Today the City of LaFayette will begin looking for a new Public Safety Director.

For the latest on this, visit the LaFayette Underground Facebook…

Walker County Schools finally admits to laying off 49 teachers, as we told you a week ago.

Chattanooga Times Free Press, 05/15/12: “Through natural attrition and layoffs, the [Walker] school system will lose 49 teachers, including 21.5 special education teachers and 27.5 classroom teachers. Some schools will lose art or music teachers, though they may be replaced by computer instructors who can be paid with federal dollars. Employees also will see eight work-reduction days next year, similar to furloughs.”

Walker County Commissioner Candidate Dr. Paul Shaw on sole commissioner government:

“‘I’d like to be the last sole commissioner,’ Shaw said, saying the matter would be put to a public referendum after he is in office for two years. ‘We have 67,000 people, that’s a lot for one person to be responsible for. With a $21 million budget, that’s a lot for one person to be able to write checks without any checks and balances. I wouldn’t even trust myself with that much power.'”

Maybe a poor choice of words, he should be able to trust himself, but we understand what he means. With no accountability comes the likelihood of problems – the best way to avoid those problems, even with a trustworthy person in charge, is to bring in accountability. Accountability for Walker County government means a board, not a queen or king. Period.

Apologies for the lateness of this update, we completely forgot about it over the weekend.

LaFayette City Council meeting tonight at 7:30. Here’s the agenda. Looks like nothing especially big, but you never know.. If we have someone there, we’ll try to deliver “play by play” coverage on Facebook and summarize it here tomorrow.

The SunRae Water saga continues..

Friday evening Channel 3 released a follow-up report on SunRae Water, directly mentioning the Underground and our “opposition” to the jobs the company will supposedly provide. That called for a blog post in response.

A more balanced report from the Times Free Press on Saturday featured yet another interview with Commissioner Bebe Heiskell, who still (despite continually inserting herself into this story) insists the deal isn’t political. Heiskell also said the company will get its water to bottle from “the nearby municipal water supply” instead of from the polluted Barwick plant property.

But yet another article from the Catoosa Walker County Messenger quoted SunRae COO Dr. Robert Beeman saying “the water used will come from a source close to the plant, but that the company has not yet decided on a precise location.” Seems like they should know by now where the water will come from, considering it’s supposed to begin operation in about five weeks.

They can waste all the money they want, we don’t care – but the commissioner tied this to her reelection campaign by making the announcement and essentially taking credit for bringing them here. If not for that and the potential (which they deny) for money, tax breaks, business, or other incentives from the county.. We’d totally leave it alone.

We just don’t want anybody to vote for Bebe because of this non-business coming in, when it’s probably not going to ever be anything and they won’t report its non-accomplishment as loudly as its coming here was reported last week. And we want residents of Kensington to be aware of the potential for this to be a garbage processor instead of a water bottler.

“Of Schieck’s six companies, only one — Sunrae Environmental — has an accessible website. But none of his companies actually produce any products or own any space, Schieck said. ‘They’re startups, and they haven’t started yet,’ he said.”

WRCB TV 3, 05/24/12: “Students in Georgia scored an average of 151 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam last year, meeting the national average for the first time. ..Still, the vast majority of students in Georgia aren’t considered proficient in science. Just 30% of Georgia students scored proficient or better on the test, up slightly from 28% two years earlier.”

Meeting the average means we were.. Average. Roughly half the 50 states did worse than us, and half did better. Or did they change the word “average” to mean something else?

Walker Schools never commented about the five-dozen teaching jobs cut, but they did send a memo to all staff Friday announcing 8 furlough days next year.

Channel 3 mentioned this site on air Friday, regarding comments made about SunRae Water announcing plans to move into Walker County.

Channel 3 did contact us asking for a statement, but we didn’t get the e-mail in time for them to use the response. Here’s what we told them Friday evening:

“We were initially excited to hear the news about SunRae Water on Channel 3, but immediately some concerns came to mind. The company was incorporated only a few weeks ago, Mr. Schieck’s other businesses are all garbage processors, none of his other companies seem to have any real facilities, the building in Walker County he plans on using is considered polluted by the EPA, and last year he told media there were plans to build a $31 million garbage processor here. In light of Commissioner Heiskell’s past business deals that didn’t pan out (like the hotel on Lookout Mountain she announced in 2010), it’s not unreasonable to think this might be more about the upcoming election than about a new legitimate business coming to town. We’ve asked Mr. Schieck to answer some questions, but so far he has refused to comment other than saying ‘wait and see.’ The last thing this community needs is to ‘wait and see’ more county money wasted on a business that hasn’t proven itself to be legitimate. If it’s legitimate we welcome the jobs and economic activity, but he’s done nothing so far to show legitimacy.”

