This Week In Rome
The are the main stories happening in Rome government for the week starting August 23, 2026.
Rome Is Still Paying For The Tornado
Storm Recovery Is A Major Expense Now
The tornado stopped making headlines a long time ago, but it never stopped costing money. This summer alone, the Board of Estimate and Contract approved roughly $1.33 million to rebuild the West Liberty and James Street parking lots as part of the recovery, along with $948,000 to replace tornado damaged roofs on city buildings. Add another $1 million in roofing work, plus the contracts to remove damaged trees and plant new ones, and the total for 2026 climbs past $3 million.
More is still coming. The board has authorized the city to seek bids on a second phase of disaster recovery and on additional tornado projects, which means more contracts will land in the months ahead. Because each one arrives as a single line on an agenda, spread across meetings that often last only a few minutes, the full scale of the spending is easy to miss unless you track it over time.
What it means for your money: Disaster recovery is often reimbursed by federal or state aid, but reimbursement is rarely complete and rarely fast. The city typically pays first and waits to be repaid, which can mean borrowing in the meantime. Watch how much of each project the city actually recovers from FEMA or the state, and whether change orders start appearing on work that was supposed to be finished.
Rome Votes On Schools In December
The $31 Million Capital Plan
On August 17, the board chose the middle of three versions of a capital project meant to fix crowding in Rome's elementary schools. The $31 million plan renovates the Clough building with a gymnasium, café, and auditorium so it can hold older elementary grades. It takes down the former Staley school. It removes the stadium grandstand and builds replacement bleachers and a concession stand. It drops the 20 classrooms that were in the largest version, about $58.9 million, which the board set aside for a possible future project. Voters decide in December, on a date the board still has to set.
That vote did not approve the project. It authorized the district to settle the scope, the financing, and the wording of the ballot question, and to finish a required state environmental review. The deadline pressure comes from disaster aid. Rome was awarded roughly $19 million in federal and state money tied to Staley's flooding, and all of it has to be spent by October 2029. A public vote, design work, state review, bidding, and construction all have to fit inside that window.
What it means for your money: The district is aiming for no tax increase, which does not mean the project is free. About $8 million is Rome's local share. The district has $3.3 million in its capital reserve and expects to move roughly $3 million more into it this fall, leaving about $2 million to borrow. Reserves are money already collected from taxpayers, and what gets spent here is not available for the next project.
The City's 2025 Audit Is In
A Clean Opinion, But Drawing on Savings
The city's audited financial statements for 2025 have been filed with the City Clerk and were noted at the August 12 Common Council meeting. The audit, completed by D'Arcangelo & Co. and dated July 24, gave Rome a clean opinion with no findings and no reported weaknesses in its financial controls. The statements also show the general fund spent about $1.9 million more than it collected last year, following a $1 million shortfall in 2024.
That gap was anticipated. The council appropriated $3.7 million from savings to balance the 2025 budget, so the year finished better than expected, though the general fund balance still declined. Revenue fell roughly $2.9 million, largely from reduced state and federal aid, while expenditures rose about $3.7 million, mainly on salaries and benefits.
What it means for your money: Property taxes increased 2.75% in 2025 and the city still finished short. Water and sewer rates have not changed since 2024, though the sewer fund operated at a loss and substantial projects are lined up, including roughly $12 million for lead line replacement and $21.7 million for the Kessinger and Boyd dams. Two union contracts remain in negotiation. All of it gets paid through taxes, rates, or borrowing.
The running stories we are following at
City of Rome
The five things to know about city government right now.
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The yogurt plant rising on the Griffiss triangle is the largest project in Rome's recent history, and most of the near-term work is infrastructure. A new roundabout at Route 825 and Perimeter Road, a sound wall along the Bell Road neighborhood, and a major upgrade to the city's wastewater plant to carry the load. The city expects roughly 1,000 jobs 180–200 tanker trucks a day moving through the city at full build-out.
What to watch: Truck routes and road wear over the next 3-5 years. The cost and timeline of the sewer upgrades. Water withdrawal from Fish Creek. And how many jobs actually go to people in Rome.
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A lot of the city's physical backlog is coming due at once. The city has bonded $1M just to inventory roughly 10,000 water lines for lead, with replacements not starting until around 2028, and homeowners are responsible for the private side of the line. Meanwhile the downtown train station rehab has stalled with ARPA money already committed, the wastewater plant needs major upgrades, and tornado-damaged roofs were still going out to bid this year.
What to watch: The lead-line inventory results and what replacement will cost homeowners. Debt related to necessary upgrades of sewer and water infrastructure. How this debt is structured as it relates to the annual budget.
