Lawrence County voters said no twice on November 3, rejecting renewal levies for the Collins Career Technical Center and for Ironton’s parks and recreation in results reported by The Ironton Tribune on November 7.
The countywide Collins Career Technical Center levy — a 0.5-mill renewal for permanent improvements at the career center, formerly the Lawrence County Joint Vocational School — failed 9,060 votes to 8,708, a margin of 352 votes, according to The Ironton Tribune.
Inside Ironton, the city’s 0.5-mill parks and recreation renewal levy also failed, with 1,599 voters against and 1,393 in favor, The Ironton Tribune reported. Both levies were renewals, not new taxes, according to the Tribune’s November 1 levy preview — voters were deciding whether to keep existing millage in place, and in both cases a majority chose to let it go.
Not everything on Lawrence County ballots failed. Chesapeake’s 1.5-mill police protection renewal passed with 115 yes votes to 92 no, and Proctorville’s 2.5-mill current-expenses renewal passed 76 to 54, The Ironton Tribune reported. Township fire renewals also won: Fayette Township’s passed 1,512 to 1,018, and Rome Township’s 1-mill fire renewal passed 1,982 to 1,228, according to the Tribune.
The split verdict — public-safety renewals approved, the career center and city recreation renewals rejected — leaves two institutions planning around money their voters declined to continue. The career center’s permanent-improvement levy supports facilities at its main campus in Chesapeake, which serves students from across Lawrence County.
The figures reported by The Ironton Tribune are unofficial until the Lawrence County Board of Elections completes its canvass. Ohio county boards must certify general-election results within 21 days of Election Day — by about November 24 — a timeline The Columbus Dispatch outlined in its November 3 explainer on why election-night results are unofficial.
What happens next: certification by the Lawrence County Board of Elections is the immediate step. Whether the Collins Career Technical Center board or Ironton’s city council returns either levy to a future ballot, and what spending changes follow the rejections, are decisions neither body had announced in the reporting available this weekend — and they are the follow-ups Lawrence County residents should watch for.
Photo: MrWoda, CC BY-SA 4.0