The latest batch of local health scores includes another perfect inspection for a beloved local eatery.

Bob’s Brick Oven in Rock Spring got a 100 Friday during inspection – the relatively new restaurant’s fourth 100 in the last five health checks. (Their only imperfect score in the last two years was a 99 in March 2014.)

A 100 score is rare, two in a row even rarer – and four straight pretty much impossible.

Brick Oven’s focus on health matters, combined with a creative, quality menu has gotten the restaurant attention -and customers- from far outside of Walker County. An example to other local businesses (and government) how it’s done: You want people to come here, eat here, spend money here? Give them quality they can’t get elsewhere.

Other recent health scores:

The lowest score of the last few weeks is an 80, shared by two low-end chains: Subway downtown and Little Caesars.

Subway was dinged on June 2nd for an employee not washing/drying hands properly and multiple food items kept out of temperature.

On June 5th, Little Caesars was cited! cited! for EIGHT hot-n-ready problems, including uncovered food, employees not wearing hair covers, poor cleaning, and flies.

El Trio earned an 82 on June 16th, marked down for improper handwashing and food held at the wrong temperatures.

Yesterday Camp New Dawn got score of 84 with flies and employees not wearing gloves or beard nets.

Charlie’s Cafe dinged with an 86 for sloppy cleaning, wrong dates on prepared food, and produce exposed to raw meat.

And McDonald’s rounds out the eighties with an 87, keeping prepared vegetables out too long and minor insect issues.

Roper Food Service: 90
LaFayette Golf Course: 91
Pigeon Mountain Country Store / Grill: 91
Triangle Park: 91
Maryland’s Fried Chicken: 93
No. 1 Chinese: 96
Pie Slingers: 96
Pizza Hut: 96
Phibb’s Bar: 96
Ivy Cottage: 97
Los Guerrero’s: 97
Wee Care (at First Baptist): 97

During the last week, LPD has taken a number of notorious local troublemakers off the street – again. Most of these names should be familiar:

WQCH Radio, 06/17/15: “LAFAYETTE POLICE REPORT THREE ARRESTS FOR DRUG POSSESSION, FOLLOWING TRAFFIC STOPS MADE IN TOWN:

“37 YEAR OLD CHRISTOPHER TEAL DALTON OF LAFAYETTE, WAS CHARGED WITH PRESCRIPTION DRUGS NOT KEPT IN ORIGINAL CONTAINER. HE RAN FROM OFFICERS FOLLOWING A TRAFFIC STOP. A TIP WAS RECEIVED THAT HE WAS HIDING BEHIND A LOCAL BUSINESS, AND POLICE ARRESTED HIM THERE. THE TAG WAS NOT REGISTERED TO THE VEHICLE HE WAS DRIVING AND HE TOLD OFFICERS HE FOUND THE TAG AT A JUNKYARD. HE WAS CHARGED WITH SEVERAL TRAFFIC AND VEHICLE OFFENSES.

“25 YEAR OLD COREY CHAZ WARREN OF LAFAYETTE [depicted above] WAS CHARGED WITH MARIJUANA POSSESSION AND DRIVING WHILE HIS LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED. HE REPORTEDLY GAVE OFFICERS A FALSE NAME AT THE TIME OF HIS ARREST, CLAIMING TO BE HIS TWIN BROTHER.

“AND 37 YEAR OLD THOMAS CHANSEY MOSLEY OF LAFAYETTE WAS CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA, EXPIRED TAG AND DRIVING WHILE HIS LICENSE WAS WITHDRAWN.”

Mr. Warren got out of prison at the end of May after serving only three years of a 12-year sentence for various crimes including drugs and burglary. Hope they kept his cot warm, he’ll be back in it soon.   

It didn’t begin there. Another notorious local punk arrested for the thousandth time after allegedly hitting a woman. Drugs also found, of course.

WQCH Radio, 06/16/15: “LAFAYETTE POLICE AND THE DRUG TASK FORCE ARRESTED A LOCAL MAN ON DRUG POSSESSION AND BATTERY CHARGES, FRIDAY.

