The question of fitness equipment at the North Floyd Park recreation center in Armuchee will be back before the Floyd County Commission on Tuesday.

Local athlete Bill Thornton is on the agenda to speak to the board regarding its decision to defer action on a vendor’s bid to supply stationary bikes, ellipticals and treadmills.

“He represents a North Floyd group that wants the equipment,” County Manager Kevin Poe told commissioners on the agenda-setting committee last week.

“The question is, what if groups from Shannon or Lindale come next?”

Several commissioners have said they want to equalize recreational opportunities around the county and a fitness room in the new center — slated to open in February — would create an imbalance.

Members of the Rome-Floyd County Parks and Recreation Authority, however, contend that the 25,000-square-foot facility was designed to have a fitness room, along with two regulation basketball courts, a multipurpose room, an activity room and a game room.

The 2006 special purpose, local option sales tax package contained $3 million for the project, but the $300,000 budgeted to equip the facility was cut in half by unexpected construction costs and declining SPLOST revenues.

Click here to see a PDF of the North Floyd Park master plan.

Thornton is scheduled to speak at the board’s caucus session. The pre-meeting workshop normally taking place at noon has been pushed forward to 1 p.m. this Tuesday, because of a relatively light agenda.

The regular council meeting follows at 2 p.m. in the County Administration Building, 12 E. Fourth Ave.

Commissioners are expected to approve airport improvement contracts with the Georgia Department of Transportation and consultants LPA Group Inc.

The contracts are connected with construction of a 2,400-foot midfield taxiway at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport.

Poe said the $1.7 million worth of improvements under way at the facility is primarily funded with grants from the state and Federal Aviation Administration. The county’s share is $52,421.84, he said.

Click here to read a complete agenda.