WOODBURY After seeing the results of cuts made to government already this year, the Gloucester County freeholders are ready for more.

In January, Freeholder Director Stephen Sweeney challenged his administration to find ways to eliminate wasteful spending at the county level.

He is now asking them to continue with that effort, which Sweeney says could mean an additional $1 million in savings.

"We are doing this just by not duplicating services that are taking place in other places and by stretching our resources," said Sweeney. "We feel strongly about shared services, but we weren't sharing amongst ourselves."

In the past, the county has found ways to consolidate government at the municipal level. For example, a plan was instituted to help out the towns by providing a countywide salt storage program.

Those successes led the county leaders to start looking at their own departments.

Since the county first began this internal audit in January, $962,000 has been eliminated in salaries and benefits, according to officials.

Certain positions were eliminated when it was determined that existing county employees could do the same work.

Gloucester County College was also able to reduce the amount it pays for two contracts to provide security and food services. The food vendor was being paid $100,000 a year, according to Sweeney. Now, Chick-fil-A has the contract. The county pays nothing and gets a percentage of the cut.

GCC President Dr. Russell Davis called this "the right move" for the time.

"Perhaps years ago, we had an opportunity to stay in our isolated zone," said Davis. "Given the current economy, shared services is the way to go."

Once these cost-cutting measures are in place, the savings will grow exponentially, said Davis.

"We're all going to be committed to studying this to find out how we can get the most for the dollars we all have to share," said Davis.

County Administrator Chad Bruner said no other county in the state is taking such an "aggressive" approach sharing services internally.

Sweeney said he can "conservatively" say there could be another $1 million trimmed in 2010.

When the freeholders meet on Wednesday, they are expected to adopt a resolution to authorize a collective study by all county agencies.

"This allows us to really crunch numbers and see where we can drive more savings," said Sweeney.

Specifically, representatives from the county will be joined by someone from GCC, the county improvement and utility authorities, the Gloucester County Institute of Technology and the library system.

Those department heads will look at more ways to cut spending.

"This gives us the authority to finish what we started," said Bruner.

One possibility could be the consolidation of insurance providers. There are also plans to have the county sheriff's department be more involved in providing security at the college.

"Our county finances are in decent shape, but that doesn't stop us from looking to see where we can save more money," said Sweeney.