Owatonna voters delivered a resounding no to a $65 million plan for new police and fire facilities on Tuesday, with roughly three out of every four ballots cast against the proposal. The referendum, which would have authorized the city to issue bonds for a new police station and fire hall, failed after months of public debate over its price tag and location.
The vote tally was lopsided. According to Steele County Times, 12,195 total votes were cast, with 9,348 against the measure and 2,847 in favor. That put the no vote at roughly 76.7 percent, according to KTTC, though Southernminn.com put the figure at 76.65 percent in its own reporting on the outcome.
A Campaign Built on Cost and Location Fights
The failed referendum capped a stretch of controversy that included a last-minute change to the proposed police-station site. The plan would have modernized both the police department and the fire station, Southernminn.com reported, and the city had rolled out several initiatives aimed at building voter support ahead of the vote.
Opposition had been building since early in the year. Petition organizer Melissa Zimmerman told MPR News, “One [concern] is the cost of the project: $65 million dollars. Two is the location.” That pressure campaign gathered steam well before Tuesday's vote even happened, with MPR News reporting that nearly 2,500 Owatonna residents signed a petition demanding the bonding question go before voters, while Steele County Times described the same effort as collecting more than 2,500 signatures.
From West Hills to North Street
Much of the early friction centered on where the new police station would actually go. After residents objected to a proposed site at West Hills, the city council reversed course and approved a North Street lot instead, according to a report from Southernminn.com. City officials said at the time that the move ruled out West Hills entirely as an option for the department's new home.
None of that appeared to satisfy voters by the time the question reached the ballot. The city council had unanimously given preliminary approval on March 3 to issue up to $65 million in bonds for the project, Steele County Times reported, setting the stage for the public vote that ultimately rejected it.
What a Yes Vote Would Have Cost Residents
Had the measure passed, the financial impact on homeowners was expected to be significant. City Administrator Jenna Tuma had estimated that residents would likely see about a $35 per month tax increase under the plan, according to MPR News. KTTC separately reported that any property-tax increase tied to the project would not have begun until 2028.
Supporters of the project had pointed to the age of the city's public safety infrastructure as justification for the spending. MPR News reported that Owatonna's existing fire station is more than 120 years old, a detail city officials had cited while making the case for new construction.
With the referendum's defeat now final, the city faces the same aging facilities it had hoped to replace, with no new funding mechanism in place to address them. The vote took place during Tuesday's general election, and the scale of the rejection leaves city leaders back at the drawing board on how to tackle the police and fire department's facility needs going forward.
