Huntertown voters said they want to stick with a decision they made six months ago to create a utility board, even though town officials were hoping residents would vote otherwise.
Those in favor of upholding a May referendum to appoint a Huntertown utility service board outnumbered those wanting to abolish the board, 1,053 to 745, with four precincts left to count.
The town created a utilities board in January to operate water and sewer utilities and trash pickup, but that board consisted of all five members of the town council. Dave Rudolph, the town’s clerk-treasurer, is not on the board.
The newly created board would have to include a municipal executive as chairman and a professional engineer, and the board could not include all five council members, according to state law. But that voter-supported board has not been created – another petition created a new referendum for Tuesday’s ballot, asking voters to reverse their May decision.
Huntertown Council members had urged voters to say yes to abolishing the board, even though the council initiated the current utility board.
State law allows residents to take few issues to the ballot directly and requires 2 percent of registered voters from the last Indiana secretary of state election to sign a petition. In Huntertown, that number is 24 signatures. The board must be in place by Jan. 1, and the argument could now become who should serve as municipal executive – the clerk-treasurer or the council president.
