Community approves bond referendum

Residents of New Hampton Community Schools approved a $19.415 million bond referendum Tuesday that will lead to the construction of a new middle school, a new competition gym and a vocational agriculture and inustrial technology center for the district's high school.The vote was 1,252 yes, or 62.2 percent, to 760 no, or 37.8 percent. The measure needed a "60 percent-plus one vote" to be successful.District officials expect to take bids sometime late in the spring and hope construction can begin sometime this summer.The bonds will be paid back using a mixture of sales-tax revenues and an increase in property taxes of $1.60 per $1,000 valuatiion.The vote comes almost 2 1/2 years after voters soundly rejected a $29 million bond referendum that would have led to a single PreK-12 campus on New Hampton west side. After that vote, School Board members met with "no" voters, who expressed that the referendum was too expensive, that they were uncomfortable with entirely abandoning the downtown camups and that they wanted a second opinion on the district's facility issues.That led to the latest referendum that cut the property tax impact in half and will keep a PreK-4 elementary school building downtown, although district officials have said they will vacate the top two floors of the 1913 building and use existing sales tax money to enlarge some preschool and early elementary classrooms.New Hampton Community Schools Superintendent Jay Jurrens was a little stunned to say the least with the amazing news and couldn't wait to begin spreading the word.For the complete story see the 2/10/2017 New Hampton Tribune.