Lockwood residents and supporters gathered at Yellowstone Coffee and Canvas Tuesday evening as election results were released. Here, supporters gather to view the tv monitor while children celebrate in the expansion of a Lockwood School District from K-8 to a K-12 School District allowing Lockwood to now decide in a High School price tag and building model. (Jonathan McNiven Photo)
LOCKWOOD — A dozen or so Lockwood residents, campaign volunteers and school board members gathered at Yellowstone Coffee and Canvas to await election returns and to celebrate what turned out to be an overwhelming victory in the process to build a new high school.
Early returns made it clear that Lockwood voters, by a 2-1 margin, are giving the Lockwood School Board a green light to proceed with the process of designing and determining costs to build a new high school. With about 2,000 votes counted, 68.3 percent supported a measure which established boundaries for a proposed K-12 district.
“We are very excited and now the work begins,” said Chad Hanson, who spearheaded a campaign in support of the election, which was one of two votes necessary for a high school.
“This was the easy vote,” said Hanson, “because it didn’t cost anything.” His group, the Lockwood Community Education Committee, stands ready to continue the campaign for the second election, which will be to approve a bond to build the school.
“We will be anxious and see how aggressive the school board wants to be on their schedule and we will respond accordingly,” said Hanson.
There are a lot of reasons for the success of the election, said Hanson, “There is a lot of pride in Lockwood and in our schools…. We’ve been talking about it for 20 years – plus and now we finally get an opportunity to look at it.”
The Lockwood School Board will now take up the challenge of engaging an engineering team to begin the process of designing a school. Discussions will begin at their board meeting next Tuesday. Among the things that will be decided is whether they will be aiming for a bond election this May, next November or May 2019.
2nd READING
YELLOWSTONE COUNTY, MONTANA
MUNICIPAL GENERAL ELECTION
NOVEMBER 7, 2017
VOTES PERCENT
REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 78,792
BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . 37,146
VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL . . . . . . 47.14
BILLINGS MAYOR
VOTE FOR 1
BILL COLE . . . . . . . . . . 16,696 63.41
JEFF ESSMANN . . . . . . . . . 9,457 35.92
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 177 .67
BILLINGS COUNCIL WARD 1
VOTE FOR 1
CHARLIE SMILLIE . . . . . . . . 1,203 36.51
MIKE YAKAWICH . . . . . . . . . 2,073 62.91
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 19 .58
BILLINGS COUNCIL WARD 2
VOTE FOR 1
FRANK EWALT. . . . . . . . . . 2,464 54.14
ROGER M. GRAVGAARD . . . . . . . 2,046 44.96
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 41 .90
BILLINGS COUNCIL WARD 3
VOTE FOR 1
NADJA BROWN. . . . . . . . . . 2,074 42.04
DENISE JOY . . . . . . . . . . 2,819 57.15
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 40 .81
BILLINGS COUNCIL WARD 4
VOTE FOR 1
GEORGE BLACKARD . . . . . . . . 3,457 46.65
PENNY RONNING . . . . . . . . . 3,923 52.94
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 30 .40
BILLINGS COUNCIL WARD 5
VOTE FOR 1
D. SHAUN BROWN. . . . . . . . . 2,438 54.71
DENNIS ULVESTAD . . . . . . . . 1,978 44.39
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 40 .90
LAUREL MAYOR
VOTE FOR 1
THOMAS NELSON . . . . . . . . . 706 45.31
DAVE WAGGONER . . . . . . . . . 830 53.27
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 22 1.41
LAUREL CITY JUDGE
VOTE FOR 1
JEAN M. KERR . . . . . . . . . 1,520 98.57
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 22 1.43
LAUREL CITY COUNCIL WARD 1
VOTE FOR 1
EVAN BRUCE . . . . . . . . . . 82 30.04
DOUG POEHLS. . . . . . . . . . 89 32.60
HEIDI SPARKS . . . . . . . . . 100 36.63
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 2 .73
LAUREL CITY COUNCIL WARD 2
VOTE FOR 1
BRUCE MCGEE. . . . . . . . . . 306 96.53
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.47
LAUREL CITY COUNCIL WARD 3
VOTE FOR 1
KATHY "KAT" STOKES . . . . . . . 269 48.64
IRVING H. WILKE . . . . . . . . 276 49.91
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.45
LAUREL CITY COUNCIL WARD 4
VOTE FOR 1
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 51 100.00
BROADVIEW COMMISSIONER
VOTE FOR 3
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 55 100.00
YELLOWSTONE CO. PUBLIC SAFETY MILL LEVY
VOTE FOR 1
FOR . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,852 51.66
AGAINST . . . . . . . . . . . 17,639 48.34
LOCKWOOD SCH DIST NO. 26 EXPANSION
VOTE FOR 1
FOR . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,403 68.71
AGAINST . . . . . . . . . . . 639 31.29
LAUREL ELEMENTARY SCH DIST NO. 7-70 BOND
VOTE FOR 1
BOND - YES . . . . . . . . . . 1,448 42.69
BONDS - NO . . . . . . . . . . 1,944 57.31
LAUREL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 7 BOND
VOTE FOR 1
BONDS - YES. . . . . . . . . . 1,363 41.63
BONDS - NO . . . . . . . . . . 1,911 58.37
