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Small School District Fights To Keep CSCOPE 6/18/13
Andrews Takes Advantage of the Oil Boom 6/14/12
Shelley Childers
CBS 7 News
schilders@cbs7.com
June 14, 2012
ANDREWS, TX - One West Texas town is finding a lot of extra change in their pocket after the oil boom brings in a booming economy.
Thursday evening the City of Andrews held their yearly council retreat going in-depth on projects and plans and this year they say it's all about vision.
"The growth is great right now," said Andrews City Manager Glen Hackler.
"I want to say at least 75 percent," explained Lorena Marquez of how much her clothing boutique, LD’s, has grown.
"The oil and gas economy is really driving the sales tax for us," Hackler said.
You can see it and hear it.
It's the boom of a rural West Texas town and people are following the noise.
"A lot of people are moving in and when they get here they want to decorate their new house," said Bianca Ortiz of her family owned store Home Interiors and Lighting.
It's encouraging the growth of small business and bringing a chunk of money for the city.
This year Andrews has more than doubled the project sales tax revenues from $2.5 million to $5.2 million.
"In the course of the next 15 months we have four projects that are totaling over $8 million. That's a lot of public investment for the city of Andrews," said Hackler.
"You can see it, there are lines to go get something to eat where before we didn't have a line," said Marquez.
"We're not planning on expanding, but if we do continue to grow we probably will have to," said Ortiz.
Those big projects include the truck reliever route, expanding their technology center, building a new fire department, and updating their water treatment facilities.
Hackler tells us they keep their city staffing small so they can pay them more and avoid competing with the oil and gas industry.