LEBANON — City residents voted on Tuesday to adopt a hotly debated ordinance that aims to protect undocumented immigrants from federal immigration authorities.
And for a third time, voters narrowly rejected a $20.4 million school renovation project during Lebanon’s municipal election.
The “Welcoming Lebanon Ordinance,” which passed in a 1,218-1,015 vote, bars local police from aiding immigration enforcement efforts, detaining people for violating immigration law or allowing federal immigration officers to interview people in Lebanon’s custody.
The measure, which garnered 54.5% support, also includes a provision requiring municipal employees to alert residents when they become aware of federal immigration activities in Lebanon. The ordinance will take effect on Jan. 1, although it can be amended by the City Council before then.
“I’m very grateful to the voters of Lebanon,” Kathleen Beckett, who led the petition drive to place the ordinance on Lebanon’s ballot, said on Tuesday after the polls closed. “It’s really important for Lebanon to stand up and say, ‘No, we’re not going to collaborate with (federal immigration) policies.’ ”
Beckett said the ordinance is just the beginning of efforts to reach out to immigrants and “find out what else we can do to make this a better place for people to live.”
Meanwhile, the School Board’s third attempt to renovate three Lebanon schools proved unsuccessful, garnering 56.9% support. The 20-year bond for the project required 60% to pass.
Residents voted, 1,229-932, to OK the “modernization” projects, a combination of efforts to upgrade the entryways and instructional spaces at the Mount Lebanon, Hanover Street and Lebanon High schools.
“I am pleased to see the increase in voter turnout,” School Board Chairwoman Wendy Hall said on Tuesday night. “My sense of the vote is that it reflects both constituents’ desire to invest in the future of our community as well as concern over taxes and increasing costs to live in Lebanon.”
In addition to new entrances, the project proposed construction of a new lobby and “music suite” at Lebanon High School.
At the Hanover Street School, a new cafeteria would have been built to prevent conflicts with high schoolers, who now share an eating space. The plans also called for expanding the elementary school’s library and art rooms.
Mount Lebanon School would have gotten a kitchen capable of cooking hot meals, a handicapped-accessible stage and a general office suite that includes a new principal’s office and nurses’ room.
Residents voted, 893-713, last year to spend $20 million on similar projects. While that proposal garnered a majority, 55.6% of the vote, it also failed to get to 60% support to pass.
And in 2018, city residents voted, 820-768, to kill a larger $29 million proposal that included construction of a new auditorium at the high school.
Both the welcoming ordinance and school renovation plans drew voters with strong feelings to the polls Tuesday.
Devin Wilkie, who held a sign that read “Vote Yes for the Welcome Lebanon Ordinance,” said it would protect all Lebanon residents from being “singled out by our current police administration.”
The vote, he said, would show whether “Lebanon does care about its entire community.”
But the measure could unintentionally shield those in the country with ill intent, warned resident Greg Schwarz, who also worried it could hamstring police.
Similar measures passed at Town Meeting in Hartford and Norwich, but drew criticism from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Burlington, which said they raised “serious public safety concerns.”
Lebanon resident Patti Hardenberg said she ventured to the United Methodist Church on School Street to support the school building plans, saying they’re long overdue.
“My kids went through the Lebanon schools and I know there were shortcomings then, and they’re in their 30s now,” she said.
But Larry Leonard Sr. said the projects are too costly, considering the city is still paying off loans on the new Lebanon Middle School and ongoing sewer projects.
“I think we need to do them,” he said. “I just don’t know why we waited so long to let all this accumulate and become a $20 million problem.”
School officials have said the renovations would add 93 cents to Lebanon’s property tax rate next year. That amounts to an additional $232 in taxes for a home valued at $250,000.
The school district’s $45.6 million budget also passed, 1,510-739, on Tuesday. The spending plan amounts to a $1.1 million, or roughly 2.5%, increase.
Voters elected one new School Board member and reelected two incumbents.
Kristin O’Rourke received 1,323 votes to top a five-way race for three School Board seats, while Aaron Mills won 949 votes to place second and School Board member Richard Milius garnered 868 votes to retain his seat.
Christopher Allan Roberge won 744 votes, and Patrick A. Gobeille received 557.
Mayor Tim McNamara garnered 1,486 votes to win an at-large seat on the City Council, while Councilor Erling Heistad received 1,080 votes to also win an at-large seat. They defeated Al Patterson, who finished with 904 votes in a three-way race.
Ward 1 Councilor Jim Winny won 379 votes for another two-year term, defeating Raymond Downs, who received 199. And in Ward 2, City Councilor Bruce Bronner defeated challenger Christopher Allan Roberge, 393-206, for a one-year term.
City Councilors George Sykes and Karen Zook, who ran unopposed, also won reelection.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.