Two children lost to fire in Chickamauga.

A little after 6 AM Tuesday, Walker County fire crews were called to a trailer fire on Carabou Lane, near Marble Top Road.

Despite the best rescue efforts of firefighters and family members, two girls – six-year-old Nataliegh Long and her niece, 9-month-old Jocelyn Long – did not survive the blaze.

Two adults in the trailer got out, along with three other kids ages 9, 7, and 4. All were treated for smoke inhalation. A county fireman burned on the face during the attempted rescue was also treated and released.

An official cause of the fire has not been determined by investigators, but per Sheriff Wilson, mom/step-grandma Heather Long blames the blaze on a tea candle she lit while waking kids up for school. That candle set a couch on fire while she was out at the car and quickly took the house up with it.

Chattanooga Times Free-Press, 09/13/16: “..[Sheriff] Wilson said Richard Long ran out the back of the trailer, hustled to the front and broke a window. He and Heather Long managed to pull out three of the children. ‘The father was instrumental in bringing these children out of the home,’ Wilson said.”

Services for the girls who died, Nataliegh and Jocelyn, will be handled at Wallis-Wilbanks – details TBA.

Over the last few days nearly $7,000 has been raised for the family through a single GoFundMe; donations can also be made through Saddle Ridge in Rock Spring. The school will also have a fundraiser bakesale for the Longs this Friday, if you’d like to help out in that way.         

When Commissioner Heiskell announced intentions to “cut” taxes, Shannon Whitfield demanded she also lower the county’s budget by at least the same amount.

Bebe responded by doing what he asked – releasing a budget $600,000 lower than last year’s.

Much of her savings (on paper, they don’t follow a budget) come from cutting more money out of the road barn and county vehicle maintenance, two areas where the county’s already not spending enough.

In the same budget she finds an extra $300,000 for the Sheriff’s Office and adds $165,000 to the juvenile court.

“Shannon Whitfield, the Republican party candidate, said Heiskell’s budget is too thin. It is four pages long. By comparison, Catoosa County’s budget is 252 pages long.”

He’s got a point there, but it doesn’t really matter since Bebe doesn’t stick to a budget anyway. At the end of the year she’ll revise it to match whatever they end up spending.

The only cure for THAT is to end sole commissioner, something Mr. Whitfield doesn’t seem especially enthusiastic about.   

An online petition asking GDOT to install a red light on Hwy. 27 in front of Saddle Ridge school has now been signed by almost 400 people.

School Superintendent Raines and the principal of Saddle Ridge both say they support the petition and want to see the light installed, but so far there’s been no comment from the county (Bebe) or state legislators (Mullis, Tarvin) whose support could push it over the edge.

The petition administrator tells LU she heard back from GDOT about it after talking to the newspaper, and they told her a study can be done about installing a light IF the county will commit to paying the utility bills for a light if they decide to install one.

That means this falls back on Bebe, or her successors, and/or the school board. Nothing will happen until one of them promises to pay the power bill for a light.   

Commissioner candidate Perry Lamb announces priorities for year one of his administration – IF voters choose to give him the job.

He’s put doing a forensic audit of his predecessors’ spending, ending sole commissioner, defunding NWGAJDA, cutting spending by 10%, and increasing government transparency at the top of his list – basically everything voters have asked for.

Neither of his opponents have released anything near this detailed for THEIR next four years, if elected.

Bebe’s agenda is to keep doing what she’s been doing, obviously.

Shannon Whitfield’s priorities, per his own presentation, is to set up a bunch of unelected advisory boards to sit down and decide for months what his priorities will be before doing anything.   

A motorcycle accident on Shattuck Industrial Blvd near Roper late last Thursday badly injured Pamela Joan Hyatt of Rock Spring.

Her Harley was struck by an SUV at the intersection of Foster Mill Drive after a third driver in a truck waved the SUV ahead.

At last update Hyatt was in Erlanger in critical condition. The SUV driver was given a traffic ticket; the man who waved the SUV through the crossing has not been charged.   

 

Two more arrests made in the Catoosa/Rossville child molestation case centered on Robert Allen Shaum.

Shaum’s adult daughter Crystal was previously arrested for interfering with an investigation into the case.

 

Now Crystal Shaum’s brother and boyfriend – Jeremiah McClure [left] and Matthew Shaum [right] – are being charged with the same thing: obstructing the investigation.   

Keep your car doors locked, and don’t leave valuables in your vehicle overnight – even parked at home.

WQCH Radio, 09/14/16: “LAFAYETTE POLICE REPORT A RASH OF ‘ENTERING AUTO’ CASES OVER THE WEEKEND, ON CAVENDER STREET, MAGNOLIA STREET, SOUTH CHATTANOOGA STREET, WEST MAIN AND HILL HIGH COURT.

“IN THE SOUTH CHATTANOOGA STREET CASE, A WIDOW [sic] WAS BROKEN OUT TO GAIN ENTRY AND A RUGER HANDGUN WAS MISSING FROM THE VEHICLE.

“IN ANOTHER INCIDENT, $50 WAS TAKEN FROM A WALLET THAT HAD BEEN LEFT IN THE VEHICLE GLOVE BOX, ALONG WITH A LAPTOP COMPUTER. A WALLET WAS MISSING FROM THE CENTER CONSOLE OF ANOTHER VEHICLE, AND A WALLET WITH $350 IN CASH WAS MISSING FROM ANOTHER. A FINAL VICTIM LOST $150 IN CASH.

“POLICE REMIND RESIDENTS TO LOCK CAR DOORS AT ALL TIMES.”   

This Friday and Saturday, Volkswagen will host a huge job fair – its first since opening in Chattanooga six years ago.

The company is seeking to hire an additional 1,000 workers for its upcoming expansion. Unfortunately, new hires won’t be working directly for VW – they’ll be taken on by Aerotek, at least to begin with.

Pay under Aerotek starts at $13.50 an hour before bonuses.   

Georgia law requires registered sex offenders to be classified by how much of a risk they are to others.

However, thousands of offenders – nearly a third of the state’s 21,000+ registered sex criminals – remain unlabeled because the state agency tasked with classifying them doesn’t have enough employees to get the job done.

[There are 43 registered offenders just in the 30728 ZIP code alone.]   

Another trip to Sand Mountain, this time to High Falls Park in Dekalb County Alabama.   

In recent months Georgia’s online education option for public school students has been criticized for lackluster performance despite having high attendance.

One issue in evaluating online school performance is how exactly does one define “attendance” when the student is attending over the Internet?   

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