Mattress storein Dalton, GA

The city of Dalton and all of unincorporated Whitfield County are now under burn bans that will last at least 30 days.

The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 on Monday to approve the burn ban for the county. Commissioner Robby Staten was absent, and board Chairman Jevin Jensen typically votes only when there is a tie.

Whitfield County Fire Chief Edward O’Brien asked for the burn ban, citing dry conditions.

“We looked up some statistics,” he said. “Forty-nine percent of (Whitfield) County is in extreme drought, and 51% is in exceptional drought, which is the worst possible.”

According to the National Weather service, exceptional drought occurs when there is “exceptional and widespread crop and pasture losses, exceptional fire risk, shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells causing water emergencies.”

Last week U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a natural disaster declaration for 11 North Georgia counties, including Whitfield and Murray, because of sustained drought. Vilsack had previously declared a state of emergency for four other counties in Georgia because of drought.

According to state records, October was the eighth driest month in the last 129 years, and so far, 2023 the 58th driest year in the past 129 years.

“What we are looking for is to stop any accidental fires like the 2016 fire we had on the mountain that burned for weeks,” said O’Brien.

That 2016 wildfire burned more than 600 acres on Rocky Face Ridge. The area was also in a drought then.

“We did have one today (Monday),” said O’Brien. “Someone was burning some stumps. They left the house, came back and the yard was on fire and a truck was on fire. These things are happening daily, and the rainfall we got this weekend just hit the surface. It didn’t get down in there where it needs to be.”

The city of Dalton also issued a burn ban. That ban prohibits all outdoor burning, including:

• Agricultural burning.

• Brush fires.

• Bonfires.

• Burning of debris.

• Burning of trees.

• Campfires.

• Fireworks by consumers.

• Open cooking fires.

• Warming fires.

Those who violate the burn bans face up to a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail. In addition, they could be held responsible for any damages resulting from an out-of-control fire.

The county commissioners also voted 3-0 to:

• Apply for a three-year grant from the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission to fund meals at the Whitfield County Senior Center. The county currently has an agreement with the regional commission to fund meals that expires June 30, 2024.

• Approve a $159,000 contract with Gresham Smith, a planning and design firm with offices across the nation, for engineering and architectural services for the south side of the Prater’s Mill site.

• Accept a $87,283.35 bid from 908 Devices of Boston, Massachusetts, for a handheld mass spectrometer for the sheriff’s office. A federal grant will cover $75,000 of the purchase and the remaining $12,283.35 will be covered by the sheriff’s forfeiture fund. The device can be used to detect drugs.

• Approve a request by Robert Brooks to rezone from heavy manufacturing to rural residential 2.45 acres at 1331 Tunnel Hill-Varnell Road. The property currently has a double-wide manufactured home on it that was grandfathered in. Brooks said the man who owned it passed away. The manufactured home is now a non-conforming use and the zoning had to be changed before a new resident can occupy it.

• Approve a request by Matrix Entertainment Group to rezone from low-density, single-family residential to general commercial 1.1 acres at 2113 Cleveland Highway. Matrix wants to place a restaurant there.

• Approve a request by Bryan Spence to rezone from heavy manufacturing to rural residential 2.02 acres at 158 Callahan Cavender Road. Spence plans to build a duplex and single-family housing on the site.

• Deny a request by BGR03 LLC to rezone from rural residential to heavy manufacturing 3.9 acres at the intersection of the south Dalton bypass and Old Grade Road.

To submit information for the church news section, send an email to church.briefs@daltoncitizen.com, call (706) 217-6397 or mail it to or drop it off at our office: Dalton Daily Citizen, 308 S. Thornton Ave., Dalton, GA 30720.

• The Concerned Clergy of Greater Whitfield County celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr. An ecumenical service is at True Gospel Pentecostal Church (109 Henderson St. in Dalton) on Sunday, Jan. 14, at 4 p.m. Pastor Corey Prather of Citadel of Faith from Chattanooga will deliver the Word. His choir and the Voices of Grace will render the music. All are invited.

• Riverbend Church of Christ opens a benevolent house each Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for area residents in need. People can choose from a variety of clothing, shoes, household items and more at no charge. The ministry is in the white house beside the church building at 2218 S. Riverbend Road.

• St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 901 W. Emery St., offers several Christian educational opportunities and events:

— Sunday, Jan. 7, Holy Eucharist Services, rite one at 8 a.m., rite two at 10:30 a.m. with Children’s Church: adult Christian education, 9 and 9:45 a.m. in the Parish Hall, coffee and refreshments served; Pot Luck Community Epiphany Lunch at noon; dedication and blessing of the Memorial Garden following lunch.

— Thursday, Jan. 11, Holy Eucharist Service at Royal Oaks at 10:15 a.m., Bible study at 6 p.m.