“DETECTIVE WESLEY STEEL SAID THAT 21 YEAR OLD MICHAEL CHANCE ELLISON WAS BEING SERVED A WARRANT ON THE BATTERY CHARGE, WHEN PROBABLE CAUSE WAS OBSERVED FOR THE SEARCH WARRANT. THE TASK FORCE THEN FOUND MARIJUANA AND ICE, A FORM OF METH, INSIDE HIS LANGLEY APARTMENT AT 307 SOUTH MAIN.

“THE BATTERY CHARGE WAS FROM AN INCIDENT THE DAY BEFORE. DETECTIVE STEELE SAID A WOMAN WHO HAD LOANED MONEY TO ELLISON HAD STOPPED-BY TO COLLECT. SHE AND HER AUNT TOLD POLICE THAT AS THEY WERE LEAVING ELLISON’S APARTMENT, HE STRUCK THE WOMAN ON THE BACK OF THE HEAD, RAISING A ‘KNOT’.”

Drugs, burglary, violence, even arson and rape in his background. Not to be ugly here but if he stays in jail this time, LaFayette will be a safer place. Allegedly etc. whatever.   

A special train excursion pulled by one of Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s steam engines came through LaFayette Wednesday.

The steam excursion was part of an event for timepiece collectors in Chattanooga.     

A LaFayette man and his pre-teen child were injured over the weekend in an accident involving a car and a motorcycle.

Saturday evening shortly after 11, a motorcycle piloted by Joe Cowan was struck by a silver car that failed to stop at the Hwy 27 / Twin Cedars intersection south of Chickamauga (technically in Catoosa County). Cowan was seriously injured and transported to Erlanger via LifeForce, and according to friends is in critical condition. His passenger on the bike, 11-year-old step daughter Cristina Somers, was released from the hospital with minor injuries.

The car was driven by Helen Vaccaro of Chickamauga. Vaccaro was uninjured, no word on any charges she might face in connection with the accident.       

LaFayette’s utility budget could end up in doo-doo because of a poop processing problem. Hopefully this won’t require another rate increase or sewer surcharge.

WQCH Radio, 06/11/15: “LAFAYETTE’S WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT IS DUE FOR A RE-BUILD, AND DUE TO THE POTENTIAL FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER, THEY’RE CALLING THE JOB ‘AN EMERGENCY’.

“MONDAY NIGHT, THE CITY COUNCIL GAVE THEIR ENGINEERING FIRM APPROVAL TO DRAW THE SPECIFICATIONS NECESSARY TO REBUILD THE ‘INFLUENT’ SECTION OF THE 43 YEAR OLD SEWAGE PLANT. BY DECLARING THE JOB ‘AN EMERGENCY’ THE CITY CAN BYPASS THE LENGTHY BIDDING PROCESS. THEY HOPE THAT THE CONTRACTOR WHO IS ALREADY WORKING ON REPAIRS AT THE PLANT, WILL DO THE REBUILD FOR ‘A FAIR PRICE’.

“AFTER THE MEETING, CITY MANAGER DAVID HAMILTON TOLD WQCH NEWS THEY’RE EXPECTING THE BILL TO BE IN THE 700-THOUSAND DOLLAR RANGE. HE SAID THE CITY WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO APPLY FOR A LOAN FROM ‘GEFA’ – THE GEORGIA ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE AUTHORITY, TO BANKROLL THE REBUILD. HAMILTON SAID HE HOPES TO GET A LOW INTEREST RATE IN THE RANGE OF 1.9 PERCENT.

“THE INFLUENT SECTION OF THE PLANT IS THE INTAKE OF THE SEWER TREATMENT SYSTEM. IT HAS THREE HUGE PUMPS AND VALVES THAT HAVE BEEN REBUILT MANY TIMES OVER THE YEARS AND NOW SIMPLY NEED TO BE REPLACED. HAMILTON SAID THE PLANNED REBUILD WILL INCLUDE A CHANGE TO SUBMERSIBLE PUMPS, REPLACING THE OLD SHAFT-DRIVEN PUMP SYSTEMS. HE ADDED THAT SOME OF THE CONCRETE STRUCTURES IN THE OLD PLANT WERE POURED WITHOUT STEEL REBAR SUPPORT AND THOSE WILL BE REPLACED AS WELL.

