Chelsea donates to schools

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The city of Chelsea will donate close to $9,000 to its local schools.

Mayor Earl Niven said the city will donate $50 to each of Chelsea&8217;s 175 classrooms, in place of participating in the Aug. 4-6 state and county sales tax holiday.

&8220;We decided to go with $50 so each individual teacher can spread that money out over each classroom,&8221; said Niven.

Niven said the city chose not to join other Shelby County municipalities in the tax holiday because other than a Winn-Dixie grocery store, there is nowhere to shop for school supplies within city limits.

A Wal-Mart Supercenter is scheduled to open in Chelsea next year.

Niven said the city&8217;s donation is far more than the estimated $500 of tax revenue collected during the three-day tax break.

Columbiana, Hoover, Montevallo and Wilsonville all participated in the sales tax holiday.

The city of Alabaster still collected sales tax revenue for the weekend but has pledged to donate the money to local schools