If you plan to vote in local elections this summer, today is the last day you can get registered. Early voting starts next Monday. Also FYI, this week the city will permanently return to the once-per-week garbage pickup schedule.

A small forest fire on the Walker/Gordon Co line near Pinhoti Trail on Chestnut Mountain has been verified by a Forest Service employee. Hot as it is, imagine trying to fight a difficult-to-reach fire miles into the remote woods on the side of a mountain. Folks putting their butts on the line to keep the world from burning down.

As-of 11 PM last night the fire was contained, and officials expected to have it extinguished early Monday. Chestnut Mountain is behind Mountain Top Boys Home off GA. 136 between Villanow and Calhoun.

Temperatures have exceeded 100° every day since the middle of last week. Unofficial reports of 107° to 110° in Walker County Saturday, breaking daily and all-time records.

Have you checked on the older people you know, to make sure they’re OK in the heat? Everybody indoors with A/C or at least a fan? A person or animal can very easily die in heat like this, so be diligent and don’t assume everybody’s OK if you haven’t checked. If you need a fan, or are willing to get somebody one (or a window unit) please let us know here.

Will SunRae begin bottling water in Kensington the first week of July as promised? If you still believe that, Bebe has some Arizona swampland to sell you on your way to vote.

Two weeks ago a couple from Chattanooga stole $1,800 of movies from Walmart LaFayette by putting them inside a cooler. They then did the same thing in Fort O, where they were eventually caught.

We have plenty of home-grown criminals without Chattanooga imports:

Guy arrested last week in Naomi for meth production.

Girl arrested (and her friend wanted) for stealing from a dead lady in LaFayette.

Last week Walker County Animal Shelter announced it was closing temporarily under quarantine for unspecified reasons. According to reports over the weekend, the shelter has an outbreak of Parvo. They expect to reopen next Monday, July 9th.

Earlier this year GA Dept of Community Health, which oversees insurance plans for many government workers, changed employee insurance contributions from 20% of salary to a set dollar amount. But in some cases the amount is more than the employee actually makes – forcing layoffs at libraries and schools around the state.

The Dalton paper now requires a paid subscription to access most useful content on its Web site. More papers around the country are doing this in an attempt to make money, but seems like it just drives readers to other news sources. What do you think? If all the papers required subscriptions to access their content, would you pay?

July 1 is the beginning of Georgia’s fiscal year 2013. That means a plethora of new laws started yesterday. Here’s a look at some of them from the Rome News Tribune.

July 1 marked four years since the very first LaFayette Underground blog post. The first little piece, Site Manifesto, was followed by three more during July 2009. The blog was abandoned after that, then renamed and relaunched in October 2010. We’ve been here ever since.

Every post can be read in order by following the “Next Post >>” links at the bottom of each page.

“Good leaders abhor wrongdoing of all kinds; sound leadership has a moral foundation.” / Proverbs 16:12

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