Ice Age Park levy fails

Voters hung the fate of Electric City’s proposed Ice Age Park in the cold November breeze as a levy for funding maintenance for the park failed to pass last week.

The levy failed with 303 (62%) against it, and 182 (38%) for it. 

The one-year levy asked for 14.2 cents per $100,000 in property value, or $14.22 for a $100,000 property, and would have gone towards maintenance of the park estimated at $7,000-$10,000 a year.

The levy itself costs about $5,000 to get on the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election.

Now that the levy has failed, the city council will have to decide what to do about the unfinished park project.

Out of $60,425 spent on the park project so far, $28,234.31 came from a $257,650 grant from the Washington State Recreation & Conservation Office, with the rest coming from the city itself.

If the park project were stopped, the city would have to pay back that $28,234.31 in grant money.

The $32,190.69 that the city paid so far may include money from the hotel/motel tax fund which, if the project were stopped, the city would have to place back into that fund.