From CatWalkChatt and Walker County Messenger, 08/31/2010:

“The Barwick LaFayette Airport is seeking a $500,000 grant for fencing to secure the airport runway. Airport officials have sought a fence for several years, the primary reason being that deer are frequently seen on the runway. Ron Westbrook co-manages the airport and claims that deer are seen on a weekly basis. ‘We have had a few close calls, but fortunately haven’t had anyone hit one,’ Westbrook said.”

That article went on to say how the $500,000 grant would pay for a ten-foot high fence nearly two-miles-long around the airport, keeping out deer and “wild children.” Funding would have to be approved by the Georgia Department of Transportation, but would actually be provided through OneGeorgia Authority, a state agency providing loans and grants to underpopulated rural communities and their neighbors.

One week after BlueBird closed and took 350 jobs down the drain, LaFayette’s city fathers announced plans to revitalize the city’s economy by begging the state for money to install a fence around the airport next door. They, in their infinite wisdom, realize that keeping deer and “wild children” away from the landing strip will do more to help this community and draw in new businesses than anything else they could be focusing their energy on.

…or they don’t really care and are resuming business as usual, taking care of their own friends and personal interests while everything else in town goes to seed.

In existence since the Nixon Administration, LaFayette Housing Authority is an entity of the city government that owns, operates, and rents apartments to low-income, handicapped, and elderly residents. Housing Authority apartments are not provided free, however rent is adjusted based on occupant income with the remainder subsidized by funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Rental income and federal funding keep the Authority running without a dime of city money, giving the agency autonomy and independence outside of the City Council’s control.

With 300 apartments capable of housing nearly a thousand people, LaFayette Housing Authority provides residences to a significant portion of the city’s residents. But soon 30 of those apartments will bite the dust as part of a project to upgrade all of the authority’s properties and revitalize a long-forgotten neighborhood.

A week ago Tuesday Blue Bird North Georgia completed its 77,254th and final school bus, closing the doors after 23 years of production. The award-winning assembly plant is being consolidated with a larger facility south of Atlanta, pulling millions of dollars and another 350 jobs out of Walker County.

During August 9th’s regularly scheduled meeting of the LaFayette City Council, Shannon McConnell presented a tentative plan for restoring and using the former LaFayette High School football field and stadium on First Street. McConnell, a Roper engineer and member of the Rotary Club who recently returned from military service in Afghanistan, was inspired (at least in part) by a LaFayette Underground article about the field that prompted much discussion among some of the school’s alumni and other interested parties.

McConnell’s proposal was light on specifics or dollar figures, but heavy with a vision for “revitalizing downtown” through a restored stadium that could host a wide array of events and activities. Those activities would include a 5k or 10k run, a barbeque and cooking contest, fireworks, a portion of Scare on the Square, an annual Johnny Cash tribute concert, and a variety of other musical acts. The field could also be used for an “old graduates” football game, a powderpuff game, and the recreational department’s 4-11 year old football games already held there.

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought’a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believin’ that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believin’ that we all were on their side.

Johnny Cash recorded this self-referential song, Man in Black, in February 1971. SIx months earlier, in August 1970, Cash and an entourage of other performers put on a concert here in the tiny town of LaFayette. While this yet-unreleased song wasn’t (far as we can find) a part of the concert, the mental state that led to its creation and the LaFayette concert can both be credited to some time Cash unwillingly spent in LaFayette a few years earlier.