Absentee voting for the April 2nd general municipal election in Missouri is underway.
The Ozark County Times reports registered voters in the Gainesville and Dora school districts who are unable to go to the polls on Election Day should contact the Ozark County Clerk’s Office for the required absentee-voting application.
Absentee ballots may then be voted by mail or in person at the clerk’s office from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Wednesday is the last day to register to vote in the April 2nd election. The county clerk’s office will be open until 5:00 p.m. that day.
For more information, contact the clerk’s office at 417-679-3516.
Several seats are coming open on Ozark County’s elected boards. However, state law specifies an election doesn’t have to be held if the number of candidates equals the number of open positions on the boards, which is the case in 10 of the 11 Ozark County elected entities with expiring terms.
In addition, the Gainesville R-V Board of Education has put two funding propositions on the April 2nd ballot, and because of that, the district is also required to hold a candidate election, even though only the two incumbents, Heather Bushner and Robby Walrath, have filed for the two three-year terms coming open.
The district’s first ballot proposal is a request to increase the school’s operating tax levy ceiling by 47 cents from the current $2.75 per $100 assessed valuation, the minimum operating levy allowed by state law, to $3.22.
Funds generated by the levy increase would be used to fund capital improvements, including renovation of the high school and junior high school, student lockers, HVAC, roof replacement, computer equipment, classroom furniture and other facility maintenance and improvement projects.
In the second proposal, Gainesville school district voters will be asked to approve the issuance of $1.9 million in general obligation bonds to pay for a new multipurpose gymnasium.
General obligation bonds are secured on a 20-year pay-back schedule. In 20 years, the bond would have to be voted back in, or it could be allowed to expire, as voters decreed in the April 2010 election, when they turned down a proposal to renew an expiring 28-cent debt service.
Approving the $1.9 bond issue in this April’s proposal would result in an estimated increase to the debt service property tax levy of 28 cents per $100 assessed valuation, bringing the total levy to $3.03. The district currently has no debt service levy.
If both proposals pass, the Gainesville district’s total tax levy would increase by a total of 75 cents per $100 valuation for a total of $3.50.
The operating levy requires a simple majority vote for approval. The bond issue requires a four-sevenths (57.14 percent) majority.
In the Dora R-III School District, two three-year school board positions will be open, those held by Lynda Smith and Jeff Strong. Both Strong and Smith have filed for re-election, and Tim Masters, Dan Hurd, Dustin Howard and Jay Smith have also filed.
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