Election registration in Walker County ended with a whimper Friday at noon with very few challengers signed up for most local races.

Congratulations to Steve Wilson, DeWayne Wilson, Carter Brown, Carolyn Walker, John Deffenbaugh, Steve Tarvin, and a handful of other local leaders who automatically get another term for lack of anyone willing to challenge them in the election. They’ll be coronated back into their respective positions in January.

What races are competitive? County Commissioner, Georgia Senate District 53, and two School Board seats.

   

Mike Peardon and Shannon Whitfield will face each other in May to become the Republican nominee for commissioner. One of them will go on to face incumbent commissioner Heiskell and Perry Lamb, who have both said they intend to run as independents. (Independents don’t have to actually register until June, so the final lineup for Commissioner in November could still change.)

Phyllis Hunter will be challenged for School Board post 1 by political newcomer Casey Eady, both running as Republicans. Dale Wilson’s position on school board post 4 will be challenged in November by the only Democrat who registered, Vincent Murphy.

   

Senator Jeff Mullis will be opposed in May by Trion teacher/coach/politician Lanny Thomas. The winner of that race will take the prize since there’s no independent or Democrat challenger.

At the federal level, Mickey Tuck has registered to run for US Congress against current District 14 Representative Tom Graves. (LU takes no position on federal elections, this is just an FYI.) Their race will also be decided May 24th on the Republican ballot.

Now that election qualification is done, it’s time to find out what candidates are made of.

LU will be doing Q&A interviews with candidates in contested races soon; if you have a question that should be included, let us know. Comment here or e-mail lu @ lafa.ga .         

Another mom of the year candidate.

WQCH Radio, 03/12/16: “ALCOHOL WAS BLAMED FOR A LOCAL WRECK THIS WEEK, AND A MOM WAS CHARGED WITH ENDANGERING A CHILD BY DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE.

“THE 2-VEHICLE WRECK HAPPENED AT CHATTANOOGA STREET AND THOMPSON, ON MONDAY AFTERNOON. POLICE SAY THE DRIVER AT THE THOMPSON STREET INTERSECTION PULLED INTO THE PATH OF A SOUTHBOUND VEHICLE ON CHATTANOOGA. NO ONE WAS SERIOUSLY HURT.

“POLICE ARRESTED 27 YEAR OLD ASHLEY ROSE VICKERS AND CALLED HER HUSBAND TO PICK UP THE 2 YEAR OLD CHILD THAT WAS INSIDE THE VEHICLE WHEN THE WRECK OCCURRED. SHE WAS ALSO CHARGED WITH FAILURE TO OBEY A STOP SIGN.

“MS. VICKERS FAILED A SOBRIETY TEST AT THE WALKER COUNTY JAIL, ACCORDING TO THE POLICE REPORT.”   

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A somewhat historic LaFayette building became history this week, unceremoniously shoved over by a backhoe to make room for modern housing.

The yellow pre-WW II house at 402 South Main has sat empty for over a year, unoccupied since Signature Music moved out in February 2015. Its owners, Cleckler Properties of Chickamauga, gave up on finding a new business renter and elected to push the house down and build something more profitable in its place.

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Initial demolition work was halted when the city learned asbestos was being removed improperly and without permit; professionals were called in to wrap the house in plastic and take out the toxic insulation safely. That’s when people driving by realized something was going on at the property.

Thursday of this week a backhoe was dropped off, and by the day’s end nothing remained on the lot at South Main and West Main except debris and memories.

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After three days of election qualification, the only non-incumbent candidates who have registered so far in Walker County are Mike Peardon and Shannon Whitfield, both for commissioner.

  

All the other candidates at this point already hold the jobs they’re running for and have no challengers. Hopefully more candidates will emerge by noon Friday when qualification ends.

Nobody’s allowed to complain about low voter turnout in local elections if we can’t get anybody to run for public office in the first place.

Commissioner Heiskell tells the media she’s also running for another term, but as an independent candidate. Her given reason? “They want a more radically conservative candidate than I am.”

That means she’ll be on the November ballot, facing any other independent candidates (possibly Perry Lamb), the winner of May’s Republican primary, and any potential Democrat candidate who surfaces.

Under state law, incumbents don’t have to obtain signatures to qualify as independent candidates the way non-incumbents do. She also won’t have to qualify until July, if she so chooses.