The Underground isn’t anti-jobs. We welcome jobs, if they actually come. But we have concerns about the legitimacy of “SunRae Water” and some questions about the company, but so far those questions and concerns have been met with attacks and derision. If they cannot, or will not, answer legitimate questions, the people of Walker County need to be very careful about lending support to the business or the persons responsible for bringing it in.

It isn’t wrong to question government or business leaders, especially when they present things that are hard to believe. Asking those kinds of questions is a foundation of this country. And considering Commissioner Heiskell’s history of questionable judgment and false promises, it’s not wrong at all to ask if this deal is all they make it out to be – especially in an election year. Her attacks against us reveal much about her own character.

Heiskell says the Underground made this political.. She made it political when she announced the deal. If she’s going to use this deal as a vehicle for reelection, then she needs to be prepared to have some questions asked. And with a legitimate deal, both the business involved and the politician taking credit for making the deal happen would be glad to answer those questions.

We have not had time to write a decent blog addressing all the concerns we have about SunRae Water / SunRae Environmental, but one will be coming soon. In the meanwhile read a few of these links concerning the business and the site being used.

• 2006 – Bebe Heiskell says site is extremely polluted brownfield
• Jun 2011 – SunRae to open garbage processor in “Georgia county”
• Nov 2011 – SunRae to build plastic & worm casings factory in Walker
  

We’d also encourage you to read over past blog posts here and familiarize yourself a bit with the Underground before you accept the claims that we’re against business or anything else except political shenanigans.

More soon…

“Executives” at SunRae Environmental are so irritated with our discussion of their company here, they contacted the paper to complain about it. They have yet to answer any questions about the operation.

Also the comment about calling somebody a baboon wasn’t made by us, and we never saw it made here by anybody else. Seems like a way to work in a conversation about their “office staff” while trying to make us look bad.

We’d more than love to e-mail them some legitimate questions about this business, but the CEO said on Facebook he would only meet us in person, which isn’t going to happen. He’s welcome to send any documentation or comment about the legitimacy of his business to lu@cityoflafayettega.com.

The editorial letter’s supposed author, a Dr Robert Beeman (SunRae’s “Chief Operations Officer”), has a LinkedIn profile that describes him thusly: “Specialties: political commentary, war analysis, nuclear weaponry, terrorist attacks, getting girls, losing girls, Ducatis, Ercoupes, female circumcision, jihadist beasts”

Obviously that makes him an expert on bottled water production.

The missing ten-year-old boy from Warner Robins has been found, alive and hiding. He and his parents are talking to DFCS.

30-year veteran teacher and former LMS graduation coach Karen Stoker is going to retire (again) after this school year. But she’s not done with education. Wednesday she announced plans to run for Walker School Board seat 1. Her only declared opponent so far is Cleveland TN school psychologist Dennis Wilkerson.

Tuesday a 10-year-old boy from Middle GA got in trouble at school, so he left. And hasn’t been seen since.

Some are beginning to speculate, as usually they do, that he’s been abducted. There’s a possibility of that, but likely he’s hiding out somewhere or fell in a hole. Prayerfully he’s OK and will be home again before you read this.

Five days after cutting dozens of teaching positions, Walker County Schools has posted new job openings. Wondering if any of these overlap with what was cut.

If none of the positions being hired for overlap with ones just cut, it’s possible they were cutting out unneeded people in certain subjects and wanting to add people in other subject areas where they’re needed.

If these new job postings are for positions where people were let go last week, then they were either cutting out higher paid teachers to save money, cutting out some who weren’t “performing” as desired (which doesn’t seem to be the case), or they’re making room for somebody’s friends.

At least two of the jobs listed are because the employees are taking other positions. Also the first three positions on the page were posted before last week. Two of them are from March. The rest (four teachers, asst. principal, and counselor) were added Tuesday and Wednesday.

ajc.com, 05/09/12: “On his first day in office, Gov. Nathan Deal signed a lobbyist gift ban for state employees, but 16 months later, dozens of officials have taken thousands of dollars worth of tickets, meals and travel from special interests.”

Summerville’s city council considers dropping financial support for Chattooga’s Chamber of Commerce. They get about as much from theirs as we get from ours, which doesn’t seem to be very much.

The Augusta Chronicle, 05/05/12: “The state of Georgia is trying to make sure there are plenty of opportunities for graduating physicians as a way of addressing its doctor shortage.”

For today’s links and any breaking news, follow the Underground on Facebook or Twitter.