Citizens SPLOST committee reviewing needs and wants
With a long list of applications, the committee continues the review process.
The SPLOST Citizens Advisory Committee is taking a holiday this week by skipping its regular Thursday session.
The panel is meeting regularly to narrow down about $170 million worth of proposed projects into a package of no more than $61 million, for funding through an extension of the 1-cent special purpose, local, option sales tax.
If approved by voters in November, the collection would start when the current SPLOST expires on March 31, 2019.
Committee members had been aiming at an Aug. 1 deadline to announce the package, but officials realized last week that it’s not necessary. A 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down parts of the Voting Rights Act means Floyd County no longer has to get preclearance from the Justice Department on its ballot initiatives.
“We used to have to allow at least 60 days to get it through before the election,” County Manager Jamie McCord said.
The committee won’t meet again until July 13. Last week’s presentations focused mainly on public safety needs:
Rome police vehicles,
$925,000
Police Chief Denise Downer-McKinney said the department was 18 officers short when she took over last year, but they’ve closed the gap to nine. Part of that was due to a new takehome vehicle program that helps recruit and keep trained officers.
A $925,000 earmark would pay for the 20 more cars they need to finish rolling out the program.
Assistant Chief Debbie Burnett said cars parked in neighborhoods also deter crime, and having their vehicle and gear at home speeds off-duty officers’ response times.
“Two weeks ago I went on a SWAT call and instead of an hour, they were on the scene in 20 minutes,” she told the SPLOST panel.
Rome-Floyd County Fire Department, $4,515,000
Fire Chief Troy Brock said his top priority is $750,000 worth of upgrades to the department’s training facility on North Avenue. The funds would modernize the tower, add and repair roads on the 10-acre site and pay for expensive simulators to practice rescues.
“We don’t have a burn building,” he said. “We get some donated dilapidated structures, but they have to be in a place where it’s safe to burn them.”
He’s also looking for $1.4 million to renovate and update the 1940s maintenance building they’re using to repair and clean the department’s 58 vehicles and equipment; $2,050,000 for two more quints — ladder trucks that can reach above two stories; and $315,000 for a second tanker truck that holds up to 2,000 gallons of water.
“The tanker is especially important in rural areas where there is no water supply, or it’s limited, but we also use it in the city limits,” Deputy Chief Curt Pierson said.
Jail improvements,
$1,355,000
Sheriff Tim Burkhalter said the 1984 facility at 2526 New Calhoun Highway is like a mini-city, averaging 650 to 700 inmates a day. And he said the inmates often try to take out their anger or frustration on the furnishings and equipment.
“A regular day in the Floyd County Jail is like three days at the library,” he said.
Jail Administrator Bobb Sapp said the 2013 SPLOST provided funds for safety upgrades and fixes. He’s looking for another $1.3 million for things like emergency generators, plumbing, laundry machines and a whole-body imaging scanner to check for contraband.
Jail medical facility, Phase II, $5,200,000
When the state closed Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital in late 2011, a lot of its former mental patients began finding their way to the jail.
“We have about 140 inmates on psychotropic medications today,” Sapp told the panel Thursday.
There are also pregnant inmates, diabetics and older people — sometimes paralyzed by strokes — he said.
The 2013 SPLOST contains $2.2 million that will be used to add six to eight beds to the existing fourbed infirmary, but Chief Deputy Tom Caldwell said they need about 60 beds and safe areas to deal with the escalating needs.
“We don’t want to keep our dangerous inmates and our mentally ill in the same place, but right now we have no choice,” he said.
There’s also a need to keep infectious patients out of the general population. Sapp said a $5.2 million earmark would pay for construction of a mini-hospital and pharmacy.
Floyd County Prison security, $2,705,000
The county prison on Black’s Bluff Road, built in 2000, houses about 440 state offenders, Warden Mike Long said — and this will be the first time SPLOST money is sought for upgrades.
There are 10 projects on his list, starting with a digital camera system to replace the old coaxial system producing blurry images that often won’t hold up in court.
“With digital, you can clearly see what happens in an altercation and our officers’ re- sponse,” Long said. “You can identify faces and nobody can dispute it.”
The $2.7 million series of proposed projects piggyback on each other, he said, making it cheaper to do them together than separately.
Other items on the list include remodeling an old gym building to meet new safety codes; upgrading
the doors, locks, control panels and lighting; adding inmate management software and a fullbody imaging scanner; and replacing the hot water heaters.
“There’s not a lot you can say about hot water heaters,” he told the committee. “Until one goes out and you have 300 guys who have been out working all day. Then it becomes a major security issue.”
County vehicles and equipment, $4,400,000
Sixty-three percent of Floyd County police vehicles have over 100,000 miles and 17 percent have over 200,000 miles, according to Special Projects Manager Bruce Ivey.
“And when you say 100,000 miles, that’s not the kind of miles on my wife’s car. Those are hard miles,” added SPLOST Committee member Jeff Chandler, a deputy commissioner in the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
Ivey is asking for $1.3 million for new police vehicles, another $2.4 million to replace old public works trucks and equipment and $700,000 to shore up the fleet in other county departments. The county typically replaces several vehicles a year but it deferred new purchases for about four years during the recent recession.
“This would get us back on a rotating schedule, so we can start replacing them before they get to this point again,” Ivey said.
Rome paving and sidewalks, $8,650,000
Public Works Director Chris Jenkins said city streets should be resurfaced on a 15-year cycle, but the recession put much of that on hold.
Rome spends about $700,000 a year from state grants, a previous SPLOST and a budget earmark, but Jenkins said that’s still more than $1 million short.
A $6.5 million allocation would take care of 56 miles of the 234 miles of local roads in the city limits over a 5-year period. He’s also asking for $2,150,000 for an extensive sidewalk program.
“These would be new sidewalks in heavily traveled pedestrian corridors,” Jenkins said.
A major area of attack would be around the General Electric plant and West Central Elementary School, along Redmond Circle, Redmond Road and Lavender Drive. The second focus would be Reservoir Street, to provide a safe path from Ross Street residences to the Turner McCall Boulevard commercial district.
“I see people walking on that road all the time; some in motorized wheelchairs or with strollers and kids,” Jenkins said. “That’s their day. That’s what they have to do to survive.”
County water system
model, $500,000
A spatial map of the Floyd County water system and a computerized modeling program would let officials test the effects of new taps and new developments before they happen.
County Special Projects Manager Bruce Ivey said that’s vital for ensuring an adequate supply to existing customers and for long-term planning.
“Right now, it’s trial and error,” he said. “There is a methodology, but it relies on institutional knowledge and those people aren’t going to be there forever.”
A $500,000 earmark in the SPLOST would fund the design and installation of the modeling program.
Covered tennis courts,
$3,997,560
Tournaments at the new Rome Tennis Center at Berry College are on track to have an economic impact of $5.6 million this year, according to Lisa Smith of the Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau. Six covered tennis courts are all that’s preventing even more.
“We’re considered among the top-tier American facilities right now, but we’ve lost bids to other places because we don’t have covered courts in case of rain,” Tennis Center Executive Director Tom Daglis told the panel. “There is significant buzz in the tennis world about us and we want to keep that momentum going.”
They’re asking for just under $4 million to cover six of the 60 courts with a metal frame and architectural fabric — and add lights, air conditioning and landscaping — to allow year-round use.