The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 Tuesday night during its meeting in the colonial courthouse to set a $1 million budget for renovations to the Thomas Calhoun Walker Educational Center.
Supervisors John Northstein (Petsworth), Andy James (Ware) and Ashley Chriscoe (at-large) voted against setting the $1 million budget.
Gloucester’s purchasing manager Bill Lindsey advised the county to establish a budget for the project so that when the lowest bidder is identified, he can negotiate down with a willing bidder toward that budget.
According to Lindsey, without a previously established budget for the project, if the project comes in above the amount the county is willing to commit, the bids have to be rejected, and the process starts all over again.
The budget had to have been established prior to the bid opening, which is Feb. 5.
James said it is unfair to the business people to take their time to go through the bidding process when the county has still not decided what it wants done at the center. “I just want paint and cubicles for the school board to put its offices in,” he said. “Now it looks like we’re getting ready to bid the whole project.”
He went on to say that he is not in favor of constructing a new school and repairing an old school at the same time. “It’s not fair to the citizens,” James said.
At-large supervisor Louise Theberge first mentioned the $1 million figure. “It doesn’t mean we have to appropriate it or we have to spend it,” she said.
Chriscoe said two weeks ago, the board agreed to defer a decision on funding the build-out on the county’s emergency operations center. “And I don’t see how we can sit up here tonight and set a budget without seeing where we will focus for the next year,” he said.
“A budget is a budget. It doesn’t say you have to spend it. You’re setting a budget, but haven’t agreed to spend anything,” York district supervisor Carter Borden said.
“To me, it’s poor judgment on our part to set a budget on something tonight with no more information than what we currently have,” Chriscoe added.
“We owe it to the people to find out the cost,” Borden later said. “Then, they may say don’t do it or they may say get it done.”
This came after Tom Sawyer, chair of Gloucester’s Capital Improvement Projects Committee, told the supervisors that funding of a viable, ongoing capital plan is necessary to plan for the future.
Sawyer said among the CIP committee’s recommendations is using excess fund balance in the general fund of $1.8 million for the most immediate, urgent capital needs as recommended by the committee; issue additional debt of $5 million to address the most critical school roofs and HVAC issues, which he said is expected to require a $.01 increase in the real estate tax rate in calendar year 2014 or 2015; continue to fund a vehicle/equipment replacement fund with $.30 of the personal property tax rate and dedicate the amount of revenue that $.12 on the real estate rate will generate to the debt fund with any excess to be used for capital needs or accumulated for reducing future debt payments.
The CIP committee recommended the following projects be included in a five-year capital plan: $750,000 for tax assessment and receipting software; $270,000 for voice over internet protocol; $409,563 for improvement of the cable services program; $77,000 for county HVAC automation system upgrades; $34,398 for site design and engineering for Woodville Park; $600,000 for electrical infrastructure and athletic lights at Woodville Park; $250,000 for new computer-aided dispatch software; $5 million for the school division’s HVAC and roof replacement program; $233,820 to refurbish the running track and associated competitive sports areas at Gloucester High School, and $130,000 for voice over internet protocol to replace various school phone systems.