Election Fails, Again
Once again the Lockwood Irrigation District’s bond election has failed. Despite 70 percent of the voters supporting the bond, the election failed to garner the required level of acreage represented to be considered a valid outcome.
The mail ballot election was held on Tuesday with 817 of the 1162 votes voting “yes.” However, 50 percent of the 1,732 total District irrigable acres is 866 acres, so the district needed 49 more acres represented by yes votes for a successful bond election, explained District Manager Carl Peters.
Peters has explained that part of the problem is that many property owners are non-residents and they have difficulty in even making them aware of the election.
This election had 217 more voters than last year’s election.
Peters said, “The results of our bond election highlight problems with the existing irrigation laws. Our Bond Counsel Dan Semmens of Dorsey Law has been working on Senate Bill 326 which would add another option of a right to protest amending five sections of MCA dealing with financing irrigation infrastructure.”
The election was seeking approval for a loan needed to fund the replacement of approximately 640 lineal feet of the 60’ and 100’ Lift Pipes, two Pumps, and to pay the balance of a $125,000 loan from a local bank used to finance the replacement of the 60’ Box Elder Creek Siphon in 2019. The yearly increased cost per acre, or under, was an estimated $14.76.
A year ago the bond failed because the 61 percent in favor, even though a majority of voters, was not a majority of acreage represented.
The District spent over $40,000 in May and September of 2017 for emergency repairs of both Lift Pipes. However, new leaks developed in both repaired sections of the pipes in 2018, 2019 and 2020. A large leak in the underground area of the larger 100-foot lift pipe has continued since June 2019.
In 2020, an existing patch on the 60’ Lift Pipe blew out on June 9, was patched again, only to have it blowout on July 7, which caused extensive damage, too large to be patched, requiring the line be shutdown.
