“God bless ya. I hope you can pay your taxes. I hope I can too.” –Commissioner Heiskell, who makes $105,000 a year, after raising property taxes 69%

When you have one person in charge, funding priorities match that person’s priorities.

If the sole commissioner doesn’t like libraries or public transit, and wants her own farm to play with, guess what happens? Exactly.

Time to end Sole Commissioner in Walker County. Join the 1,450 who have already signed LU’s petition online; volunteers going door to door in subdivisions all over the county have collected a few hundred more and have barely gotten started.       

As LU reported earlier this week, 16-year-old runaway Brittany Clift was located Tuesday and taken into custody after trying to hide from police. LPD credits “social media” for helping find her and convincing her to contact her family.

Clift was taken into police custody and appeared Wednesday before a juvenile court judge, due to having run away three times in the last year.

The judge did nothing, advising Clift not to run away again, and returned her to the care of her mother. Clift then went on social media to brag about eating ice cream and sleeping with a boy while police were beating the bushes to find her and half the town was worried she had died.   

Last night the Ramblers were defeated by Northwest Whitfield, 20 to 41. LHS falls to 2-2 for the season, Bruins are now 3-1. That’s a tough score, but somewhat better than the one posted by Channel 9 at halftime:

Next week is a road game vs. undefeated (4-0) Southeast Whitfield.         

Duke St. man arrested, charged with statutory rape and sending inappropriate images to an underage girl. He’s 21, she’s now 15 but was 14 at the time of their contact. He faces a total of four charges for the incident(s).   

A high-profile county employee has responded to tax meeting videos and the LU sole commissioner petition with a comment on Facebook:

How can anybody defend this attitude towards citizens from government?

Mr. Jones works as an event planner or some similarly made-up well-paid job at Mountain Cove Farms. (He replaced Bebe’s granddaughter Morgan when she left to have a baby.) Alfred was also treasurer of the SPLOST renewal campaign and owns Jones Par 4 golf course in Rock Spring along with his children.

Here he is working hard at the Farm a few weeks ago, rocking a chair into dust and waving at any car that happened to drive by (This is a PAYING JOB):

Your tax dollars at work, folks. This is what we get with sole commissioner government.   

Friday week-ago, a Tunnel Hill woman with possible LaFayette ties was lured to a home in Ringgold and shot to death by a woman hoping to steal her baby.

Initial reports said Ms. Roberts had broken into the home and the shooting was self defense, but now it appears she was murdered by Catherine J. Goins of Hixson, TN.

Goins was reportedly faking pregnancy before allegedly killing Roberts for her child(ren), and briefly took two of the murder victim’s kids into her care after the shooting. (A judge has wisely ruled against allowing Goins to bond out of Catoosa County jail.

Roberts, single mom of three, was thirty.         

Much of Walker County, including Lookout Mountain, the Cove/Kensington area, and Chickamauga, will be tied up in traffic this weekend (especially Sunday) for the bike portion of Ironman Chattanooga.

Lots of free activities inside public parks are planned in the same area today. Cloudland Canyon on Lookout Mountain has a long list of family activities scheduled, and also asks for volunteers to help with maintenance.

In Chattooga County, Sloppy Floyd State Park is having a promotion for “National Hunting and Fishing Day” while Point Park on the Tennessee side of Lookout has waived its usual admission and parking fees.     

Closer to home, tonight the city will show “Hook” for the final “Movies in the Park” of 2014. Film starts around 8.   

City of LaFayette set its 2015 budget during a meeting Wednesday night that doesn’t seem to have been announced anywhere. Total budget is $24.3 million, $400k less than the current year:

WQCH Radio, 09/25/14: “THE LAFAYETTE CITY COUNCIL APPROVED A 24.3-MILLION DOLLAR BALANCED BUDGET, AT A SPECIAL CALLED MEETING WEDNESDAY EVENING. THE BUDGET MEETING WAS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO HAVE THE NEW BUDGET IN-PLACE AS THE NEW FISCAL YEAR STARTS ON OCTOBER 1st.

