Walker County survived the Blizzard of 2016 with minimal damage.

Predictions of ice and (possibly snow) shut down area schools, offices, and churches on Wednesday and delayed start times for most schools in the region today.

Gov. Deal prematurely announced a “state of emergency” for fifteen northern counties, including ours, to free up state funds to prep roads for the icy death.

Despite GA Department of Transportation efforts and millions of dollars spent on new techniques and equipment, Catoosa County Sheriff Gary Sisk blamed multiple early morning I-75 accidents on lack of preparation from GDOT.

But GDOT did make an effort, unlike Walker County’s road barn.

If that’s the best they can do, best hope this tiny bit of ice is all the winter weather we get this year.                           

It’s obviously an election year.

The same commissioner who tried to shut down Walker Transit for the elderly and disabled in 2013 (and would have been successful if not for brave employees talking to the media and LU readers making calls) now stresses how important the county’s public transportation network is, and says she MIGHT even let them have another bus in 2017. Contingent, of course, on her reelection.

“‘We looked at cutting the transit service, but we realized it would do too much damage to cut it,’ Heiskell said last week. “We revamped the transit. We tried to cut back and streamline as best we could.'”

No Bebe, you refused to sign a contract with the state that would have allowed Transit to continue past July 1 of 2013, and didn’t tell anybody. County employees went to Chattanooga media and LU, people found out and blew your phone up and you backtracked on your plan.

You doubled the rates for bus riders, mostly old people who don’t have two nickels to rub together, and fired the transit director for talking to Channel 3 about your intentions. (More here and here.)

Now you’re talking up the program which many of your voters depend on, hoping they’ll ride those buses to the polls again in May and click your name.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us 374 times, shame on voters. Enough is enough already.   

Chattooga County investigators search for suspects in two Summerville convenience store robberies days apart – one which sent a man to the hospital.

The first robbery was Saturday at a small store called The Cafe on Hawkins Drive near Summerville’s housing projects. Two men shot a clerk in the stomach then got away in a car.

The second robbery was Monday night at Wildlife Food Store on 27 south of Summerville; an employee there was attacked but not badly injured.

Convenience store cashiers working at night should get hazard pay.

No word yet if the two crimes are related.     

Within hours of her arrest last Friday, accused baby murderer Barbara Michelle Pemberton walked out of the Walker County jail after posting a $100,000 bond.

She was booked around 1 PM and went free before 9:00 that night. She’s retained private attorney Mary Jane Melton.   

Barbara Michelle Pemberton, 47-year-old grandmother from Kensington, sits in the Walker County jail facing two counts of abuse and murder after her grandson died inside a hot car.

13-month-old Shadoe Braxton Pate was reportedly left inside a vehicle with the heat running and windows up, in direct sunlight, on Tuesday while his grandmother visited with friends in Fairview. Per reports the child was left inside the car for about FIVE HOURS and died due to extreme heat inside the vehicle.

According to investigators Ms. Pemberton was reminded several times through the day about her child in the car, by the friends she was visiting, but at no point did she physically go to the car to check – and the friends didn’t go check on him, either.

As required by law in the death of a child, the GBI has been called in to investigate and an autopsy was conducted on Thursday. This entire thing seems weird, beyond just an accident; any facts that contradict the stories of the grandmother or her friends will come out through that examination.

(There’s a theory, and this is just theory, that the child didn’t even die in the car and the car story is an excuse to hide what actually occurred.. Autopsy results will find the truth.)

This is the second child-left-in-car death in Walker in the last six months, the only two times we’ve ever heard of it happening here. That one also involved grandparents – but in the case last year with baby Jaxon the grandparents appear to have legitimately forgotten the baby instead of ignoring him for half a day as Ms. Pemberton seems to have done.

More on this as it develops.       

General Electric has found a new buyer for its appliance division and Roper in LaFayette: Haier of China.

Friday morning GE verified earlier reports that Haier was the primary bidder, offering some $5.4 billion to take over the American unit known for stoves, fridges, and water heaters. (An earlier canceled deal with Electrolux was only worth $3.3 billion.)

The proposed buyout has already been approved by leaders of both companies but they’ve so far announced no timeline for when it will be completed. As before, the deal has to be cleared by the government but this one is more likely to go through since Haier has only a tiny presence in the US appliance market.       

Commissioner Heiskell (or whoever runs her Facebook page) has been bragging about three roads being paved in the county under contract.

A handful of years ago Bebe used SPLOST tax money to buy paving equipment so we could do this work all in house and save money. Then she traded that equipment to Talley in return for a paving job, so now every time the work IS done they have to be paid to do it. (Notice what company’s logo is on the sides of the equipment in the photo.)

