Daniel Hendley, 25 years old, is being sought by Chattanooga PD. He’s got relatives in LaFayette and several people have apparently seen him here in the last few days. He likes to hang out where he can use WiFi, has been reportedly seen at Krystal, McDonalds, Bi-Lo, a gas station, and elsewhere in town. He’s also been spotted in Rossville and Catoosa County.

Hendley has tattoos on his arms and right knuckles, short haircut, last seen with a blue backpack and wearing one of those flat bill Cookie Monster hats.

If you see him call Walker Co Sheriff’s Office. If they don’t know what you’re talking about, they can verify his status in Tennessee using NCIC. You can also call Chattanooga PD. He needs to be off the street.   

WQCH Radio, 07/10/13: “THE WALKER TRANSIT SYSTEM’S CURRENT BUS SERVICE MAY BE MODIFIED, BUT IT WILL NOT BE SHUT DOWN. THAT’S THE WORD FROM WALKER COUNTY COMMISSIONER BEBE HEISKELL.

“SHE SAID IT WILL BE THE END OF JULY BEFORE A DECISION IS MADE ON THE TRANSIT SYSTEM’S FUTURE, BUT QUOTE: ‘WE’RE NOT GOING TO CLOSE IT’. WALKER TRANSIT IS CURRENTLY OPERATING AS IT HAS FOR THE PAST 6 YEARS.

“IN THE MEAN TIME, HEISKELL SAID SHE IS WORKING WITH STATE SENATOR JEFF MULLIS, THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND OTHERS, TO NEGOTIATE A LOWER COST FOR THE LOCAL SHARE OF FUNDING THE SERVICE.

“THE COMMISSIONER POSTPONED APPROVAL OF THE CURRENT CONTRACT’S RENEWAL, WHICH WOULD COST THE TAXPAYERS 348-THOUSAND DOLLARS OVER THE NEXT YEAR. ‘IT’S MONEY WE JUST DON’T HAVE’, SHE SAID, ADDING THAT WALKER COUNTY ‘HAS THE ONLY TRANSIT SYSTEM IN THIS AREA THAT PROVIDES BUS SERVICE OTHER THAN MEDICAL TRANSPORT. THE MONEY IS IMPORTANT’, HEISKELL SAID, ‘BUT IF WE CUT THE SERVICE BACK, WE WILL NOT CUT MEDICAL TRANSPORT. THAT’S A SERVICE THAT HAS BECOME VERY NECESSARY’.”

The biggest issue here is WHY do we not have this money. Obviously somebody’s in charge of county finances right? Someone sets a budget and oversees how the money is spent, making sure that our priorities are in order? Who’s supposed to be doing that?

Next, she’s basically hinting that Walker Transit will be for medical purposes only. That cuts out at least half of the current clients who use it. No more shopping trips or visits to the Senior Center for Neemaw.

Despite multiple reports saying Walker Transit is operating “normally” there are conflicting reports about the service being restricted to medical trips only. Some in the community say they were told it’s already just for medical visits, and some have said it’s operating normally but medical trips get “priority.”

There would be no program left to speak of if Wendy Pritchard hadn’t stuck her neck out to make the media aware of what was happening (losing her own job in the process) and so many of you hadn’t called Bebe and told her where she could ride the bus to for trying to kill it.   

Walker Co. Sheriff’s Office is looking for 17-year-old runaway Ashley White.

White was last seen in Chickamauga and has a Chickamauga address but grew up in LaFayette. She has family in LaFayette, Chickamauga, and apparently Florida.

According to CatWalkChatt, White has been missing since June 24th.   

Four months until the city election and outgoing mayor Neal Florence has already basically endorsed Councilman Andy Arnold to be his replacement.

“Arnold, the first candidate to announce, said he doesn’t plan any big changes if elected mayor.”

Running on a “no changes” platform in LaFayette doesn’t seem like the best idea, but whatever he wants to do..

Arnold is finishing up his third term as Councilman from Ward 1. His performance in that role definitely makes him the mayoral candidate of choice for those who have no desire for change in the city.   

Meanwhile, LaFayette firer fighter Mel Gunnells has publicly said he also intends to run for Arnold’s soon to be vacated seat on the council.   

City election qualification will be August 26-28. Qualification fee for City Council is $108; anyone wishing to run for Mayor will need to bring $126.

A fire late Saturday night completely destroyed a home on South Oakland Drive, off Burnt Mill Rd. The Bishops, family of four, were not at home when it caught fire.           

Major construction at LaFayette library ended Friday, and may never resume. Commissioner Heiskell in this article says she has “about 500” other projects to fund, and it would be “un-fair to other projects” if the library was made a priority.

That’s pretty much the gist of the problem. She’s promised more than she can do, and all the other projects she promised to her cronies have to come first.

“Eubanks said, ‘I do understand that the county is willing to do that. It’s just unfortunate that it has to be spread over two SPLOST cycles. So we have a lot riding on it and we do hope it passes in November.'”

