Payments in lieu of taxes to the Rome Floyd Development Authority will increase by approximately $44,000 in 2013. Members of the RFDA heard a year-end financial report Tuesday indicating that cash assets for the agency were up 6.1 percent during the last year.

PILOT fees are expected to total $167,376 in 2013. F-P Pigments, F&P Georgia, International Paper (formerly Temple Inland), Kellogg, Marglen, Neaton Rome, Profile Extrusion, Southeastern Mills and Syntec will all be making payments in lieu of taxes next year.

RFDA attorney Andy Davis reported that all of the proceeds of a state grant for land acquisition and infrastructure improvements related to the Lowe’s Regional Distribution Center, some $3 million, have been paid out, and special purpose, local option sales tax proceeds used to finance the work in advance have been reimbursed.

The center is being built near the Ga. 53 and Ga. 140 intersection.

In other news, Heather Seckman, economic development director for the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has hosted a number of industrial prospects in the past month.

“We are continuing to follow through with some leads that were generated through the National Business Aviation trade show,” Seckman said. “We are continuing to work for the certification for the North Floyd Industrial rail site.”

That site is the 100-acre tract at the northwest corner of the intersection of Ga. 140 and Ga. 53.

Chamber President Al Hodge said that some of the prospects are related to the automotive industry, energy sector and technology related.

“They are coming from both domestic and international, including European and Asian countries,” Hodge said. “It’s a truly good mix of companies that we are working with and we are encouraged by some of those discussions.”

County Manager Blaine Williams suggested that a joint task force with Floyd County Development Authority members needs to meet at least once before the end of the year to review some of the projects that the two authorities are working on jointly.

Hodge said that the chamber is very excited about the Confluence conference slated for Feb. 21-22. Chris Anderson, former editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and formerly the technology business editor for The Economist magazine, will be the keynote speaker for the event.

Chamber Chairwoman Angie Lewis told authority members that the chamber hopes to utilize the Wings over North Georgia Air Show in September as another avenue to entertain prospective industries.

“Just like we use Steeplechase in the spring, that will be a great fall event to entertain aviation-type companies, and with somebody of the magnitude of the Thunderbirds, it will be a great event,” Lewis said.

The Tuesday meeting was the final session of RFDA members Angie Lewis and Diane Lewis who will rotate off the organization. They will be replaced by Doc Kibler, who will become chairman of the board at the chamber, and Gary Downey, the new chairman of the Greater Rome Existing Industries Association, in January.