School bond question passes; Witthaus, Pratte keep seats on board

Published by Clark Kant, Editor In Chief

I didn't send Jimmy Oldsun, our crackerjack investigative reporter, up to the county courthouse last night to cover the results of yesterday's local elections.  I knew it would be crowded in the hallway outside the county clerk's office with all of the "live broadcasts" going on.  I also knew that Don Kruse and his staff at The Hermann Advertiser-Courier would do their usual very thorough job on the election coverage so that our coverage would really not be necessary.  Besides, I didn't think our readers would need an election report until this morning anyway.  I figured that a lot of you would be watching 'American Idol' on TV last night or doing things with your families.

Here's the election coverage as reported by The Hermann Advertiser-Courier:

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School bond question passes; Witthaus, Pratte keep seats on board

By staff writer

Voters overwhelmingly approved the no-tax increase bond issue in the Gasconade County R-1 School District in Tuesday's election, and Todd Witthaus and Mike Pratte will keep their seats on the school board.

With Gasconade, Montgomery and Franklin county votes in, the bond issue received 866 yes votes to 329 no. Only Warren County votes were not reported, and the small Case-Gore precinct is not yet counted.

Todd Witthaus garnered the most votes (747) and Pratte, the current school board president, had the next most votes (638). Sherry Englert (561) and Curtis Thomas (259) were running for the first time. The Case-Gore precinct in Warren County was not reported in these totals.

In the Hermann municipal election, all incumbents were unopposed. Mayor Larry Miskel received 324 votes in Ward 1 and 2, and there were 12 votes for write-in candidates. Long-time city collector Marilyn Fricke received the most votes (369) in the two Hermann wards.

In Ward 2, Dan Wilson received 187 votes, and in Ward 1 Ron VanBooven received 154.

The R-1 district presented a $5 million bond proposal to the voters that is designed to meet most of the immediate facilities needs and long-term maintenance. All three campuses in the district will be addressed, and that will include the elementary school, middle school and high school. The district also intends to build, for the first time, an administration building that will free-up the space it now occupies in the middle school.

The facilities that house special needs students will be improved to meet their needs, and ADA issues will also be improved.

The district expects to save thousands of dollars with low interest from Stimulus funds.

In the race for school board, Witthaus and Pratte received most of their votes in the two Hermann wards and the large ward (Little Berger) that makes up rural Hermann. Witthaus received 154 votes in the Little Berger precinct and Pratte received 152. Sherry Englert, a former Hermann Middle School teacher, received 75 votes in that precinct, and Curtis Thomas had 44.

All total, here's how the Gasconade County vote went for the school board candidates: Witthaus 543, Pratte 452, Englert 368 and Thomas 183.

In Montgomery County, Pratte received the most votes (135) while Witthaus had 133. Englert received 127 and Thomas 49. The Montgomery County portion of the Gasconade R-1 school district comes from Rhineland, McKittrick, Big Spring, New Florence and Mineola.

In the race for mayor of Berger, Mayor Terry Black was re-elected with 48. Former Mayor Harold Englert received 33. Ward 1 alderman Milferd Elfine kept his seat, getting 31 votes to just 8 for Barbara Flint, who has run for office in Berger several times before. Ward 2 alderman Bryan Dirks was unopposed and received 27 votes.

In the city Bland, a new mayor will take office. Trish O'Dell received 103 votes and unseated Mayor Bruce Sassmann, who had 70.

In the city of Gasconade, Collector Marjorie Kuhn had opposition but was re-elected. She had 34 votes while Jean Sailors had 5.

In the city of Morrison, Mayor Sam Birk, City Collector Stephanie Birk all were re-elected and ran unopposed.

Owensville elected a new mayor Tuesday as challenger Dixon Somerville unseated Jesse Loeb, 262-200. Robert Rickerd was re-elected city marshal of Owensville in a close race with Joseph Weirich. Rickerd received 240 votes to 216 for Weirich.

Tuesday's election brought out 1,679 voters in Gasconade County. There were 7,681 registered voters for the April 6 election, and Tuesday's turnout was 21.86 percent.

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Great reporting by The A-C!  Just the facts.  No bells and whistles.  No opinion, embellishment or commentary.  If you don't already have a subscription to The A-C, you should consider getting one.  The A-C is the Gold Standard of election news coverage in the local area!

Clark Kant
Editor In Chief
www.hermannhearsay.blogspot.com