Along with recommending the 2010 Fire Department budget, the fire committee on Tuesday discussed plans to relocate Station 3 from East 12th Street to property north of U.S. 411 on Callier Springs Road.

The current East 12th Street site is slated to become an Emergency Management Agency operations center. Construction costs of building the new fire station is paid for out of the 1996 special purpose, local option sales tax package.

There is still no firm cost estimate or timetable for the proposal.

With a unanimous vote the committee approved a $11,449,000 budget for the Rome-Floyd Fire Department, which included a $330,000 rollover from the previous year’s budget.

“We wouldn’t be able to budget $330,000 in this year’s budget if they hadn’t been pretty frugal,” City Manager John Bennett said.

Finance Director Sheree Shore said the revenues and budget for the fire department are “pretty much right on target.”

Within the 2010 budget is the possible inclusion of Social Security for firefighters.

Currently firefighters are not covered by Social Security, and the fire department is planning a vote for individual fire- fighters — where they will have the option to vote in or stay out. New hires will

automatically go into the Social Security program.

Consultants have been speaking with firefighters about the benefits and

dangers of opting into the program for some time, Shore said.

“I think it’s an educated vote,” Shore said. “Employees know what it’s going to do for them.”

Many firefighters have an additional job, and Bennett said if they pay Social Security at another job but not in their firefighter position, they can take a penalty to their monthly Social Security check after retirement.

Commissioners are already planning for the possibility that a majority of firefighters, which Shore estimated at 80 percent, will vote to opt in. The remainder likely would opt out of the program due to not being able to qualify prior to retirement.

Along with small increases for technology usage and three thermal imaging cameras, the department also plans to spend in the neighborhood of $100,000 for purchases of air packs for the entire department.

The air packs are a necessity to combat structure fires, said Fire Chief Gordon Henderson, and the department hopes to eventually have a thermal imaging camera for every unit that responds to a structure fire.