Gloucester presents $146 million five-year capital improvement plan; public hearing set for Feb. 4

Carol Steele, Gloucester County administrator, presented a recommended FY26–FY30 capital improvement plan (CIP) that lists 33 requests totaling $146,000,000 and a net local cost of roughly $131,000,000 after anticipated grant funding. The board voted to set a public hearing on the plan for Feb. 4.

Steele told the board the document "has a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in it for many different people," and said the presentation intentionally omitted the utilities operating and capital budgets so those can be presented together in March. She said the county used a 4% inflation adjustment and a 5% projected interest rate in its planning assumptions.

The CIP groups projects into PAYGO and debt-financed requests. Large items in the plan include a proposed $48,000,000 community center, a proposed station 1 replacement estimated at about $17,000,000, and a replacement/overhaul of county enterprise software (finance, permitting, inspections, utilities) with a roughly $2,000,000 implementation estimate plus an ongoing subscription/support cost Steele cited as roughly $500,000 per year. Steele said the software replacement is urgent: "This is a crisis kind of level ... we would not be able to process all of these, the monies, the permits, all of that if that program goes down."

Steele recommended $3,000,000 per year in PAYGO capital and identified $19,000,000 of debt financing that would require, in her estimate, about a 1.5-cent increase in the real estate tax rate to cover debt service for the proposed borrowings. She said the county currently maintains a 16% fund balance and recommended not dropping below that level.

Steele warned that, at the proposed $3,000,000 annual PAYGO rate, it would take 11 years to fund the five years of PAYGO requests in the plan. She also noted that delaying projects increases costs and can cause further damage: "We started a new program to identify the roofs ... If we push those things off, then, we could be having other structural damage that would make the price go up."

Steele highlighted other projects included in the request: Beaver Dam Park bulkhead and dock repairs, replacement of windows in the county's Building 2, an IT network and Wi‑Fi overhaul, Gloucester Point library land acquisition/construction in FY28, field and playground replacements, school casework replacements at two schools, and an animal-shelter addition. She recommended moving the schools' HVAC needs into a financed package rather than PAYGO because available PAYGO funds were insufficient.

Public comments during the meeting included appeals for greater investment and transparency in utilities. Kenneth Hogg Sr. of Gloucester Pointe urged the board to read prior reports and to invest in water and sewer systems, saying, "Utilities needs upwards of $100,000,000 for capital water and sewer system projects," and that he believed "an immediate need for 20,000,000 in capital funding." Howard Mower, a York District resident, warned that citizens without TV or internet have limited access to the plan and criticized potential tax increases.

Supervisors and staff discussed options for funding, including increased PAYGO, debt financing, and use of an approximately $2,000,000 excess school sales-tax reserve for eligible school projects. Steele said the debt-financing recommendation she presented includes phasing and scenarios Davenport (the county's financial advisor) can model further.

The board voted to set a public hearing on the CIP and related budget items for Feb. 4; Miss Cronin moved to request the public hearing and the motion was seconded (mover and seconder not specified in the record). The motion passed and the clerk polled the board; the transcript records affirmative responses and the chair declared the motion carried.

Next steps Steele outlined include returning to the board with any requested detail or department head presentations and finalizing the public hearing notice and materials on the county website.

Ending: The Feb. 4 public hearing will allow residents to comment on the proposed five-year plan; utilities-specific capital and operating proposals will be presented separately in March so the board can consider utilities as an enterprise fund together with its operating budget.