Hate to see the library director falling into bebe’s plan to use this as a means of getting SPLOST renewed. The library backed SPLOST in 2008 and is being repaid with boarded up windows.

The library has to be nice because they have six or eight different funding sources, most of which are legally allowed to defund it (like the school system did) but she needs to just.. not comment at all vs. kissing Bebe’s butt again when we all know what you get for that.   

WQCH Radio, 07/11/13: “ON ANOTHER TOPIC – THE TEMPORARY ‘CEASE WORK’ ORDER ON THE LAFAYETTE – WALKER LIBRARY RENOVATION – HEISKELL AGAIN AFFIRMED THAT PASSAGE OF THE SPLOST VOTE IN NOVEMBER WILL MAKE FUNDS AVAILABLE TO FINISH THE PROJECT. ‘I DON’T WANT TO SEE THE LIBRARY FAIL’, SHE SAID.

“‘THERE IS A CONCERTED EFFORT TO DEFEAT THE SPLOST’, HEISKELL SAID. ‘THEY’RE SAYING IT’S ANOTHER PENNY TAX – BUT THIS IS NOT A ‘NEW’ TAX. IT WOULD BE A CONTINUATION OF THE SAME PENNY OF SALES TAX WE’VE HAD SINCE 1987′. SHE ADDED THAT EVERY SPLOST VOTE IN WALKER COUNTY HAS ‘PASSED OVERWHELMINGLY’ SINCE THE BEGINNING. VOTERS WILL DECIDE IN NOVEMBER WHERE TO EXTEND THE SPECIAL PURPOSE LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX FOR ANOTHER 5-YEAR RUN.”

There’s no organized effort to defeat SPLOST, but there probably should be. $38 million removed from the pockets of Walker County residents in a six year period, used for monuments to Bebe’s political supporters and her pet projects.

Heiskell has promised to do things with the money every time it’s up for a vote that she doesn’t do. The library renovations, which now aren’t happening, were supposed to come out of the last SPLOST tax cycle but she wasted it on other things. Now she’s saying you need to vote for it again so she can do what she promised to do last time. Except there’s no guarantee she’ll do it this time, either.

It’s definitely not a new tax, it’s the old tax from 1987. And you have an opportunity to END it in November. How often do you get a chance to vote on LOWERING your own taxes?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me six times… Shame on me. Walker County is waking up and won’t be fooled by this language and these threats again.   

Ex-Catoosa deputy sentenced to seven years in jail for sex crimes (including making photos of the 16-year-old he was sleeping with) had his sentence reduced to just five years, with only two of those actually behind bars.

He’s 39, an authority figure, and a member of law enforcement. He should be punished MORE than the average person would be, but local judges once again show preferential treatment and favoritism towards members of law enforcement.

Good job making an example of this guy. They clearly illustrated how system doesn’t care about cops who molest teenagers and mistreat women.   

LaFayette Downtown Development Authority has decided there’s no winner for the downtown logo contest. DDA members will now work on their own logos instead.

LU told you so. Nobody who can do quality logo/design work wants to do it for $50.   

Library supporters, Walker Transit riders, people who enjoy paved roads… Many of the current problems Walker County is facing could have been avoided if a few more voters had made better choices last July and November.

A year ago we were early voting. 2016 is still a long, long way off.   

David Pennington is going to need all the money and support he can get to defeat Nathan Deal next summer in the governor’s race, but so far even his friends in Dalton have shied away from endorsing him outright. At this point Pennington is the only candidate from any party with declared plans to challenge Deal next year.

Deal isn’t especially concerned about Pennington’s presence in the race.   

LaFayette PD is looking to hire a new patrol officer.   

 
During the first six months of the year, foreclosures in Georgia were down 47% compared to 2012 – but GA is still 5th highest in the country for foreclosures.

In this area property prices seem to have stabilized, but there’s not exactly a noticeable upsurge in demand for houses, either.   

After two years, Georgia’s controversial laws meant to stem illegal immigrant employment have mostly been ineffective. Some larger farms have begun to verify employee status, but most smaller operations have continued as normal after a few initial worker shortages.   

A little look at Sew Cute.   

Georgia’s back to school sales-tax holiday will be August 9th and 10th. Summer’s flying by..

Got your kids’ supplies yet? Anybody even thinking about school stuff at this point?   

The mayor of Dorset Minnesota, population 22 (or 28), is four years old.

Maybe we need to consider this for LaFayette in November. He’d certainly be more mature than some of the leaders LaFayette has had in recent years.   

Georgia is free from the rules and standardized tests associated with No Child Left Behind. NCLB is being replaced by federal “Common Core” curriculum, which of course allows complete teacher flexibility and doesn’t involve any testing whatsoever… Wait, what? Common Core has rules too, and standardized tests, and the tests cost twice as much per student ($18.50) as the regular CRCT?

That’s… the same only worse..   

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