The rumors are true: LaFayette Public Works director Mark White has joined the ranks of the unemployed. He “resigned” last week in lieu of the firing LU heard about days before his departure was announced.

Public Works employee Jeremiah Nez will temporarily oversee LaFayette’s streets, cemetery, and garbage service while the city manager and council review the department and possibly restructure it to make more sense.

The city won’t specific why White was let go, but he was a bad choice for the position to start with. He’s an ex city councilman who abused his elected position a decade ago by using city resources to pave driveways in a subdivision he built for his own profit. while on the council he also built a duplex on Park St. that violated a handful of city zoning laws, with permission from the city – leading to a lawsuit.

After White’s ill-advised, inexplicable appointment to oversee Public Works in February 2012, LU received multiple reports of him using a city vehicle while on the clock to collect rent from his tenants all over the city. He’s also got a nasty temper and is known to use steroids.

Good riddance.   

In late February, Commissioner Heiskell signed new rules into law authorizing the county codes to force property owners to clean up trash and dilapidated buildings or pay the cost of government cleanup.

It’s a good set of rules, there are property owners in the county who SHOULD be forced to clean up their trash piles or burnt out, abandoned buildings. But do we trust Bebe and her people to use them fairly and competently? Sure…. … ..   

Another weather-related school cancellation last Thursday brings the total number of snow days this school year to at least five. But Walker County students won’t have to attend school any extra days to make up for missed time.

Instead, kids will be staying in class an extra 20 minutes every day for the remainder of the school year. Catoosa County students will have a similar system to make up for snow skips; they’re staying an extra ten minutes each day for the next couple of weeks.

Walker County Schools’ new schedule will on Monday the 16th.               

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This review of a stay at county-owned Mountain Cove Farms recently popped up on Facebook:

Rats, sewage, and credit card fraud – from a business representing the people of Walker County, and doing it poorly.

What’s the county getting for that $3,000 per month “management fee” Bebe signed a contract for last year?   

LaFayette police are seeking a man who drove a yellow and white dirt bike through town at a high rate of speed, running from police and blowing through stop signs, last Friday afternoon.

His chase stretched from Grant St. past the post office, across 136 and through Skyline Heights before losing the police on a dirt road near Abney Hollow Rd.   

During last week’s snow, LPD officer Nicholas Terry helped deliver a baby in West LaFayette.   

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This notice was printed in last week’s Walker County Messenger:

It’s suggested the purpose of this proposed new county-controlled “Public Facilities Authority” would be to issue bonds for Hutcheson debt, but many rightfully worry it would also be an avenue for the Commissioner to hide the cost of pet projects like Mountain Cove Farms.

LU shared the ad last week; today the Chattanooga Times Free Press takes a look at the proposal, and finds it’s at least as bad as first suggested: It would not only be a vehicle for her to hide existing debt, she could use the authority to sell new bonds, new county debt, without voter permission. But it wouldn’t keep those voters from having to pay that debt down the road.

Chattanooga Times Free Press, 03/02/15: “..This authority would have the ability to issue revenue bonds. Heiskell said Walker County could do that on its own. But according to Georgia law, local voters would have to approve the debt through a referendum. Creating an authority would allow the county to get the money more quickly, she said. Also: Without oversight.” [Emphasis added.]

You can put a committee inside an authority behind another committee, but this is still the county, because the only money this entity will have is county tax dollars, and its leaders will all be chosen by the current sole commissioner. But the separate legal structure would make it easier for Bebe and her appointed friends to hide what they’re doing, both from citizens and from accountants.

Until the whole thing blows up in somebody’s face years down the road.

“Dean Kelly, chairman of the Walker County Republican Party and coordinator for the Northwest Georgia Tea Party, believes this financial maneuver would still ultimately fall back on county taxpayers. He doesn’t think the hospital can pay the money back.

“‘Bebe is kicking the can down the road so it doesn’t affect her in the next election,’ he said. ‘That’s what politicians do.’

This is the equivalent of getting another credit card in another name to pay debt you racked up with the first card. That’s fiscal responsibility in Bebe’s Walker County – the reason for the county’s destroyed credit rating – and the kind of accountability we’re going to continue struggling under with a single elected leader.

