Schools to pursue BP money
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Andalusia City Schools hopes to make up at least $300,000 in revenue lost in the aftermath of the 2010 BP oil spill.
At Monday night’s board meeting, Superintendent Ted Watson and school board attorney Bill Alverson told the board that the school system appears to be eligible for a new round of claims since they lost a minimum of 15 percent in sales tax revenues after the BP incident.
“You have to show a percentage gain,” Alverson said. “And it appears we do meet those qualifications. It could result in extra revenue.”
Alverson said that the City of Andalusia was directly impacted by the BP oil spill because beach traffic dropped substantially, which cut out revenues at local fast food restaurants, gas and convenience stations and other retailers.
“We didn’t have those needed sales tax revenues,” he said.
Alverson said some businesses as far north as the Birmingham area have proven they lost revenue due to the crisis.
Alverson said claims have taken from six months to 18 months to process.
In other business the board:
• Elected Dr. David McCalman as board president and Amy Dugger as board vice president.
• approved the hiring of Courtney Crews as special education teacher at Andalusia Elementary School.
• approved two overnight trips for AES’s TAG class.