(Jason Winters of Chattooga County has also declared intentions to run as an independent after he was kicked out of the Democrat party there for endorsing Jeff Mullis and Nathan Deal in 2014.)     

Chiragkumar Patel, Summerville convenience store clerk shot during a robbery on January 15th, passed away on Sunday. He lingered for some six weeks after being shot in the stomach during the holdup of a small store on Hawkins Drive near the Summerville housing projects.

 

Two suspects in custody, Zaykives Banard McCray [left] and 18-year-old Dylon Dave Allen [right] (both 18 and of Rome), now face murder charges.   

LaFayette’s most notorious punk has another run-in with police, and as usual gets away.

WQCH Radio, 03/07/16: “LAFAYETTE POLICE MADE A DRUG ARREST AND ISSUED WARRANTS FOR THE ARREST OF A MAN WHO RAN FROM THEM, AFTER A CHASE THROUGH A LOCAL RESIDENTIAL AREA.

“IT STARTED WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AT WALMART, WHERE A LAFAYETTE OFFICER SAW THREE PEOPLE GET INTO A ‘JEEP’ VEHICLE AND LEAVE. HE TOLD DISPATCH HE KNEW THAT NONE HAS A VALID DRIVERS LICENSE.

“OFFICER RYAN WILSON ENCOUNTERED THE JEEP IN WEST LAFAYETTE AND THE VEHICLE ‘SPED AWAY’ WHEN THE BLUE LIGHTS WENT ON. AT THE WHEEL WAS 21 YEAR OLD MICHAEL CHANCE ELLISON. THE VEHICLE SPED THROUGH MILL STREET AND CAME TO A STOP AT 44 NORTH STEELE STREET, WHERE ELLISON JUMPS OUT AND RAN INTO THE WOODS.

“ONE OF HIS FEMALE PASSENGERS SAID QUOTED ELLISON AS SAYING ‘I’VE GOT A WARRANT AND I DON’T HAVE A LICENSE’ AS HE ‘FLOORED’ THE JEEP. ANOTHER FEMALE PASSENGER WAS SEARCHED AND FOUND IN POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA AND METH. WHEN SHE WAS ARRESTED, 30 YEAR OLD CHRISTIAN DANIELLE BROOME TOLD POLICE: ‘AFTER 15 YEARS, I GUESS Y’ALL FINALLY CAUGHT ME’.

“OFFICERS SEARCHED THE WOODS FOR ELLISON, BUT HE GOT AWAY. HIS ARREST WARRANT LISTS CHARGES INCLUDING FLEEING, RECKLESS DRIVING AND OBSTRUCTION.”

Ellison has been trouble since he was in diapers. He’s been arrested time and time again, involved in various things he somehow was never charged with, and still always comes out with little or no punishment.

His last arrest in town was less than a month ago, yet he’s still on the street.

LaFayette will improve considerably if a judge ever gives this jerk some real jail time.   

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A tragic motorcycle accident on Sunday claimed the life of an Austell woman.

Per Georgia State Patrol, 44-year-old Tonya Loraine Jones of Austell and several family members were riding motorcycles through the area yesterday with family. On the Villanow side of Taylor’s Ridge on Hwy 136, Jones lost control of her Harley while trying to pass a truck, made contact with the truck, and then ran off the highway into the shoulder.       

Thursday morning on Wilson Road near Rossville, a six-year-old girl was struck by a car while waiting on her school bus to arrive.

At last update little Shelby was still in ICU, with multiple broken bones and (per her mom) damage to her spleen, brain, and neck.

GSP investigators say the child tried to cross the road as her school bus approached. The bus had its yellow caution lights on, but hadn’t yet stopped so its stop signals weren’t deployed.

Yellow lights on a bus don’t require a stop, only red – so the driver of the car that hit her in the dark is not expected to face charges.     

Federal regulators have given their blessing to the proposed marriage of General Electric Appliances to Haier of China.

$5.4 billion buyout deal, which includes GE’s Roper Corp in LaFayette, is on track to be finished this summer.   

The Drug Task Force was busy over the last two weeks, making major busts in several places around Walker County.

