Laramie County voters have shot down a $29.5 million bond measure for improvements at Laramie County Community College.

Unofficial results from Tuesday's special election show 3,861 (41.22 percent) voted for the measure and 5,505 (58.78 percent) voted against it.

"We were expecting it to be a closer race," said LCCC President Dr. Joe Schaffer. "The fact that it failed by such a significant margin was a little bit of a shock to us."

Had the "Building Forward" bond been approved, it would have helped fund a new dorm as well as renovation and expansion of arts education spaces and the recreation and athletics complex.

"We knew these three projects were a little bit harder sells," said Schaffer. "They were amenity projects for the most part and a little bit at the periphery of what a lot of voters feel confident in stepping up for."

"And then of course coming on the heels of the 2013 bond four years ago, that's a relatively short amount of time in the eyes of a taxpayer," added Schaffer. "So we knew we had challenges before us."

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