The typical off-year election, a minor kludge of non-partisan, mostly uncontested, city and county positions, generates little to no political heat. But this year’s off-year vote has LaFayette voters worked up like never before because of a non-binding referendum to allow liquor by the drink.

The two sides of this issue, generally speaking, are residents who present it as an opportunity to restore the city to past glory, and churches and their members who oppose the referendum as a moral problem. But both sides are wrong about the issue in several ways.

The Walker County Messenger is increasingly focused on Catoosa county, at the cost of neglecting things in southern Walker, especially LaFayette. But WQCH Radio and Rich Gwyn do a spectacular job of covering city events, especially city council meetings.

The following from WQCH:

“THE COUNCIL ALSO APPROVED THE PURCHASE OF A “PINPOINT GPS” PROGRAM.  THE $14-THOUSAND DOLLAR PROGRAM ALLOWS GARBAGE TRUCK OPERATORS, ON THEIR ROUTES THROUGHOUT THE CITY, TO PINPOINT ANY DEBRIS PILES THAT NEED TO BE PICKED UP.  THE DEVISE WILL RECORD THE LOCATION BY GPS AND GENERATE A MAP SO THAT CREWS CAN COLLECT THE TRASH MORE QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY.  COUNCILMEMBERS SAY A LARGE PORTION OF COMPLAINTS THEY RECEIVE HAVE TO DO WITH DEBRIS PILES LEFT FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME WITHOUT BEING PICKED UP.”

For once the council is right – the Sanitation Department does do a horrible job of picking up debris, limbs, couches, stoves, etc. from the streets. But their solution may not be the best approach – I think this more affordable solution (combined with one of these) would be equally effective.

The city could take the remaining $13,996.02 and rehire some one of its laid-off employees, have camps for kids at the rec department again next year, or hire somebody to throw dirt between the curbs and new sidewalks on Cherokee Street.

After a year-plus-change of neglect, the site is back. Sorry for my inattention, life happens.

The LaFayette Underground will be an occasionally-updated site with commentary and analysis of the news and activities happening in and around the city of LaFayette, Georgia. I cannot promise that anything will be timely, but we’ll try to at least be as current and generally 150% or more relevant than appears in the county’s pitiful local paper.

As always, this site is completely unaffiliated with the actual City of LaFayette. If we were affiliated with the city the site would lack leadership or direction, serve beer to its friends, and close down every evening at 5 PM (noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays).

Posts from 2008 and one previously unposted diatribe from 2009 will eventually be added back into the archives.

Thanks to WordPress you can add comments to each post, so feel free to mingle your own thoughts with my own.

The LaFayette city pool now charges $4 per person, including parents or adults not planning to swim. The recent 300% price increase from $1 to $4 per head has accomplished exactly what the city had hoped it would – decreasing the number of children (or certain children) swimming.

After the race to pick Walker’s next sole commissioner, the only other heated contest up for a vote this week is the decision to continue SPLOST. SPLOST, the SPecial Local Option Sales Tax, is a 1% or one-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax applied to every purchase conducted in Walker County. SPLOST is always temporary and has to be voted back into existence every five years. Every twenty years it falls on a regular election year, which is why it’s up for a vote at the same time as Commissioner and the other 4-year jobs.

Let’s take a little closer look at the details of SPLOST’s ballot measure and see what we can learn about its intentions and purposes. The SPLOST measure is explained pretty well on the electronic ballot screen voters will be seeing Tuesday, but even with all the detail provided there some smaller points are left out. For the full text of the measure we have to go to the local paper and look in the classified section. Last Wednesday’s Messenger details the whole thing as an announcement in the classifieds, on page B3. It’s also located on the Messenger Web site, but may not be there long since most things there disappear after only a few weeks.