Board hears options to finance school HVAC and new Gloucester Volunteer Fire & Rescue station; cost estimates climb

Miss Calloway, county finance staff, told the Board of Supervisors the county has two debt proposals under active consideration: financing school HVAC work and financing construction of Gloucester Volunteer Fire & Rescue Station 1. “We have 2 projects this year that are proposed for debt financing,” Calloway said, and she presented multiple scenarios prepared with the county’s financial advisers at Davenport.

Nut graf: Staff proposed using excess school sales-tax revenue to finance a $4,970,000 borrowing for school HVAC over 15 years, and presented revenue-lease or bank-loan options to finance the fire station after a 2023 referendum outcome removed general-obligation bonds as an option. The fire-station estimate increased markedly from the 2023 figure, complicating capacity and timing.

On the schools: Calloway presented a Davenport-backed scenario to borrow $4,970,000 for the school HVAC program using excess school sales-tax revenue, financed over 15 years so payments would end when the sales tax sunsets in 2041. A previously cited annual payment of about $770,241 (from earlier Davenport estimates)…