When Woodland Park voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed sales tax increase last week to pay for a $14 million swimming pool and recreation center, they only killed the funding mechanism, not the project.

Mayor Steve Randolph, who easily won re-election to a second two-year term in last Tuesday’s mail-ballot election, said he believes a more modest pool will someday be built “fulfilling the hopes and dreams” of those who have wanted a public pool for 15 years. But it will take time to resurrect the project.

In Monument, Tuesday’s election kept Mayor Travis Easton in office as voters responded to his plan to pursue economic development, develop a regional water supply while protecting the town’s family friendly character. Voters also chose three trustees and approved a ballot measure saving the town $20,000 a year by publishing abbreviated legal notices of new ordinances in the local newspaper.

It was the first contested municipal election in Monument in nine years after huge turnover on the seven-member Board of Trustees in recent months. In the last year, Monument endured the resignations of its mayor and three trustees.

Easton, 37, beat Trustee Gail Drumm, 58, for his first full term. Easton was trustee until he was appointed mayor last July following Byron Glenn’s resignation after five years in office. Easton received 493 votes to 202 for Drumm.

“The first thing I am going to do is continue the incentive package for small businesses,” Easton said. “Local businesses draw a lot of people into town.”

Returning as trustees are: Stanley E. Gingrich, 50; Rick Squires, 57; and Jeffrey Kaiser, 48. Town clerk Scott W. Meszaros said about 23 percent of voters cast a ballot.

But Monument’s election was tame compared to the fireworks in Woodland Park, the Teller County community of 6,500 at the top of Ute Pass.

The pool/rec center project sparked an emotional debate. Many objected to the plan to increase the town’s 3 percent sales tax to pay for the project. Others were upset that the rec center was so elaborate — with a gymnasium, whirlpool, racquetball courts, weight room, fitness center, climbing wall, track and lockers. Still others didn’t like the idea of the government building facilities that would compete with existing fitness businesses.

The issue was placed on the ballot after more than 1,100 people signed a petition demanding the Woodland Park City Council let the 5,700 registered voters decide. They left no doubt as just 423 voted in favor and 1,695 voted against it.

It was the second time Woodland Park voters have rejected a pool project. In 1996, a pool failed by nearly 2-to-1 a proposal to raise property taxes for a public pool. Then, as now, although voters rejected the tax increase, many still wanted a pool and kept working for it.

And despite the latest results, a group called Teller Alliance for Fitness Foundation already is deep into the planning of a new concept. It has a board of trustees, a $4.5 million concept, two-year timeline and a location in the Meadow Wood Sports Complex on the west edge of town. You can see details on its Web site at http://ta-fit.org/.

In the meanwhile, Randolph and the Woodland Park City Council stay busy balancing the town budget as tax income continues to plunge.

Randolph said sales tax revenues in 2009 provided just $2.7 million for the general fund — a drop to 2005 income levels. That date is significant because a Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in August 2007, giving town leaders hope of a tax windfall. In fact, an economist at the time projected Woodland Park tax revenue would reach $3.5 million by 2010.

Instead, Randolph said the new council will be taking up budget recommendations that include a projected 8 percent drop this year and possibly even worse.

“That’s a pretty good jolt,” he said. “We’re running about half the revenue that was expected. The community has the perception that we have a ton of money because of Wal-Mart. It has been saving our bacon. But it was half what we expected.”

Randolph said he does not expect layoffs for the town’s 120 employees.

“We know the economy is looking bad,” Randolph said. “We’ve got a lot of foreclosures and unemployment. We’re tracking it month-to-month. If we have to, we’ll make adjustments.”

In the mayor’s race, Randolph easily defeated Jon DeVaux, 67, who had served nearly seven years on the City Council. Both ran as write-in candidates.

FILE – In this Dec. 12, 1985 file photo, Joseph Ratzinger presents a book with the documents issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, during a press conference at the Vatican, when he was Head of the Congregation. The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted defrocking a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including “the good of the universal church,” according to a 1985 letter obtained by the Associated Press bearing his signature. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRUNO MOSCONI