Voters in several Missouri school districts approved bonds for new buildings and other physical improvements yesterday, and a controversial mayor in suburban St. Louis was ousted in a recall election.

In other local issues on ballots around the state, voters in Springfield and surrounding Greene County agreed to a new sales tax to expand the 911 emergency call center, and St. Louis voters amended the city charter to give themselves a say in any future sale or lease of park land.

Southwest Missouri school districts prevailed on several large bond issues, which by state law require 57 percent voter approval.

In the Joplin R-8 district, a $57.3 million bond issue was approved with 58 percent in favor, according to complete but unofficial results. The revenue will pay for two new middle schools and renovation of the existing North Middle School.

Betty Bower, 71, said she initially opposed the measure but changed her mind after learning the older building would be put to good use.

"I have seven children," she said. "They are all grown, but schools are important."

But another Joplin voter, 80-year-old Harry Podszus, went to the polls chiefly to vote against the bond issue.

"I think they should fix them up and gradually improve them," he said of the existing middle schools. "In Europe, they have schools that are hundreds of years old, and here these are 70 years old. And being my age, I am against more taxes."

Voters in two districts of the fast-growing Springfield suburbs also approved bond issues for schools. A $19 million proposal in Republic and a $9.5 million proposal in Ozark both passed with 64 percent in favor.

But a $25 million bond issue for schools in nearby Lebanon failed decisively, with only 17 percent in favor and 83 percent opposed.

Supporters of a $17 million bond issue in the Orchard Farm school district of St. Charles County also were celebrating after the proposal won with a 73 percent majority.

Ann Purzner’s tenure as mayor of Overland lasted just one year, as voters in the St. Louis County recalled her by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.

Purzner, a former Overland council member, squeaked into the mayor’s office in April 2006 with a four-vote victory that expanded to five in a recount. Troubles at City Hall were already under way when she took office, and she tried unsuccessfully to remove Police Chief Jim Herron without council approval and fought constantly with her opponents.

Green County’s 911 emergency call center will add 20 to 24 employees to the existing roster of 60 after voters approved a one-eighth-cent sales tax. Complete but unofficial returns showed 71 percent favoring the tax, which also will fund new equipment, a future building expansion and operating expenses.

Just a month after the St. Louis Board of Alderman voted to lease part of Forest Park to Barnes-Jewish hospital, voters changed the city’s charter to require that any such transaction in the future be put to a popular vote.

It takes a 60 percent majority to change the charter. Final but unofficial results showed the amendment receiving 69.7 percent of yesterday’s vote.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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