DIXFIELD – Voters in Canton, Carthage and Dixfield overwhelmingly approved merging SAD 21 with Peru’s school department in Wednesday’s referendum balloting.
The combined vote of the three towns was 493-73.
The referendum asked district voters to admit Peru into SAD 21 as a participating municipality, subject to the terms and conditions of the agreement prepared and dated Dec. 29, 2003, by Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron.
Article 3 concerned the cost-share ratio. It asked voters to approve a ratio based 90 percent on property valuation and 10 percent on student population. It was approved by a 488-75 tally.
Barbara Chow, chairwoman of SAD 21’s board, said the overwhelming vote was exciting.
“This has been a long time coming, but I think it’s the best thing for the future of SAD 21,” Chow said Wednesday night. “Most everybody knew we needed to do something to stay intact.”
Richard Colpitts, chairman of the Peru School Committee, was equally ecstatic about the majority vote.
“Wow!” exclaimed Colpitts upon hearing the balloting tallies.
“It’s a pretty clear message and that’s encouraging. We’re really looking forward to meeting with their board.”
Thomas Ward, SAD 21’s superintendent, was not available for comment due to a family emergency.
Chow said the three town clerks must send the ballots to Gendron in Augusta tomorrow for verification before the merger becomes official.
The voting breakdown for each town was:
• Canton – 125 yes on both articles (admission, cost sharing), 3 no on both articles
• Carthage – 74 yes, 23 no on admitting Peru; and 69 yes, 25 no on cost sharing formula, with three blanks
• Dixfield – 294 yes on both admission and cost sharing; 47 no.
Carthage Town Clerk Linda Berry said the turnout of 97 of 362 registered voters was good.
Canton Town Clerk Kathleen Hutchins said that despite the low turnout there, she “thought we did pretty good for the type of election it was.” Canton has 783 registered voters.
In Dixfield, 341 out of 1,749 registered voters turned out. At 2 p.m., Town Clerk Vicki Carrier said that only 155 people had visited the polls. But from 4 to 6 p.m. there was a surge in voters.
tkarkos@sunjournal.com
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