It was all about sharing during Tuesday’s city-county joint services committee meeting.

Representatives of the Rome and Floyd County commissions, along with senior staffers, meet quarterly to discuss shared projects and consider new ones.

Officials signed off on a policy for the Town Green that confirms it cannot be rented for exclusive use. A sign will be made detailing rules for the public park with the interactive fountain between The Forum and the Third Avenue parking deck.

“Basically, it’s going to be open from Good Friday through Halloween from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.,” Assistant County Manager Blaine Williams said.

The parking deck, green, pedestrian bridge and the planned riverfront plaza are expected to be jointly owned and maintained by the two governments.

“We want to keep that whole area under the same policies and rules,” City Manager John Bennett said.

The plaza, a combination boat dock and public access to the Oostanaula River, could go out for bid as early as next month, he said.

Like the pedestrian bridge crossing the river to West Third Street, the riverfront plaza is funded through a state grant and city money. The Town Green is a 2006 special purpose, local option sales tax project, and the city and county issued bonds to pay for the parking deck.

County Attorney Tommy Manning is drawing up the deeds and agreements, although some financial details are yet to be ironed out.

Radio costs a concern

Financial issues also are clouding preparations to install a $26 million countywide emergency communication system funded through the 2009 SPLOST.

Bennett said folding the system’s annual maintenance costs into the price per radio has some departments squawking at the hit to their budgets.

“We’re 30 square miles. We don’t need seven towers for our garbage trucks,” he said. “There are a lot of people with radios that might not need to be part of this ‘public safety’ system.”

Bennett suggested the project team consider an alternate way to distribute the maintenance cost, otherwise some subscribers might decline to participate. Officials asked Williams to survey other counties to see how they divide the expenses.

“I’d hate to see people opting out,” Mayor Wright Bagby Jr. said. “If you have an emergency, it’s amazing how many people have to be connected.”

Tusa Consulting Services is still designing the system so the actual maintenance costs are still unknown, Williams said. The number of radio subscribers would not affect the scope of the project, which is based on coverage needs.