After years of vague empty promises, County leaders finally announced the “Project Eagle” prospect company’s name: Audia Group. Audia is a Pennsylvania-based chemical company which owns Washington-Penn Plastics, the company LU revealed as the county’s candidate back in March.

Reports claim the deal is done and Audia is moving in, but so far Walker County has only released a “memorandum of understanding” about the project, which is hardly a signed contract. Various news reports have fluctuated the amount of property involved from 25 to 50 acres, and on UCTV Wednesday night the county claimed it would take up 200 of the site’s 400 acres.

Audia Group has been completely silent so far (e-mails LU sent to the company haven’t been answered) and it’s unclear if this is supposed to be a manufacturing facility, a transfer station, or a warehouse. Before company details were released, county leaders said this “Project Eagle” would bring in 200 jobs, but now that the project has been announced they refuse to nail down a figure.

The company has about 1,000 employees working in ten locations, so it’s likely Walker County won’t get more than 100 new jobs out of the millions spent to land the facility, and none of the jobs are going to pay much more than $10 an hour. Bottom line: don’t believe it until you actually see some jobs and find out if they actually pay anything.

(Two years ago the county was flooding local media with reports about fifty jobs coming in with the water bottling/fish hatchery plant in Kensington and that place never opened at all, so pardon LU’s skepticism.)     

LHS principal Mike Culberson fell out of a tree yesterday attempting to retrieve a model airplane. He broke his nose and both wrists, is hurt pretty badly. Surgery is scheduled for Friday.

At least school’s out, but employees are still there and the school is apparently trying to make some major hiring decisions with the principal out of commission.   

When businesses post fake photos supposedly showing their products, in an attempt to get people in the door, it damages their reputation and makes people distrustful.

This sandwich is supposedly available at the Tavern but it’s an image from Wikipedia; The Tavern Reuben might be fine but this isn’t it at all. And that’s not the first time the Tavern and affiliated businesses have done that: photos of the Tavern/One Eleven limo, other food items, and even Tavern beer have been faked.

Some argue that every restaurant does it, the food you see in a McDonald’s commercial doesn’t exactly match what you get at the drive thru because it’s well-lit, touched up, and PhotoShopped – but even then the product is the company’s own food. The Tavern is using someone ELSE’s well-lit, touched ip, and PhotoShopped food claiming it as their own.

Is this kind of thing OK or does it reveal a pattern of deceitfulness?     

LU will be on break for Memorial Day through Wednesday. Next Daily Update will be posted Thursday May 29th.

Congratulations to LaFayette High School class of 2014.

This year’s seniors, a group of 278, finished their high school careers Friday night on the grass at Jack King Stadium.     

Graduation at Ridgeland the day before was hardly as smooth.

According to Channel 3, Ridgeland’s commencement turned into a disaster Thursday night when the attending crowd was beyond what Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga could handle. The mess led to a child being hit by a car and hospitalized; parents blame school leaders and demand an apology for poor planning.

Walker County Schools admits there was more space inside Memorial Auditorium when the doors were locked, but the decision to shut down was made to stop disruptive people coming in during the middle of the ceremony. (3,866 seats work out to over 14 per student, which should be plenty.)

Superintendent Raines says no graduating students were prevented from participating in the ceremony, only guests, and in future years Ridgeland will issue tickets to students in order to control attendance. Later article says child struck by car outside the theater was unsupervised, which takes responsibility for the accident off the school.     

Friday afternoon Bo Eubanks was involved in a motorcycle accident on Hwy. 27 near Longhollow Rd. in Chickamauga. Eubanks is the husband of Cherokee Regional Library director Lecia. Per friends he suffered serious injuries and spent the night at Erlanger.

This a few days after the library tax defeat. Rough week for Lecia.   

Monday’s primary election held few surprises, although several races and contested issues were slightly closer than projected.

