Works re-elected as commissioner

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November 3, 2010 - 12:00 AM

“We need to keep the momentum going” for a new Allen County Hospital, Dick Works said Tuesday night just minutes after learning he had been re-elected to a sixth four-year term as Allen County commissioner representing the First District.
“I’m pleased to have won and gratified to have gotten so much support,” he added, but allowed, “We have a lot of work to do” to flesh out the process that will lead to construction of a hospital to replace the current one that opened in 1952.
Works, the Republican candidate, bettered Don Mann, who ran as an independent, by 227 votes, 828 to 601. Works won strong support in his hometown of Humboldt, 440  to 208, while Mann of Moran carried Marmaton Township, which includes Moran, 234 to 88. Each won support in townships near their hometowns; a chart showing vote totals for the Works-Mann race is on page ?? of today’s Register.
County commissioners will meet at 8 a.m. Friday to canvass votes from Tuesday’s election and an hour later will meet in a session adjourned from Tuesday morning to make the first significant post-election decision on the new hospital. They intend to name trustees, who will be closely involved in property acquisition, construction, equipping and deciding management for the new Allen County Hospital.
Gary McIntosh, commission chairman, said that he, Works and Rob Francis, the third commissioner, had reached tentative accord on six  of seven trustees.
McIntosh said he was pleased with Works’ re-election and lauded him for being a steadying influence on the commission, particularly with himself and Francis still being relatively new. They were elected in 2008.
Works confided that he had considered not seeking a sixth term, but decided to stay aboard the county’s ship — provided voters approved, which they did in rousing fashion — with the county in the midst of efforts to build a new hospital. Also, his expertise in budgetary matters aren’t lost on the other two commissioners; they frequently turn to Works when money matters surface.

COUNTY CLERK Sherrie Riebel didn’t immediately have hard figures on the magnitude of Tuesday’s election, but said she remembered none at mid-term that drew voter interest that even approached this year’s.
Referendums to decide the countywide quarter-cent sales tax to support the new hospital and decide the size of Iola’s governing body obviously were the factors that piqued voters’ interest.
The sales tax passed in landslide fashion, 3,221 to 1,221, which is better than 72 percent approval. In Iola 965 voters favored a governing body of eight councilmen and a mayor; 601 preferred four commissioners and a mayor.
Assuming sales tax ballots were marked essentially by all voters means the election prompted 52 percent of the county’s 8,589 registered voters to participate.

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