Not too early to dream about next SPLOST
We’re a couple of years of collections into the 2017 SPLOST list and it seems like as good a time as any to start dreaming about the next round of community needs and wants. Or should that be wants and needs?
The 1-cent special purpose, local option sales tax has generated somewhere close to $16 million a year in each of the past two years, so let’s base our list on $16 million a year for five years, or $80 million.
That’s about 29% of what someone would get, after taxes, if they had the right six numbers to last night’s Mega Million drawing and chose the cash option.
How’s that for perspective?
At the top of my list is the design and construction of a northwest bypass. It would connect to the west bypass at the Alabama Highway and circle around to a point on Huffaker Road.
I put this one in the category of a need, not a want.
I’m going to be straight with you, I don’t know how much traffic there is going all the way through Rome. I do know that it is crazy to funnel a bypass through the heart of Garden Lakes, which is currently the case.
It makes sense to me to make the turn on Technology Parkway, which is already four-laned almost to Woods Road.
My tentative budget for that project is $30-$35 million, but I think it could be a lot less if the community does it with local money and doesn’t have to jump through federal highway hoops. The project could also happen much quicker if it was local and not federally funded.
Admittedly, that could be an issue because it would connect to a federally funded highway, but it’s worth considering.
Another need is additional space to help cope with the homeless problem in our community. It’s depressing when I am able to get an early morning walk in on one of my downtown river routes and see homeless folks bundled up in the shadow of the Forum River Center, the swings around the Town Green, the gazebo in Heritage Park or underneath either the Second or Fifth Avenue bridges.
And it darn sure does not look good to folks who might be visitng Rome and staying at the Courtyard Rome Riverwalk or Hawthorn Inn & Suites and who might be out for an early walk or jog while in town.
Something inside of me is not thrilled at government operating a homeless shelter, but I think government, the community, could build one and lease it to a nonprofit for operational purposes.
Rome Rotarian Jerry Lee raised an interesting question that did not get answered at Thursday’s Rotary meeting. He wondered if perhaps one of the schools that are being closed might not be converted for use as a homeless shelter.
That’s not a bad idea, except for a transportation issue.
When the Pepperell Middle students leave the McHenry Elementary campus at the end of this school term, it will become vacant. Let’s say, for the sake of an example, that McHenry has 24 classrooms. It wouldn’t be crazy expensive to build walls to divide a classroom in half and create 48 rooms for the homeless. Divvy up the cafeteria and you could probably add another 10 or 12.
Someone smarter than me could deal with some of the logistics issues, but let’s go ahead and put about $3-$5 million in the budget for this.
My next priority falls into the want category and is linked to the system of “regional” recreational opportunities that were available in the Virginia community I grew up in.
I want, we need, a large indoor recreational center with both a competition swimming pool and a recreational pool. I mean BIG.
The average social media troll in Rome does not have a real understanding of how much of an impact tourism has on Rome.
Several of the schools in the Rome area have outstanding swim programs — Rome, Darlington, even neighboring Adairsville. Imagine if the community had a large pool that could host major meets from scholastic to club events. Heck, Berry could even host a collegiate scale event.
Swim teams often have upwards of 30 or more competitors and bringing large teams, complete with their families and friends, to Rome would be a huge tourism draw.
We also need an indoor recreational pool. Different hours for different age groups. Seniors could use the pool in the morning hours, competition groups could have afternoons and the general public could use it in the evenings and on weekends.
Again, someone with more recreational chops than myself, Todd Wofford for example, could figure out the logistics.
I think an $8 million-$12 million budget would work for that facility, which, by the way, I would locate out near the new Rome Tennis Center.
All of this gets us in the neighborhood of $50-$52 million which means there is plenty left for someone else to spend.