Hogansville and West Point satellite clinics operated by the Troup County Health Department will stay open, at least through July 1.

“We’ve decided not to talk about that until we begin our next budget talks,” said the Rev. Willie Edmondson, chairman of the health board.

The department strongly had considered closing the two clinics in July when attendance at the sites dropped after the Women, Infants and Children program was consolidated in LaGrange.

The Hogansville clinic is open one day a week, which had been primarily to serve WIC mothers. The West Point clinic is open two days a week; one day had been set aside for WIC and one day for other services. Health department officials said this summer the “magic number” of WIC clients needed to justify a staff is 300 at each clinic, but Hogansville only had 172 WIC clients and West Point had 189.

During the next six months, before the department begins looking at its budget, the two cities were encouraged to participate in efforts to publicize the clinics and all the services provided, something city representatives agreed to help with earlier this year.

Fliers advertising health department services went out in businesses around Hogansville earlier this month, and a notice will go out in Hogansville city utility bills by Saturday. Health department officials also have created partnerships with the cities, at least as far as providing seasonal flu shot clinics. Hogansville and West Point city employees will get their shots from the health department.

“The flu season has piqued interest of the community in the health department,” Edmondson said.

The health department also is working on its own Web site, which would not be run by the state’s District Four Health Services and would contain information pertinent only to Troup County: information on the flu, other health awareness efforts and services the health department may provide.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.