February 2nd, 2024
Happy Friday and Happy Groundhog Day from the City of Dalton! This is the first edition of our new weekly news recap email. Thank you for signing up to receive updates from the City. We look forward to growing the this newsletter to reach more people, so if you like what you see please let your friends know and share with them on social media! Here's a link to information about how they can sign up.
Coming Up In The Carpet Capital:
We'll lead off with some information about what's coming up for the weekend and the week ahead here in Dalton.
- DSC Homecoming: This weekend is Dalton State College's homecoming weekend, and there are a number of events planned around Downtown Dalton to celebrate the Roadrunners. Things kick off downtown on Friday night at 4:00 pm with a homecoming parade followed by a pep rally in Burr Park at 4:30 pm. After that, local restaurants will be continuing spirit night with various specials and discounts. More information about the full slate of homecoming activities including the homecoming basketball game and postgame bash at the Dalton Convention Center can be found on the Dalton State College website.
- Downtown Events: The Downtown Dalton Development Authority's Facebook page is a great place to get more information about homecoming events and other events downtown this weekend.
- Chickamauga Civil War Show: There will be a Civil War history show at the Dalton Convention Center. Admission $10, children under 12 free.
- Snake Creek Gap Time Trials: There's a mountain bike race this weekend on February 3rd from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm. The course starts at the Dalton Convention Center and includes the Pinhoti Trail.
- Mayor and Council Work Session: On Monday at 5:00 pm, the Mayor and Council will hold a public work session in the City Council Chamber at City Hall (300 W. Waugh Street). The council will be holding work sessions before their first meeting of each month (typically the first Monday of each month) to hear project updates from City staff and any special presentations from community members. Monday's work session will include a presentation on the findings of Believe Greater Dalton's housing study by BGD Executive Director Allyson Coker.
- Mayor and Council Meeting: The Mayor and Council meet at 6:00 pm in the City Council chambers on the first and third Monday of each month to discuss and vote on an agenda of City business. The agenda for each meeting is typically posted at the link by the close of business on the preceding Friday. The meeting is open to the public.
- Finance and Administration Committee Meeting: Members of the City Finance Committee meet monthly in the 2nd Floor City Hall West Conference Room to discuss the City's budget and also other issues. This meeting is a public meeting. The meeting will be held at 5:00 pm. The Finance and Administration Committees is comprised by the members of the Mayor and Council as well as City CFO Cindy Jackson.
Up next, here are some of the highlights from around the City of Dalton's departments over the past week:
Dalton Fire Trains In "Real World" Setting
The Dalton Fire Department was able to get some training this week in a real world setting by setting fires in a house that was donated to the department in exchange for demolishing the structure. Here's some more information about the training:
On any other day, the goal for Dalton firefighters is to keep a house from burning to the ground. On Tuesday, the mission was the opposite: burn a down a donated house, while first gaining valuable training and experience for some young firefighters.
"Any time we can do training that we’re not used to getting in the form of acquired structure burns, it’s invaluable for (firefighters) young and old," said Keith Dempsey, the DFD's training coordinator. "We just don’t get the exposure to it as much as we could, due to the lack of these resources being available. But having two structures on one property that we’ve been able to use over the course of the last nine or ten months has been incredible. This is the culmination of it."
Caption: A Dalton firefighter watches as the house at 129 Keith Street collapses after the structure was burned as part of a series of training exercises
The abandoned houses at 131 and 129 Keith Street were donated to the fire department in 2023 by Christian Heritage School which owns the property. The school wanted the property cleared for future use and agreed to allow firefighters to use the structures for training in exchange for leveling them when they were finished. The donation proved invaluable for the department, providing more than 11 months of various on-site "real world" training activities for firefighters not just from the DFD, but also neighboring agencies. In addition to the training burns that ultimately consumed the structures, the houses were also used for search and rescue training and other courses in the months before the fires were lit.
The house at 129 Keith Street was burned to the ground during a November 2023 training exercise, but the dry conditions that day weren't suitable for a fire at the neighboring structure which was closer to a stand of pine trees. Firefighters instead waited until Tuesday to finish off 129 Keith Street.
The house that was burned during Tuesday's training was smaller than the structure burned in November without an attic or ceilings or many interior rooms so it was much easier to burn down. But the department was still able to get plenty of training mileage out of the morning.
