Rome Floyd Fire Department Looking For New Maintenance Facility Site

Fire trucks were smaller in 1948, which is the year that the Rome Floyd Fire Department vehicle maintenance building was built — and that is causing issues with maintaining the department’s current fleet of vehicles.

“Some of our vehicles only have four inches clearance on either side,” Division Chief Clete Bonney said. “That makes even opening the doors difficult.”

“We also have issues with our ladder trucks as there are low-hanging power lines,” he added. “It’s just a really small area to maintain all our equipment.”

Voters approved funding for fire department capital projects in the 2017 special purpose local option sales tax package, and there appears to be about $1.8 million left. Other priorities took precedence but officials are now focusing on the maintenance facility.

It’s still very early in the process, according to Rome City Manager Sammy Rich, but the first thing needed is a location.

The maintenance building was originally built for the Carolina Freight shipping company. It became part of the Rome Transit Department in 1975 and was used to maintain city buses until 1986, according to fire department officials.

Bonney said the department has over 60 vehicles, but their maintenance building is tucked inside a small corner of their training complex on North Avenue.

“If we’re having a training session, our burn building is very close to the maintenance building and we have real problems getting vehicles in and out,” Bonney said. “We’ve just outgrown the space. Our ladder truck fits into only one bay, and it’s very hard to work on the vehicle like that.”

The burn building is where firefighters train on different types of scenarios using actual fire.

Fire officials had hoped that they could use space from the adjacent Rome Transit bus yard. However, because there were targeted federal funds used for the transit yard, the space cannot be used for city purposes, according to Rich.