DELTA SCHOOL ISSUE A CLOSE VOTE

DELTA -- By a six-vote margin, voters in Cape Girardeau County approved a waiver of the Proposition C rollback in the Delta School District.

The vote was 165 to 159. The issue needed a simple majority to pass.

"That's pretty close," said school Superintendent Tom Allen.

The school district's boundaries extend into Bollinger County. No vote totals for the school issue were reported Tuesday night from Bollinger County.

With passage of the issue, the school board could increase the district's $2.75 operating tax levy up to the tax ceiling of $3.22 per $100 assessed valuation, if an emergency occurred or additional expenses arose.

But school officials have said they don't intend to do so at this time. One benefit could occur if the school board approved a one-year adjustment of its overall tax rate by lowering the debt service levy and transferring some surplus funds to the operating levy. The increased operating funds could mean additional state funding.

Voters elected Diana Horn and re-elected Herbert Blattel Jr. to the Delta Board of Education. Horn received 196 votes; Blattel, 192; James Bowers, 113; and incumbent John Livingston, 106.

In the Ward 2 aldermanic race in Delta, James "Ronnie" Howell defeated incumbent Daniel Baggett by a vote of 13 to 5.