The most closely watched local campaign was for GA House District 2. Incumbent Steve Tarvin (first elected in January) faced challengers EBeth Edwards and Rebecca Ann Brown. Tarvin soundly defeated both challengers with 65.88% of the 4,039 votes cast. With no Democrat candidate to face in November, Rep. Tarvin will go back to Atlanta for an additional two years.

Tarvin took a majority of votes in all three counties involved and also won every single voting precinct except Edwards’ home precinct of Armuchee/Villanow. And even there as many people voted for her opponents (10 and 97 respectively) as voted for her (107). Half the people who know Edwards apparently know better than to vote for her; Hopefully this means her political aspirations are done.

Incumbent John Deffenbaugh (R-Addams Family) didn’t fare as well in State House District 1. He won the race but received less than half the total votes cast for his opponents, Robert Goff of Dade and Alan Painter of Walker. Deffenbaugh, who lives in Dade, won all but one Walker County precinct, while Goff (who also lives in Dade) won every Dade precinct. Alan Painter claimed victory in just one of the fifteen contested areas, but was only 26 votes shy of tying Goff’s total.

A runoff vote for this race, Deffenbaugh vs. Goff, will be held in July; the winner of that election will still have to face Democrat candidate Tom McMahan in November.

Ten-year-incumbent State Senator Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga (R-Georgia Power) easily beat his opponent, Tom Dooley of LaFayette. Mullis claimed victory in every precinct of Walker, Dade, Catoosa, and Chattooga so for the sake of time and space there will be no precinct-by-precinct breakdown of that vote here.

Mullis’ 68.51% margin over Dooley looks like a crushing defeat for the political newcomer, but considering Mullis’ half-million-dollar campaign fund and Dooley’s few hundred dollars, Dooley’s 31% should be considered a victory. Final reports on campaign spending haven’t been released, but it’s very likely Mullis spent several hundred times the money Tom did to get only twice as many votes.

Mullis has no Democrat opponent and will retain his position at the Atlanta feeding trough for another two winters.

State-wide, Governor Nathan Deal defeated HIS two primary opponents, John Barge and David Pennington, with a large margin, over 70%. Georgia voters, like most in Walker County, are apparently willing to ignore ethical problems and corruption to go with a familiar name. Deal will face Democrat Jason Carter in November.

Here in Walker only two local issues were being decided: A .25 mil property tax to support libraries, and a measure ceding control of alcohol regulations in the county to Commissioner Heiskell.

Alcohol control (promoted as allowing liquor sales in the county, but that’s not guaranteed) was approved by 56% of voters, winning all but one of the eleven precincts. The library tax was rejected, with 53% of voters saying no. Two of the four precincts that supported a tax for the library (Chickamauga and Rossville) actually have libraries; LaFayette was the only area with a standing library to reject the idea of supporting it.

As the Walker County Messenger appropriately summarized, “Walker County voters say yes to booze, no to books.” (There’s your new county slogan.)

Precincts approving the library tax might have less to do with having their own library and more to do with which voters trust the Commissioner to actually do what she said with the tax money. The same areas that backed the tax – Chickamauga, Fairview, Fairyland, Rossville – have also been the most supportive of Commissioner Heiskell during the last few elections and provided the greatest support to renewing SPLOST last year.

That theory of trust also makes sense after talking to several people who said they support libraries and would have voted for the tax except they don’t trust Heiskell to do what she said with the funds OR don’t want to expand taxes in light of how other tax money in the county has been used.

The same county that trusted Heiskell with the SPLOST tax (which costs each family several hundred dollars annually) last year now reject a library tax that would add $10 to their property tax bills.

Next Daily Update will take a closer look at voter turnout, or the lack thereof.                           

Saturday’s Music on the Square was by every account a success. Rain earlier in the day kept attendance down for a bit, but the skies cleared later on and turned into a pleasant evening.

That’s headliner Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives coving “Ring of Fire” in tribute to Johnny Cash.       

(Click to advance gallery – mouseover for captions.)

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If you haven’t been keeping up with elections news (Lord knows everybody’s tired of it and has been for months), you can check out sample ballots for each party here, or click the links to each: Republican, Democrat, Non-Partisan.

