Last day today for bond election

ROYAL CITY - After the narrowest of losses in February, the Royal School District is running a new school construction bond election, and the final day for ballots is today.

If you still wish to vote, your ballots will be received until p.m. tonight at the Royal City fire station. They can also be taken to the county courthouse at Ephrata.

The district needed a 60 percent favorable vote in February to win the election. It got 59.13 percent, or 560 yes votes to 387. It has been the most popular topic in letters to the editor since. The election started at the first of the month.

The district will be seeking approval of the sale of $8.75 million in construction bonds. Approval would bring $4.4 million in state matching funds. The district would throw in $1.1 million it has saved for a total of $14.25 million in new school construction.

That amount would allow the district to add four classrooms to the high school and 14 classrooms and a gymnasium to the fifth-grade pod to create a new intermediate school.

If that were accomplished, Royal Schools would change from elementary (K-5, including pod), middle (6-8) and high school (9-12) to K-3 elementary, 4-6 intermediate, 7-8 middle and high school.

The bonds would be retired over 15 years at an interest rate of 3.21 percent. The property tax assessment to accomplish that would be $1.19 per $1,000 of property value.

In other words, approval would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $119 per year in added property tax.