— For weekly online Christian education lessons, visit St. Mark’s Facebook page or YouTube at St. Mark’s Episcopal Dalton Ga Vlogs.

There may not be snow on the ground, but it will feel like Christmas on Saturday in downtown Dalton when the Whitfield County-Dalton Day Care Center presents its third annual Mistletoe Festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“It’s a chance to get out and have some fun with the family and kick off the Christmas season,” said center Assistant Director Candyss Fowler. “All proceeds go to Whitfield County-Dalton Day Care.”

The center provides year-round day care for the children of low-income and working families. It opened in 1971 and currently serves 192 children.

All of the events take place at the Burr Performing Arts Park except a movie that will be shown in the Wink Theatre.

“We have 61 vendors this year,” said Fowler. “We’ll have people selling Christmas trees, door hangers, jewelry, clothes, facepainting. It will be a good place to do some Christmas shopping. We’ll have all sorts of food — barbecue, Mexican food, street tacos, Asian food, Southern cooking. Just about anything you can think of.”

There will be inflatables including bouncy houses, slides and various games. Children will be able to have their photo taken with Santa Claus.

“We’ll have a professional photographer taking the photos with Santa,” said Fowler. “You’ll get a digital image free, and if you’d like to purchase a package, there will be options available. The photographer will be there from noon to 4 p.m.”

There will also be live entertainment.

“We’ve got groups from our local schools that will be performing, local theater groups,” Fowler said. “We will also be showcasing our children from the day care center. We thought it would be neat to let them perform on the stage.”

Each year, the festival features a Christmas-themed movie.

“This year we are going to be showing ‘The Nutcracker and the Four Realms’ at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. in the Wink Theatre,” Fowler said.

This 2018 American movie is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s short story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” as well as Marius Petipa and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker.”

“There is no admission to the event,” said Fowler. “There’s a $5 fee if you want to see the movie or your children want to do the inflatables. That’s for both. You get a wristband allowing you in. But it’s free to walk around and see everything.”

Tickets for inflatables and the movie will be available at the park on Saturday or they can be purchased in advance at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mistletoe-festival-tickets-734728421487.

“The event is rain or shine,” said Fowler. “The movie will still take place. There will be things we can do indoors, so we will do the event no matter what the weather is like.”

For three decades, Rick Zeisig was the voice of the Dalton High School Catamounts, announcing every home football game.

Zeisig took over the role in 1992 when his own eighth-grade science teacher and football coach, Ray Broadrick, retired.

“When he was in his 30th year of teaching, he knew it was his last year,” Zeisig said in a 2022 interview. “Dr. John McMillian, principal of Dalton High School at the time, contacted me a year ahead of time and said, ‘This is Ray’s last year, why don’t you go behind him, learn his routine, and next year we can make you the voice and you can hit the ground running.’”

Zeisig, 61, passed away Sunday after a battle with cancer.

“You couldn’t find anybody better to serve as the press box announcer,” said former Dalton High School principal Steve Bartoo. “He did a fantastic job. The crowd really responded to him. He was very good at it, and he seemed to really, really enjoy it.”

Bartoo said Zeisig brought energy and enthusiasm to everything he did.

“He deejayed some dances for us, and he was really upbeat, always had a smile, was always the consummate professional,” he said.

Zeisig worked at radio stations in Dalton, Atlanta and Chattanooga for more than 40 years and was the disc jockey for Dalton’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s most years starting in 1994.

In 2022, Zeisig was recognized as a Hometown Hero by the Alzheimer’s Association Georgia Chapter and the Modern Woodmen of America for his efforts.

Zeisig was in the sixth grade when he decided he wanted a career in radio.

Rich Phillips, another Dalton broadcasting legend, first met Zeisig in 1976.

“I was living here and working at WFLI Jet Fly Radio in Chattanooga as a deejay,” he said. “Rick was about 14 years old and stopped me at Bryman Plaza and said that his scout troop listened to me at boy scout camp. He told the scouts that I was from Dalton. He said he wanted to be a deejay and asked me how I got started. We had a nice conversation that day.”

Some 40 years later, they would become co-workers at Dalton’s North Georgia Radio Group.

Zeisig landed his first job in broadcasting during his junior year in high school. Zeisig said in a 2020 interview that local radio personality Jeanne Burr helped him get his first job in radio.

“I was friends with (Burr’s son) Jeff and I was helping him with his movies,” he said. “I was over at their house and she says to me, ‘Zeisig, we’ve got an opening at the radio station. You need to call Walter Hooper and apply for that job. You’d be perfect.’ That’s how I got into radio.”

Phillips said Zeisig loved radio.

