Lowndes County doesn’t do what it says —Ernest McDonald @ LCC 8 August 2011

County resident Ernest McDonald laid out a list of issues he said the county hasn’t addressed correctly. He said it wasn’t anything personal. He wasn’t mad. He just thought there were some issues that needed to be addressed.

For example, regarding moving a power line from one side of the road to another as agreed:

We met every person involved. The state, the high pressure gasline…. The telephone buried cable people, they came. The county engineer came…. And we all agreed…. Put stakes in the ground…. The stakes had rotted down.
It’s been so long the stakes rotted down, and nothing ever got done. As Ernest McDonald said:
That’s not right.
The County Engineer was missing from the meeting. It’s a bit hard to see in the picture, but there are only two heads in front of the glaring window, and the Engineer would be the third head in the middle.

In another issue, Ernest McDonald paid $650 to find a sewer line, marked it, and the county tore up

his property line markers. The county put the sewer line on his property.
Never heard from them again.

This is apparently the first time he’s asked for anything:

I’ve never asked for anything… I’ve always tried to serve the community in various things.
This is not someone who can be dismissed as not a citizen or as not a resident of the county, or their character questioned, and he’s not a single-issue petitioner, either.

Chairman Paulk did warn McDonald at one point that he had about a minute and a half left. But if you look at the video of McDonald speaking, he actually got more than 6 minutes, not the Commissioner-approved 5 minutes. So apparently Ernest McDonald isn’t someone the Chairman can cut off early, either.

Ernest McDonald continued:

I know who I’m dealing with…. And I expect things to work out more pleasantly than it has.
He remarked that he had been to see several of the county officials, with no resolution. He looked straight at County Manager Joe Pritchard when he said that. Pritchard spent most of the time McDonald was speaking shuffling papers and grimacing at them, as in the picture.

McDonald wrapped up:

It’s not a right of way issue.
The Chairman said he would make sure the appropriate people got with him. Wait a minute! Isn’t that the County Manager’s job?

So yet another person points out that the Lowndes County government has transparency issues. And job completion issues. Who is supposed to make sure work gets done and citizens get feedback?

Afterwards, Commissioner Richard Raines, who is the Commissioner for most of the northern part of the county, went up to McDonald in the audience and asked him to come upstairs so he could be sure he (Raines) got everything McDonald had.

Here’s video of Raines asking McDonald about that:


Lowndes County doesn’t do what it says —Ernest McDonald Part 1 of 2:
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Let’s check back later with Ernest McDonald and see if anything actually comes from those meetings with Commissioners and staff.

The video of Ernest McDonald speaking before the Commission unfortunately has really bad sound, but here it is.


Lowndes County doesn’t do what it says —Ernest McDonald Part 2 of 2:
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq