Wausa voters approve bond for school renovation

WAUSA — A massive renovation of the Wausa School building got an overwhelming approval from voters Tuesday. 

Voters favored the project 315-102.

With nearly 60 percent of eligible voters casting ballots, this was a special election that many held an opinion on.

This was a mail-in special election, with 599 eligible voters in Knox, 19 in Cedar, and 16 in Pierce County all receiving ballots. 

Knox County Clerk Joann Fischer said 59.12 percent of all ballots were returned to her office prior to the deadline.

Fischer says the election was able to run smoothly, in part because of Commercial State Bank in Wausa aiding in the process with a local ballot box where voters could drop off their ballots instead of mailing them in or delivering them to the Courthouse in Center.

It seems this was the main form of voting done in the election, she said.

“We felt that most of them had been returned at the dropbox at Commercial State Bank,” said Fischer. “We had some come through the mail but a majority were placed at the dropbox. We did the dropbox as a convenience to the voters because in a special election the return postage is not fixed to the envelope so it is a responsibility of the voter. If it was a regular election the postage would be fixed for a mail-in ballot.”

Voters decided on a proposed bond of no more than $3 million for a project that will cost around $4.35 million. This would be a 20-year bond to address numerous issues in the Wausa building, along with building a new Ag and Industrial Arts building.

The $3 million means a levy increase of around two cents. The numbers of the full bond amount, along with the levy amount will be finalized soon after the election when budgets and contractors are finalized for both the school and the project. 

Some things that will be addressed to the school building will be making the school both ADA and fire code compliant.