Signs opposing the Belpre City Schools bond issue are seen in a yard on Rockland Avenue in Belpre Tuesday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

BELPRE – A proposed bond issue to fund the construction of a single K-12 campus in the Belpre City school district was rejected for the third time in Tuesday’s Washington County election.

With all seven precincts reporting, the no’s outnumbered the yes votes 1,027-837, according to unofficial totals on the county Board of Elections website.

“We appreciate the voters on both sides continuing the dialogue and exercising their right to vote in the election today,” Belpre Superintendent Jeff Greenley said. “Unfortunately for the district, the vote doesn’t change the financial need the district continues to have … for facilities.”

Voters rejected similar measures by margins of 83 votes in May 2022 and 250 in November.

The 8.567-mill bond issue would have raised nearly $42.9 million for the construction project, while the 1-mill levy would have collected $258,719 a year for facility maintenance.

“The Board of Education will take some time to digest the numbers tonight and will likely discuss its next steps in future board meetings,” Greenley said.

In one of only two contested primaries Tuesday, Republican John Ambrozy defeated incumbent Belpre 4th Ward City Councilman Steve Null 200-99. No Democrat filed to run for the seat.

“I’m very excited … very excited to help Belpre going forward,” Ambrozy said. “It’s a safe town; we need to keep it that way.”

Ambrozy, who retired after more than 33 years with Kraton and is making his first run for public office, said he also wants to ensure there is infrastructure in place to support future business growth.

Null could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

In the other contested primary, Randall Jedlink, the magistrate for the Juvenile and Probate Division in Washington County Common Pleas Court, led Amy Bean 2,299-1,051 in the race for the GOP nomination for Marietta Municipal Court judge with all 50 precincts reporting.

“We’re happy with the outcome,” Jedlink said. “We were somewhat confident going into the evening, but anything can happen.”

Jedlink said Bean “ran a great campaign, a clean campaign.”

He will face independent Shoshanna Brooker, Washington County Common Pleas Court magistrate, in the general election.

Residents of unincorporated areas of the county were deciding whether to allow the county to enter into service agreements for electric and natural gas aggregation programs. Purchasing the services as a group is intended to enable a better price than individuals would receive.

Both issues were winning narrowly – gas by seven and electric by 13 – with all 36 precincts reporting, but a Washington County Board of Elections official said it would not be known until today whether there were enough provisional ballots to potentially change the outcomes.

No significant problems were reported at the polls, Board of Elections Deputy Director Karen Pawloski said Tuesday afternoon.

“So far, everything seems to be going very smoothly,” she said. “Even though it’s raining, we’re not in any flood areas.”