Voters in nine area counties will have their say on the proposed $25.5 million general obligation bond issue for Iowa Central Community College on Tuesday.

The polls in Fort Dodge will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

In the smaller cities of Webster County, the polls will be open from noon to 8 p.m.

The proposed bond issue would pay for physical improvements at the college’s facilities in Eagle Grove, Fort Dodge, Storm Lake and Webster City.

But college President Dan Kinney said the referendum is really about the future of the region.

“To invest in our communities and have them keep growing, we need to invest in education,” he said.

The bond issue will be on the ballot in each of the nine counties that make up Iowa Central’s service area. Those counties are Buena Vista, Calhoun, Greene, Hamilton, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Sac, Webster and Wright.

To pass, the bond issue must be approved by 60 percent of the people who cast ballots.

If approved, the bond debt would be paid off with property tax revenue.

Paying off that debt would cost the owner of a house with an assessed value of $100,000 just $12 a year, according to Kinney.

The bond issue money would be used for these projects:

• New Student Success Center on the Fort Dodge campus — $6 million

• Improvements at Decker Auditorium on the Fort Dodge campus — $3 million

• Safety improvements at all campuses — $3 million

• Upgrades to the Science Building on the Fort Dodge campus — $3 million

• Building new industrial training facility in Storm Lake — $2.5 million

• Creation of career academies — $2 million

• Construction of new biofuels testing lab — $2 million

• Remodeling the Student Services Building on the Fort Dodge campus — $2 million

• Upgrading the Applied Science and Technology Building — $1 million

• Repairing the Liberal Arts Building — $500,000

• Upgrading the Webster City campus — $500,000