The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors delved into the roots of the county administrator’s proposed fiscal year 2020 budget for the first time Tuesday night. During a budget work session in the colonial courthouse, the board pledged to do its best to fully fund fire and rescue and also began discussing some options for funding renovations at Gloucester High School.

“It’s a lot of money we’re talking about here,” said Abingdon district supervisor Robert “JJ” Orth about the GHS renovations. “We need to ask, ‘Can we do it more efficiently, more effectively?’” 

Orth suggested trying to get bids on the things that are in critical failure within the school’s infrastructure, which mainly include HVAC systems and portions of the roof. He added, “We may see some significant savings doing what really needs to be done.”

Some preliminary estimates have the costs coming in at up to $28 million for the HV...