Tuesday's turnout largest ever for Marco election

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The flow of Marco voters to polls was a slow trickle Tuesday afternoon after heavy early voting. Watch »

Tuesday’s City Council elections on Marco Island was historic for more reasons than simply a vote to continue the island’s biggest ever project.

Turnout for the council election was 72.3 percent of the island’s 12,327 registered voters, according to unofficial results from the Collier County Supervisor of Elections. That figure is the highest in the island’s history, topping even the vote to incorporate the city 10 years ago.

The hotly contested election was considered a referendum on the city’s ongoing $100 million program to replace the island’s remaining septic tanks with a central sewer system.

There were eight candidates for four open seats in the race, four of whom were in favor of sewers and four who were against.

The results were overwhelming in favor of the four pro-sewer candidates -- Jerry Gibson, Frank Recker, Bill Trotter and Wayne Waldack -- who combined took 60.4 percent of the vote compared to 39.5 percent for the four anti-sewer candidates -- Joe Batte, Andrew Guidry, Roger Hall and Butch Neylon.