“IN RELATED BUSINESS, THE COUNCIL AUTHORIZED THE PURCHASE OF A USED TRUCK-TRACTOR TO HAUL SLUDGE FROM THE WASTEWATER PLANT. FOR YEARS, THE CITY HAS HAULED SLUDGE TO AREA FARMS, WHERE IT IS INJECTED UNDERNEATH THE SOIL AS FERTILIZER. THE 1986 TRACTOR USED TO HAUL THE SLUDGE TRAILER RECENTLY QUIT RUNNING. COUNCIL AUTHORIZED UP TO 50-THOUSAND DOLLARS TO BUY A USED REPLACEMENT. THE MACHINE USED TO INJECT THE SLUDGE WAS ALSO RECENTLY REPLACED THROUGH THE PURCHASE OF A PIECE OF USED EQUIPMENT, CALLED ‘THE GATOR’.”   

Today Georgia begins issuing “medical marijuana cards.” Patients with one of eight specific conditions can get a card from the state after being recommended for marijuna-derived low-THC cannabis oil by a doctor.

After obtaining the card, then comes the hard part: getting the oil.   

District Attorney Buzz Franklin’s office continues to push back a series of child sex cases from two years ago because their key witness is an FBI agent being investigated for corruption.

A judge has ordered the victimless Internet-sting cases to move ahead without the agent’s testimony, so now the DA is claiming another officer needed to testify will be on vacation during the week scheduled for trial.

This is a totally screwed up situation, and it all falls on the District Attorney’s lap. If the men are guilty of the crimes they’re accused of, his office’s handling of this case has kept them from being punished and will probably result in the cases being thrown out of court. If they aren’t guilty, he’s kept innocent men hanging in limbo for 2 1/2 years.

All because of friendly back-slapping and lack of accountability in the DA’s office, at the FBI, and with several local police departments.   

This week a local grandmother, BJ Sherlin, claimed on social media her 4-year-old granddaughter nearly drowned during an incident at the LaFayette city swimming pool.

According to a post Ms. Sherlin duplicated in multiple pages on Facebook, lifeguards giving swim lessons to her granddaughter and other children were inattentive and let the child sit on the bottom of the pool “for 12 seconds” before taking action. (The grandmother herself also took no action other than yelling.) Per Sherlin, the child was traumatized by the incident and now fears water in all forms.

Channel 9 ran her story as news Thursday evening.

LU has discussed the lack of adult supervision at LaFayette pool before, six years ago, so this isn’t a new thing. Some reform is needed in the way the pool is managed, or at least the way it’s been managed in previous years – no argument about THAT.

But the supposed drowning incident, as retold by Sherlin, is exaggerated; an attempt to get attention for herself or perhaps lay the groundwork for a lawsuit.

[Children depicted are not connected to the incident in question.]

Fortunately a pool security camera captured the entire incident on video. A review of that footage (per the City Manager) shows the child who “almost drowned” was only in the water five seconds before guards responded, and she was in the shallow end of the pool where anyone – including her family – could have stepped in to rescue her if they had chosen to.

The city is reviewing its lifeguard procedures investigating ways to make the pool safer, but (in this case at least) there was no real danger. Nothing to see here, move along..       

Investigators say last month’s rash of house fires – three abandoned homes burned in less than a week – were all unrelated incidents. But ONE of the fires, on Villanow St, was definitely arson. The fire on Flora St. was an accident, and the cause of a blaze on Henderson St. is inconclusive.

WQCH Radio, 06/12/15: “INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE INTO THREE HOUSE FIRES IN LAFAYETTE, STARTING OVER MEMORIAL WEEKEND. WE NOW KNOW THAT ONE WAS ARSON, ONE WAS AN ACCIDENT – AND THE THIRD IS UNDETERMINED. BUT INVESTIGATORS SAY THE THREE ARE NOT CONNECTED.

