Tuesday Federal Judge Harold L Murphy ordered Walker County to pay its $8.7 million share of Hutcheson debt owed to Erlanger hospital, plus interest. No “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts” – the debt is due.

Judge Murphy rejected every aspect of Walker County’s legal argument against paying the debt, noting that Don Oliver, the hospital lawyer who set up the deal Walker County is now fighting against, is also Walker County’s own county attorney. He also ruled additional legal costs and other expenses owed to Erlanger should be settled in a jury trial if Erlanger chooses to pursue them.

At one point, Erlanger offered to settle the case with Walker minus interest owed, and would have let the county make small monthly payments over time to reduce the impact on taxpayers. The county, or specifically its sole elected leader, told Erlanger where they could shove that offer – so who could blame Erlanger now if they go for everything they’re entitled to and more?

By comparison, Catoosa made the same debt deal with Erlanger Walker made and was able to settle for $6.7 million (a $2 million discount) because they cooperated and didn’t show their asses when asked to pay up like Walker has done and continues to do.

Less than 24 hours after Judge Murphy’s decision came down, Walker County threw more money away by appealing the judgment to a higher court. That means this won’t be resolved until after the election, making it someone else’s problem after Bebe leaves office and county attorney Don “LSD is my drug of choice” Oliver has eased into a hazy retirement.

Six months from now the county will STILL owe $8.7 million, plus have more legal bills to somehow cover – something lawyers Stuart James and Don Oliver, both taking us to the cleaners with this stupid case, don’t mind one bit.     

During the last week, Bebe bragged on social media about Walker County’s supposedly low tax rate – and got caught in a “mistake” when she claimed again we’re among Georgia’s least taxed.

  

Walker isn’t even the least taxed of its neighboring counties, much less of the state – and we get no services compared to most of Georgia’s 158 other counties. (The tax rate shown is worse when you don’t include the “rollback” she applies outside the cities. Inside the cities you pay way more. And outside the cities there’s that pesky fire fee.)

Still no word from Bebe if she intends to change the county’s tax rate after seeing new property appraisals.

Based on incomplete numbers, the Times Free Press figures Walker County property values went up by about $57 million during the recent reassessment. They estimate the county’s total tax digest – the value of taxable properties – at $1.312 billion.

If you feel your property reappraisal is too high, you have a few weeks left to appeal.     

The Ramblers opened at home Friday night against Trion.

Hopes for a rare football win against the Bulldogs quickly faded as LaFayette fell to 29-13 by the half. After a fast 4th quarter where neither team bothered to stop the clock, the final score at Jack King Stadium was Trion 43, LaFayette 20.

The Ramblers are 1-1, Trion is 1-0.

Next week the Ramblers have a road game at Gordon Lee.               

Some good news on the property tax front: Walker County Schools is lowering its property tax rate to make up for higher property appraisals, while keeping its budget steady.

If your property assessment is higher this year, your school tax will remain about the same. If you’re one of the lucky few whose assessment held the same or went down, you’ll pay less. To the schools, anyway.

WQCH Radio, 08/20/16: “NO PROPERTY TAX INCREASE THIS YEAR FROM THE WALKER COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM, IN FACT, THEY PLAN TO ROLL-BACK THE MILLAGE RATE.

“FINANCE DIRECTOR PHYLLIS COPELAND SAID THE TAX MILLAGE RATE WILL BE DROPPING FROM 17.4 LAST YEAR, TO 16.6 MILLS. HOWEVER, THE LOWER MILLAGE RATE WILL RAISE NEARLY THE SAME REVENUE FOR SCHOOLS. THE DIFFERENCE IS THE REASSESSMENT OF PROPERTIES IN WALKER COUNTY.

“THE STATE-MANDATED REASSESSMENT HAS RAISED THE OVERALL VALUE OF PROPERTIES, COUNTY-WIDE. THAT VALUE IS KNOWN AS ‘THE DIGEST’. WITH A HIGHER DIGEST VALUE, A SMALLER MILLAGE RATE CAN RAISE A SIMILAR TOTAL FOR THE SCHOOLS.

“THE TOTAL SCHOOL BUDGET FOR THE COMING YEAR IS 93.8 MILLION DOLLARS, INCLUDING A RESERVE. LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES WILL PAY ABOUT 29-PERCENT OF THAT TOTAL.

“THE SCHOOL BOARD WILL MEET ON SEPTEMBER 1st TO APPROVE THE PROPOSED TAX MILLAGE RATE, AND TAX BILLS SHOULD BE MAILED IN OCTOBER.”

Lookout Mountain is contemplating a 5% tax cut, which will still bring that city in more revenue after the property reappraisals. Rossville, by contrast, announced plans last week to raise its citizen’s property taxes even higher than the reappraisals – on top of quietly increasing sewer fees not long ago.

No word yet from Commissioner Heiskell or the LaFayette Council what their portions of the tax bill will do; up, down, or neutral. We should find out before the end of the month what they (and Chickamauga) intend to do.   

