Chris Whitfield/The Daily CitizenWhitfield County commissioners, from left, Harold Brooker, Chairman Lynn Laughter, Barry Robbins and Roger Crossen talk with county attorney Robert Smalley before Monday night's meeting and work session.

DALTON, Ga. — Whitfield County and the city of Dalton might once again discuss combining some of their departments.

“With (Dalton Fire Department) Chief Bruce Satterfield retiring and with (Dalton Parks and Recreation Department Director) Steve Card announcing his resignation, this might be an opportune time to approach the city and see if they are interested in discussing the integration of one or both of those departments,” said Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Lynn Laughter at a board work session Monday night.

Card, who is still working for the rec department, will become executive director of the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association in early April.

Satterfield is retiring effective April 28.

The four other commissioners agreed that it would make sense to approach the Dalton City Council about combining the departments.

“It would be the perfect time,” said Commissioner Roger Crossen. “We should at least see if they are willing to discuss it.”

Reached after the work session, Dalton Mayor Dennis Mock said he believes council members would agree to look at whether combining the two departments with their county counterparts could cuts costs or improve service or both.

“But I have to say that I am skeptical. We have looked at this issue in just the past few years and could not find those savings or efficiencies,” he said.

In 2012, a commission created by the state Legislature to study consolidation of the city and county ultimately recommended against that idea but did recommend merging several departments including the recreation departments. Commissioners and council members discussed that idea for several months but could not agree on details such as staffing and funding.

The fire departments were not among the departments the merger commission recommended merging, but it did look at merging them. City and county officials also looked at merging them in 2009. In both cases, officials cited differences in staffing, compensation for firefighters and other issues as reasons for not going forward.

In a regular meeting before the work session, board members voted 4-0 to agree to spend up to $1.6 million to expand sewer capacity at the Carbondale Business Park.

Carl Campbell, executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority, told commissioners 60 percent of the companies that have looked at the site would use all or most of the current sewer capacity. He said two companies are currently looking at the site that would each use all of the current capacity.

The board of Dalton Utilities agreed earlier this month to provide $300,000 in cash and in-kind services for the Carbondale sewer project.

The park currently has a sewer capacity of 100,000 gallons a day. The planned expansion could create a capacity of between 1.87 million gallons a day and 4 million gallons a day.

Campbell said he is looking for grants that could reduce the total cost to the county.