Riverton Parke Gym Project to Go Before Voters

By Mark Spelbring
Sentinel Reporter
Voters living in the Southwest Parke school district will make the decision on whether an auxiliary gym will be built at Riverton Parke in a special election in May of 2025. The Southwest Parke School Board had pursued a bond to fund the project earlier this year and voted to proceed on August 14, but they noted a petition process was available to ask for the project to be put to a public vote. A petition drive was successful in obtaining the required signatures, which stopped the process. On November 13, 2024, the board approved a resolution to pursue a special election next May.
In explaining the history and process, Superintendent Dr. Phil Harrison noted 242 valid signatures were presented to the county. He stated there are 3,134 voters in the district, so the petition was signed by about 7% of the voters. As stated in a previous story in this newspaper, a “Petition Requesting the Application of a Local Public Question Process” was filed in September. Once that petition was filed, the board had to determine if they wanted to proceed with a public vote, and if so whether to do it as soon as possible, in May of 2025, at an estimated cost of $20,000, or to wait another year until the next regular election in 2026.

For the full article, see the November 20 edition of the Parke County Sentinel.