Voters overwhelmingly said “yes” to EMS.
Donald Trump, the first Republican to win Tama County in a presidential race since 1984, has now carried it in three presidential elections just like Republican Richard Nixon and, before him, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“We’re going the wrong direction where we’re at right now,” said Rob Bitter of rural Dysart. “This inflation is basically strangling the middle class and people living under poverty as far as buying groceries, fuel for their house, fuel for their cars. … We need to get back to all being Americans and what’s the best for our country.”
On Tuesday, two-thirds of voters in the Dysart Precinct and nearly the same percentage in Tama County overall sided with Trump.
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