In a carefully-worded press release, Walker County claimed it’s only been billed $65,000 in legal fees associated with the Hutcheson/Erlanger case.

“Attorney Stuart James, saying it was ‘a step in being totally transparent with the public,’ said his firm of James, James and Joyner of Chattanooga has billed Walker County $62,419 for services in the Hutcheson Hospital litigation, while Jenkins and Bowen, based in Cartersville, has received a $10,000 retainer for their services. To date, the firm has billed less than $2500 against the retainer.”

BILLED is the key word here. The release is misleading because it says how much the county’s been “billed” not what it owes, or will be billed, or has paid overall. (The Chattanooga paper asked the county for copies of those bills and was told no bills exist.)

With multiple high-end lawyers involved for a year or more now, this case is costing us way, way more than $65,000 – a bill that grows larger every day, along with debts owed to Erlanger.   

In response to the news of Walker County spending $65,000+ on legal bills for Hutcheson, Shannon Whitfield said he doesn’t know if he’d settle the lawsuit from Erlanger or not.

So he thinks there’s some possible merit to the case? Hutcheson and the county took a multi-million-dollar loan from Erlanger, promised to pay it back, and then didn’t. Every day the case drags on makes it cost more.

Perry Lamb, by contrast, said the weak desperate case is exactly that, and he’d work to settle it in a way that does the least damage to taxpayers.

Is Shannon Whitfield an idiot, or does he actually not know what he’ll do with the case until his unnamed advisors tell him what he thinks?

Not taking a position on Hutcheson’s lawsuit DID give Whitfield opportunity to attack his opponent, who works for Erlanger (also formerly Hutcheson) and HAS taken a clear position on the legal battle.

Lamb has spent over $6,000 out of his own pocket for his campaign, and says he has taken in maybe a thousand from people he works with at Erlanger – co-workers who know him, not hospital administrators.

Shannon Whitfield has spent $0 out of his own pocket for his campaign and has taken in thousands from all manner of business interests that will want to do business with Walker after he takes office.

Ironic that Whitfield criticizes Lamb for being one of 5,000+ people who work at Erlanger, somehow that’s a conflict, when he’s the CFO of the county’s fuel vendor, which belongs to his father – and he’s admitted he plans to keep doing business with himself after taking office.   

The November election is 80 days away and the campaign is heating up.

(Whatever you do, don’t vote for another candidate who put all her billboards in the wrong county.)

A few months ago, candidate Shannon Whitfield was considered a shoe-in to replace Bebe Heiskell, but now he’s losing support and voter confidence due to piles of unanswered questions, like the one below, on social media and elsewhere.

Whitfield gives prompt answers to Facebookers commenting about how great he is, but when somebody asks a serious question like this one, there’s nothing. No answer, or a vague non-response about getting more information. (Hardly the first example of his indifference shared here.)

For a candidate running on transparency, Shannon’s not very transparent or forthcoming.     

A year or so ago, Commissioner Heiskell justified the million-dollar purchase of the old Covenant Bank building in Rock Spring by saying the tax office in LaFayette, former Kitchens Clinic, was in too bad a shape to occupy and wasn’t repairable.

Now that she’s moved the tax office into that remodeled bank, she’s going to… repair the old clinic and move county workers in there because of ANOTHER county facility she hasn’t maintained.

WQCH Radio, 08/16/16: “WALKER COUNTY MAY HAVE TO ‘TAKE BACK’ IT’S OFFER OF DONATING THE FORMER TAX OFFICE BUILDING TO THE CITY OF LAFAYETTE. COMMISSIONER BEBE HEISKELL SAID FRIDAY, THAT THE COUNTY MAY NEED TO USE THE BUILDING FOR AN OFFICE SWAP.

“SHE SAID EXTENSIVE STRUCTURAL TERMITE DAMAGE HAS BEEN FOUND IN COURTHOUSE ANNEX-2, WHICH HOUSES THE EXTENSION SERVICE AND MAGISTRATE COURT – AND THAT THE JUVENILE COURT HAS OUTGROWN IT’S QUARTERS IN THE MAIN COURTHOUSE.

“ONE SOLUTION BEING CONSIDERED IS TO GUT AND REBUILD THE INTERIOR OF THE FORMER CLINIC BUILDING ON SOUTH MAIN, WHICH USED TO HOUSE THE TAX OFFICE. IT WAS CLOSED DUE TO A HEALTH THREAT FROM RECURRING MOLD INSIDE, AND EMPLOYEES WERE MOVED TO THE FORMER STEARN’S BANK BUILDING AT ROCK SPRING.

“HEISKELL SAID THE COUNTY MIGHT RE-CONSTRUCT THE BUILDING’S INTERIOR TO HOUSE THE JUVENILE COURT, MAGISTRATE COURT AND THE EXTENSION OFFICE. ‘ALL THOSE OFFICES HAVE LOOKED AT THE SPACE AND APPROVED A MOVE, SHOULD WE GO THAT DIRECTION’ HEISKELL SAID.”

Seems the mold wasn’t too bad to clean up afterall.

