Referendum proposals that sparked fierce debates in communities throughout Lake County also resulted in some incredibly close contests in Tuesday’s election, according to early, unofficial results.
In Highland Park, residents appeared to be evenly split in an advisory referendum asking whether the city should cull its deer population.
Another proposal was going down to the wire in Grayslake, where officials asked voters for permission to issue $6.8 million in alternate revenue bonds to build an outdoor swimming pool and a community center.
But the fierce emotions apparently didn’t result in much of a turnout at the polls, especially in communities with more mundane referendum issues on the ballot.
Election officials reported a dreadfully slow day.
“It’s an unbelievably low voter turnout,” said Daphne Deadrick, an election official with the Lake County clerk’s office, which forecast 15 percent turnout at the polls.
Besides the referendum issues in several school districts, the proposals drawing the most interest at the polls were those in Grayslake and Highland Park.
Early Tuesday, opponents of the civic center plan asked the clerk’s office to remove an election judge from a Grayslake polling place because she was a known supporter of the referendum issue as well as a school board candidate in Community High School District 127.
“I immediately called the polling place and told her it wasn’t appropriate for her to be a judge,” Deadrick said.
Grayslake Mayor Pat Carey said that despite the opposition to the proposal, she was optimistic it would be approved.
“I categorize the opposition a couple different ways,” she said. “Some people could be called members of CAVE, which stands for Citizens Against Virtually Everything.”
Carey said the proposal would allow for the construction of a swimming pool without a tax increase for residents.
Opponents, however, said they did not believe the bonds for the pool could be paid off with fees from the Countryside Landfill operations, as the mayor and other village officials have said.
Besides the civic center referendum issue, Grayslake voters also were asked by the local fire protection district to approve a tax rate increase of 10 cents–from 34 cents to 44 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation–for new equipment and personnel.
With almost half of the precincts counted, the fire district vote was evenly split.
Three other Lake County communities–Gurnee, Waukegan and Lake Bluff–also hoped to improve recreational facilities.
In Gurnee, voters were asked to approve a $6.9 million bond issue that would allow the park district to build an outdoor swimming pool and recreation center near Hunt Club Road.
But with all precincts reporting, the proposal appeared to have failed again, 54 percent to 46 percent.
Gurnee voters rejected a similar referendum proposal last April. But supporters scaled back the plan from a $15 million bond issue to $6.9 million to make it more palatable to voters.
If approved, the bond issue would have added $33 annually to the tax bill of a home valued at $150,000, and $43 for a home valued at $200,000.
In Waukegan, voters were asked to approve a 25-cent per $100 equalized assessed valuation rate hike to help the Park District get money for improvements to facilities and expand services and programming.
With all but two of 49 precincts reporting, the proposal was winning support from 60 percent of voters, results showed.
If approved, the owner of a $100,000 home in Waukegan would see a tax increase of about $75 to about $160 a year, which park officials argued was a small tradeoff for vastly needed improvements.
Since 1991, the officials said, the district has been limited by the state-imposed property tax cap, which limits tax increases to 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
“What we’re asking the voters is obviously to save our parks,” said Park District Director Greg Petry.
In Lake Bluff, voters were asked to approve a $5.9 million bond issue that would be used to build and equip a community center. A similar proposal failed last April.
And according to final, unofficial results, the proposal failed again Tuesday, 62 percent to 38 percent.
Several communities that wanted to improve public-safety equipment also had referendum proposals on the ballot.
Grayslake Fire Protection District officials said calls to the district, which serves a 24-square-mile area that includes Avon, Warren and Fremont Townships, have surged.
Officials said the proposed 10-cent hike in the district’s tax rate would be used to buy a new fire engine to replace a 20-year-old model. In addition, the money would be used to purchase two new ambulances and hire three new full-time firefighters, which would bring the district’s full-time staff to 19 people with 30 paid-on-call workers.
If approved, the owner of a $150,000 home within the district would pay about $50 more annually, officials said.
Wauconda also was seeking a 10-cent hike in its tax rate to help finance public-safety improvements.
In Winthrop Harbor, residents in the unincorporated Benton Township area covered by the local Winthrop Harbor Fire and Rescue Department were asked to approve a 9-cent tax increase. Winthrop Harbor village residents approved an identical tax hike in 1993.
Early results showed the proposal headed for rejection, with half the votes counted.
In Lake Zurich, a proposal to issue $4.5 million in bonds to pay for a new police headquarters was leading with slightly more than half the vote with two-thirds of the precincts counted.
