DALTON, Ga. — Whitfield County residents who want to help shape the list of projects that could be funded by a future Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) will have at least another week to apply for the opportunity.

At their work session Monday, members of the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners agreed to extend the deadline to apply for the SPLOST 2020 advisory committee to Monday, July 8, when commissioners have their next meeting. The application deadline had been Monday, July 1, at 5 p.m.

“There was no vote. We don’t vote at work sessions,” said board Vice Chairman Harold Brooker, who presided over the meeting in the absence of Chairman Lynn Laughter. “But there was unanimous consensus.”

Commissioners will vote on July 8 to formalize the extension and to extend the application deadline further if they need to, Brooker said.

The vote came after 15 applications came in Monday, expanding the total number of applicants to 31.

“I think the article and editorial that appeared in the newspaper over the weekend spurred more people to apply,” said Commissioner Barry Robbins.

“I’m glad we had more applications, but I’d like to see even more,” said Commissioner Greg Jones. “It’s always good to have some choices.”

The committee will help select the projects for a SPLOST that is expected to be put before county voters in the May 2020 general primary. The committee will be composed of 16 individuals and two alternates. Each of the five commissioners will appoint two people to the committee from their district. Laughter is elected county-wide. And the board will appoint one alternate. The Dalton City Council will appoint three members and one alternate, and the three smaller cities in the county — Cohutta, Tunnel Hill and Varnell — will appoint one member each.

Even with the applications that came in Monday, no one from the town of Cohutta has applied and only one person each has applied from Tunnel Hill and Varnell.

In April, commissioners heard from Floyd County Commission Vice Chairman Wright Bagby and that county’s manager, Jamie McCord, about that county’s process for developing a SPLOST.

For Floyd County and its two municipalities — Cave Spring and Rome — a citizens group makes the final decisions on what projects are presented to voters for each SPLOST. The committee members are selected by the three government bodies, and there are no elected officials on the committee. Proposals for projects are made by the governments and also by private citizens, and the committee members evaluate all proposals before coming up with a final list of projects.

The Whitfield County committee won’t have such authority. Whitfield County commissioners said elected officials have a responsibility to make the final decision on which projects will be placed before voters.

The Whitfield commissioners and the councils of each of the four cities in the county will each develop lists of projects to be funded and bring them to the advisory committee, which will discuss the projects and make recommendations. Then the local governments will put together a final list to be placed on the ballot.

Commissioners also heard at their Monday work session from County Attorney Robert Smalley about a draft intergovernmental agreement between the county and the four cities governing their use of county-owned encrypted radios for first responders.

Whitfield County Emergency Management Director Claude Craig said earlier this month he was developing a formal policy regarding the radios. Craig made the announcement shortly after a grand jury declined to indict Varnell Police Chief Lyle Grant for providing one of the radios to a private business.

District Attorney Bert Poston said it was “particularly significant” was that there was no formal policy concerning the radios among the county and the cities of Cohutta, Tunnel Hill and Varnell.

Grant provided a radio to Bob Cummings, owner of Bob’s Wrecker Service in Dalton, a case investigated first by the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office and then the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Smalley said the proposed agreement makes it clear that the radios are only to be used by public safety officials.

Commissioners are expected to vote on the agreement at their July 8 meeting.

To serve on Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) 2020 advisory committee, a person must be a Whitfield County resident and have voted in three of the last four elections wherever you are registered to vote. A person appointed by a city council must reside in that city. A person appointed by a commissioner must be a resident in that commissioner’s district. Elected officials and candidates for elected office may not serve on the committee.

Applications for the advisory committee are available at the county website, www.whitfieldcountyga.com. Paper applications can be picked up at Administrative Building 1, 301 W. Crawford St., and returned there after being completed.

All applicants can go online or fill out an application and county officials will forward the application to officials in the cities.