ARTICLE UPDATED 21:11, 03/15/11

This Tuesday, March 15th, Walker County residents are being asked to cast votes concerning an Educational Special Purpose Local Sales Tax (ESPLOST). ESPLOST, also known as an Educational Local Sales Tax (ELOST) or Sales Tax for Educational Purposes (STEP), is one of Walker County’s two 1% sales taxes that have to be reapproved by voters every five years. ESPLOST was first created by the state legislature in 1997 and has been renewed by voters three times. Without approval the tax will go away for at least five years beginning next summer.

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to “take care of business.” Here are point-by-point notes from 2010’s final two LaFayette City Council meetings, with Underground commentary following in italics. Notes from January and February of this year will be posted soon.

November Meeting: November 8, 2010

Last May the Underground received the following e-mail. That message (with identifying details removed) is posted below:

From: [redacted]
To: underground@cityoflafayettega.com
Subject: commissioner
Date: May 3, 2010

Have heard rumors that Be Be Heiskell has had minor traffic accidents and recently was driven home from the Chick. Taco Bell in the wee hours of the morning and intoxicated, the transportation was by the county. Have you anything like this?

Wish to be anonymous. Thanks

We replied to the message and asked for any additional details, receiving the following answer:

From: [redacted]
To: underground@cityoflafayettega.com
Subject: RE: commissioner
Date: May 4, 2010

My understanding is that the incident was not the Taco Bell, but the Huddle House in Chickamauga, if I understand right this happened this past Saturday or early Sunday. I believe it was Sheriff’s deputies that may have been summoned by the Huddle House employees.

As to any other car incidents, don’t know specific, but did hear she had her personal vehicle repaired at the counties’ expense.

The Underground receives similar tips in e-mail all the time, and most are unusable rumors or information we already have. But this was something different, and the anonymous source is someone known to be trustworthy. We felt it deserved a bit of a followup and deployed a researcher to see if there was any truth behind the story.

MONDAY 02/21/11 UPDATE

The LaFayette Underground Facebook presence is now a Page. A Facebook Page has certain advantages, such as the “Like Box” in the right-hand column, but also has some limitations. The Underground can no longer send or receive Facebook messages or participate in Facebook chats, nor can we view supporter profiles and status messages.

To cover some of the gaps, we have added (or highlighted) several features you may want to explore:

An AOL Instant Messenger account. You can chat directly with an Underground editor through AIM username lu@cityoflafayettega.com. AIM is now interoperable with Facebook chat.

The new LaFayette Underground Facebook Page. Add us to your “Likes” and Underground posts (plus our ongoing discussion of local news) will appear in your news feed. Newest posts appear in the right hand column of this site.

The Underground now also has a Twitter profile. LU Twitter mirrors our Facebook statuses and link posts with limited discussion. The latest Twitter activity is also in the left hand column on this site.

You can, as always, e-mail The Underground at lu@cityoflafayettega.com. We cannot reply to every message but read everything we receive. All contact is kept confidential.

We are considering several additional features, such as a chat/share bar at the bottom of the site integrating AIM, Facebook chat, and several sharing functions we already provide. If you think those would be useful additions or have any other ideas, let us know in comments or via e-mail.

Thanks for your ongoing support and patience as we work this all out.

Here are some news and links of interest for Valentine’s Day.

Walker Co. Messenger: LaFayette High School on lockdown

“LaFayette High School was placed on lockdown this morning and remained on lockdown as of 11:45 a.m.

“Walker County Schools public relations coordinator Elaine Womack estimates that the lockdown began around 11 a.m. or shortly thereafter, but had not yet been able to ascertain the reason why.”

No idea why.. If The Underground still had Facebook access we could probably find out from a student, but thanks to those who were offended at our disdain for underage drinking parties now we might not know for hours, or ever find out for sure what went on.

UPDATE: It’s another bomb threat, this one described as “non-credible.” Glad it wasn’t credible else doing a “lockdown” for a bomb is ridiculous…

“Womack would like to remind the students of LaFayette High School that such incidents of falsified bomb threats are a dangerous deterrent to their education.” Oh well that should fix it. They hadn’t thought about that.