WQCH Radio, 03/01/16: “THE DRUG TASK FORCE CONFISCATED 15-THOUSAND DOLLARS IN DRUGS AND SEVERAL THOUSAND MORE IN CASH, FROM A RESIDENCE JUST NORTH OF LAFAYETTE. THREE MEN WERE ARRESTED AT THE WHEELER ROAD SITE AFTER A SEARCH WARRANT WAS SERVED ON FRIDAY [Feb 26].

“TASK FORCE COMMANDER PAT DOYLE SAID 10-THOUSAND DOLLARS IN ‘ICE’ METHAMPHETAMINE WAS RECOVERED, ALONG WITH 5-THOUSAND DOLLARS IN MARIJUANA.

 

“MARK MITCHELL OF RINGGOLD [left] WAS CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF METH WITH INTENT TO DISTRIBUTE.

“THE RESIDENT, DOUGLAS MACARTHUR WALKER JR, WAS CHARGED WITH TRAFFICKING IN METH AND POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA WITH INTENT. HIS SON, DAVID RYAN WALKER [right], WAS CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA, ALONG WITH SCHEDULE 2 AND 4 DRUGS.”

Mr. Mitchell owns some kind of car dealer or repair shop with a bad reputation for doing poor work. Mr. Walker the younger has threatened to sue LU for posting about his arrest.

“..IN AN UNRELATED CASE, THE TASK FORCE ARRESTED 35 YEAR OLD RANDY JUSTIN DANIEL, A VISITOR TO THE LAFAYETTE AREA FROM METRO-ATLANTA. HE WAS CHARGED WITH IMPERSONATING A DOCTOR IN AN EFFORT TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAIN HIS PAIN-KILLER PRESCRIPTION FROM MULTIPLE PHARMACIES.”

WQCH Radio, 03/04/16: “MORE METH ARRESTS THIS WEEK BY THE LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN DRUG TASK FORCE. TWO WERE CHARGED WITH POSSESSION AT A HOME ON HALLS VALLEY SPUR NEAR TRION, IN SOUTH WALKER COUNTY. 54 YEAR OLD BRUCE STERLIN PEACE AND 42 YEAR OLD TRINA MICHELLE WALLIN WERE JAILED.

“AND FOLLOWING A SEARCH ON BANDY ROAD, LAFAYETTE, 60 YEAR OLD LEON INGRAM WAS CHARGED WITH METH POSSESSION AND PAROLE VIOLATION. TASK FORCE COMMANDER PATRICK DOYLE SAID THAT WAS INGRAM’S SECOND DRUG ARREST WITHIN A YEAR.”

Officers investigating drug cases have no concerns for job security.

Also: Local arrests, Feb 25-Mar 2.     

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Friday’s fire at Buy The Truck has been determined accidental by the state fire inspector.

Reports say the blaze was started by sparks from a tool-sharpening grinder landing on flammable material. That’s the exact same cause as a fire eight years ago at Quality Carpet Cushion on the other side of town, which has the same owner.

Buy The Truck’s owner Tim Toole says all of his employees injured in the fire have been released from the hospital and many have returned to work cleaning up the business. According to the city manager, Toole has been cooperative with government cleanup efforts and says he intends to reopen.     

Last July Walker County was ordered by the state to pay a $76,000 fine for polluting a waterway on Lookout Mountain and waiting months to fix the damage.

Commissioner Heiskell said at the time she’d never pay it, and she’s kept to that promise: the fine is still pending and nobody’s done a thing to pay it OR punish the Commissioner for refusing to do so.

(If the state wasn’t a joke, Heiskell could be removed for openly defying an order like this.)

Like all the other debts Heiskell piled up during her disastrous 16 year reign, this too will be passed on to be dealt with by whoever replaces her next year.   

According to the media, about 10% of Walker County’s registered voters opted to early vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary election.

By the time polls closed at 7 Tuesday night, some 11,886 Walker residents had cast a ballot – over 41% of the county’s “active” registered voters. By comparison, the March 2012 presidential primary had only 19% voter participation.

Election winners in Walker were the same as state-wide: Trump for the Republicans, and Clinton for the Democrats.

Walker County’s local/state primary for races like commissioner, sheriff, and state legislature – the positions local voters can actually impact – will be held May 24th. Candidate qualification for that race will be next week, March 7-11. The deadline to register, if you’re not already a registered voter, is April 26th.         

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