One Eleven restaurant was closed yesterday, cleaning up damage done by an overnight burglary. Someone broke into the store through a basement door, cut alarm cables, disconnected cameras, stole a small amount of money, and helped himself to money from charity bracelet sales.

A suspect, 20-year-old former employee Casey Darling, was later arrested at the Morgan Motel where he currently resides. People who know Darling say he lived with LaFayette City Manager Frank Etheridge for a time due to being friends with Etheridge’s son but was kicked out (and fired from One Eleven) due to alleged drug use. Darling’s personal Facebook says he was “Manager/Barista” at the restaurant.

WQCH Radio, 09/19/2012: “‘DETECTIVE MEEKS EMPHASIZED THAT MORE ARRESTS ARE POSSIBLE AS THE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES. HE SAID THE OWNER OF ONE-ELEVEN, MIKE LOVELADY, WAS ‘DISAPPOINTED’ WHEN POLICE TOLD HIM THAT SOME OF THE STOLEN ITEMS WERE FOUND IN DARLING’S POSSESSION. THE OWNER TOLD POLICE HE HAD ‘BEEN TRYING TO HELP’ THE MAN.”

Walker Co Schools says football players will continue to eat pre-game meals at churches, and doing so is legal if all they do is eat a meal. Freedom From Religion Foundation disagrees, saying it’s illegal to take students to a church for any purpose, even if nothing “religious” happens there.

Some of the original complaints made by FFRF (like students being preached to) needed to be checked, but this seems to be grasping at straws. If the students are not engaging in a religious activity, there should be no problem with using a church space for a meal.

LU editors are hashing out Q&A questions for November elections, planning to include candidates for Sheriff (Wilson and Westbrook), Commissioner (Heiskell and Campbell), and GA House 1 (McMahon and Deffenbaugh). If you have any suggested questions, post them in comments below or e-mail us at lu@cityoflafayettega.com. Questions should be going out to candidates in a couple days.

There’s no expectation of answers from all the candidates, especially since three of the six ignored Q&A’s sent out in July – but it’s an opportunity for every candidate to get their side of the story out, even ones who don’t find much support here. Their refusal to respond says as much, sometimes, as the responses.

Candidates: Please contact LU with your current preferred e-mail address so you’re sure to get the Q&A to you on time. Please don’t answer any questions here or discuss answers with your opponent(s) or other candidates so the answers are all fresh and from you.

Q&A responses will be posted here during the week before early voting begins so everyone can vote with as much information as possible.

Times Free Press reports the same thing as LU: LaFayette Historic Preservation Commission members resigned in protest over firing of Economic Development director Catherine Edgemon. Not sure if LU is the source on this (same info reported here) or if they verified independently. Members of the Commission say they didn’t resign over Edgemon, they quit because of proposed new rules for how the HPC would interact with Downtown Development Authority.

The proposed change was to make the HPC a city committee like the airport committee and recreation committee, with a council member and other citizens appointed to serve, instead of the independent group it has been with members chosen by one person. The changes haven’t been finalized or voted on yet, so their decision to leave over a tweak seems a bit premature. (Premature being the only aspect of this the word “mature” can go with.)

Meanwhile people on the Edgemon side of things are saying she was fired a day after being given “a new job description” and being told she wasn’t following it. But city leaders say that’s not the case, her job description is the same as it ever was – and she hadn’t been doing it.

Special LaFayette council meeting tonight at 7 to discuss and finalize the 2013 city budget. If you live in the city try to go – ask questions and hold your elected leaders accountable for the places and ways money is being spent.

Chattanooga Times-Free Press update on Saddle Ridge K-8th school going up in Rock Spring. Apparently the building is designed to facilitate “open learning” activities.

These are methods used for years by “non traditional” schools and dismissed for a long time by the ones now scrambling to adopt them.

Here’s Walker County’s position on work being done for walking trails on Lookout Mountain. This glorified press release on Chattanoogan.com glosses over the environmental damage and resident opposition to the work being done.

Friday night in Cedartown, LaFayette High football was “steamrolled” 35 to zip. Before last week LaFayette hadn’t played Cedartown since 1999, and still hasn’t won against the Bulldogs since 1986. So far LaFayette is 0-2 for the season.

Thursday LaFayette Middle lost to the Heritage Generals in a 22-14 game, opening their 2012 season.

Ridgeland had its first home game Friday against River Ridge. Support for coach Mariakis and student-led prayer was strong, and the Panthers won 42-8.

After the city fired Economic Development Director Catherine Edgemon for poor job performance, the entire Historic Preservation Committee (which she also led) resigned in protest and shut down the Chattooga Academy Facebook page.

