To the editor:

We read the county commissioner’s report about sharing staff and have some concerns. The Department on Aging Secretary and Transportation Coordinator Lanell Hett will now split her time between the Department on Aging and another department to be named later.

We question how many other departments are involved in this program. When the Department on Aging is shorthanded, who will be shared with them? Taking a person who has 29 years of experience working with older people in Marion County and placing that person part-time somewhere else is questionable.

The Department on Aging coordinator circulates to all of the senior centers countywide and attends a number of all-day meetings each month. Who will be at the Department on Aging when the coordinator is gone? It is not good to lock up any county department for a half day during working hours.

This action by the county commissioners thinking it was best for Marion County to move forward with a need to diversify vocations with the Department on Aging did not state any input from the 12-member Senior Citizens of Marion County board. The Department on Aging serves as a link between the board and the county commission.

In 2000, the senior citizens board recommended Hett be hired full-time. They saw the need to have two full-time positions in the Department on Aging at that time and it is still needed today.

The Department on Aging provides many services to the ever-growing aging population in Marion County. Coordinator Gayla Ratzlaff and Hett need to be commended for their great teamwork in providing these services. This is not a county department that will benefit from a split, half-time position.

Melvin and Noreen Weems
Peabody