OAK RIDGE OKs SCHOOL BOND

JACKSON -- Only 14 percent of voters in the county turned out for Tuesday's election, and County Clerk Rodney Miller said the totals surprised him.

Even with the closely watched race for the Cape Girardeau School Board, Cape Girardeau voters didn't come out in their usual numbers.

Only four races in the county were contested, which may have contributed to the low interest.

Cape County Health Board incumbents Diane Howard and Larry Wade won their races with 2,972 and 2,431 votes respectively. Challenger David Rosener, a Cape Girardeau attorney, trailed with 1,339 votes.

Howard attributed her winning of a four-year term to work in making the public aware of the Cape County Health Center's existence and the services offered there.

"Larry Wade and I have worked hard on the board to promote it," she said. "I feel sorry for David Rosener that he won't be able to work with the board this time. It's very fulfilling."

Robert Goehman and Keith Cook won three-year terms on the Delta Board of Education with 71 votes for Goehman and 101 for Cook.

Bill Cook came in third with 68 votes, John Livingston had 63, Doyle Parmer had 46 and Charles Lawson had 33.

Oak Ridge High School will get $710,000 worth of renovations thanks to Tuesday's vote. Eighty-three percent of the voters wanted the school to issue general obligation bonds for repairs and expansion.

A proposed 12,000-square-foot building will be constructed without a tax increase. Taxpayers in the school district are paying 60 cents per $100 assessed valuation to pay off a 1984 school addition. The 1984 issue will be paid off in 1997. Now the assessment will be continued another 13 years.

The new building will house classrooms for language arts, math and business, a home economics lab, a computer lab, a science lab and two science lecture rooms.

No candidates filed for a three-year term on the Cape Special Road District Board of Commissioners, but Rock Wilferth won with three absentee votes.

Most races in the county were uncontested. Bob Eisenhauer and Daniel Sebaugh were elected to the Oak Ridge School Board and Jim Rainey and John F. Johnson Jr. were elected to the Advance School Board.

Karen W. Fornkahl and Debbie Followell won seats on the Nell Holcomb School Board, and Ethan Foster, Ted Ross and Gary Masker won seats on the Allenville Board of Trustees.

Sharon Hale and Jerome Foster won terms on the Whitewater Board of Trustees.

Surprisingly, no-one filed to run against Jackson's mayor, four aldermen or city collector. Mayor Paul Sander, Aldermen David Hitt, Val Tuschhoff, Jack Piepenbrok and Kevin Sawyer and City Collector Beverly Nelson were all re-elected.