Former assistant director Ronald M. Underwood made the following statement on his personal Facebook page:

“Due to recent developments and decisions made by the City Manager,Council and a couple of DDA members the City no longer has a sitting Historic Preservation Commission, they were going to force changes the commission decided that we cannot function under, I along with other members have resigned, there will no longer be any walking tours, exhibits, Christmas model train exhibit among other things, I will not be doing any more volunteer work for the City, The City is going to lose funding for projects that are ongoing due to us not being allowed to attend meetings that the state requires, I could go on & on but but it seems no one cares, everything that we had planned for the future is dead, this city has lost one of the best group of people (commision members) that has ever been, If you people sit back & allow this to continue our town is going down hill fast, I have enjoyed the things that I have been involved in but I can no longer deal with the present leaders the City has in place, and the DDA no longer has a support group to work with them.”

Some Edgemon supporters are also claiming this is an attempt by the city council to establish a “shadow government” of hand-picked people at the DDA and Preservation Committee who won’t be responsible to voters.

Thing is, nobody forced anyone to resign except Ms. Edgemon. The Preservation Committee is throwing a fit, they want to be in charge of both preservation and development (which are on opposite ends of the spectrum at times).

And it’s not much of a “shadow government” since they have minimal authority outside of what the City Council allows them to do anyway. Their meetings are public and most decisions must be approved by the council. What are they going to do, have a shadow government meeting and decide to paint things an evil color?

Here’s a response to Underwood’s comment from LaFayette Councilman Chris Davis:

“This was the Historic Preservation Commisions Decision Alone. In no way will we let the walking tours, exhibits and other projects die out . There are many people that cares about the history of our town. No funding will be lost with these changes and we are already in the process of re-establishing a new committee and a facebook page for the Chattanooga Academy. If anyone would like to set down and talk about the changes that are taking place feel free to call me at 423-421-6866. I am sorry that the members of the HPC feels that they cant work with us anylonger but we will rebuid a new comittee and continue with great things in our great city.

“I will not coment on why Ms. Edgemon was Let go due to it being personel issues but I will say I hope Mr. Underwood understands that She is not the controller of either Board and she never should have been asigning board members . It is the Board of the DDA and the HPC that selects the members based off of certain criteria and sends the names to the City Council for there approval.”

Drama is a sign of immaturity, which is surprising considering most (now former) members of the Preservation Committee are well past retirement age. Hopefully a new committee will be chosen fairly, represent the city better than the old committee did, and move LaFayette’s preservation efforts forward in a sensible manner.

Here’s the county’s official position on work being done for walking trails on Lookout Mountain. This one from The Chattanoogan glosses over the environmental damage and resident opposition to the work being done.

Walker County has reached a $65k “settlement” with the state in response to damage done to waterways on Lookout Mountain as part of a county leader’s pet project. The fine will be paid out as a project for EPD, not in cash. Slap on the wrist; Bebe and her people got the project done the way they wanted, and she still insists they did nothing wrong. The only losers here are Walker County taxpayers and residents of Lookout Mountain opposed to the project.

WQCH Radio, 09/13/12: “GEORGIA’S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DIVISION IS REQUIRING WALKER COUNTY TO DO A ‘CORRECTIVE ACTION’ ON WORK WHERE THE DURHAM TRAIL PROJECT MEETS ROCK CREEK, ATOP LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. INSTEAD OF A FINE, THE AGENCY IS MAKING THE COUNTY DO REMEDIAL WORK ESTIMATED AT 65-THOUSAND DOLLARS.

“THE CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN CALLS FOR INSTALLATION OF AN ARCHED METAL CULVERT UPSTREAM, TO PROTECT THE OLD RAILROAD CULVERT THAT IS NOW MORE THAN 100 YEARS OLD. THE DURHAM TRAIL FOLLOWS THE ABANDONED ROAD-BED OF AN OLD MINING RAILROAD ON THE MOUNTAIN.”

That hardly sounds like something worth $65,000 and it’s still part of finishing the Lookout Mountain trail system. It’s the punishment equivalent of ordering bank robbers to spend stolen money on something they wanted to buy anyway.

Why such a light punishment? Bebe Heiskell has been working politically since before this became public to make it go away. She and County Attorney Don Oliver (who actually oversaw the trail work and tried to hide the damage) asked State Senator Jeff Mullis to pressure EPD into looking the other way or issue a minimal punishment.

Mullis’ unwarranted involvement in this situation (bought through the Joint Development Authority he’s paid to run) is likely why the county got a $65-thousand-worth-of-projects-slap instead of losing hundreds of thousands in federal and state road money (“an election disaster for all of us”) as Mr. Oliver warned might happen in an e-mail to Sen. Mullis.

Hopefully we can go into more detail on this later on.

LaFayette “Main Street & Economic Development” Director Catherine Edgemon was terminated by the city Tuesday.

Her role as development director and leader of the Historic Preservation Commission were conflicts.. The two often overlap and have different goals. Overall she’s been ineffective, and the city’s leaders came to realize how little she was getting done in that position. You can’t blame sore ankles on poor job performance forever.

Jan Shattuck has been appointed temporary director of the Downtown Development Authority until a permanent replacement is named. City leaders apparently have someone in mind for the job already, but will have to post it for public application if Edgemon doesn’t appeal her termination.