A light turnout of voters decided ballot measures in four jurisdictions in the Lake of the Ozarks area on Tuesday.
Residents of the Osage Beach Fire Protection District in Miller and Camden counties turned down a measure that would have increased the district's tax levy by 15 cents. The measure failed on a 258 "no" to 213 "yes" votes.
Fire district officials had asked voters to approve the increase so the additional funds could be used to upgrade equipment and personnel sufficiently to deal with an increase in calls the district has been receiving during past several years.
In 2001, the district made a total of 825 calls. By 2008, those calls had increased to 1,383 and had risen again to a total of 1,838 by 2014.
According to Osage Beach Fire Chief Jeff Dorhauer, the increase in the tax levy was needed to allow the department to hire more full-time personnel and upgrade training, equipment and district facilities to meet current state and federal standards.
Voters in Climax Springs voted - 28 "yes" to 6 "no" - to approve a ballot question that dissolved the town's government. Over the past several years residents of the small town had displayed a distinct lack of interest in keeping it as an incorporated city.
Under Missouri Revised Statutes a county's governing body is given the option of disincorporating a city within its jurisdiction if a petition of at least one-half of the voters within the town's limits sign a petition agreeing to do so. Once the petition was received by Camden County officials, the voter signatures verified and sufficient notice published in a local newspaper, the county placed a question on yesterday's election ballot asking voters to approve the disincorporation.
According to the Camden County Clerk's office, there are just over 50 registered voters living within the corporate limits of Climax Springs and at least 40 of those voters signed a petition asking to have the village disincorporated.
To dissolve the city under state statute at least 60 percent of those voting in the election had to approve the disincorporation. That burden was met when 82.35 percent of those voting approved the dissolution.
Voters gave a resounding no to a proposed 30-cent increase in the property tax levy for residents of the Southwest Fire Camden Protection District. District officials had said the increase was needed to "provide funds for the support of the district." The measure failed on a 153 "no" to 29 "yes" votes.
The final ballot question, which asked voters in the Stoutland R-2 School District to "pull back" the Proposition C tax increase, also failed.
The vote on that ballot question came from school district residents in both Camden and Laclede counties. The final vote was 277 "no" to 242 "yes." The vote per county was Camden County, 104 "yes" to 138 "no," and Laclede County 138 "yes" to 139 "no."
No August election was held in Morgan County, and the Osage Beach Fire Protection District question was the only issue on Miller County ballots.
A spokesman with the Camden County Clerk's Office said when an election is held for the specific purpose of dealing with local issues, the entities that place those questions on the ballot are responsible for the cost of holding the election.
Because there were four such entities involved in yesterday's election in Camden County, the cost was split between all four, which according to the county clerk's office, broke down to about $1,500 per entity.
Since the Osage Beach Fire Protection District had the only question on the Miller County ballot, that entity was solely responsible for paying the cost of holding an election in that county. The Miller County Clerk's Office estimated the cost to the fire district would be about $2,000.