We didn’t get the predicted snow event last night, but it did freeze hard. The roads were a little nasty this morning, and I waited until 10:30 to come into town. I expect that all the roads – except in places – will be OK by early afternoon.
We’ve had a lot of rain over the last week, and the river was as full as I’ve ever seen it. It was beginning to creep over the bank onto Ralph Stanley’s pasture out Aska Road on Wednesday, and there was a little minor flooding on some of the smaller creeks. If it hadn’t stopped raining when it did, I think we would have had some real flooding. Murphy had serious flooding that shut down all the sewage east of the Hiwassee River on Tuesday. The Valley River was a bit over its banks, and I’ve never seen more water in the Hiwassee.
There are plans for a new restaurant downtown, in the historic house that now houses the Birchmore law practice. That’s a little bit further along West Main Street than the Arts Center, which is an area that has had offices, but is not zoned for restaurants. Apparently, the zoning board is looking favorably on an application to rezone it to “Central Business District.”
Also on the restaurant scene, it looks like the reconstruction of the Toccoa River Restaurant – it burned to the ground – is nearly complete.