The Challenge

The Draper Approach

Results Realized

The Challenge

With an annual operating budget of $88 million and a population increase of more than 15 percent in the last 10 years, Oconee County, South Carolina had reached its current bonding capacity and is now seeking new avenues that will help secure achievement of its future initiatives. County officials determined that the most responsive action to this need would be the preparation of a capital improvement plan that would aid it in establishing a higher bonding capacity and support its request for additional state and federal funding.

Oconee County owns and operates a large number of facilities, including a landfill, a working quarry, an airport, parks (campgrounds), courts, libraries, a jail and a number of administrative offices.

The Draper Approach

The D&A Team began this engagement by survey the existing condition of 43 county facilities to establish the baseline for developing the Capital Improvement Plan. The team then conducted interviews with the heads of 30 County agencies to document agency requirements for location, space, equipment and technology. Key to this portion of the engagement was to determine and document each agency's desired level of service to the citizens of Oconee County .

Once the interviewing process was completed, a needs analysis was accomplished by comparing county requirements against its existing inventory. A facility planning and space management chart, commonly referred to around D&A as a Nozar Chart (named after its creator James Nozar) was developed to match county agency requirements to existing and planned facilities.

Finally, cost figures were developed for capital renewal projects to bring existing facilities to a desired standard, and projected costs for future projects were identified. These costs were then used to project county capital funding requirements over a 5-year period. These costs were incorporated into a funding strategy, which outlines every capital expenditure of more than $100,000 during that period. These expenditures consist of both facility and non-facility capital expenditures, to include technology.

Results Realized

The 5-year Capital Improvement Plan addresses on-going maintenance requirements, planned improvements, and new projects within the timeline. The Plan includes a schedule indicating projects and the associated costs as well as non-facility capital expenditures. An important aspect of this engagement includes teaching county staff how to maintain and update the Plan in future years. To help ensure the Plan can be readily updated, a budget process was designed to facilitate this in future years.