Permits needed to add mammals
Baby opossum entertains commissioners
It’s not every day that a baby opossum makes an appearance during a government committee meeting. Tuesday Rome-Floyd County ECO Center Director Ben Winkelman reached into his shirt pocket to pull out the tiny marsupial as he explained for members of the Joint Development Oversight Committee that additional permitting would be required for the ECO Center to be able to keep and display live mammals.
“She’s a marsupial, so it’s not a big deal for her to be in my shirt pocket,” Winkelman said. “It’s only a problem if she has to go to the restroom.” The orphaned opossum crawled around one of the tables in City Hall for a few seconds before Winkelman put her back in his pocket.
Winkelman told the panel of city and county commissioners and staff that he had made initial inquiries with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and some special permitting would be required for the ECO Center to be able to display and keep live mammals for educational purposes. “We’re not there yet,” Winkelman said.
City Commissioner Sue Lee has been leading the call for an expansion of the ECO Center to potentially include educational mammals such as bobcats, groundhogs and other critters that are native to the Rome area.
Winkelman said he was seriously looking at developing some commercial sponsorship for exhibits and programming at the ECO Center. “They want to see numbers and we’re finally beginning to raise some eyebrows,” Winkelman said. He reported over 4,500 students had come through the ECO Center through the month of April, and he’s already booking activities for 2018.
Rome-Floyd County Building Inspection office Director Howard Gibson told the committee 54 permits have been issued for new single-family housing starts in Rome and Floyd County through the end of April. “I see that’s 21 more housing starts than through the month of April last year,” said Rome Commissioner Craig McDaniel. Gibson said, “It’s moving pretty nicely.”
Gibson also said demolition work was started Monday at the old Florida Tile plant on Ga. 53 where Balta USA will be moving into a new warehouse and distribution center this fall.
Gibson also told the committee his staff was stepping up code enforcement activity and actually issuing more citations. “They’re ignoring warnings,” Gibson said of code violators.
Rome Commissioner Bill Collins asked for an update on the new recycling center being developed in a former Zartic facility owned by businessman Ira Levy on Lavender Drive in West Rome. County Manager Jamie McCord said the best case scenario was a move in sometime late in September and a worst case scenario would be a November move in. “The best thing I’ve heard (from potential vendors of equipment for the new center) is that you’ve got plenty of room in there. We’ve never had plenty of room before, McCord said.