On Tuesday October 4th, two trustee prisoners from the Walker County Jail, checked out to the county to do a construction project (possibly at the LaFayette library), acquired a cache of beer and had a little party while on the job. When they returned to the jail that evening, detention employees noticed they smelled of alcohol and administered blood alcohol tests. Neither man was legally drunk, but they did admit to drinking during the day, and as a result lost their trustee status.

We have been told multiple times by library employees that no county prisoners have done work on the site, but the prisoners themselves and county sources have indicated this happened there. Considering the county’s partial funding for LaFayette library renovations it’s a good possibility that this did occur at the library but we’ll step back and say it happened somewhere in LaFayette and leave it at that. The photo below, from the library project, illustrates the signage and statutes in place for a typical prisoner construction site.

According to statements made to Chattanooga media, the inmates were “working in a county government building and were being supervised by a building maintenance worker” employed by the county. Under an agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and Walker County’s general government, the county can check out prisoners whenever they’re needed for work, and while checked out the county is responsible for what they do. In this situation the jail and Sheriff’s Office bear no responsibility for what happened.

Around 11:30 AM last monday, a fire broke out at the intersection of Chattanooga and West Villanow streets in an upstairs apartment over what used to be the Mars Theater. Flames quickly consumed the 80-year-old structure, generating an inky plume of smoke visible for miles away.

Responders from LaFayette Police Department responded promptly, followed shortly after by fire crews. Before the blaze was extinguished, firefighters from LaFayette FD, Walker County FD, and Walker State Prison were called in to keep it from spreading into adjacent buildings and a pawn shop at the end of the block.

On Monday September 26th, LaFayette’s City Council held a special public meeting to handle urgent business. The meeting had originally been scheduled to set a 2012 budget before October, but also turned into a forum to address the “resignation” of City Manager Johnnie Arnold and announce the name of our next city manager – a man whose work history raises some serious concerns.

In November 1988 LaFayette was given a retired caboose from Norfolk and Western Railway. The old rail car was meant to become a permanent exhibit or museum at the recreation department after being restored by crews from the local rail line, which had procured it for the city under the leadership of local railroader Randall Magnusson.

That local line, now Chattooga & Chickamauga Railway, was then an operating unit (“Chattanooga Division”) of Southern Railway, itself owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. Norfolk Southern had formed almost a decade earlier when Norfolk Western bought Southern Railway in a wave of rail line consolidation that eventually shut down most of the trackage through Northwest Georgia.

Norfolk Southern had a glut of extra or outdated equipment resulting from several mergers, and gladly gave LaFayette a retired caboose to commemorate the 100th anniversary of rails first being laid through the community. Cabooses are useless for modern rail operations but proved to be good public relations tools when given away to museums and parks all over the country.

The Bank of LaFayette helped celebrate the car’s arrival in town by displaying railroad signs and artifacts in its West LaFayette branch, where most of them still are today. A train print donated by the railroad was also hung in LaFayette City Hall and has been in the council chamber next to a bust of the Marquis de Lafayette ever since.

This is the 1968 Ramblers football team, in front of the old Patton Stadium gate. The 1968 team had a losing 4-6 season under coach Ralph Williams, but one year later the same coach gave LaFayette its best record ever: a 10-1-1 season, featuring a November tie with Cedartown and a post-Thanksgiving quarterfinal loss to the Gainesville Red Elephants.

In those days Patton Stadium was pretty primitive, this was before the legendary 1970 Johnny Cash concert that paid for new buildings and improvements at the facility that (mostly) still stands today. LaFayette High School played its last season here in November 1997.

Tonight LaFayette won its 4th game of the 2011 season at Jack King Stadium, going 4-1 for the year. Jack King is a modern facility that lacks some of the quirks and character of Patton Stadium, but under current head coach Tab Gable the Ramblers may see a return to the glory years like 68, 78, 86, and 93. Gable’s leadership and a surge of local support have given LHS back some of the confidence it’s lacked for the better part of two decades, and that confidence goes a long way towards making the team a success.

Photos: 1968 LHS Yearbook. Team Stats: GHSFHA.

Why are we using a photo of the 1968 Ramblers in a discussion of the 1969 team? Because we don’t have a photo of the 1969 team. We’d like to make the Friday Photo a regular weekly or bi-weekly feature of the site, but in order to do that we need your help in getting historical local photos not available elsewhere. If you have a photo of the ’69 team or anything else interesting from LaFayette’s past (or present) please e-mail it to photo@cityoflafayettega.com.

Next week: The Caboose Museum