November 7 Election unofficial results: Voters pass one bond and deny the other

Incumbent Mayor, Rick Hall keeps his seat and welcomes three newcomers to the City of Hartford Commissioner’s table

Although it was close, voters in Hartford supported their school bond proposal while Watervliet turned down their school bond proposal in Tuesday’s election. Watervliet’s school bond would have funded various improvements throughout their school buildings.

Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, where voters could vote either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on a school bond proposal to either continue or increase the current debt levy to cover the cost of some major improvements to the aging school buildings in the Tri-City Area. However, only one passed.

Hartford Public Schools bond results

Hartford voters supported the school district’s zero-increase millage proposal on the November 7th ballot. The bond aims to provide funds for health, safety, and critical building improvements that were identified through recent facility needs assessments and community input.

The bond proposal passed by a little more than 50 votes on Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial election results from the Van Buren County Clerk’s Office.

At press time, the vote was 409 “yes” to 355 “no”. The breakdown by precinct went like this: Bangor Twp. Pct 1 - 19 yes, 17 no; City of Hartford Pct 1 - 163 yes, 140 no; Hartford Township Pct 1 - 186 yes, 145 no; Keeler Township Pct 1 - 39 yes, 53 no; Lawrence Township Pct 1 - 2 yes, 0 no.

The estimated millage that will be levied for the proposed bonds in 2024, under current law, is 3.00 mills ($3.00 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a 0-mill net increase over the prior year’s levy.

The maximum number of years the bonds of any series may be outstanding, exclusive of any refunding, is thirty (30) years. The estimated simple average annual millage anticipated to be required to retire this bond debt is 3.84 mills ($3.84 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation).

The Hartford Public Schools district expects to borrow from the State School Bond Qualification and Loan Program to pay debt service on these bonds now that it passed. The estimated total principal amount of that borrowing would is estimated to be $6,966,174 and the estimated total interest to be paid would be $10,462,308.

The estimated duration of the millage levy associated with that borrowing is a twenty-nine (29) year commitment and the estimated computed millage rate for such levy topped out at 7.75 mills.

The total amount of qualified bonds currently outstanding is $13,910,000. The total amount of qualified loans currently outstanding is $0. The language to levy was estimated to bring the new millage levy to 4.69 was supported.

The cost to community members is an increase to $49.50 per year per $100,000 of the market value of their home.

Watervliet Public Schools bond results

Voters turned down a second request from Watervliet Public Schools to sell bonds and generate approximately $29.9 million.

The funds generated from the bond would have provide building and site improvements to address identified and ongoing facility projects based on a Master Plan implemented in 2014. The money was to be used for the purpose of; erecting, new furnishing, and equipping additions to school buildings; remodeling, furnishing, refurnishing, and equipping and re-equipping school buildings; and preparing, developing, improving, and equipping athletic fields and facilities, driveways, parking areas.

There were 535 “yes” votes and 688 “no” votes as of press time, according to unofficial election results from the Berrien County Clerk’s Office. The breakdown by precinct went like this: Bainbridge Township Pct 1 - 142 yes, 199 no; City of Watervliet Pct 1 - 117 yes, 168 no; Coloma Charter Twp. Pct 2 - 4 yes, 1 no; Hartford Township Pct 1 - 4 yes, 11 no; Keeler Township Pct 1 - 3 yes, 4 no; Watervliet Township Pct 1 - 276 yes, 321 no.

If the bond would have been approved by voters, it projected the debt tax rate for 2024 would have increased by 1.7 mills over the 2023 debt tax rate. Generally, this would have meant an owner of a $100,000 assessed market-value home ($50,000 taxable value) would have seen approximately $7.08 more per month on their school taxes in 2024 compared to the 2023 debt tax rate slated to be collected for Watervliet Public Schools in both Berrien and Van Buren counties.

With the failure to pass by a margin of a little over 150 votes, the next move for the district is unclear. They could elect to put the same proposal or a modified one before voters again.

Other election news

Incumbent Rick Hall, with 179 votes, beat out challenger, Ramon Beltran, with 129 votes, in the City of Hartford’s mayoral race. The unofficial results show that there were five write-in votes as well.

It is projected that Hall won 57% of the vote compared to Beltran’s 42%, with less than 1% going to write-in votes.

Throughout his campaign, Hall has highlighted his success in being one of the driving forces in securing state funding for many projects within the city such as the new infrastructure in the neighborhoods with streets, sidewalks, curb and gutters, the demolition of the abandoned burnt out buildings and, more recently, finding a temporary City Manager after the unexpected firing of the former city manager occurred.

The City of Hartford’s Commissioners race had the board’s leader as Charles Weeden with 162 supporters, followed by Lindsy Morsaw with 155 votes, and Nancy Spoula filling the last commission seat with 145 votes.

Eric Germinder didn’t get enough votes to land him a council seat; however, he was only 18 votes shy. Other contenders did not break triple digits. Those candidates were former city mayor, Dan Danger with 95 votes, incumbent Commissioner, Helen Sullivan with 92 votes, Gage Gardiner with 44 votes, and Mark Little with 22 votes.

Following the oath of office for these new Council members on November 27, 2023 the Council will also move forward with the candidate selection for the new City Manager in the first or second week of December.

Total numbers for each county

Unofficial results reflect that Berrien County had a turnout of 18.78% of the 14,242 registered voters for this election. The total amount of voters after all the precincts were counted was 2,674.

Van Buren County had more of a showing at the polls with a 26.53% turnout totaling 4,498 voters out of the 16,954 registered voters on record.

Unofficial results can be views at the following sites.

For Berrien county election results: https://www.berriencounty.org/169/Election-Results and for Van Buren: https://www.electionreporting.com/county/0262c1f4-6e58-4c6a-86b7-6cd09b8bd1c2/township/Keeler%20Township.