THOMASVILLE — Senior centers in 14 Southwest Georgia counties are closing. Thomas and Grady counties are among the counties losing the facilities’ services.

“It is permanent,” said Izzie Sadler, SOWEGA Council on Aging executive director. “It’s something that was accelerated due to the coronavirus.”

The Thomas County center served 66 seniors. Grady’s senior center served 23.

“That was the number of people served in each of the centers when they were open,” Sadler said. “They were all rolled onto the emergency home-delivered meals program when COVID required us to stop congregating. During this COVID situation, they are all receiving meals, weekly phone calls, health and wellness newsletter tips and may access our virtual senior center if they have access to a computer and Internet.” 

A letter from Sadler to county administrators states the future of senior congregate activities is unknown because of the heightened risk for seniors in a group setting.

SOWEGA Council on Aging plans to operate “a senior center without walls” until further notice. If a county opens a local senior center, the Albany-based agency will consider providing transportation, meals and activities to the site “as appropriate,” the letter states.

The agency has paid for Thomas County senior center staff and for utilities and pest control. Sadler said there is no area senior center for which the Council on Aging pays all expenses.

Kitchens had to closed because of staff shortages, Sadler said. She said some kitchen workers did not want to go to work for fear of being exposed to the virus.

All clients at the centers are being offered emergency home-delivered meals, Sadler said, adding that more people can be served with the emergency meals.

By July 1, the Council on Aging will attempt to develop services the agency and counties can afford. 

“We would support that financially,” Sadler said.

When seniors can congregate again, they would be required to wear masks and be six feet apart. 

“You’re looking at one senior citizen at a table by themselves,” Sadler said.

When concerns end, the Council on Aging has staff that could coordinate transporting seniors to restaurants and community activities. Sadler said the service would reach seniors communitywide instead of at one location.

“It is thinking outside the box,” she said.

Sadler said the Council on Aging wants to learn counties’ needs and will try to help county governments.

“The county would have to be prepared to operate that facility,” she said.

The Scott Senior Center, 611 N. Stevens St., was built in 1997 by Thomas County government, funded by a Community Development Block Grant, said county Manager Mike Stephenson. Thomas County has leased the facility to SOWEGA Council on Aging since then for $1 a year.

Thomas County has not had operational oversight of senior center programs, Stephenson said.

He said Thomas and other counties were notified by an April 29 form letter about the Council on Aging’s plans. The county has secured the building and contents until future plans are developed.

The Scott Senior Center checking account contains about $32,000 that was raised locally. Two local senior center employees were laid off last week by the Council on Aging, the county manager said.

“There’s a whole lot right now we do not know,” Stephenson said, adding that knowledge about senior programs must be obtained by the county. “We’re not prepared to do anything until we know more.”

The county is open to discussing a partnership with the Council on Aging.

A senior center in Thomas County is a priority, Stephenson said.

“We’re working on it, but there’s a lot we don’t know,” he added.

In Grady County, Administrator Buddy Johnson said he is not on SOWEGA’s email list and did not receive the letter. After being provided a copy of the letter, Johnson said he does not know if the Grady County senior center is under SOWEGA’s authority. He said he does not know who owns the senior center building.

“We hate to see yet another strong, thriving entity for our seniors being shut down,” Johnson said, “but we understand the safety aspect of it. Once the COVID crisis has subsided, we definitely want to do everything we can to get it reopened.”

The virtual senior center is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuUqs8ds6qMVzpwc11EhltQ?view_as=subscriber.

Seniors age 60 and above who want to be added to the emergency meal service program should call 1-800-282-6612.

Reporter Erik Yabor contributed information for this story

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820