MANTI — Over the past 18 months, a proposal for Sanpete County to sponsor bonds for a new 6th District Court building has developed into one of the most contentious ballot issues in this rural county's memory.

The election is over, but the issue isn't resolved.

As of election night, the vote was 2,876 for the bonds and 2,870 against, just six votes difference. That left the result riding on about 240 absentee and provisional ballots. Sanpete County Clerk Sandy Neill said validation and tallying of those votes wouldn't be complete until the official canvass Nov. 20.

"I had a speech prepared if we won by a landslide or lost by a landslide, but I don't know now," said Sanpete County Commissioner Claudia Jarrett, who, with fellow county commissioners, has pushed for the project for two years. "The vote confirms the importance of the court facility on both sides of the issue."

Kay Crane, spokeswoman for Concerned Citizens of Sanpete County, a populist-type group that gathered signatures to put the court bonds on the ballot, said, "We want to wait and see what the official tally is and discuss possibilities with our supporters." Negative campaigning and personal attacks are rare in Sanpete County, where townspeople often know each other personally and where more than 90 percent of residents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But a column by John Hales, managing editor of the Sanpete Messenger, saying that leaders of the Concerned Citizens were either intentionally misleading the public or didn't understand how government works triggered an angry response.

The Concerned Citizens attacked Hales not only in their final pre-election newspaper article but also ran radio ads saying Hales didn't seem to realize how many people supported their viewpoint.

In 2005, Sanpete County commissioners started talks with the Utah Judicial Council, the panel of judges that oversees the courts, about a partnership under which Sanpete County would issue revenue bonds to acquire land and build a facility. The original cost estimate was about $5.4 million. The current estimate is $7.5 million.

Under the plan, the lease payments from the court system would pay off the bonds. Once the court system occupied the building, it would cover maintenance and operation independently, including paying for utilities, repairs, janitorial costs and even security personnel.

Controversy arose during summer 2006 when Sanpete County residents started to become aware of plans and learned that the proposed site was on one corner of the county fairgrounds — a few hundred yards from the Manti Temple, a public swimming pool and Manti High School.

During several emotional hearings, residents, school officials and law enforcement officers said if a court were located on the site, unsavory people who came to witness criminal trials could come in contact with young people at the pool and high school.