The first time certainly was not a charm, and Berwyn Park District officials said they do not plan to go to referendum again on annexing Stickney after the measure was resoundingly defeated in Tuesday’s election.

It was the Park District’s first attempt to annex Stickney into its boundaries. Stickney, which does not have a Park District, provides park services to residents through its village Recreation Department. No separate tax is levied on residents there for a park district.

“We’re going to respect the voters’ wishes,” said Jeffrey Janda, Berwyn Park District executive director. “This is democracy at its best. People were able to vote.”

And vote they did.

Unofficial election results showed 82.9 percent of the voters in Stickney opposed the annexation. Voters in Berwyn supported the referendum.

The referendum was defeated because voters in both regions had to approve the referendum question before the annexation could proceed.

“When you put a proposal on the ballot, it’s never a given,” Janda said.

Mike Olik, a Stickney Township Republican precinct committeeman, said it seemed Stickney voters had many questions about the annexation and a number of uncertainties in the current economic climate.

“Right now with the economy as it is, people don’t have the extra money,” Olik said.

Although Olik did not conduct any unofficial exit polling, he said, “It seems like maybe more people are living paycheck to paycheck right now.”

Janda said Berwyn Park District officials had anticipated generating about $300,000 by annexing Stickney into the district’s boundaries. This would come from Stickney residents paying taxes to the Park District for the first time. This money should cover the cost of additional staff, Janda said, and between $75,000 and $100,000 would have been devoted to park projects and beautification.

He said south Berwyn residents would not be paying more in taxes — unless their home’s equalized assessed value increased through a reassessment of their home by the Cook County Assessor’s Office.

Janda said for a home with an equalized assessed value of $62,100, the taxpayer would owe the Park District about $135 next year.

But the referendum’s passage would have spelled a new tax imposed on Stickney property owners. Janda said he was not surprised that it passed in Berwyn but was defeated in Stickney.

“With all the major issues in the economy right now, we really weren’t surprised,” he said. “In our public hearings we did mention that (new tax) was one of the cons.”

Stickney residents presented the Berwyn Park District’s board members in July with petitions containing 124 signatures from residents seeking the annexation.

The Park Board voted Aug. 26 to place the referendum question on the ballot.

“Stickney is not really known to go for referendums,” Olik said. “They accepted the answers (to questions asked in public hearings), but I don’t think they were really happy with it. They were hesitant.”