The results are in, and while the voting was relatively close, the 2012 Great Easter Egg Hunt will get new life with a second contest, beginning next week.

The annual Great Easter Egg Hunt is one of The Floyd County Times’ most popular promotions each year, as the newspaper hides an Easter egg somewhere in the county and then gives clues as to its whereabouts. The person who finds the egg and returns it to the paper wins $500.

This year’s contest, however, remained unresolved, after construction crews buried the egg under several tons of dirt and rock. The egg had been hidden near a new bridge where new Route 680 is being constructed. When construction crews reworked the approach to the bridge, the egg was covered.

Once the egg’s loss had been confirmed, The Times ran two online polls — one at floydcountytimes.com and one on Facebook — asking readers whether the paper should hide a new egg, double the prize in next year’s contest or donate money to charity. Voting ended Wednesday.

The two polls had markedly different results. At floydcountytimes.com, readers overwhelmingly favored starting a new contest, voting 407 for a new egg, 136 to donate money to charity and 22 to double next year’s prize.

On Facebook, however, the results were quite different, led by an organized push to persuade the paper to donate money to the family of Barrett Sturgill, a young boy who was injured in a car crash several weeks ago, who remains hospitalized. In that poll, 296 people voted to give money to charity, while 74 were in favor of a new contest and four people wanted to double next year’s prize.

In the end, after a total of 939 ballots were cast, voters chose for the paper to begin a new contest, with 481 votes, or 51 percent, in favor of a new contest, compared to 432 votes, or 46 percent, in favor of charity.

The new contest will begin next Friday, with an all-new egg hidden in a new location. The contest will be shorter this time, with only six clues scheduled to be given out over the course of three weeks.