Election 2022: Alden-Hebron referendum up, Dunham Township down as votes continue to be counted

Two referendums were up for a vote in McHenry County on Tuesday, with one seeing a majority vote in favor and the other not as votes began to be counted.

Those two referendums include an almost $16 million bond request for Alden-Hebron School District 19 to help improve its school buildings and a $1 million road bond for Dunham Township.

As of 9:30 p.m., with early voting and mail-in ballots included and 100% of precincts reporting, District 19′s bond had 62.6% of voters opposed, with 845 no votes to 504 yes votes, unofficial early results showed. Provisional or late-arriving mail-in ballots were not included in the total.

Dunham Township’s bond had 69.2% in support at that time, with 513 in favor and 228 opposed, unofficial early results showed.

District 19 has gone years without carrying debt, Superintendent Tiffany Elswick said last week, but it no longer can cover necessary upgrades at its high school and middle school building with current tax revenue.

The building has not seen any significant upgrades since 1958. This is the second time since 2019 the district has brought a referendum to its constituents, with a request for a $20.3 million bond for a new school failing three years ago.

For Dunham Township, this is the second road referendum requested in recent memory, with the first one, also for $1 million, passing in 2012.

Now, with that one being paid off, the township is requesting another bond for its roads, which means it won’t change the amount residents pay in taxes, Road Commissioner David Nolan said.

Dunham Township oversees about 42 miles of road, which Nolan described as being in “fair to good” condition. The bond would help maintain that, he said.

“Townships like us, we buy used equipment and we try to stretch the dollar as far as we can,” Nolan said. “That’s the reason we need a little help every once in a while.”