“He was always on,” Phillips said. “He was never lacking for words and was truly interested in everything. He never met a stranger. His quick mind made for a good interview when conducting the interview on air. His skills as an interviewer carried over into his personal life. He had the ability to draw you in to the conversation. He loved people. He was an inspiration to many people, even through his illness. His ‘never give up’ attitude helped so many people.”

Zeisig studied communications at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He won numerous awards, including three awards from the Cable Television Association of Georgia for Best Local Show in the state. Zeisig was also the inaugural winner of the Cable Television Association of Georgia Award for community service in the North Georgia area.

Zeisig was selected as the Best Local DJ in the Dalton Daily Citizen’s first Best of Northwest Georgia edition. In 2003, the Dalton City Council proclaimed a Rick Zeisig Day in honor of his accomplishments in broadcasting and his contributions to the community.

Memorial services for Zeisig were Thursday at 1 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

DALTON, Ga. — City of Dalton officials have decided to permanently turn off the tap for a planned aquatic center.

The project had been in the works for years, and the city had already spent more than $88,000 on the competitive pool, but city officials now say the costs for finishing the project are just too high.

Members of the City Council voted to suspend the project on Thursday at a meeting of the Finance Committee after a recommendation from City Administrator Andrew Parker.

Parker cited projected funding shortfalls in both the projected cost of building the center as well as the operating costs for the center among other factors in his recommendation.

Parker noted that inflation in construction costs during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in the projected cost of constructing the aquatic center.

The latest projection estimated the project would cost in excess of $23 million, of which the City had allocated approximately $13 million.

A city spokesman tells us Dalton had already spent $88,395.08 on the project, with $38,890 going for surveying and engineering work.

The City was working to identify other funding sources before the latest projections pushed the cost estimates higher.

In addition, the city says a study by aquatics consultant Counsilman-Hunsaker estimated that operating costs for the facility would be approximately $2 million per year with an estimated $1 million in projected revenues.

“We have had stakeholder meetings with the school systems, the swim community, and other stakeholders but we have not received any firm commitment from any external agencies to help guarantee some offsetting revenue to the project,” Parker told the Finance Committee on Thursday. “I think when we went into this we thought that we would have several partner entities within the community to help reduce that burden to the City especially if the City paid the full freight of the upfront construction costs.”

Parker further noted that the City currently has other significant project needs in other areas.

The Parks and Recreation Department is working on plans for a new pickleball facility as well as needed renovations and upgrades to Heritage Point Park and Al Rollins Park.

The city says there are also several stormwater management projects that are needed to complete its flood abatement plan.

Parker said that funding that had been earmarked for the aquatic center project could be moved to those areas instead.

$7 million of the funds allocated to the aquatic center come from a bond issued in 2020 which can only be reallocated to projects involving recreation, economic development, or stormwater projects.

Mayor Pennington expressed disappointment that the aquatic center was not able to be completed.

“The land that we wanted to put it on originally never materialized, that deal never came through. And then, the situation with Dalton Utilities right now and the lawsuits, we just didn’t feel like it’s right to commit to spending that much money in these current times,” Pennington said after the meeting. “I do think that this should stay on the city’s radar in the future. I think it would be good to build something like this that would attract even more people to come here.”

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DALTON, Ga. (AP) — A school bus driver strike is over in northwest Georgia, but school bus routes won’t be going back to normal for the last week of school.

Unionized bus drivers on Friday voted to accept a new contract with the private company that runs school buses for the Dalton school district after a five-day strike.

Members of Local 1212 of the Amalgamated Transit Union say they won higher wages, paid vacation days, a retention bonus, a new grievance procedure and improvements to seniority in a new three-year contract with Cincinnati-based First Student.

“This strike showed the power of fighting for our rights,” local union President Lakecha Strickland said in a statement. “This was one of the first strikes in Dalton in decades, and our members stood strong and united.”

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But the 7,500-student district and First Student said that a limited system of consolidated bus stops would continue until class ends Friday. The district and company said they “do not feel they can consistently provide service to all of our regular routes.”

The union said drivers went on strike because the company retaliated against union members by taking away paid summer work when contract talks faltered. The union filed legal charges with the National Labor Relations Board accusing First Student of breaking labor laws. The company denies breaking labor laws.

The union said about 40 drivers, bus monitors and mechanics went on strike. The company said about 20 employees crossed picket lines and kept driving.

It’s illegal for public employees to bargain collectively or strike in Georgia, but those rules don’t apply to drivers for private school bus companies.

The district’s bus drivers voted to join the union in December.

Dalton held school online on the first day of the strike, and then in person.

“First Student wants to thank Dalton Public Schools and their families for their patience and understanding during this process,” spokesperson Jen Biddinger told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in an email. “We look forward to getting back to focusing fully on what we do best, providing safe and reliable transportation.”