By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
It appears the two new members of the St. Joseph School Board are Richard “Rick” Gehring and Whitney Lanning.
While Gehring garnered the most votes in the crowded field for school board, Lanning barely edged Jennifer Kerns to come in second.
Gehring won 2,088 votes, or 19.64% of the vote.
Lanning came in second in the unofficial tally from the Buchanan County Clerk’s office with 1,883 votes, or 17.71% of the votes cast. Jennifer Kerns trailed Lanning by only 29 votes, receiving 1,854, or 17.44% of the total.
Amanda Cook came in fourth in the field of nine on the ballot for the two open seats on the St. Joseph School Board. Cook received 1,288 votes, followed by Don Crabtree with 1,206 votes.
Bradly Huett received 903 votes; Brian Shewell with 642, Harold B. Barr, Jr. with 508 votes, and Jonathon Bell with 220 votes.
St. Joseph voters overwhelmingly approved a three-percent tax on the sale of recreational marijuana. Buchanan County voters just as overwhelmingly approved the extension of the quarter-cent ambulance service sales tax.
On the marijuana tax, 4,620 voters favored the tax with only 876 voting against it, a split of 84-to-16%.
More than 5,000 voters cast ballots in favor of a 20-year extension of the quarter-cent sales tax that provides nearly half the funding for the Buchanan County EMS ambulance service. The unofficial tally was 5,506 in favor (86.96%) with only 826 voting against (13.04%).
The Buchanan County Clerk’s office reports 6,389 voters cast ballots in this April election, a paltry voter turnout of 12.6%.