"(The house had) no finishing, no dry wall, no ceilings, just open studs with the exception of a small kitchen and a small bathroom. So, not a lot to play with, just an open box and we were fearful that fire would get away from us quicker than it did," Dempsey said. "They managed two pretty in-depth fire dynamics lessons in there in separate burns before we let it go....we had a successful day."
The training exercises at the Keith Street property are the latest example of the Dalton Fire Department's training division going out of its way to find new and unique ways to train its firefighters to be ready for the unexpected. Several years ago, the department took advantage of several days of sub-freezing temperatures and icy conditions on area lakes and pond to perform ice rescue training at Lakeshore Park. The fire department has also been welcomed into office buildings and factories of various area businesses over the years to conduct other "real world" training to get firefighters outside of their usual training facility and outside of their comfort zone.
"(You wake up and say) what can we do today?" Dempsey said. "What can we do that's outside of the box and different and show our people a little bit different perspective and help them take care of some of those what-ifs that are out there?"
Lunch With Leaders
We were proud to be invited by our friends at the Chamber of Commerce to visit their Lunch With Leaders group. Mayor Annalee Harlan spoke to the group.
Here's what the Chamber of Commerce had to say about the event on their Facebook page:
"Yesterday, the Greater Dalton Young Professionals and the United Way of Northwest Georgia Young Leaders Society teamed up to host Lunch with Leaders, where attendees were treated to an informative presentation from Dalton’s first female mayor, Annalee Harlan Sams.
Mayor Sams shared her vision of Greater Dalton to eager listeners, giving updates on current projects, like the almost-completed Mill Line Trail. This new outdoor recreation will be a wonderful addition to our community and enjoyed by many in the coming months. She also shared plans for some upcoming community projects, and attendees were able to share their vision for Dalton’s future with her in return.
One of the messages Mayor Sams left with the group was the importance of becoming a better communicator and advocate for the positive growth in Dalton. One of the suggestions she made for her attendees was to start by reading our local newspaper, the Dalton Daily Citizen, and stay involved in the conversations that push our community forward. Sams highlighted many of Dalton’s great gifts, including our local paper, outdoor recreation, and great industry, and informed that positive messaging and conversation with fellow community members and outsiders helps us to protect those great gifts.
Thank you to Mayor Sams for sharing your vision with the group!"
Podcast Focuses On Development
The most recent episode of "Live, Work, Play: The City of Dalton Podcast" is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon, and in video form on YouTube. This latest episode of the podcast features an in depth interview with Carl Campbell, the executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority.
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to before a big-name restaurant or retail brand comes to town? Are you interested in how certain major investments in lcoal manufacturing come about? There's a lot of work and planning that gets done before you see a building popping up on the side of the road on your morning commute. The JDA is a big part of it, and they're working to bring not just new businesses to town but also new places for people to live here in town. Give the episode a listen, and make sure to like, subscribe, and share the show!
Mill Line Delayed
City leaders had hoped to be enjoying a soft opening for our new Mill Line Trail project as the calendar turned to February, but that was before an incredibly cold and wet month of January hampered construction crews putting the finishing touches on the project.
"I'd say that with the recent rains, we've gotten more than six inches of rain in the past couple of weeks," Chad Townsend, director of Dalton's Public Works Department, said this week. "Given the heavy rains and the location of the project, it's hindered us. And then, naturally, with the freezing and the thawing, the extremely cold temperatures we've experienced recently, it's certainly pushed things back a little bit."
The Mill Line Trail is a paved trail connection between Haig Mill Lake Park and the old Eagle Walk trailhead on Chattanooga Avenue. The Mill Line mostly follows the footprint of the old Eagle Walk Trail, a footpath created by local Boy Scouts along Mill Creek. The new project consists of a 10-foot wide paved trail suitable for bicyclists, runners, and walkers. The project spent approximately two years on the drawing board while various agencies and organizations such as the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Division reviewed and signed off on plans and needed permits. Construction work on the project began in June 2023.
Many cyclists, runners, and walkers have already taken their own tours of the new trail even though it is not yet open, but the City can't condone people getting out there yet because the final work to make the trail safe for visitors hasn't been finished. We can't wait for you to finally be able to get out there, and we'll be announcing the opening of the trail and a date for a ribbon cutting as soon as we can.
Did You Know?
The City of Dalton's Public Works Department is in charge of maintaining approximately 190 centerline miles of streets and 91 traffic signals in Dalton. That might not come up at your next trivia night, but if it does, your team will win!
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Bruce Frazier
City of Dalton Communications Director
