By a 5-2 margin, Gloucester supervisors voted to move ahead with awarding the bid for the transportation and bus maintenance facility by increasing funding of the project by $2 million in order to match the winning bid of $6,989,000 from Oyster Point Construction, during a joint meeting with the school board on Oct. 19.
Outside of the $2 million, the supervisors also reallocated $611,848 of unspent school funds to support the transportation facility after being requested to do so by the school board. The additional $2,611,848 not only covers needed difference for the base bid but also includes construction of a $185,000 fuel canopy to the project, which will be constructed at Page Middle School. The canopy increased the project’s total to $7,174,000.
In August, when the initial bids came in, they did show the project was over budget. The question then became whether the board wanted to move forward with the project and, if so, how they would fund it. The bids were set to expire four days after the joint meeting on Oct. 23.
A few board members said they were unhappy with the urgency of the bid vote and questioned why they hadn’t been discussing this earlier this fall. Some members of both boards had not seen the numbers that were presented before the meeting.
Supervisors’ chair Robert “JJ” Orth said the numbers presented to the board were being worked on for weeks and up until the afternoon of the meeting. Orth apologized for not being able to get the numbers to the rest of the board sooner, but explained that he and Acting County Administrator Carol Steele were confident in the bids and in paying for the difference.
Board member Philip Baz-zani said only having four days to decide on the transportation bid after seeing the information for the first time was unacceptable. He said the bids and solutions of how to pay for the needed amount should have been brought to board prior to that night’s meeting.
Steele explained that the bids being over budget had been public information available on the county website since the bids came in. She also said the board only had to decide on the total base bid and any additional construction before the Oct. 23 deadline.
Ware District supervisor Mike Hedrick said he has been aware of the numbers and was not surprised by the number, as some of his fellow board members were.
Orth said the transportation facility has been on the county’s radar since he had been elected to the board. He said the county needs the old Page Middle School site on Route 17 (where the current bus depot sits) for economic development to bring in new jobs to the county.
Understanding that some board members were upset by the sudden and urgent nature of the request, Steele said she had no problem being the target of the frustration because she believed in the project.
Board member Kevin Smith defended Steele by saying the board was made aware months ago the bids were coming in over budget and if a board member didn’t do their due diligence to be prepared for the meeting, it was on that board member and not on Steele.
Board member Ashley Chriscoe said it would have been nice if the bids were sent directly to the board as well as being posted to the site. However, his main concern was where the county was going to come up with the $1.8 million needed.
School board member Troy Andersen asked if the 1 percent school’s sales tax could be used for funding, but the transportation facility was not eligible for those funds.
Steele said the schools have $611,848 unspent in their fund that they requested to be reallocated to help fund the transportation facility. The rest of the funds could come from one of two options. The first would be to borrow from another capital project that hasn’t started or could possibly be delayed.
Steele said the county has $5.6 million slated for the new library construction and said if that project were delayed or changed, the board could use library funding to pay the remaining cost for the bid. She said borrowing $1.8 million from the library would not affect the taxpayers because the money is already budgeted.
The second option, which was advised against, would be to pay for the cost difference straight from the county’s fund balance. Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Spivey had presented the board with the current balance of about $3 million at the board’s last meeting on Oct. 5.
Board vice chair Christopher Hutson’s main concern was that the construction of fuel canopies was excluded from the base bid cost. He said that as someone who runs a trucking company, he knows that when it rains his drivers will go to gas stations with overhead coverage even if the gas costs more. He said the canopies were needed for the welfare of employees and students.
Chriscoe motioned to go forward with the project and to raise its funding by $2 million outside of the $611,848 that was reallocated from the schools and for the project to include the fuel canopy. The motion carried with a vote of 5-2; Bazzani and Mike Winebarger being the two opposed.