Schools plan for oil price pinch
By Jerry W. Kram
The New Town School District has benefited over the last decade from revenue from leases and royalties on oil extracted from under Lake Sakakawea. With the recent drop in oil prices and wells being shut down, that extra cash infusion looks like it will dry up to a trickle for the foreseeable future.
“We probably saw our last big flood money check for a while,” New Town Superintendent told the New Town School Board. “That check was for just over a million dollars and I don’t know if we will see another like that.”
The school board transferred the money to the district’s building fund. It will be used to complete the additions to the elementary and middle school that are now under construction.
Over the last 10 years, New Town has built a new high school, CTE (consumer and technical education) center, a new gymnasium, added new teacher housing and the aforementioned additions to the elementary and middle schools, all at no cost to the State of North Dakota or the MHA Tribal Government. That money for those projects has come from what Bluestone calls U.S. Flood Payments.
Future projects are likely to take years of savings before ground can be broken, so the rate of change in the district will slow down.
“What they can sell a barrel of oil for has gone significantly down,” Bluestone said. “We, and the state, are anticipating a serious impact on the royalty payments we receive. That’s kind of our over the top money.”
