By the time this week’s edition of the Oconto County Times Herald hits the newsstands sprinkled along the path around the Falls, the numbers on the school referendum will be out, and the suspense will be over.
As the pen is put to paper for this column, the crystal ball is still a little cloudy. There seemed to be good community support for both questions, but unlike some of the bigger elections, there was no public opinion polling by the St. Norbert College Strategic Research Institute or the Gallop Poll.
Things were pretty quiet on Monday morning. An early morning cruise through the empty high school parking mirrored a sense of anticipation. It would be less than a month and the lot would be full as students return for another year. For now, the only sign that it would be a busy place were the parking spots outlined, not by bright white or yellow lines, but rather oil spots where the front ends of the student cars usually are positioned.
Some who spend time in the outdoors pride themselves on being able to tell a little about the wildlife by looking at the tracks and other signs. In this case, the observation might leave one to conclude that students drive older cars that have a tendency to drip oil. It’s a story of the cycle of life. High school drivers often start off driving cars that are at the bottom of the food chain, if we use a wildlife example.
With time, they move up in life and purchase better cars less likely to drip oil. Perhaps one might leap to the conclusion that an individual’s status in life can be measured by the oil spots in the driveway. Given the personal experience of this driver, sometimes it is hard to let go of those oil drippers. We have one that is a third-string spare, and it marks its spot on the parking lot whenever we bring it to town.
Making marks was a big part of Tuesday’s referendum. The predictions statewide were calling for a 15 percent voter turnout. We would venture a guess that the turnout in the school district for this referendum was more than double the state average. We like beating state averages. It would be hard for a voter in the district to argue that he or she was not aware of the opportunity to vote. Several different channels were used to let people know that those questions were on the ballot.
One method was with the reminder yard signs. An ambitious order for 100 signs was placed with a local printer. Due to a foul up, only 90 signs were delivered. Once the word was out that the signs had been received, they went out like hotcakes. Many last-minute callers were disappointed the signs were no longer available. Perhaps it was the Panther logo on the bright orange and black signs that made them so popular. More likely, people genuinely wanted to show support for the much-needed requests on the ballot.
Without knowing the election results, where do we go from here? If the facilities question passed, we need to finalize formal plans, get the necessary approvals, and go through the process to select contractors to do the work, while keeping in mind the budget for the project. The hope is that the grading work at the high school can begin yet this fall with the soil having a chance to settle over the winter.
The process to remove the church on the school property at Abrams would also get under way this fall. This would involve some salvage of materials, and then the building will be used as a training site for several fire departments. This will involve learning activities for adults well beyond the age of those who usually attend Abrams Elementary. No doubt a number of those firefighters sat in the Abrams Elementary classrooms in their younger days.
The majority of both projects would take place next spring and summer once the construction season resumes.
If the facilities question does not pass, it’s back to the drawing boards, but we don’t even want to consider that alternative and the delay that it would mean for eventually replacing the track and football field at Memorial Field, along with upgrading the Abrams Elementary site.
Either way, the results will reflect a more than two decades-long struggle. We hope the news is good.
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