Two former mayors…Jim Davidson and John Sandell…are the winners of yesterday’s(Tues) Burlington City Council primary and the $6.75-million West Burlington School District bond issue went down in flames.
In Burlington, Davidson came out on top with 430 votes or just under 37% of the ballots cast. Sandell placed second with 291 votes or just under 25%. In third place was former Councilman Chris Reed with 144 votes…newcomer Dan Wischmeier finished just one vote back with 143…Kevin Long had 69…Marcques Derby and Jeff Johnson each received 24 votes…Leo Hallowell was next with 22…and Tracey Watts placed 9th with 15 votes.
In the West Burlington School District, the $6.75-million bond issue was voted down, 385 to 158; that’s a 71% to 29% margin. The other financial measure…the Physical Plant levy…also lost, but only by eight votes, 275 to 267. In the race for one seat on the WB school board, Lee Boughton edged Brent Mixer 145 to 142, and there were 188 write-in votes cast. Of those, 105 went to Dan, Daniel or Don Hockett…38 to Tim Eagen…and 28 to Justine Ruther. Total turnout was 8.7%.
To summarize, Jim Davidson and John Sandell will face off December 30th for Becky Shockley’s old seat on the Burlington City Council and both of West Burlington’s school financial issues failed, the $6.75 million dollar bond referendum by 227 votes and the PPEL levy by eight votes.
