Area voters give easy victory to $15 million NIACC bond proposal

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Voters in an 11-county area overwhelmingly approved a $15 million bond referendum for the North Iowa Area Community College in a special election Tuesday.

With all of the school districts in the NIACC district reporting, the measure passed with 5,964 “yes” votes and 1,772 “no” votes, a winning margin of 77.1% to 22.9%.

Bond referendums require at least a 60% favorable vote to pass in Iowa.

With that unofficial result, reported by the Cerro Gordo County Auditor’s Office, the community college gets a green light to proceed with its improvement plans.

Included is campus infrastructure repair and safety additions, expanded workforce training in STEM-related careers and health care fields, renovating the North Iowa Community Auditorium and creating at least three regional career centers to support workforce training needs.

In Floyd County, only a little more than 9% of the registered voters turned out for the election, but those that did vote favored NIACC’s proposal by a 62.1% majority.

The total Floyd County vote was 566 “yes” and 346 “no,” according to the Floyd County Auditor’s Office.

The referendum passed by at least the required 60% in all but four of the 20 school districts included.

Although the voters in the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock School District had a majority approve the measure, that district fell short of the required 60% at only 56.8%.

In addition to RRMR, the LuVerne Community School District voted 57.9% in favor, North Iowa Community School District voted 48.9% in favor, and West Hancock came in just shy of the necessary 60% at 59.3%.

The highest level of support for the bonding measure came from the CAL School District at 89.3%.

There were no votes cast for or against the measure in the Algona Community School District, which has only a tiny portion of its residents in Kossuth County inside the NIACC district.

According to the college, the funding will be used approximately like this:

• $5 million to $6.5 million for job training and workforce programs, including up to three new regional education centers in communities in the 11-county area. Also included are career and technical education classroom upgrades and equipment.
• $4.7 million for interior infrastructure improvements at the NIACC campus, including renovating classrooms, new equipment, remodeling the 1972 dormitory food service building and replacing its roof and updating the activity center and kitchen.
• $3 million for exterior infrastructure, including replacing lighting and updating sidewalks and parking lots on campus, and new wayfinding signage.
• $2.15 million for sustainable energy upgrades including LED lighting and safety equipment, sensors to turn off lighting when areas are not occupied, and replacements or upgrades to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
• $1 million for campus security improvements.
• $710,000 to update the North Iowa Community Auditorium on the Mason City campus, including a new roof, new seating and carpeting, upgraded controls for the orchestra pit and lighting and sound equipment improvements.

Much of the emphasis is focused on the training and workforce projects.

The goal will be to create regional career centers offering technical training within 30 miles of every high school in the 11-county district, to address workforce training needs and skills gaps that are challenging area businesses and industries, the college said.

This will be the first time in the college’s 100-year history, first as Mason City Junior College, then as NIACC, that it will issue taxpayer-backed general obligation bonds.

NIACC’s current total tax rate is 77.72 cents per $1,000 for the 2019-20 fiscal year, according to the Iowa Department of Management. As part of that, the current levy for plant and equipment is 20¼ cents, which is the maximum allowable by law and the amount every community college in the state levies.

The additional tax to pay off the NIACC bonds will be another 20¼ cents per $1,000 of taxable value. The college said that would be about $10 per year on a home assessed at $100,000 after rollbacks and credits, or between 22 cents and 25 cents per acre per year on agricultural land.