Nash County commissioners will hold a work session Thursday to discuss the county’s budget and a five-year capital improvement plan.

They also will vote whether to set a public hearing on a proposed bond order that would help fund a building project at Nash Community College.

The bond order would pay for a new Continuing Education and Public Services building at the school. The public hearing would be held during the board’s next regular meeting on March 5.

Commissioners considered approving the bond order during their regular meeting earlier this month. They decided to wait until Thursday to vote on the matter because several commissioners said they hoped to lower the bond amount from the proposed $12.9 million.

Bill Marshburn, chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees, said school officials were able to lower the building cost.

Marshburn estimated the total cost of the new building at more than $12 million.

The project would give the school 78,000 square feet of new instruction space, Marshburn said. It also would allow the school to repurpose about 30,000 square feet of existing space and nearly triple its enrollment, he said.

County commissioners typically have a work session every year. The work session is designed to give commissioners a mid-year review of the budget, County Manager Bob Murphy said. They will talk about how the county is faring, including how revenues are shaping up and how the county is doing with budgeted expenditures.

The board also will receive an update about the county’s five-year capital improvement plan.

Several of the major projects identified in the plan were part of a 2010 bond issue, Murphy said.

“We’ve been letting the dust settle on that before we got started on an update,” Murphy said. “We need to determine what our capacity is to take on additional projects.”

Other proposed projects include adding courtroom space and building a new sheriff’s office.

Commissioners will work to prioritize the county’s needs that have been identified through the capital improvement plan, Murphy said. Once priorities have been established, he said, the county can start looking for ways to finance the projects.

“This is really just a first discussion,” Murphy said.

The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Claude Mayo Jr. Administration Building, 120 W. Washington Street in Nashville.