Talley has been most generous with Bebe’s campaign fund over the years, and their investment into her has paid off – for them anyway.

And once again she’s not doing this with local tax dollars, which she’s blown on other things. This is paid for by the state. She admitted it in her meeting last Thursday:

WQCH Radio, 01/12/16: “WALKER COUNTY IS DOING SOME ‘WINTER PAVING’ THANKS TO A STATE D.O.T. LMIG GRANT. IT COVERS APPROXIMATELY 9 MILES OF ROAD RESURFACING, ACCORDING TO ROAD DEPARTMENT HEAD, JEFF LONG.

“PAVING IS CURRENTLY UNDERWAY ON WILSON ROAD IN ROSSVILLE. LONG SAID THAT LEE CLARKSON ROAD IN CHICKAMAUGA WILL BE NEXT, FOLLOWED BY LAKE HOWARD AND STRAIGHT GUT ROADS IN THE LAFAYETTE AREA.

“LONG ALSO SAID HIS DEPARTMENT IS WORKING WITH THE STATE D.O.T. AND CATOOSA COUNTY, TO GET A TRAFFIC SIGNAL INSTALLED ON HIGHWAY 27 AT LEE CLARKSON, IN CHICKAMAUGA. SEVERAL FATAL ACCIDENTS HAVE OCCURRED AT THAT INTERSECTION IN RECENT YEARS.”

“…COMMISSIONER HEISKELL ALSO ADDED THAT WORK IS NEARING COMPLETION ON TWO PROJECTS: THE NEW COMMUNITY CENTER AT CEDAR GROVE, AND THE NEW COUNTY FIRE STATION AT HINKLE.”

Those two projects are two areas where she’s wasting money that should be used to pave roads on projects that benefit her campaign contributors and supporters. That Hinkle station, especially, isn’t benefitting anybody but the Davenport family.

We have hundreds of miles of road, she paves nine miles in two years (not even using county money) and brags about it.

Now you want a cookie, Bebe? You want our support because this ONE time you did your job for <1% of the county’s population?

The next election is less than 130 days away.   

Murder case against Shaina Layne Hughes of LaFayette goes before a grand jury in Chattanooga.

Hughes, 18, is accused of luring Peyton Hogan to a robbery by offering him sex for drugs on Facebook. Prosecutors say Hogan was shot to death in November by Quincy Goodine after he refused to turn over his narcotics.

The murder happened at the Hamilton County home of a 13-year-old runaway who was later found with Hughes and Goodine in Gordon County, GA.   

Commissioner candidate Whitfield answers LU’s question/comment about his support for SPLOST in 2013. Sort of.

This is really the only part of his post that matters: “I have always supported the SPLOST tax when placed on the ballot. I have voted for it 100% of the time. I feel this is one of the most fair forms of taxation. It also allows tourist from outside our county to contribute to the building of our local infrastructure, and reduces the burden on the property owners.”

Somebody should ask him now, what tourists? Most of the SPLOST is paid by Walker residents buying diapers and gasoline, not flatland touristers visiting Disneyland Rossville.

(Those of us on the south end of the county who can’t easily hop to Fort O. or Chattanooga for dinner and shopping every day – like North Walker residents do – pay a much higher share of the tax – which is why it always finds more support in Rossville and Chickamauga.)

Most of his response is about what the SPLOST tax is (which we knew), and not why he thought the proven liar sole commissioner wouldn’t waste it again in ’08.

He also basically admitted that he’d vote for SPLOST again under Heiskell even though everybody’s seen how she handled that money in the past. His voting for SPLOST in 2013 (and encouraging others to do the same) after the way Bebe used 2008 funds show he’s either naive or intentionally turned his back to abuse.

Some questions here, and other important ones he’s been given (such as his plans for the 911 center’s budget and how much his company gets from county’s fuel sales each year), remain unanswered.

Looks like he’s all about indirect responses that dodge the meat of what’s asked.   

Medical marijuana, school funding, religious freedom, gambling, beer, and more. Hot topics the General Assembly will try to tackle (and probably screw up) during this year’s legislative session.

Another law they’ll consider will exempt tickets for certain sporting events from state sales tax. The purpose of this is to attract a Super Bowl to Atlanta after the Falcons’ new tax-funded stadium is finished next year.

Less sales tax paid by out-of-town millionaires attending the Super Bowl or NCAA Championship means MORE tax burden carried by the people who actually live here.

The fun begins today in Atlanta.     

