Whitfield County commissioners vote to expand services at the senior center

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Diet and nutrition advice. Gardening classes. Help with household budgeting and financial management.

Those are some of the services that Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen said a new county extension agent could provide at the Dalton-Whitfield Senior Center.

Commissioners recently voted 4-0 to approve a $16,592 contract with the University of Georgia Extension service to add a family and consumer sciences educator position to the Whitfield County Extension Office, with the county paying half of the costs of the salary and benefits of the position. Jensen typically votes only if there is a tie.

Family and consumer sciences agents provide programs in cooking, nutrition, household budgeting and finance and other family-related subjects.

“Nutrition and diet will probably be the main focus,” Jensen said. “But the particular services will depend on what the staff and, ultimately, what the people who use the senior center want and say they need.”

The agent will also provide services to the county as a whole, but Jensen said that person’s primary focus will be the senior center.

“Whatever they need will determine how much time the extension agent spends at the senior center, whether it is 10 or 20 hours a week or whatever,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll have good participation, and (the agent) will be spending a lot of time there.”

Prior to this year, the senior center was jointly funded by the county and the city of Dalton and operated by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. The commissioners agreed in 2022, as part of the negotiations of how the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenues would be divided, to take over the operations and funding of the senior center. The LOST is a 1% sales tax on most goods sold in the county.

When the commissioners agreed last year to take over the senior center, they said they planned to expand services, not cut them. and on Monday they said adding a family and consumer sciences agent at the senior center is just the first step in those plans.

“We are having a meeting later this week, I believe (on Tuesday), on expanding those services and (increasing) transportation options for those senior citizens who are not able to drive themselves to the senior center,” said County Administrator Robert Sivick. “So it is going to be bigger and better.”

The commissioners also voted 4-0 to formally name former Whitfield County election supervisor Mary Hammontree director of the senior center. Long-time senior center director Rosie Mosteller retired at the end of December after some 38 years at the center, including 33 as director. Hammontree has been on the job since the start of the year.

The commissioners also voted 4-0 to name Shaynee McClure as the new election supervisor. McClure is a graduate of Dalton State College with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She worked in the Catoosa County elections office for the past six years, most recently as the custodian of elections. McClure has also been on the job since the start of the year.

“I have worked in elections since I was 19,” McClure said Monday. “So I’ve invested a lot of time in elections, and I felt like this is the next great opportunity for me. I’m happy to be here in Whitfield County.”