Firelight residents voted 107-0 in favor, barely reached minimum threshold
By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Correction: On May 17, two days after this story was published, county officials clarified that a miscalculation resulted in the indication that 107 votes would be sufficient for the effort to pass. It has been clarified that the 39.925% of votes in favor would not be sufficient to meet the 40% threshold.
At the time of this story’s reporting, the elections office miscalculated that the 107 votes would account for 40.3% of qualified electors for Firelight. Gallatin County will finalize vote counts on Monday, May 20.
During last week’s mail-only election, residents of Big Sky’s Firelight Meadows saw a special question about the potential creation of a water and sewer district to help improve the subdivision’s failing wastewater treatment infrastructure.
For the ballot item to pass, at least 40% of qualified electors living in Firelight needed to vote in favor. All 107 who voted—according to the most recent preliminary results updated May 14—voted in favor of the district. However, with 268 qualified electors, 107 favorable votes were the absolute minimum allowed, according to the Gallatin County Elections Office.
Preliminary results show that 39.9% of qualified electors voted in favor.
“They made it by the skin of their teeth. They needed 40% to vote affirmatively,” said Eric Semerad, Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder and Election Administrator, in a phone call with EBS. “And they had exactly that.”
Semerad emphasized that nothing is final; this outcome is based on the most up-to-date preliminary count, which the elections office has been tallying and double-checking since the earliest count was revealed on May 7.
Official results will not be finalized until Monday, May 20. With the initiative’s slim margin of success, any change in the vote count that goes against the district’s creation could result in failure for this election cycle.
If nothing changes, however, it appears that the Firelight Meadows subdivision will be approved for its own water and sewer district, which will allow Firelight to apply for bonds, flexible financing, and federal, state and local grants to fund a new wastewater treatment system. For years, the 216-door subdivision’s septic infrastructure has been non-compliant on wastewater treatment standards set by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
In March, EBS spoke with Karen Macklin, a resident leading the effort, and Ron Edwards, general manager of the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District, about the potential impact of Firelight earning its own water and sewer district.
Read more about the potential impacts of a Firelight water and sewer district here.
