Whitfield County has received “some good news on grant funding for (Whitfield County) Senior Center meals,” according to County Administrator Robert Sivick.
Sivick briefed the county Board of Commissioners and the public on that news during a recent meeting of the commissioners.
“In case anybody does not know, the county took over ownership and management of the senior center Jan. 1, 2023,” he said.
Previously, the senior center was jointly funded by the county and the city of Dalton and operated by the city.
“We’ve expanded services and reduced expenses,” Sivick said. “The way we’ve done it is that we have had the federal government pay for meals and a lot of the other activities.”
After the meeting, Whitfield County Grants Administrator Carol Roberts said the grant that will fund meals at the senior center comes through the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission Area Agency on Aging.
“We submitted a proposal in response to their request for proposals and we were notified of our successful bidder status a few weeks ago,” she said. “This means we will receive funds to provide a certain number of nutritious meals to qualified seniors free of charge beginning July 1. There are also other aspects to this grant such as providing nutrition education.”
Roberts said the county does not yet know how much the grant will be for.
“Our proposal was to provide up to 50 meals per day, but that could be reduced depending on the amount of grant funds we are awarded,” she said. “We should have more information by May.”
The funding is for what are called “congregate meals,” which are meals provided to older adults in a group setting.
“The senior center will continue to provide meals to other seniors for a nominal fee in conjunction with this congregate meal program,” Roberts said.
In November 2023, the county received funding from the Area Agency on Aging that reimburses the county $8 for each qualified meal the senior center provides through June 30, 2024. This new grant will start when that agreement expires.
The commissioners voted 4-0 to:
• Reappoint Commissioner Barry Robbins as the board’s vice chairman for a one-year term.
• Accept a donation of a live, 25-foot Douglas fir for the south lawn of the courthouse.
“We recently received a call from a donor that would like to kind of start a new holiday tradition, a sustainable one,” said board Chairman Jevin Jensen. “I ran this by buildings and grounds and they are onboard.”
Jensen said the donor will pay for the installation of the tree as well as Christmas ornaments.
“The courthouse is very well decorated inside (at Christmas), but we don’t have very much going on on the outside,” said Jensen.
He said the plan is to have an annual lighting ceremony and leave the decorations up through the Christmas season. He said that fits in with the commissioners’ efforts to build community pride.