Dalton Mayor Justifies State of Emergency Declaration

DALTON (WDEF) – Dalton Mayor David Pennington declared a State of Emergency in Monday night’s City Council meeting.
But he says the declaration could have been prevented.
“I know it could have. They’re not having this problem in the northeast where they’ve got vaccination rates at 70 percent plus. This is largely in the southeast and southwest of America because percentages of the vaccinated are so low,” says Mayor Pennington.
The declaration allows city of Dalton personnel, like the police and fire department, to fill gaps needed at the Hamilton Medical Center.
“All the hospitals across Georgia are sufferring from staffing issues as we speak because we’ve gone from ten people in the hospital to 65 in the last three weeks alone,” Pennington says. “At the moment I think it’s somewhat able to be handled but we don’t know what’s going to happen if it goes to 100 or 120 people and we want to be prepared for that.”
The mayor says this declaration will free up city personnel to fill in for many roles in the hospital, preventing a dire situation.
“The city is in the unique position that it has public safety department that works on 12 hours shifts,” says Dalton City Administrator Andrew Parker. “So we have this deep pool of talent that is off duty at the fire department which in many cases are licensed paramedics and EMT’S that are willing to provide assistance.”
City personnel will also be used to stock PPE gear and provide other vital services at the hospital. Also at the Dalton city council meeting, a mask mandate was unanimously voted in on all City of Dalton property and buildings.