Beaufort County could end up with a plan — at a bargain price — to help it determine how it will address the myriad issues it will face in the coming years.

Such a plan, which would be approved by the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners after at least on public hearing, would be used by county officials and departments to make sure county policies, programs and services are leading the county to where it wants to go.

“Effective to back to the budget process earlier this year, one of the things that we recommended and discussed was having the county undergo a comprehensive planning process. … It’s a year-long process where you really do an intense study of a variety of issues — travel, education facilities, economic development throughout the county,” County Manager Randell Woodruff told the commissioners. “It’s really needed here in the county. At the time, the cost of that project was going to be about $85,000 to $90,000, and we cut it out of the budget because we needed, obviously, to find some cuts.”

Woodruff said the county is fortunate in that it cam across an opportunity to have the plan prepared for the county. Woodruff said the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is more than willing to develop the plan, which the county would use to help guide and manage growth in the county. The cost would run from $10,000 to $15,000, the county manager noted.

“If the board is willing to participate, I’d like to have their (the school’s) representative come here to the next meeting in December to do a presentation and see if you’re interested in proceeding. It’s a great opportunity. You’ll never be able to get that caliber of folks to do that for us for such a small amount of money,” Woodruff said.

The board told Woodruff to move forward with that proposal.