The Cost of Living Index measures regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures, for professional and managerial households in the top income quintile. It is based on more than 50,000 prices covering 60 different items for which prices are collected quarterly by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and university applied economic centers in each participating urban area.

Judges for the Conasauga Superior Court and Whitfield County Probate Court and Magistrate Court have had offices in the Whitfield County courthouse for years and now a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals has an office there as well.

"It's a place where I can have an internet connection and can work," said Judge Charlie Bethel, a Dalton native.

The Court of Appeals meets in Atlanta, and that's where Bethel's main office and his staff are. But he works part of each week in Dalton.