Voters approve waste bond, school levy

Voters approved both the West Bonner County School District’s $3.4 million supplemental levy and Bonner County’s solid waste bond vote in Tuesday’s consolidated election.

Voters narrowly approved WBCSD’s supplemental levy in the district's second attempt to pass the measure. There were 1,543 yes votes, or 51.54% to 1,451 no votes, or 48.46%.

It's the second time the school district had asked voters to pass the $3.4 million supplemental levy. A first attempt to pass the levy was rejected by voters on March 9, with the measure receiving 821 yes votes and 943 no votes.

The levy maintains the district’s current $1.47 mill rate per $1,000 of assessed property value, which covers about 25% of the district’s budget. However, although the mill rate has not increased, the district would receive roughly $3.4 million instead of $3 million as they did previously due to an increase in the region’s property values.

School district officials have said the levy covers roughly 25% of its annual budget.

Among items covered by the levy are special education, transportation, building and maintenance costs as well as salaries for classified employees.

To pass, the levy needed a simple majority.

In the other financial matter before voters, Bonner County’s solid waste bond vote was approved with 5,163 yes votes, or 60.82% to 3,326 no votes, or 39.18%. The bond’s approval was needed to go after an $8,733,700 U.S. Department of Agriculture loan for improvements to the county’s solid waste system.

Much of the loan would pay for improvements at the Colburn waste transfer site, including a new waste transfer building, improvements to the existing transfer building, a new household hazardous waste disposal building and general improvements. In addition, it would cover improvements to some of the other transfer sites like Dufort, Dickensheet and Idaho Hill.

The loan would be paid back over 10 years at a 1.75% interest rate. There would be no increased cost to property owners as the loan would be repaid through a fee increase adopted in September 2019.

The last investment in the solid waste system was in 1996, Bonner County Commissioner Dan McDonald has said. Since that time the amount of waste handled in the county has doubled even though population did not see a corresponding increase.

County officials estimate they would not only be able to pay it off within the 10 years but eventually would be able to add a tipping floor at Idaho Hill, eliminating the need to haul trash across the county to its Colburn facility, which would see significant improvements as well.

In other election news in Bonner County, Ellisport Sewer District board member Gregory Field was re-elected to a six-year term with 26 votes. He ran unopposed.

In the Southside Water and Sewer District board election, Kass Larson won 65 votes to Alex Murray’s 58 votes.