“MAYOR ANDY ARNOLD CALLED IT ANOTHER ‘FLAT TIRE’ BUDGET, BUT ADDED THAT A FEW CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT ITEMS WERE ADDED. COUNCILMAN BEACHER GARMANY THEN ADDED, HOWEVER, THAT ‘IF THE MONEY DOESN’T COME IN, THE BUDGETED IMPROVEMENTS WILL NOT BE MADE’.

“THE FISCAL 2015 BUDGET IS ACTUALLY AROUND 400-THOUSAND DOLLARS LOWER THAN THE 2014 SPENDING PLAN.

“AS IN YEARS PAST, REVENUES FROM THE ELECTRIC, GAS AND WATER DEPARTMENTS WILL SUPPLEMENT AREAS THAT TYPICALLY LOSE MONEY, INCLUDING: THE GOLF COURSE, EXPECTED TO LOSE ALMOST 100-THOUSAND DOLLARS, THE BARWICK-LAFAYETTE AIRPORT, PROJECTED TO LOSE 84-THOUSAND, AND GARBAGE SERVICE, WHICH COULD LOSE OVER 61-THOUSAND DOLLARS OVER THE COMING YEAR.

“OUTSIDE OF ‘RECOUPED’ EXPENSES, SUCH AS THE COST OF ELECTRICITY AND NATURAL GAS, THE CITY’S LARGEST DEPARTMENTAL EXPENSE IS POLICE, COURT AND ANIMAL CONTROL WITH A COMBINED BUDGET OF 1.7-MILLION DOLLARS. ADMINISTRATION COST IS NEXT, AT 820-THOUSAND.

“CITY MANAGER DAVID HAMILTON SAID HE’LL BE WATCHING THE COST OF ELECTRICITY CLOSELY, OVER THE COMING MONTHS. HE’S EXPECTING THE CITY’S WHOLESALE COST FOR ELECTRICITY TO CLIMB SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN FISCAL 2015.

“IN OTHER BUSINESS, THE COUNCIL APPROVED PURCHASE OF A 2013 CHEVY MALIBU FROM JACKSON CHEVROLET AT A COST OF $14,500. THAT VEHICLE WILL BE DRIVEN BY DDA DIRECTOR AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPER, MATTHEW WILLIAMS. THE CITY’S SUV HE HAD BEEN DRIVING, STOPPED RUNNING DUE TO TRANSMISSION PROBLEMS.”

Golf course: still an albatross on the city’s neck. The council needs to do more to tighten that operation up so it stops losing that kind of money, or sell it to someone else. Hate to sound like a broken record, but the problem still exists and has for a decade or more.

The city should lease the golf course to an outside entity for a token amount so that business can run the course at a profit for itself. Leasing the course for $1 a year to someone else would save LaFayette’s budget at least $99,999.   

74-year-old woman from Cherokee Co. Alabama arrested for repeatedly stealing flowers out of public planters in Lyerly.

Sometimes you just GOTTA have some mums.   

GA Attorney General’s office has paid a $10,000 fine (your tax dollars) handed down for its mishandling of an ethics case against Gov. Deal.

In probably related news, recent polls show Deal and challenger Jason Carter essentially tied in public opinion for the November election.   

Walmart recently announced a “Neighborhood Market” for Fort O. Now Dalton will be getting one too.

The retail giant’s market grocery concept is a smaller store meant to compete with gas stations and dollar stores for quick impulse purchases.   

Burtco Enterprises is being bought out by Dixie Group. The Dalton-based company’s Chickamauga plant will remain open but a small number of employees could lose their jobs.   

Recent polls show more than half of US adults think a third major political party is needed. But those same people always vote for candidates in the two major parties, saying third party candidates are a wasted vote. Go figure.

What we need isn’t more party, it’s less. Every race, every office, should be non-partisan so voters focus on the issues and not their “team.”   

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