2013
07.01

Walker County’s elderly, poor, and disabled who don’t have vehicles or cannot drive depend on Walker Transit busses to get to the doctor, to shop, and for social activities.

Last week, in order to save funds for her pet projects, Bebe Heiskell delayed renewing a contract to keep those busses running. The contract was set to begin on July 1 – today. That means a loss of about two dozen jobs and people who could literally DIE because they couldn’t get to the store or go the doctor for things like dialysis or cancer treatment.

Walker Transit Five Busses

    WQCH Radio, 06/28/13: “THE WALKER TRANSIT BUS SYSTEM MAY FALL VICTIM TO DECLINING COUNTY REVENUES. COMMISSIONER BEBE HEISKELL IS DEBATING WHETHER TO RENEW A CONTRACT FOR THE BUS SERVICE.
    “THE BUSES HAVE BEEN IN OPERATION FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, BUT WALKER COUNTY TOOK OVER THE DAILY OPERATION 6 YEARS AGO. IT IS FUNDED BY A 50-50 GRANT FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT – AND DELIVERED TO WALKER THROUGH THE STATE D.O.T. THE LOCAL SHARE IS 348-THOUSAND DOLLARS, AND THAT’S THE AMOUNT THAT THE COMMISSIONER SAID COUNTY GOVERNMENT MAY NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD.
    “SHE STRUCK APPROVAL OF THE WALKER TRANSIT GRANT OFF THE AGENDA AT THURSDAY’S MEETING, SAYING SHE WOULD MAKE THAT DECISION AT A LATER DATE.”

Reading about Heiskell’s decision on LU Facebook, outraged citizens called the Commissioner’s Office and personal cell phone, demanding she fund the transit system.

Callers were initially told that two other transit services – Lookout Mountain Community Services and Angel Medical – could provide similar service. That proved untrue: Lookout Mountain only provides transportation for its own enrolled clients going to its own facilities, and Angel Medical (owned by coroner DeWayne Wilson’s family) charges $40 per trip plus mileage. (Walker Transit charges a flat rate of $2 per trip.)

During a call with reporters from Channel 3 late Friday afternoon, Heiskell backtracked and said she will sign a “temporary” contract funding Walker Transit through July 31. That gives citizens a month to either force Bebe to renew the program for another year, or make plans to replace it when she shuts it down permanently.   Tiny Facebook  Tiny Facebook  Tiny Facebook  Tiny Facebook

Downtown LaFayette looks nice, but all the new concrete, narrower streets, and new signage/poles make it difficult for larger vehicles to navigate. Thursday a truck knocked something over at the intersection of Villanow St. and Main, and it’s not the first time this has occurred.

Downtown Intersection

In response, LaFayette is (per WQCH) pushing to have GA 193 declared an official truck route and “discourage” large trucks from driving through downtown.

“Discourage” isn’t an outright ban, and they can’t legally prohibit trucks from using Villanow St. or Main St. because both are state highways – but by “discouraging” large vehicles the city (both in the street project and in these statements) is discouraging businesses that need truck access.

Our beautiful downtown will really shine when we run off UPS, FedEx, Franks Trucking, Syntec, Fred’s, ShopRite, Bi-Lo, Dollar General, and any other businesses in the area that regularly get large truck deliveries. Making downtown LaFayette look like downtown Chickamauga is going to result in downtown LaFayette having the same number of viable downtown businesses Chickamauga has – zero.

And what about school busses?   Tiny Facebook

Dozens of people called Walker 911 on June 20th to report the Happy Valley Farms fire. Audio from some of those calls has been released to the media.

Investigators have ruled out a lightning strike and have found no evidence of arson; an electrical engineer will visit Happy Valley Farm today to see if an electrical problem might have sparked the blaze.

Investigators say it could take several more weeks to decide what caused the fire since the extreme heat left little evidence. Authorities are still hoping someone has a video or photo that can verify which part of the barn caught fire first.   Tiny Facebook  Tiny Facebook

Read More >>