A couple more yutes caught up in drugs. Not simply using, but (allegedly) smuggling.

WQCH Radio, 02/13/17: “THE DRUG TASK FORCE CHARGED TWO PEOPLE WITH TRAFFICKING METHAMPHETAMINE IN THE LAFAYETTE AREA, [last] MONDAY.

“WARRANTS WERE SERVED ON 26 YEAR OLD TAYLOR STEVEN BYRD AT A HIGHWAY 136 WEST ADDRESS. WHEN AGENTS KNOCKED ON THE BACK DOOR, A 4-THOUSAND DOLLAR BAG OF METH WAS TOSSED OUT OF A WINDOW. MORE DRUGS WERE FLUSHED, AND PACKAGING AND SCALES WERE FOUND INSIDE.

“ALSO ARRESTED WAS 22 YEAR OLD JOCELYN BREANNE ANDERSON. ALONG WITH BYRD, SHE WAS CHARGED WITH TRAFFICKING METH.”

Both suspects appear to be parents, which is a shame for their children.   

Walker County Sheriff’s Office seeks information about a cattle mutilation in Kensington late Sunday night.

Initial reports on this crime made it sound like animal abuse, calves tortured to death. But further details indicate it may have been more of a theft: both were shot (probably first), and one of the animals was butchered with the best cuts of meat taken away.

But what remained behind was left in a horror-show pile of entrails and severed limbs.

“Someone shot two calves on a farm, sawed off their legs, ripped out their guts and pulled off their shoulders this week, leaving the rest of their bodies for the owners to find.”

If you have any knowledge of what happened or who might have been involved, contact the SO at 706-638-1909.   

LaFayette has finalized buying the old after hours clinic from Hutcheson.

A new “Convenient Care” clinic run by Memorial Hospital is expected to open in the facility by summer.

WQCH Radio, 02/14/17: “CHI MEMORIAL HAS SIGNED A LEASE TO OPERATE THE CLINIC FOR A SEVEN YEAR TERM, WHICH WILL PROVIDE THE [LaFayette] DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY WITH A POSITIVE CASH FLOW IN PAYING BACK THE PURCHASE LOAN. THE BANK OF LAFAYETTE ARRANGED THE FINANCING.

“..PROFESSIONAL PARK ASSOCIATES, LOCATED ACROSS THE STREET, WILL EXPAND ITS SERVICES AND WILL MOVE SOME PROVIDERS INTO THE NEW SPACE, INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY TO MEDICAL CARE IN THE LAFAYETTE AREA.

“THE NEW OPERATION WILL BE KNOWN AS CHI MEMORIAL CONVENIENT CARE, AND IT WILL BE OPEN SIX DAYS A WEEK, WITH ACCESS TO AN ON-CALL PROVIDER AFTER CLINIC HOURS.”

Total cost of the purchase, which includes 34 acres of prime land along Hwy 136? $250,000.   

Another house fire death in a winter filled with them.

Saturday night 52-year-old Timothy Allen Brown died inside an abandoned home at 748 Highland Avenue in Summerville.

Investigators say Brown, described as “a vagrant” (read:homeless), broke into the house to sleep. They think the fire that took his life was started by one of his own candles.

The death occurred less than half a mile from a homeless shelter.       

LaFayette native Lance Ledbetter won’t be bringing another Grammy award home to Atlanta.

His latest historical album was beaten to the trophy yesterday by a set of Bob Dylan bootlegs. (Losing a five-album race to 1960’s Bob Dylan is certainly nothing to be ashamed of.)

Ledbetter DID win the honor in 2008 and has been nominated for it several other times, as a result of his work to preserve obscure recordings through Dust-to-Digital.   

“Lance and April Ledbetter are perhaps the most important preservers of folk music in the modern world, and they do it all from the basement of their little brick house.”

Saturday evening the Mega Star Mart on Highway 151 towards Ringgold was the scene of a hostage situation.

Per a law enforcement source the suspect in this case, who had a knife, was essentially holding himself hostage.

The situation was resolved with minimal bloodshed, considering.   

Human remains found on Lookout Mountain last week have been identified as 23-year-old Bradley Powell of Chattanooga.

Powell was last seen on December 7th and reported missing on December 9. At the time, authorities searched for him in the Suck Creek Road area of Hamilton County with no results.

The cause of his death has not been made public and/or has not yet been determined by investigators.

Officers initially said the remains found on February 3rd in a shallow grave near 157 and Nickajack Rd. had been there for three or four months.   

Commissioner Whitfield’s public meeting originally set for this Thursday was canceled due to “a scheduling conflict.” The next meeting will be February 23rd – nearly a month after the last meeting on 1/26.

So far Whitfield has scheduled four bi-monthly county business meetings, canceled one, and held a special one mid-afternoon on short notice.

Whitfield’s people and/or PR handler Joe Legge are doing a decent job of announcing meetings on social media, and video from the meetings is being shared online – but only edited clips, not full-length. Both should be made available for full transparency.

Better than we had but still have a long way to go.

Despite the county having a better social media presence (and a paid social media handler) nobody’s gotten around to answering this question, after almost two weeks.   

Another house fire in LaFayette has been deemed arson.

Fire inspectors say a blaze that heavily damaged 306 South Flora Street Wednesday was set intentionally.

The state is offering a reward for $10,000 leading to the arrest and conviction of someone responsible.   

When you call for help in an emergency, you hope for – and expect to get – a professional response. Not just well-trained, dedicated first responders, but trustworthy and competent 911 dispatchers on the other end of the line.

But for some reason, Walker County was until recently paying a known fugitive from justice to answer phones at 911.

In December 2014, the Sheriff’s Office in El Paso County, Colorado, issued an arrest warrant for Alisha Ruth Hawk on suspicion of “crimes against an at-risk adult” and identity theft. Media in Colorado shared a security camera image of Hawk in what appears to be a bank drive-thru.

In August 2016, Hawk – living in Fort Oglethorpe – applied for a job with Walker County 911.

Alisha Hawk was given the standard background check, and that check picked up her outstanding warrant from Colorado. 911 director David Ashburn then broke the law by not notifying authorities in Colorado where she was located, and still hired her as a dispatcher anyway.

That put the identity theft suspect in a job with access to confidential, personal information of county employees and anyone in a law enforcement database.

Friday morning “skeletal remains” were found in a shallow grave near 157 and Nickajack Rd. on Lookout Mountain.

Officers from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, GBI, TBI, and Chattanooga PD were all involved in the investigation. They told media the remains had been buried for four to six months and were thought to be connected to a Tennessee missing person’s case.

It’s unclear how the remains were discovered, although it’s been suggested an informant tipped Tennessee officers of the body and its location – which would also explain how they knew it was tied to a particular case long before the remains could be removed or identified.

Few details on the investigation – what officers suspect and what they actually know – have been released publicly, which is standard operating procedure this early into such a case.

We’ll all know way more about this than we want to know soon enough.     

An accident on GA 136 near the Walker/Gordon line Thursday has been blamed on drowsiness. Driver fell asleep at the wheel.

The Jeep was totaled, and the driver suffered injuries including (per family) a collapsed lung. No updates on his condition since Thursday.   

The victim from another accident weeks ago is on the road to recovery.

Walker State Prison fire chief Matthew Mann, injured in a Rock Spring wreck on January 19th, is finally done with surgeries and heading to rehab.   

LaFayette has redone a boat ramp at Queen City Lake, extending it up further onto the shore.

Now the city is installing a new dock at the same reservoir, using student labor and about $20,000 of leftover road funds.