The Cherokee County Elections and Voter Registration office has released the Early/Advance voting schedule and reminds residents to register to vote ahead of Election Day.

Early voting will be held Oct. 12 through Oct. 22 in the Northside Cherokee Conference Center at the Cherokee Administration Building, located at 1130 Bluffs Parkway in Canton, and the Elections Warehouse located at 400 East Main St. in downtown Canton. The South Annex, 7545 Main St., in Woodstock, also will serve as an early voting location.

“The decision to use the Northside Cherokee Conference Center as an early voting location will help to alleviate space issues at our current headquarters until we can get moved into our new location,” said Cherokee County Elections and Voter Registration Director, Anne Dover.

The Elections Office is scheduled to move to its new location at 193 Lamar Haley Parkway in Canton next year.

Early voting at all three locations will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Advance voting will begin the week of Oct. 23 running through Oct. 29, opening three additional voting locations which include the Hickory Flat Library located at 2740 East Cherokee Drive in Canton, Ball Ground Public Library located at 435 Old Canton Road in Ball Ground, and Rose Creek Public Library located at 4476 Towne Lake Parkway in Woodstock. All six locations will be open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday voting is set for Oct. 23 from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at all six locations.

There will be no voting on Saturday, Oct. 30 or Monday, Nov. 1.

The voter registration deadline for the Nov. 2, Election is Oct. 4. Residents must be registered to vote. To register or to confirm registration please visit the Georgia Secretary of State’s website at https://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov.

For more information, contact the Cherokee County Elections and Voter Registration office at 770-479-0407 or online at https://voter.cherokeega.com

The award winning gospel group, The Isaacs, were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday night. 

The group recived an invitation to join from Ricky Skaggs during their August 10th preformance at the Opry. 

You can watch the induction ceremony here. 

The Isaacs are one of the most popular groups on WLJA, and have been featured on our Facebook Live concert series. You can watch our concert here. 

(Picture credit: The Grand Ole Opry Facebook Page)

– Local officials and residents gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 9 for the construction of the new L.B. Ahrens Recreation Center to build at Cherokee Veterans Park.

“We’ve achieved a lot through the use of SPLOST and park bond funds to make this project happen,” said Board of Commissioners Chairman Harry Johnston. “In fact, this project will utilize the last bit of funding from the 2008 parks bond.” The Board approved the construction contract on July 20 of the L.B. Ahrens Recreation Center to Reeves Young, LLC in the amount of $10.4 million and an additional $1.58 million in a county-controlled contingency.

“This project has been a long time coming for the residents in my district,” said District 1 Commissioner Steve West, who represents the area. “I want to thank my fellow commissioners both previous and current for their help in getting this project off the ground.”

The first phase of the recreation center, known in short as “The Buzz” in honor of former Commission Chairman L.B. “Buzz” Ahrens, includes a double gym, open fitness area, climbing wall, two classrooms, aerobics/dance studio, a large meeting hall with catering kitchen and an office suite along with accompanying restrooms, mechanical, electrical and storage areas. The construction services contract also includes a secondary parking lot, pedestrian crossing to the park playground and infrastructure for EV charging stations. Construction is expected to last 15 months with an anticipated opening in late 2022.

“The message I want to convey is how principal, priorities, execution and fiscal integrity are woven into this world-class amenity,” said Ahrens, who provided comments in a pre-recorded message. Ahrens explained that in the mid 2000’s he saw the need for the county to have more active parks and greenspace. In 2008, Cherokee voters went to the polls and approved a $90 million-dollar parks and greenspace bond. The county then purchased the property for Cherokee Veterans Park in 2009 as one of the first purchases utilizing park bond funds. By 2017, all park bond funds had been committed and the recreation center project began with no funding or timeline. Eventually funds were generated through SPLOST collections and in 2018 the Veterans Memorial Monument was added to the park leading up to the construction of the recreation center.

“The sports metaphor is applicable here because team sports, for example, helps us learn how to function well as teams, which is something that Buzz did with the Board of Commissioners,” said Johnston. “Buzz took the agendas from five different commissioners with their own thoughts and ideas and despite their differences he brought everyone together to work as a team for the betterment of Cherokee County.”