Floyd County Schools was honored today, Wednesday, June 13 by the Northwest Georgia Clean Cities Coalition for going the extra mile to preserve a clean environment for the community.  The school system was honored at the groups Kick-off Celebration luncheon held at The Forum in Rome.  Floyd County Schools was recognized for using alternative fuel in the school systems fleet of buses.  The school system was presented with the “Extra Mile” Award.

The Floyd County School System began looking for ways to solve the problem of high fuel prices in 2005 as the school system turned to an alternative fuel produced from chicken fat to help power its fleet of buses.   Floyd County Schools is feeling the pinch of the high price of fuel, and as each increase in diesel prices took more and more money away from the classroom, the system looked to find an answer to the tough test of high fuel prices. The school system is using a new bio-fuel that is a mixture of diesel and chicken fat produced by a local Rome company, US Bio-fuel, Inc. "We not only liked the fact that this was an emerging technology but that it was produced by a local company," stated Kelly Henson, superintendent.

The school system started using the new fuel in buses that serve the Coosa community in May, 2005. "We decided to start out with just one of our fueling locations so that we could get data comparisons between the new fuel and the regular diesel," stated Terry Simpson, director of transportation.  The system started out with a 95/5% mixture of diesel fuel to chicken fat and gradually increase the mixture of chicken fat by 5% with each new fuel delivery until a mixture of 80/20% was reached.  The program was very successful.  The system’s entire fleet of 125 buses now daily transport children using the mixture of diesel and biodiesel.

The school system is not saving a great deal of money in per-gallon cost but there are other benefits to the bio-fuel.  The bus emissions are cleaner for the community’s air; the bus engines have reduced wear due to use and the cost for bus maintenance is reduced. For Floyd County Schools, the results are not just measured in dollars and cents. The school system is also seeking to provide answers for the future. "For alternative fuels to be developed manufacturers need a market," said Dr. Bob Puckett, assistant superintendent. "We not only want to save money today, we want to be a part of providing energy answers for the future."