School levy passes by wide margin
- Published: May 5, 2010
Yellow Springs voters delivered a resounding yes to village schools on Tuesday, handily passing Issue 5, the renewal levy for the Yellow Springs schools. Village-wide, about 75 percent of voters favored the levy and 25 percent voted against it. 887 villagers voted for the school levy, and 294 voted against.
The five-year 8.7 mill emergency levy will raise more than $1 million a year for Yellow Springs public schools, or about 13 percent of the district’s total budget. The levy was first passed more than 10 years ago, and has been renewed ever since.
All area school districts were not so fortunate. School levies failed in many communities, including Kettering, Trotwood and West Carrollton. Levies passed in Miamisburg, Troy, Greeneview (Jamestown) and Northmont.
Local school board members Richard Lapedes and Benji Maruyama headed up the levy renewal committee, which was also comprised of teachers, parents and community members.
The school levy passed by wide margins in all village precincts. In Precinct 440, on the north end of town, 191 voters, or 72 percent, voted yes and 74 voters, or 28 percent, voted against.
In Precinct 441, the western part of the village, 163 voters, or 80 percent, favored the levy, while 40 voters, or 20 percent, were against. Voters in Precinct 442, the central and downtown areas, favored the levy 81 percent to 19 percent, or 173 voters for and 40 voters against. In Precinct 443, the southern part of town, 233 voters, or 78 percent, voted for the levy and 65, or 22 percent, voted against.
YS challenger to lead Democrats
Two local candidates ran in the 10th Senate District for the male and female Democratic State Central Committee seats. Yellow Springs residents Don Hollister and Connie Crockett ran against incumbents David Farrell and Nora Parker. While both challengers won by wide margins in Greene County, Crockett prevailed district-wide, while Farrell won his seat by a hair for the district.
For the male seat, Farrell received 6,872 votes to Hollister’s 6,665 votes, though in Greene County Hollister collected 60 percent of the votes to Farrell’s 40 percent.
Crockett won the female seat with 7,165 votes to Parker’s 6,539 votes throughout the district, and Crockett also prevailed by a wider margin within Greene County, receiving 59 percent of the total to Parker’s 40 percent.
The 10th Senate District includes Greene, Clark and Madison counties. The Democratic State Central Committee members make up the formal governing body of the party.
U.S. Senator
In a close primary for the U.S. Democratic Senator, Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher won against current Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Fisher garnered 3,321 votes, or 54 percent of the vote, while Brunner received 2,802 votes, or about 46 percent.
Fisher will face Republican candidate Rob Portman in the race for the U.S. Senate seat in November. Unopposed in his race, Portman received 13,275 votes statewide, or 52 percent of those who voted in the primary.
U.S. Representative
In the primary race for Democratic U.S. representative, Bill Connor won the contest with nearly 50 percent of the vote, over James John Barton’s 15 percent and Olivia Freeman’s 36 percent.
For the Republicans in that race, incumbent Steve Austria handily won his seat back from challenger John Mitchel, collecting 83 percent of the votes to Mitchel’s 17 percent.
Connor and Austria will meet again to let voters decide the seat in November.
Ohio Attorney General
Former U.S. Senator and Cedarville resident Mike DeWine ran unopposed for Ohio Attorney General and won the primary with 14,784 votes, or 58 percent of the ballots cast. DeWine will face incumbent Richard Cordray, who yesterday received 5,172 votes statewide, in November.
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