Lincoln County School District officials, along with a fewparents and teachers, waited nervously Tuesday night in the LincolnCounty Government Complex to see if the $3.8 million bond issuewould pass by the required 60 percent margin.

After about an hour of counting the approximately 1,600 ballotsby hand, Circuit Clerk Terry Lynn Watkins looked to the crowd andsaid, “You got your 60 percent, actually you got more than 60percent, you got about 69 percent.”

Cheers went up and smiles spread across the faces of all thosewho were pulling for the bond issue that will bring improvements tothe four county school campuses.

In unofficial results, 1,108 people voted for the bond issuewhile 509 votes were cast against it.

“I think the voters of the Lincoln County School District havespoken loud and clear. They are willing to stand up and becounted,” said Superintendent of Education Perry Miller.

Miller said he was “pleased, happy and overjoyed” as he made afew phone calls to family and friends wanting to hear theresults.

“I want to thank all the parents in each community who got outand worked for this. They are what made this bond issue pass,” hesaid, also mentioning the tremendous support from the teachers andadministration in the district.

The bond issue will allow for a new classroom building at LoydStar, Enterprise and West Lincoln, as well as a new cafeteriabuilding in place of the old Bogue Chitto School that is beingdemolished this fall.

“It’s going to be a good thing for our county. It’s going to putall of our students in good facilities,” said Miller.

Other improvements include a new office complex on theEnterprise campus and renovations for office space at West Lincoln.Also at Bogue Chitto two classrooms will be included in the newcafeteria building and some equipment will be updated oncampus.

Loyd Star will see the demolition of some buildings built in the1930s and West Lincoln’s old gym will be torn down.

“With this bond issue, the voters have shown that education is apriority. They’re willing to do what it takes,” said Dr. LeanneSummers, assistant superintendent of the Lincoln County SchoolDistrict.

She and other district officials talked about how excited theywere to see the bond issue pass with such a strong percentage, withonly four of the 21 precincts voting against it.

“I’m glad we got that large of a percent. That’s really good,”said James Keen, one of the school board members on hand to hearthe results.

Overall, the day of voting was reported as a smooth day with fewproblems, according to Watkins. She recalled the only phone callsto her office were from people trying to find out what schooldistrict they were in and where they should vote.

In the special election only 21 absentee ballots were recordedin Watkins’ office before the deadline.

“That was relatively low, but about normal for a specialelection,” she said.