Schools request sales tax funds

School system has lost about $180,000 from two sources By DWIGHT OTWELL
dotwell@cherokeescout.com Tuesday, September 2, 2008 8:06 PM CDT     Murphy – Cherokee County commissioners approved a request from Cherokee County Schools Tuesday morning to use $82,000 of sales tax money to help pay for the final debt service on a 2004 technology purchase.

    Terelle Beaver, finance director for Cherokee County Schools, said the school system has lost about $180,000 from two sources – low wealth and small schools funds. It wants to use the sales tax funds, already designated for use by the schools, to pay for the last year of the debt service for technology, which included 26 servers, switches and a storage area network unit.

    Cherokee County Finance Director Bill Block said the money is designated in the county’s fund balance for schools.     Beaver told the commissioners that the school system will begin losing small schools funds in 2011 through 2012, which is an allotment of $1.5 million and pays for about 17 teachers for the school system. The first year, the school system would lose half of the small schools funds with the remainder disappearing in 2012.

    In another matter, Marcia Clontz, director of the Nantahala Regional Library, asked the commissioners to pay for half of the cost of $24,869 to remove asbestos from the library. The county owns half of the library and the city of Murphy owns half. She will ask Murphy for the other half of the cost.

    Bookmobiles have twice slammed into an entrance to the library and a recreational vehicle hit it once, causing cracks that have let asbestos particles floating around in the library, Clontz said.

    Block said $8,000 from county assets sold could go toward the county’s portion of the cost. The commissioners voted to fund their half of the cost if the funds can be found. Another option is to take the money from the county’s fund balance. printable version e-mail this story

---

Cramped conditions
As the road turns