07.04
Happy Independence Day!
America was founded by dissatisfied people who had enough of the status quo, who fought against the old ways and governments where some men had more rights than others. On Independence Day not only do we celebrate our right to stand up and speak, to disagree with each other on occasion, and to demand equal treatment, we celebrate the ones who did those things even when they weren’t supposed to as they rebelled and built a new nation from the ground up.
Also: Thoughts on America this July 4th from the Peach Pundit.
If you haven’t gotten your fireworks fix yet, there will be small shows tonight at Sloppy Floyd State Park near Summerville and in Cloudland Canyon towards Trenton. Here’s some info about the one at Sloppy Floyd.
40 people attended last year, this says, so you can avoid the crowds and it only costs $5.
The city’s new fire and police chiefs have new ideas for their respective departments. Fire Chief Busby hopes to lower the fire insurance rating to save us all money, while Police Chief Clift plans to send more cops to visit schools and hold community events in the projects.
Walker County Schools’ new boss is a former toy store manager, a Star Wars fan, a high school basketball star, and until last week worked for Catoosa schools. His wife still works for that system, and they live in Catoosa off Three Notch Rd.
The Walker Animal Shelter closure was prompted by two dogs who died of what’s suspected to be parvo. Shelter leaders say the dogs came in with it, and they’re cleaning everything top to bottom to keep the disease from spreading inside. The quarantine is to keep it from moving beyond the shelter walls.
After ten years of fighting, LaFayette Housing Authority is about to take bids to tear down the two-story apartments at Foster Circle and begin building their replacements on Foster and at S. Steele St.
We wrote about this plan in September 2010, and it hasn’t moved a bit since then because HUD tried to get back money LHA had saved for the project. Basically the federal government attempted to punish a local agency for being efficient and saving some of its budget each year. That’s a no-no in today’s America.
It’s a project badly needed and long overdue. Not just for the residents of housing, but to clean up the most neglected block of property inside LaFayette city limits. LaFayette Housing Authority, independent of the city government, is a well run agency.
Schools are laying off teachers, libraries are cutting hours and staff – meanwhile GA is known around the region as the best place to find work if you’re a coach because supplemental pay is so high.
Walker County (except Gordon Lee in Chickamauga) isn’t mentioned in the article, but the Football Coach and Athletic Director in Dade is making $17k extra a year, and the coach in Calhoun pulls down over $25 thousand a year for his role in sports. Basketball coaches in Dade also make $9 grand a year on top of their regular pay.
Photo update on Austin Whitten:
An independent study of hospital safety recently gave Hutcheson a “C” grade. The hospital is fighting it because they didn’t pay for the study.
In Hamilton County TN, industrial property is in such demand they’re cleaning up brownfield sites and selling them for big money. In Walker, a few miles away, we can’t give our business sites away – brownfield or otherwise. (And SunRae Water doesn’t count until they actually start bottling water.)
Walker County should have billboards all over Hamilton County reminding these business prospects how much cheaper it would be for them to set up down here.
Our friend Les lost control of Peerless Mill in Rossville yesterday after years of fighting over the property. Walker County’s friendly business climate rolls on.
A state legislator from Atlanta wants to make it illegal to show mugshots online. He’s going to introduce a bill doing just that next year, but it won’t go anywhere. Ridiculous.
GDOT, in its infinite transportation wisdom, has approved several high-speed rail routes for future development. But analysis shows that two of the three will be more costly and time consuming than flying to the same destinations.
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