Georgia has open elections, meaning voters aren’t registered by party – if you vote you can request any ballot you want. However, voters can only get one ballot and most races being contested in this primary vote are Republican; if you don’t ask for an R ballot you won’t have much to do in the voting booth.

Election is Tuesday, if you’re registered to vote and didn’t do it early, today’s a good day to do some research on the candidates and issues being voted on. (More on the candidates below.)   

Breast cancer patient Kandy Gilstrap, principal of Rock Spring Elementary, says she’s surviving “day by day” with God’s help.     

Music on the Square, featuring Marty Stuart and a good number of other well-regarded musicians, will be held today downdown from 10 AM until the early hours of Sunday. Placement of the stage means Main Street is closed all weekend and traffic through town will be tough.

For photos and updates on MOTS, check LU Facebook.

Other events held today: Annual Vietnam Vets BBQ on Homer Cagle Rd, begins 12 noon. Cherokee Rose Festival in Villanow begins at 10 AM. Mission Fest to benefit The Care Mission from 10 to 3 at Joe Stock Park.       

Big meth bust in West LaFayette this week..

WQCH Radio, 05/16/14: “THE DRUG TASK FORCE ARRESTED FIVE LOCALS AT A WEST LAFAYETTE RESIDENCE WEDNESDAY, CHARGING EACH WITH METH VIOLATIONS.

“COMMANDER PAT DOYLE CALLED IT A FOLLOW UP INVESTIGATION BASED ON COMPLAINTS RECEIVED. ALL FIVE WERE ARRESTED AT THE RESIDENCE, 701 MCLEMORE STREET IN LAFAYETTE. HE SAID ALL WERE REPEAT DRUG OFFENDERS, 2 OF WHOM WERE ON PAROLE AND 1 ON PROBATION FOR PREVIOUS OFFENSES.

“THOSE ARRESTED INCLUDE 43 YEAR OLD TERRY WAYNE CROWE, 40 YEAR OLD SEAN EDWARD FLANAGAN, 25 YEAR OLD FRED WILLIAM ELLISON, 26 YEAR OLD BRITTANY NICOLE WALLIN AND 41 YEAR OLD VINCENT LAMAR SAINE. THERE WERE MULTIPLE CHARGES, BUT ALL ARE ACCUSED OF POSSESSION OF METH WITH INTENT TO DISTRIBUTE.

“A SIZABLE QUANTITY OF METH WAS FOUND IN THE HOUSE, AND INVESTIGATORS BELIEVE THE SUSPECTS WERE ‘CUTTING UP’ THE DRUG AND PACKAGING IT FOR RESALE. A COUPLE OF THE SUSPECTS ATTEMPTED TO EXIT THE HOUSE AT THE BACK, BUT THEY WERE QUICKLY SECURED, DOYLE SAID.”   

Hutcheson continues a long pattern of stupid actions by selling its half of the (presumably profitable) Battlefield Imaging Center. Money made from selling another unit will go to lower a tiny bit of the hospital’s huge debt pile, at the cost of losing whatever income comes from that center.

Also ridiculous, Walker County is giving Hutcheson another loan – up to $1 million – days after the county’s own credit was downgraded for guaranteeing previous Hutcheson debts.

Don Oliver (attorney for both the county and the hospital) says Hutcheson is doing great, treating more customers than ever, and needs this latest credit line to pay for expenses of doing more business.

Shouldn’t the money coming in from doing more business cover the costs of that business? If being busier means needing more credit, they’re losing money on every patient who comes in..

Hutcheson’s going to burn down financially and take the county along with it.   

Early voting turnout state-wide was low. Seems people just can’t get excited about next week’s election, probably because we’ve had vote after vote with no break over the last year, and almost every candidate looks and sounds the same.

Actual election will be next Tuesday.

Due to time constraints, LU will unfortunately not have candidate Q&A’s for next Tuesday’s election. Questions were put together, but there wasn’t enough time to send them and give candidates a fair chance to answer and get them posted before the vote.