Sunday thousands of Ironman Chattanooga bicyclists raced through Walker County. The event put Walker on a world stage, seen and visited by thousands of athletes, their families, support teams, fans, and curious onlookers who spent money in the county and may be convinced to return and spend more later on. The event also disrupted traffic and inconvenienced residents for an entire day while consuming law enforcement and emergency response resources, with little immediate benefit.

The race was temporarily disrupted by multiple incidents of “sabotage.” Per various reports, nails or similar sharp objects were left in the roadway on West Cove and Hog Jowl Road, taking out at least thirty bike tires. Vandals also spread out oil in two locations on Cove Road, near South Cedar Rd. (shown below) and Tatum Rd.

It’s unclear if the disruptions were done by locals angry about the bicycle invasion or by someone involved in (or following) the race. Ironman officials said “sabotage” is (for some reason) common during these events.           

(Click to advance gallery – mouseover for captions.)

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During Thursday’s business meeting, Commissioner Heiskell approved her 2015 county budget, $3 million higher than the county’s last formal (2012) budget.

Two newspaper articles have been released since, and both contain errors or omit major details – but they also contain information not previously known: the budget has $1 million for something the Commissioner refuses to explain, and she still hasn’t legally adopted a real budget for fiscal year 2014, which ends tomorrow.

Times Free Press mistakenly says the budget is only an 18% increase. That might be what the Commissioner said, but (as discussed here previously more than once) it’s 69% over the previous year for the portion set by the general government.

Here’s the interesting part of THAT link: “Compared to last year’s budget, these are the biggest increases in Walker County spending: A $1 million increase for something listed on the budget as ‘other financial services.’ Heiskell has not been clear on what specifically that money goes toward. ..”

The local paper glosses over all that and claims all the increases are due to state laws, but adds a new fact about the 2014 budget:

“The operating budget for 2014 has been amended to reflect changes in revenue and expenditures. Such adjustments are normal, as the state requires balanced budgets. Public hearings on the amended, and final, budget for 2014 and its adoption are now scheduled for Oct. 9.”

So we won’t have a real budget for fiscal 2014 (Which runs October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014) until nine days into the next fiscal year. Complying with the letter – but absolutely NOT the intention – of state law. That’s Our Bebe!™   

Saturday night around 11, Walker County Cave & Cliff Rescue was called out to conduct a ground search for missing person(s) in the vicinity of Pigeon Mountain Country Store at the 193/341/Hog Jowl intersection in Kensington.

(Walker County dispatch accidentally called up the CERT team instead of Cave and Cliff, likely resulting in a lot of half-asleep and very pissed off elderly ladies getting dressed before being sent back to bed around midnight.)

Two individuals who got lost in the woods were successfully located by the cave team and returned to their vehicle by 1 AM.     

Sheriff’s Office asks for help ID’ing this man who broke into a Chickamauga home early Thursday morning.   

More ugly details from Friday night’s 41-20 LHS football defeat against Northwest Whitfield.

In better news, here’s a short video highlight from LHS Marching Band competing in an event down in Armuchee on Saturday:

Good job LHS Rambler Band!     

Latest local jail bookings.   

LU Sole Commissioner Vote Petition has now been signed online by over 1,500 people and at least 150 more (conservative estimate) in person. Eventually Mullis, Tarvin, and Deffenbaugh will have to start paying attention to their constituents.   

GDOT has purchased $12,480 in advertising from GPB, reminding Georgia residents how great the agency is. No information or updates, just spending money to brag on itself.

That’d fix a few potholes, at least.   

Movie in the Park “Hook” in Joe Stock Saturday night. Final outdoor movie of 2014.     

Things we’ll never see in Walker County: Floyd Co. Sheriff’s Office buying cameras to be worn by some deputies, trial program may lead to cameras attached to all Floyd officers on duty.

The program can be expensive, but LU (and likely a majority of residents) would gladly pay an extra $5 per year in taxes if it meant Bruce Coker would have a camera strapped to his chest every time he was on duty.   

Rabies vaccines will be spread through the woods of Northwest Georgia via helicopter starting October 7th. Some urban areas will be “hand baited” from the ground during the same week.

Georgia is one of the nation’s worse for rabies cases, especially among the raccoons these packets target.   

IRS office in Dalton has closed, permanently. Those in need of IRS services locally are being directed to the agency’s Chattanooga branch.   

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