Walker Commissioner Candidate Shannon Whitfield takes the gloves off and calls Bebe Heiskell to the mat for the amount of money she’s blown, from SPLOST, the Development Authority, and property tax revenue. The data is dead on, and his concerns in this (somewhat rambling) Facebook post match ours.

“..By September 2015 the Heiskell administration had maxed out the 10 million dollar line of credit, by borrowing the remaining 5.5 million dollars. Ms. Heiskell and Mr. Oliver are currently having different accounts of how they spent the 5.5 million dollars, when they maxed out the line of credit.”

“..With this letter Ms. Heiskell is admitting they broke state law by misusing SPLOST funds,and that these funds would have to be put back in the SPLOST account. When will the Heiskell administration put the money back in the SPLOST account?”

“..The property tax funds were to be used for the operation of the county over the next 12 months in 2016. Instead, the tax commissioner was having to keep daily running totals trying to collect enough property tax dollars to pay off the loan before year end. Once again this will cause the county to be short on operational capital over the next 12 months. Will this cause the Heiskell administration to create yet another new loan to operate the county in 2016?”

[Read the whole thing in context here]

That said, where was he six months ago? Where was his voice of opposition when the Development Authority and Hospital Authority were digging the debt hole deeper? This isn’t a NEW mess, it’s just worse. And why did he support SPLOST in 2013 when the last one was wasted just as much as the current one?

Whitfield’s campaign Facebook page had pro-SPLOST material on it when his current campaign launched, left over from his push for the tax as a Chickamauga councilman.. Those have been removed now, but he was a tax cheerleader when it was being voted on. Now that it’s set in stone through 2020 he’s questioning it.

Easy to complain NOW when nothing can be done, but it seems he was on the bandwagon for Heiskell and a cheerleader for SPLOST until he decided he wanted her job, and now he’s saying what’s necessary to get votes.

Whitfield is being asked a lot of questions, and the answers he’s giving are often vague, political, or “I’ll tell you later.” That’s NOT what Walker County is looking for.

Hopefully Walker County voters will get some answers about Whitfield’s curious change of heart (on multiple topics) before the vote in May.   

Monday in a special meeting, three LaFayette City Council members who won reelection with no challenge last fall – Chris Davis, Judy Meeks, and Wayne Swanson – were sworn back in to their respective seats.

The council then named Judy Meeks Mayor Pro-Tem – meaning she’s in charge of council meetings and serves as mayor when Andy Arnold isn’t available.

Meeks, a Mt. Vernon Mills employee with two adult sons working for the city, is LaFayette’s first female Mayor Pro-Tem.   

Hutcheson is being sold for almost nothing – now Erlanger wants to be paid.

The Chattanooga hospital has filed suit against Hutcheson, the Hospital Authority, and Walker County, demanding repayment of the remaining money it won’t get from the pending sale. They didn’t sue Catoosa, saying Catoosa appears ready to pay what it owes.

Walker County/Hospital Authority lawyer Don “LSD” Oliver says we don’t owe Erlanger anything, despite initially agreeing to pay them back if Hutcheson couldn’t. Why? According to him, the county’s “sovereign immunity” applies even to debts.

If Oliver’s argument holds up in court (it won’t), no government entity in Georgia will ever again be able to get a loan, sell bonds, or sign a contract, because no bank or business will want to deal with a body that can walk away from its obligations by claiming to be immune to the terms of a contract it signed willingly.

All this argument will do is cost the county more money – and generate more lawyer fees and kickbacks for Don Oliver. A year from now we’ll STILL have to pay Erlanger what they’re owed, plus our lawyer fees and theirs. Instead, Walker County and the Hospital Authority should man up and agree to pay this debt now before it gets bigger.

Erlanger agreed in the (so far pending) hospital sale to ValorBridge/ApolloMD not to seek more from the counties than the $20 million they loaned Hutcheson to begin with. They’re not asking for the millions in interest or overdue fees they’re also owed.

Walker County should take a similar high-road approach (the approach Catoosa is taking) and settle its debts now like adults instead of kicking that can further down the road for someone else to deal with.   

Early Wednesday morning Fort Oglethorpe’s Golden Corral restaurant was destroyed in a massive blaze.

Despite efforts from Catoosa, Walker, and East Ridge fire crews, the popular steak buffet is a total loss. State fire inspectors have been called in to determine the fire’s cause; Channel 3 says the store’s owners have already decided to rebuild.

(This is outside LU’s normal area of reporting but alert readers sent in photos and video; the video here is now the most viewed Facebook post in LU’s six year history.)