KEARNEY – Six of eight Hub Territory towns voted against fluoridating city water in the general election Tuesday.

Broken Bow, Cozad, Gothenburg, Lexington, Ravenna and Shelton voted against fluoridating city water supplies.

Alma and Franklin voted to fluoridate water. Kearney, Holdrege and Minden already fluoridate water.

LB245 was approved in April and requires all Nebraska cities and towns with populations of more than 1,000 to fluoridate city water systems. A provision allows communities to vote to opt out of the requirement by 2010.

The issue was on the ballot in the following Hub Territory towns: Alma, Broken Bow, Cozad, Franklin, Gothenburg, Lexington, Ravenna and Shelton.

“My take on it is, I think we voted it down because we have so many sources to fluoridate from,” Broken Bow City Administrator Steve Waring said. “We have 12 to 15 wells, and we would have to have applicators at each of those, so it would have been expensive.”

Broken Bow voters already voted to ban fluoride once in the 1970s.

In an July interview, Waring estimated it could cost the city $2,000-$3,000 per month to add fluoride to the water.

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