“THE FIRE THAT HAS BEEN RULED INTENTIONALLY-SET WAS ON EAST VILLANOW STREET, AN UNINHABITED FRAME HOUSE OWNED BY THE CITY OF LAFAYETTE. LAFAYETTE FIRE CHIEF ROBERT BUSBY SAID THERE WERE MULTIPLE IGNITION POINTS INSIDE THAT HOUSE, AND TIPS ARE BEING SOLICITED ON THE STATE ARSON HOTLINE. THE PROPERTY HAD BEEN PURCHASED BY THE CITY LAST FALL FOR FUTURE EXPANSION OF THE CEMETERY.

“THE FIRST OF THE THREE FIRES HAS BEEN RULED AN ACCIDENT. THE HOUSE ON FLORA STREET WAS UNDER RENOVATION AND WORKMEN WERE USING A CHAINSAW FOR DEMOLITION. LAFAYETTE POLICE INVESTIGATOR WESLEY STEELE SAID THEY BELIEVE THE CHAINSAW HIT A NAIL, CREATING SPARKS WHICH LATER IGNITED INSULATION WITHIN THE WALL.

“THE THIRD FIRE, ON HENDERSON STREET IN WEST LAFAYETTE, IS STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION.

“CHIEF BUSBY AND DETECTIVE STEELE BOTH SAID THERE APPEARS TO BE NO CONNECTION BETWEEN THE THREE FIRES. STEELE RECALLED A SERIES OF ARSON FIRES IN LAFAYETTE SEVERAL YEARS AGO, THAT STOPPED AFTER AN ARREST. ‘A SERIAL ARSONIST WAS OUR FIRST THOUGHT’, STEELE SAID – BUT HE ADDED ‘THAT’S NOT THE CASE WITH THESE THREE FIRES’.

Shortly after the fire on Henderson, there was a suggestion of suspects seen leaving the home before the fire was called in. Based on that, it will probably eventually also be ruled arson. Maybe.

If you have any information on any of the fires, call the GA Arson tipline at 1 800 282 5804.   

Three suspects now arrested in connection with last week’s break-ins and car thefts at Glen Eden subdivision.

  

Cathy Lane of Rossville [no pic available] joins Terry Alan Whitt [left] and Whitney Roach [right], who were both named in connection to the alleged crime several days earlier. They all face sixteen charges of entering autos and two counts of car theft.

At last report they were jailed in Hamilton, TN (where they were apprehended) waiting extradition back to Walker County. A quick background check shows Whitt, at least, has previously spent time in prison for burglary.   

A week ago tonight during her public meeting in Rossville, Commissioner Heiskell claimed the county’s new $25,000 trolley at Mountain Cove Farms has already paid for itself.

Sure it has. Just take her word for it.

Heiskell had another community meeting in Chickamauga this Monday night. No reports on what was said there, but since it was Chickamauga the gathering likely resembled a church revival. Another meeting scheduled for Wallaceville tonight will probably be the same.     

Does coming in from another community to shoplift count as “tourism” ?

WQCH Radio, 06/07/15: “AN 18 YEAR OLD FROM RINGGOLD WAS ARRESTED FOR SHOPLIFTING WEDNESDAY, AT THE LAFAYETTE WALMART.

“POLICE SAY ALEX HUNTER SMITH WAS SPOTTED BY STORE SECURITY OPENING STORE PACKAGING AND CONCEALED A COMPUTER GAME AND SOFTWARE WITH A TOTAL VALUE OF $130.

“HE REPORTEDLY ENTERED THE CHECKOUT LINE WITH HIS MOTHER, WHO’D BEEN SHOPPING ELSEWHERE IN THE STORE. SHE PAID, BUT HE DID NOT, THE STOLEN ITEMS WERE RECOVERED, AND THE TEEN WAS ARRESTED.”