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Battery energy storage systems are large banks of lithium-ion batteries that hold electricity and sell it back to the grid during peak hours. Rome's code barely mentions them, so when DLD Energy proposed one at 600 Canal Street, the city had almost no standards to hold a project to. On June 24, after a Planning Board recommendation, the Common Council adopted a six-month moratorium, which is a temporary freeze on new projects. That pause runs out around the end of December. The Planning Board's list of what permanent rules should cover includes fire suppression, gas detection, and a decommissioning bond so Rome is not stuck paying to haul out a dead system if the company goes under.
What to watch: Whether permanent rules get written before the pause expires. Whether the one application already filed is allowed to keep moving through review. And whether the final code requires a decommissioning bond.
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Rome has an unusually full development pipeline. There are new apartments at Air City Lofts, the large Woodhaven housing project, a 55-and-over community off Potter Road, two new hotels near Geiger and Hill Roads, an office building on Hangar Road, and a second $10M downtown revitalization grant aimed at the Bellamy Harbor area. The recurring question in public comment is affordability. New homes are priced well above what the local median income supports, even as downtown loses anchors like Grand Union.
What to watch: Which projects break ground versus stall. Whether any of the new housing is priced for local incomes. And what the downtown grant actually funds.
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The city has stepped up code and nuisance enforcement. Many properties have been investigated with a sharp jump in nuisance hearings, problem houses boarded up, occupancy permits revoked, and busts of pop-up shops selling untaxed tobacco. This is alongside a new community court and homeless-services work. Residents have also pushed from the other direction, raising allegations about unsafe rental conditions and questions about how the city sells its tax-foreclosed properties.
What to watch: Whether enforcement reaches problem landlords as aggressively as it reaches squatters and shops. Transparency in how foreclosed properties are sold. And progress on access to crisis stabilization for Rome residents.
Rome’s Schools
The five things to know about the Rome City School District right now.
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On August 3 the district laid out three versions of a capital project meant to fix crowding in Rome's elementary schools. All three renovate the Clough building on Bell Road so it can hold older elementary grades. The crowding traces back to 2021, when flooding closed Staley, the district's fifth and sixth grade building, and those grades were absorbed into the elementary schools. Voters decide in mid-December.
What to watch: Which option the board picks on August 17, and formal adoption on October 8. How much of the district's savings each version spends to stay tax-neutral. Whether the stadium grandstand becomes a second, separate ballot question. And whether the board accepts the state's building aid recalculation.
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Staley has sat empty since flooding took it out of service in 2021, and it is still costing Rome money. The district was awarded roughly $19 million in FEMA funds tied to the building, but that money is a reimbursement rather than a check, so the district has to spend first and get paid back, and all of it has to be spent by October 2029. At the August 3 workshop, a board member called the roughly 30-acre site a zombie property and described repeated break-ins that pull city emergency crews out each time.
What to watch: Whether the public gets a clear accounting of the FEMA and insurance money, including roughly $1.6 million in insurance already counted toward capital plans. Whether demolition appears on the December ballot, which the FEMA money requires. And what the archaeological limits do to the price, since part of the site was a Revolutionary War camp and may hold burial grounds.
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Staff turnover has become a recurring theme at board meetings. Parents describe a pattern of departures across teaching, support, and administrative roles, and a contested principal situation that led to a long-term substitute appointment. The board has repeatedly defended its leadership amid heated public criticism.
What to watch: Whether the pace of resignations and retirements continues. How quickly key vacancies are filled permanently. And any outside review of district operations.
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For the first time in recent memory, district voters rejected the school budget. The original $165.5M plan failed on May 19 by 24 votes. The board trimmed $173,000 (mostly a proposed administrative position) and lowered the tax-levy increase from 2.89% to 2.5%. A revised $165.4M budget passed on the June 16 revote by 39 votes, with turnout roughly doubling. It's a real break from the district's stated approach of raising the levy to the state cap every year.
What to watch: Next year's levy decision and whether the to-the-cap approach returns. The push from some residents for a senior school-tax exemption. And turnout at future votes.
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The district brought on a director of school safety and built a behavioral threat-assessment system. There are building-level teams at all nine schools feeding a county-level team, supported by a monthly committee that includes police, state police, the sheriff, fire, and social workers. The budget that just passed funds added security staff, entrance screening, badge and window-security systems, and AEDs.
What to watch: Whether the new security positions and screening actually roll out now that the budget passed. If safety improves with the new measures. And the district's goal of leading a county-wide approach.