Phillips County sees 46 percent voter turn out in recent election

Forty-six percent of Phillips County voters turned out for the General Election on Nov. 2. A total of 1,404 ballots were returned to the local Clerk last Tuesday. Phillips County has just over 2,920 registered voters within county lines.

Voters determined the outcome of two questions for the Town of Haxtun while also electing three community members to sit on the Haxtun Board of Education.

Town of Haxtun

The Town of Haxtun asked voters two questions regarding a $1.5 million street project; both passing by a large margin last week.

Ballot question 2A, which passed 325 to 70, asked if the Town of Haxtun should incur a debt of $1.5 million for a major street project payable from its existing one-percent sales tax.

Ballot question 2B asked if the Town of Haxtun could use the half-a-percent sales tax already in place for Community Center maintenance for additional street repairs for five years. After five years, the one-and-a-half percent would be allocated back to the Community Center fund. That ballot measure passed 320 to 75.

Haxtun Town Superintendent Ron Carpenter said the project includes rebuilding approximately 42 blocks of streets in town.

“This will put us in a position with the infrastructure where we can maintain our streets going forward, which is a substantial cost savings to our taxpayers,” he added.

Carpenter said plans are to begin street work in early spring, dependent upon contractor schedules. The project is expected to take up the majority of next year, depending on weather, scheduling and materials.

“The first step will be finishing concrete work on drain pans and curb/gutter that we weren’t able to complete this year,” Carpenter said. “Then the contractor will begin the work of rebuilding — grinding the current asphalt, putting the street to grade and preparing the base and then paving. There will be a lot of construction going on next year. There will be times when we have to close roads to traffic so please be patient. We will do our best to accommodate residents so that they can access their properties.”

Haxtun School Board

Voters also selected three of six candidates to fill seats on the Haxtun Board of Education. Dean Michael, Audree Edwards and ChristiAnne Gibson were all elected to serve four-year terms.

Michael was elected with the most votes, 409, followed by Edwards with 387 and Gibson with 336.

According to Haxtun School Superintendent Marsha Cody, the three will be sworn into office in the upcoming November board meeting. The organization meeting is set for Tuesday, Nov. 16th at 7 p.m. in the high school meeting room.