It’s suggested this is Heiskell’s public response to Shannon Whitfield’s private commitments to county employees that he’ll build new offices for them if they support his campaign.

Neither Whitfield nor Heiskell has said what money they’ll do any of this with, since the county’s got eighty something million in debt to pay off and a few thousand miles of bad roads and bridges to repair before anything else should be done.   

Walker County Animal Shelter is going under quarantine for the next two weeks because of a parvo outbreak. That means no animals in or out of the facility for most of August.

Friends of Walker County Animal Shelter Facebook, 08/16/16: “Due to a Parvo outbreak at Walker County Animal Shelter the shelter will be quarantined for 2 weeks. This means nothing in and nothing out during those two weeks. But what about all the dogs that are in the shelter now? Well that’s when our Angels showed up! Today we have been clearing out the shelter with Angels Among Us Pet Rescue! Their whole team of volunteers showed up with loads of transporters and helped us get every dog out that isn’t on a stray hold. 47 dogs!”

(How do they keep the 47 moved dogs from spreading parvo to those facilities?)

The same thing happened in 2012 and 2013. The shelter shut down for weeks due to what later turned out to be parvo.   

Monday evening two homes in Walker County, one inside LaFayette and one in Noble, were destroyed by fire.

City fire crews were dispatched to Henderson Street in West LaFayette around 5 PM to battle a blaze inside a home. The house looks like a complete loss, but fire fighters did rescue a litter of puppies from the basement of the home.

A second blaze was called in at 9:20 on Wheeler Road in Noble. That home, which was unoccupied, also appears to be a complete loss.

There’s no obvious connection between the two properties other than them both burning down on the same day.       

Updated reports about the major drug ring raid in Rossville last Thursday verify the drugs involved are prescription pills.

Involved suspects allegedly purchased narcotics in bulk and distributed them locally. There are also rumors of guns involved, and federal agencies are thought to have joined the investigation, along with local officers in the Drug Task Force.

As reported previously, arrested suspects include Cindy Boatwright Apostol, Theodore H Apostol Jr, and Theodore H Apostol III, along with Joshua Hayes, Krysten Hayes, and Johnny Boatwright, Sr.   

More details on Catoosa church child molestation case.

Anthony Ray Stanley is a registered sex offender in Whitfield County but was employed to do construction at Dogwood Christian Academy / Dogwood Baptist in Tunnel Hill, in Catoosa. That’s where he allegedly kissed, questioned, and touched two girls under the age of ten last week.

A church leader admits he knew Stanley was a convicted child molester but hired him to work at the private school around children anyway, believing he had changed. The two met through a prison ministry.

Giving a convicted child molester, even one honestly trying to reform and stay on the right path, a job working with children was a bad idea all around – something equivalent of giving a convicted drug addict a job in a pharmacy or a convicted embezzler a job in a bank.

As a result, two girls’ lives are changed for the worse and Mr. Stanley is likely going back to prison for a long, long time.   

How do leading Commissioner candidates Perry Lamb and Shannon Whitfield feel about sole commissioner goverment?

Will they push for the changed form of government voters demand, or will these challengers be satisfied to leave the current broken system in place if they’re elected?

For years, those in charge insisted that Walker County’s citizens preferred sole commissioner government.

In May that old myth was proven wrong. 75% of Walker County voters said they want a change, or at least a chance to change, to a board instead of a sole leader.

That vote wasn’t binding, and no change will be made unless those in power recognize the vote and push to adopt a board of commissioners. Legislators are free to ignore that vote entirely or delay it until 2020 or 2050 or 4050 while pretending to act.

The next sole commissioner, whoever it is, will have much influence over that process – so it matters where they stand on the issue.

They can push legislators to act, push them to delay, or do nothing at all. And when we DO finally begin to change to a board, the commissioner at the time will have influence over how that plays out and how the new board is structured.

After watching this, which of these men do you think seems most likely to actually fight for the change we need?   

Walker County is getting yet another Dollar General.

This one will open on 151 by County Line Road at the Walker/Catoosa line, across from Pit Stop. The new store will belong to David and Patricia Phillips of Boaz, Alabama.   

Did you get your tax assessment letter yet?

Many report home values shooting up by 50% or more in the assessment, and others say their home values actually dropped a tick. (If you feel the assessment of your property is wrong, you have 45 days to appeal.)

The letter is NOT your tax bill – it’s just a notice of what the county thinks your property is worth, the taxable value. The tax amount included in the letter is based on last year’s tax milage, or the amount the property value is multiplied by.

Commissioner Heiskell still hasn’t set her portion of the taxes yet for this year – that multiplier.

(Bebe said Thursday she’s not to blame for the letters you’ve gotten, because she doesn’t appraise houses – and claims the assessor’s office hasn’t done anything in 12 years. Why does that department have a budget if it doesn’t do anything?)

Because so many properties are now appraised higher, the county will make more money from property taxes even at the same tax rate as last year. Don’t be shocked if Bebe lowers the rate a tenth of a percent as the election nears and claims to have cut your taxes even while most in the county will get a higher bill to pay and the county rakes in more than it did in 2015.