By Cheryl Schweizer
Chronicle correspondent

     BRIDGEPORT - Voters will decide on a two-year maintenance and operations levy request in a special election Tuesday, Feb. 9.
     The district is seeking $180,000 per year for collection in 2011 and 2012. That would be a $60,000 increase from the levy passed in 2008.
     If the levy is approved, property owners would pay an estimated $1.63 per $1,000 of assessed property value each year. For the owner of property valued at $100,000, the cost would be $163 per year.
     A simple majority is required for passage.
     Normally school district officials offer a list of programs and projects the levy would help fund. Superintendent Scott Sattler said a list has been outlined, but he's reluctant to make commitments because of the uncertainty surrounding the second half of the levy equation, state levy equalization funding.
     Local effort assistance, or levy equalization, is money provided to school districts with lower property values that pass a maintenance and operations levy.
     Bridgeport received $805,000 in levy equalization funds after the levy passed in 2008, Sattler said.
     Levy equalization could be cut as the state works to balance the latest expected revenue shortfall.
     Sattler said all or part of levy equalization could be cut.
     In light of that, there is not a "specific project that I'm going to promise gets done," he said.
     If levy equalization survives, there are several projects on the list and Sattler said most of them involve building and grounds maintenance.
     "We have to focus on our facilities for a while," he said.
     The high school and elementary school parking lots need repairs, and there's a leak in the high school roof.
     "The other big issue is the track," he said.
     The all-weather track is about 15 years old and needs some major repairs.
     In addition, all extracurricular activities - sports, field trips and clubs such as FFA and Future Business Leaders of America - must be funded locally, he said.
     Balloting will be by mail. Ballots will be mailed out this week and must be returned on or before election day to the auditor's office in which the voter lives. The Bridgeport district straddles Okanogan and Douglas counties.
     A ballot drop box also is available outside Bridgeport City Hall.