You’ve seen the TV commercials or banners offering help with Open Enrollment for Medicare programs. There are many offers out there from private insurers that make it seemlike they’re official government channels. The thing to know is that the only government authorized and unbiased assistance you will find in DeKalb, Jackson, Limestone, Madison and Marshall counties is through TARGOG and the Alabama State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP).
At TARCOG, SHIP Resource Specialist TeresaHazzard is available to answer questions about Open Enrollment for Medicare programs, which begins Oct. 15, and ends Dec. 7. For more information contact teresa.hazzard@tarcog.us or 256-716-2452.
From left, Chad Coleman, director, Jackson County Council on Aging (JCCoA), Linda Larcom, nutrition coordinator, JCCoA, Rita Williams Glasz, founder of JCCoA, Michelle Jordan, executive director of Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments (TARCOG), Debra Davis, deputy commissioner, Alabama Department of Senior Services, and Emmitt Davis, community outreach coordinator, TARCOG, at a program held Tuesday, Sept. 26, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Nutrition Center for Seniors opened in the State of Alabama at the Scottsboro Senior Center. Mrs. Glasz was honored at the program for her efforts to get the program started in 1973.
Fifty years ago, the first nutrition center in the State of Alabama opened at the Scottsboro Senior Center and the Jackson County Council on Aging celebrated the milestone with a packed house on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
“This marked a new way of life for hundreds of Jackson County senior citizens,” said Chad Coleman, director of the Jackson County Council on Aging.
Linda Larcom, the nutrition program coordinator, said the meals program got off the ground because of the tireless efforts of its founder, Rita Williams Glasz, who was honored at the celebration with a plaque of appreciation.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been that long,” Rita said. “I remember going out and knocking on doors and finding seniors. We didn’t have computerized things like we do now to go by, so I had to go out and collect names of individuals by going door to door. I visited with people and invited them to come to the center.”
She was met with skepticism, curiosity, and excitement.
“How on earth are you going to bring food from Huntsville to a center over here and it be any good?” she remembers some people asking her. But on opening day, Sept. 26, 1973, people showed up.
“We had what looked like a trail of ants coming up the sidewalk with all of the seniors walking from different parts around the neighborhood,” Rita recalled. “Volunteers also brought people in, and we had a room full … there was so much excitement about the thoughts of what might happen in the future with the center.”
That future included everything from presenting people with birthday cakes, for some, the first ones they’d ever had. They also took trips, for many it was their first time to leave Scottsboro.
“They got to participate in fashion shows, dress up for Halloween, learn to dance, just things they had never had an opportunity to do,” Rita said. “Most didn’t drive and had never worked; all they had ever done was stay home and take care of their family, so it was a real exciting time.”
Rita Williams Glasz, founder of the Jackson County Council on Aging, talks to a packed Scottsboro Senior Center on Tuesday, Sept. 26, remembering how she helped start the first program in the State of Alabama to serve nutritious meals to seniors in 1973.
On a personal note, she said her grandmother was there on opening day and enjoyed it so much that it became what she looked forward to each day.
“Twenty-five years later, my mother participated, and it became what she looked forward to and now, 25 more years later, I’m eligible to participate and I get to enjoy the activities too,” Rita said. “That’s why I ask you all to continue to support our centers because one of these days your kids or even grandkids may get to participate and enjoy activities at the senior center,”
Linda said Scottsboro was the first to have a Nutrition Center but others in Jackson County followed, including:
Stevenson Senior Center, Sept. 27, 1973
Paint Rock Senior Center, Oct. 17, 1977
Bridgeport Senior Center, Oct. 17, 1977
Pisgah Senior Center, March 1, 1978
Bryant Senior Center, Oct. 1, 1996
Sitting through the ceremony, TARCOG Executive Director Michelle Jordan said she reflected on the importance of senior centers and how they fill a void in people’s lives as they age.
“It’s a real important part of who we become if we’re fortunate enough to be able to age in a way that allows us to still be mobile and to still interact with our friends,” Michelle said. “This center has been meeting those companionship, friendship, nutrition, exercise, physical and mental health needs for 50 years and it is quite an accomplishment. A golden anniversary is certainly something to celebrate.”