Call Steve Tarvin at 423 605 7328 and tell him NO on this. And while you’re on the phone, remind him that we need a vote on sole commissioner government so this madness ends.     

Thursday week ago, a Walmart customer’s groceries were stolen while his cart was in the parking lot.

The theft was caught on security camera, unfortunately the only detail released is a vague description of their vehicle: a silver passenger car.

The victim declined to prosecute and Walmart replaced his $34 of stolen items.   

House fire Friday afternoon on Dunwoody Rd.

No injuries were reported.   

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Walker County and Northwest Georgia received a relatively heavy snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning, with upwards of 8 inches measured in spots. All local schools, local colleges, most non-essential government offices, and many businesses were closed Thursday and many – including Walker and Chattooga schools – remain closed today.

Road crews for the state, county, and cities have done well this time, out actively working Wednesday night during the snow and clearing major roads in decent time Thursday morning, despite at least one minor accident. [see below]

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 The weather is nice today but a melt and refreeze means some roads may have black ice, more dangerous than the snow itself. Drivers should remain cautious through the next few days as the remaining winter detritus melts.                                       

The snow wasn’t without incident.

A dump truck with a plow blade, apparently a county truck, flipped over in Rock Spring late Wednesday night. An eyewitness who provided this photo said the driver was not injured.

Also on Wednesday, an ATV accident on Childress Hollow Rd. towards Chickamauga sent a teen to the hospital. County officials say there were multiple incidents Wednesday in the dark and Thursday involving 4-wheelers.

Enjoy the snow but don’t throw common sense out the window and get hurt.     

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Hutcheson leaders blame state law, Erlanger, impoverished patients, and whatever else they can for the hospital’s poor financial condition. Some of that may be a factor, but HMC’s biggest problem is quality and poor reputation.

  

Quality problems haven’t gone away, as shown by this dried blood a patient’s parent recently found on a supposedly clean hospital bed. Hutcheson put somebody’s child in this bed with another person’s gunk still on it.

If they’d stop wasting money on pro-hospital-leadership advertising and legal battles, and focus that money and energy on getting the basics right, we might not see stuff like this.

You want the community to rally and “save Hutcheson” ? Work on this basic stuff and we might consider it.

Meanwhile, Bebe Heiskell, Don Oliver, and the Hutcheson boards have a NEW plan: open a federal VA hospital in a section of the building no longer used. Per news reports, they have petitioned US Senator Isakson to have a new VA facility for the Chattanooga area move into one of Hutcheson’s abandoned wings.

Terrible idea – combining two bads to somehow make a good – that will thankfully never move forward.   

Absconded local sex offender brought into custody after a chase through two counties.

WQCH Radio, 02/20/15: “LAFAYETTE POLICE ARRESTED A 41 YEAR OLD MAN ON TWO WARRANTS, INCLUDING ONE FOR ‘FAILURE TO REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER’.

“MELTON ANDREW PADGETT WAS ARRESTED AT HIS LAKESITE DRIVE RESIDENCE, OFF PLEDGER PARKWAY, MONDAY [2/16]. THE OUTSTANDING WARRANTS WERE ISSUED BY CHATTOOGA AND WALKER COUNTIES, ACCORDING TO POLICE.”

Per other news reports, Padgett was spotted in Floyd County and ran from deputies who pursued him in Chattooga. That added to the stack of outstanding warrants related to his non-registering.

Padgett was originally convicted in 1996 on two counts of child molestation and two counts of aggravated sexual battery, per the GA Department of Corrections. He got a 20 year sentence but was released in July 2011.   

ANOTHER local lawyer arrested.

Attorney Morgan Adams of Lookout Mountain charged with aggravated child abuse for spanking his 11-year-old over 100 times (in one session) during January.

Morgan has a law office in Chattanooga. Law firm Web site describes him as “THE SOUTH’S LEADING LAWYER FOR TRUCK & BUS ACCIDENTS.” He may need to brush up on his knowledge of laws regarding domestic violence and child abuse.

UPDATE: Charges against Adams were dropped in August 2015. A Meigs County TN judge threw out the case and ordered Adams’ record cleared, for reasons not made clear.   

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