Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Time in Gloucester County has run out when it comes to making those necessary decisions to fund the T.C. Walker renovation project. Thousands of dollars have been expended for design, site development, identifying structural repairs, along with county and school departmental relocation designs or modifications.

The board of supervisors has allocated $1 million for the bidding process that moved forward, with responses now in hand. The bids received are double or more than the initial seed funds. The school board now has the responsibility to provide a schedule of development for the completion of the project. The schedule of completion can be identified with annual budgeting requests through phasing without raising taxes by utilizing two or more fiscal years. There would be a major management problem if this current board can only manage one project at a time.

The taxpayer cannot afford to have expended tax dollars wasted by placing a project on hold and then decide a few months down the road to restart the vehicle. Time is the enemy along with the funds. If existing portions of known funds are not obligated within the fiscal year, then they will only be allocated to other unknown wish lists the supervisors may have stuck in a drawer.

The school board and the board of supervisors need to meet in the middle ground and complete the schedule and funding process before fiscal year 2013 expires and the FY2014 budget is finalized, or the taxpayers are the losers.

Howard Mowry

Gloucester Point, Va.