By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

The Livingston County Public Health Department celebrated 50 years Monday with an open house, and many gathered to hear of its humble beginning in September of 1966.

Administrator MaLinda Hillman describes its first few years.

“When we started, there were just six people on staff with $7,500 to start, compared to a $2 million budget today. So we’ve definitely grown to increase services. It basically started because people needed home nursing, so we started with public health nursing visits, and we added the school, where they did vision and screening and school nursing. That was the beginnings of the health department,” Hillman said.

Hillman, along with Environmental Health Director Donnie Simmons and Linda Rhodes, health education and marketing director, will be guests on the Community Forum for several Fridays, beginning December 23, detailing the department’s fifty-year history.