Two weeks after a Red Bank resident criticized Commissioner Floy Pierce for favoring a private seniors group over a public one, Pierce and four other commissioners directed $1,100 toward the public group.
The money came from Hamilton County Commissioner Fred Skillern, who recently donated $1,000 of his discretionary money to Red Bank, and from the Southeast Tennessee Area Agency on Aging, which gave $100 to Seniors on the Go, a group that meets in the Red Bank Community Center.
In a recent commission meeting, Red Bank resident Darin Wright told Pierce “there was a lot of confusion” in the community about the commissioner’s fundraising for a private seniors group, which meets in an otherwise vacant building on Dayton Boulevard.
Pierce said the private organization folded after the city stopped funding its overhead costs in 2001, and she unsuccessfully lobbied for a new senior center in 2009.
The newly built community center has programs from seniors twice a week, but Pierce said it wasn’t built for the elderly and isn’t equipped to meet their needs.
At the meeting, as Pierce explained that she had asked Public Works Director Wayne Hamill to investigate grants to buy “an empty building” for the private group, Wright cut her off, asking why she told a public employee to seek grants for a private group.
“We already have a community center for the senior group,” Wright said. “They have it two days a week and that seems to be very efficient.”
In the past, Pierce has said the private group, which centers on gospel singing and dances, “wants to live while they’re still living” and “doesn’t always want to talk about their health,” both shots at wellness-related programs held at the community center.
Pierce is running for re-election in November.
Contact Chris Carroll at ccarroll@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6610.