Several schools are on a two hour delay today. Walker County, Chickamauga City, Dade and Catoosa Counties are all on a two hour delay. Georgia Northwestern Technical College will operate on a delayed schedule. All GNTC campuses will open at 10:00 a.m., and all classes scheduled to begin before 10:00 a.m. are canceled. Classes that start at 10:00 a.m. will proceed as scheduled, and the college will resume normal operations for the remainder of the day. Dalton State is delayed 2 and a half hours. Classes there will begin at 11am.
Walker Transit will delay operations until 8:00 a.m. Riders should plan accordingly.
Just days after postponing a public hearing related to the possible removal of Mayor Trey Deck, the City of Chickamauga has now canceled its regular February City Council meeting. The meeting had been scheduled for today at 6 p.m. In a press release, the city council said any future meetings will be scheduled and publicly noticed in accordance with applicable law. No reason was given for the cancellation, and no new meeting dates have been announced. The cancellation follows heightened public interest in city government proceedings after a previously scheduled meeting to consider ousting the Mayor Deck postponed.
Today is the final day for candidates to qualify for the Georgia Senate District 53 race. The seat is being vacated by State Senator Colton Moore of Dade County, who is running for the U.S. House seat formerly held by Majorie Taylor Greene. Candidate qualifying opened Thursday and will close today at 1 p.m. The qualifying fee for the state senate race is four-hundred dollars. As of Monday morning, four candidates have officially qualified, all on the Republican side. They include Trion Mayor Lanny Thomas; Denise Burns, a homemaker and home educator from Chickamauga; and Blake Elsberry, the former sole commissioner of Chattooga County. Officials say additional filings will be accepted until the 1 p.m. deadline today.
Poultry owners in Walker County will soon have a chance to learn how to better protect their flocks amid recent cases of avian influenza. Extension Agent Wade Hutcheson will host a biosecurity webinar Thursday , at five-thirty p.m. The session will focus on practical steps backyard and commercial poultry owners can take to reduce the risk of avian flu. Hutcheson will also review common symptoms and answer questions about prevention and flock safety. To register, contact the Walker County Extension Office.