Voters renew transportation sales taxes

Voters yesterday overwhelmingly approved renewals of two Springfield transportation sales taxes.

The quarter-cent sales tax renewal was approved with 9,472 votes, or 86 percent, according to the Greene County clerk’s unofficial election results.

First approved in 1989, the three-year renewal marks the ninth time voters have given their stamp of approval to the tax.

The quarter-cent tax generates roughly $10 million per year for public improvements.

Roughly the same amount of voters gave the green light to the city’s eighth-cent sales tax, a four-year transportation tax first passed in 1996 that now has been renewed five times. The tax is expected to pull in $5 million annually for city infrastructure projects.

Together, the taxes are projected to generate $50 million for infrastructure upgrades during the next seven years. Planned projects include major street resurfacing and rehabilitation, school sidewalks, and stormwater and neighborhood initiatives, as well as such capital projects as intersection improvements and street and bridge widening.

SPS board
Two new Springfield Public Schools Board of Education members were elected yesterday.

Five were up for the seats left open by Annie Busch and Jean Twitty.

Businesswoman Alina Lehnert and Drury University professor Charles Taylor earned the positions.

Taylor received the most votes, at 6,396, or 28 percent. He is a communication professor and director of the master’s in communication, and nonprofit and civic leadership programs for Drury,

Lehnert, owner of Lehnert Leadership Group LLC, received 6,323 votes, or 27.7 percent.

Also running were Allen Kunkel, a Missouri State University executive;  Michelle Gavel, a preschool teacher at James River Weekday Preschool; and Melissa Penkalski, assistant professor in the MSU Nursing Department and a pediatric nurse practitioner.
 
Kunkel received 19 percent of the votes, Gavel earned 15 percent and Penkalski got 9 percent.