Whitefish levy approved but Kalispell's fails

Voters in Whitefish approved a levy request for the elementary school district Tuesday, but levies in the Kalispell and Kila district were defeated.

Voters in Whitefish approved a $40,643 general fund levy, which will alleviate some of the $125,000 deficit the elementary district faces in 2010-11. The levy will help the district pay for things like furniture in Muldown Elementary, library subscriptions and the middle school drama program.

There were 1,466 voters at the polls in Whitefish, a 15.7 percent turnout. Of those, 907 supported the levy; 545 opposed it.

In Kalispell, voters defeated the district’s $338,000 general fund levy by around 200 votes.

The levy would have more than halved the $603,000 school officials feared would have to be cut from the 2010-11 elementary budget.

Kalispell voters did, however, approve the purchase of property on Meridian Court for a new elementary kitchen.

The vote will not affect taxes; the district set aside money for the kitchen as part of the 2004 bond issue that remodeled Kalispell Middle School. Because the property is not contiguous to existing school land, the district had to get voter approval to move forward with the purchase.

Two hundred ninety-five people voted in Kila on Tuesday. Of those, 174 people opposed the $150,000 building reserve levy the district requested. Seventy-nine people voted for it.

The amount would have been levied over three years and would have been put toward building two new classrooms at Kila School. The district has money for one classroom but had hoped to use levied money to alleviate costs and to build up a construction fund.

For more on this story, read Wednesday’s Daily Inter Lake.