Voters approve sale of natural gas company
Black Hills Energy will buy company
By Bobbi Mlynar
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
So far, everyone in Neosho Rapids wants the city to sell its natural gas business to Black Hills Energy for $64,664.
Lyon County Clerk Tammy Vopat said this evening that all of the 101 votes cast and counted after the election were in favor of the sale.
A total of 107 voters took part in the election, with 101 of them voting a touch-screen ballot. Six provisional ballots, including one advance-vote ballot, are pending and will not be included in the totals until the official canvass on Friday.
Vopat was amazed at the overwhelming turnout, with 107 of the 158 officially registered voters taking part.
"That says a lot for this community," she said. "I'm so proud of them."
Jesse Howard, city gas employee and a leader in the drive to get voters, initially had been concerned that the vote on the ordinance approving the sale might be difficult to pass.
An interpretation of state law required that a majority of the officially registered voters would have to vote "yes" for the ordinance to be passed. Howard estimated that around 30 or more officially registered voters had died or moved from the area. If that interpretation of the needed majority held true, the city would need an enormous voter turnout, with almost 80 "yes" votes needed for approval. Instead there were at least 101.
City leaders and representatives had worked with the Kansas Legislature for weeks to pass a bill that would require a simple majority on the total number of ballots cast, rather than the overall majority of registered voters.
The bill went to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and was signed on April 10th, Vopat said. It did not get to the Registry in time for publication that week and is expected to be published in the April 23rd issue.
The publication date should not have any effect on the election. Voters gave the city a rousing turnout that far exceeded the majority of registered voters. And, at least until the provisional ballots are counted, voters agree 100 percent that the city's business needs to be sold to Black Hills Energy.
"That says a lot for this community," Vopat said of the turnout. "I'm so proud of them."
Vopat and several of her workers went to the Neosho Rapids Community Center to count the votes and bring the equipment and documents back to the Lyon County Courthouse Tuesday night. The election ended at 7 p.m., and they were heading back to Emporia by 7:30 p.m.
Vopat plans to use the Neosho Rapids election as an example of the way voters need to participate in the democratic process.
"I'm going to really push that," she said. "... They set the standard; they set the bar. They deserve kudos for that. They worked hard on it."
Read more in Wednesday's Gazette