Voters Reject Storm Water Public Utility

By Jeff Gulley

Osawatomie voters said no to a storm water utility on the Nov. 2 ballot by nearly a 2-1 margin.

The Miami County Commission certified the vote count on Monday and the final tally was 603 against and 306 for question 13.

The council tried to establish the storm water utility in December 2008. A protest petition gathered enough signatures to put the proposed utility before voters last year, and it went down to defeat by roughly a 2 to 1 margin.

City officials wanted to establish the utility to offset the cost of a federally mandated levy certification but the measure drew criticism for not setting a flat fee.

The certification process is federally mandated but not federally funded, City Manager Bret Glendening has told the council.

City officials acknowledge that establishing a storm water utility would not prevent another flood. But the utility could provide money to soften the blow by deepening the storm water holding ponds, rebuilding out take lines in the levee system and repairing curbs and guttering.

“Curbs and gutters are the first line of defense to keep water out of yards,” Glendening told the council in July.

Councilman John Farley has spoke out against the proposed utility in council meetings and in a recent letter to the editor.

“First, we must be clear that Ordinance 13 is not about flood protection. It is not at all a device to keep waters from breaching our levees,” Farley wrote in his letter. “It is about rainwater, and it will result in our citizens, businesses and churches – in fact all property holders – funding a utility whose purpose is poorly defined and for a dollar amount that is unknown.”

Question 13 was the only Osawatomie specific issue on the ballot. In the county commission races, Danny Gallagher was elected with 72 percent of the votes over Joshua Furnish. Gallagher received 1,540 votes while Furnish had 541. The two were running for the seat held by Lyle Wobker. Ron Stiles and James Wise ran unopposed and both were retained.

Miami County voters showed strong support for the Republican candidates.

For governor, 69 percent of voters favored Sam Brownback. Jerry Moran received 72 percent of the votes for U.S. Senator and Lynn Jenkins had 72 percent of the vote for U.S. Representative. Kris Kobach received 67 percent of the vote for Secretary of State and Derek Schmidt had 60 percent of the vote total for Attorney General.

Statewide, Brownback was elected with 63 percent of the vote. Moran won the Senate race with 70 percent and Jenkins earned 63 percent. Republicans also took the state treasurer race with Ron Estes getting 59 percent of the vote and Schmidt was elected as attorney general with 55 percent of the votes.

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Posted by admin on Nov 10 2010. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry