Beaufort County Schools and Beaufort County Community College presented budget updates to the Board of Commissioners Wednesday at the NC Estuarium.

The meeting was held to give the county an idea of what the needs were in light of the next fiscal year beginning on July 1.

Don Phipps, superintendent of Beaufort County Schools, presented budget concerns to the commissioners, including how to pay for employee raises and capital budget items.

Among the items discussed was an upcoming facility needs survey, which outlines project goals for a two-to-five-year period and a six-to-10-year period. Once approved by the commissioners, the survey is sent to the Department of Public Instruction and is meant to act as an outline for what the school district’s goals are during those periods.

“We have to do a facilities survey that we send to DPI, and we don’t do it every year,” Phipps said. “I wanted to let you know because Mr. (Jerry) Langley needs to sign the form but it’s not a commitment.”

He said the school district has included projects, such as cost-effective modular replacements (about five) and building connectors on school campuses.

Commissioner Hood Richardson also brought up the prospect of hiring a professional engineer to work on school equipment, instead of contractors.

“You’ve got some complex systems there that I know are not being properly run,” Richardson said. “If you hire an engineer, he will pay for himself the first year. … He will also be able to structure a program to do the things you’re talking about with energy efficiency.”

“It’s a good project to look at. … We need to hire someone to come out and analyze,” Commissioner Gary Brinn said. “I think talking is good idea.”

“For us it’s kind of been a wish list of what we could put on there,” Phipps said of the survey at a Board of Education meeting.

Dr. Barbara Tansey, president of BCCC, and Mark Nelson, vice president of administrative services, presented a projected $3.3 million budget for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

Nelson said the college allotted $1.2 million for salaries and benefits and almost $600,000 for utilities for this fiscal year. To date, $674,182 has been spent on salaries and $280,851 has been spent on utilities.

BCCC and BCS are looking at accommodating state-mandated pay raises for employees that, while well deserved, are mandated without an increase in funds to make it happen.

“We don’t really get a choice of what we want to do. The state tells us what to do,” Nelson said.

Among other projects for the community college are an updated alarm system, minor upgrades and replacements, a $50,000 kitchen renovation for the culinary program and a fire training facility. More major projects include the purchase of a chiller for Building 9 and paving the Building 12 parking lot, both at a price tag of $150,000 each.

Nelson said these kinds of projects make BCCC better able to provide curriculum courses and continuing education classes for students, and the college is thankful for the commissioners’ help in past years.

“We’ve made some great strides we could not do without you,” Tansey said.