She said like gold being heated and molded into an object of significance, the Scottsboro Senior Center “has been heated and molded into something beautiful and I’m so glad TARCOG gets to play a role in meeting the needs of Jackson County and the Scottsboro Senior Center and I hope we’re in partnership for the next 50 years.”
Trey Noland, a project manager with PM Environmental , Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy and TARCOG Community Development Specialist Marley Hicks at the Southeast Brownfields Conference at the Pelham Civic Complex.
TARCOG Community Development Specialist Marley Hicks joined Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy and Trey Noland, a project manager with PM Environmental to discuss the redevelopment strategies for the Willow Street Corridor in Scottsboro at the Southeast Brownfields Conference at the Pelham Civic Complex near Birmingham on Sept. 21.
Cleaning up contaminated areas, knowns as brownfields, to make room for new economic development opportunities has been a goal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 1995 when the agency started its Brownfields Program to make it easier and more financially possible to put these old sites back to use creating jobs.
For Scottsboro, the results are exciting. McCamy said an online community survey is currently underway through the city’s website for residents and community design workshops are planned as part of the community-driven redevelopment efforts for downtown and the Willow Creek Corridor.
TARCOG Economic Development and Planning Director Lee Terry, TARCOG Executive Director Michelle Gilliam-Jordan, State Sen. Steve Livingston, Powell City Council members Reggie Byrum and Gurlon Lands, Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, and Alabama’s Mountains, Rivers & Valleys Resource Conservation and Development Councils Executive Director, Renona Seibert
TARCOG helped secure funding
A colorful and interactive new playground is officially ready for action at Powell Park in DeKalb County thanks to $178,192 in grant funds from the combined efforts of TARCOG, town leaders, state legislators, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Development Agency (ADECA), and the Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils (RC&D).
On Tuesday, Aug. 22, leaders gathered at the Granny Wigley Pavilion before heading across the street to visit the new playground area. Powell town leaders were also presented a check for $15,000 from RC&D. It was the final funding piece for the playground equipment. TARCOG helped the town apply for and receive a $148,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Development Agency (ADECA).
The Town of Powell also came up with an extra $15,192 for a new set of swings.
“It’s just not a park without swings,” said Powell Councilman Reggie Byrum. “We usually get compliments on the park every week … It has been a lengthy process and we’re thankful to be at the end of it where we have this beautiful park.”
The new hasn’t worn off but there’s evidence that Powell’s youngest residents have wasted no time putting the new equipment to use in recent months.
“There were lots of moving parts that made it possible and we are thankful for each one of those and our town is forever grateful for that,” Byrum said.
TARCOG Executive Director Michelle Gilliam-Jordan, said the agency was happy to make the grant submission to ADECA on behalf of the Town of Powell.
“We have grant season every year and the better the project the more opportunity to get it funded and this was just the right project,” Gilliam-Jordan said. “Thank you for your partnership. We’re excited every time we get a win it’s a win for North Alabama.”
Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter said he was glad to see the working relationships that facilitated the playground.
“There’s no question that Powell is proud of their park and it doesn’t look like this just today, it looks like this every day. It’s always clean and neat and certainly a gem for the town.”
Now that the new playground equipment including multiple slides and climbing features, interactive games, monkey bars and swings are fully installed, Byrum said the old playground equipment will be torn down immediately.
State Sen. Steve Livingston said the importance of pooling multiple resources was key to the project’s success.
“The sense of pride in Powell is obvious from the other side of the college to all the way to Rainsville and this park is just part of that,” Livingston said.
Powell Councilman Gurlon Lands also expressed his gratitude.
“Without every one of you, we couldn’t have done it,” Lands said.
Preparing to hand over a check for $15,000, Renona Siebert, executive director of Alabama Mountains, Rivers & Valleys (AMRV) RC&D, said all the partnerships combined make projects like the Powell playground a success.
“This may be the nicest playground I’ve ever seen right here in Powell,” said Drayton Cosby of the Cosby Company. “It just shows it doesn’t matter how big you are or how many people, you’ve got to have the right people so you can get something done.”
TARCOG has left its longtime location on Research Drive. Currently, the TARCOG Office is located at 7037 Old Madison Pike, Suite 450. Below are directions on how to find us!
