Video of Tabling of Abandonment of Old State Road to Hotchkiss Crossing at the Alapaha River @ LCC 2013-02-12

First the Chairman talked about how many people could speak and for how long in the public hearing; then at Tuesday evening's Regular Session the Commission tabled it for two weeks, so closing the only public access to the Alapaha River in Lowndes County will be up for a vote again Tuesday 26 February 2013.

6.a. Public Hearing: Abandonment of a portion of Old State Road (CR 16)

You can see in the video that the room was packed, which is very unusual. The great majority were there to oppose closing the road. As Chairman Bill Slaughter remarked, about nine people signed up for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard to speak about this item; as he noted, anyone can speak in a public hearing without signing up. To my knowledge, only one person was there to speak for closing the road, and that was the applicant who had just agreed to ask for it to be tabled. The Chairman said:

But based on the amount of folks that's going to be here, and citizens to be heard, we're going to limit it to fifteen minutes on each side, on any of the issues, and each individual will get five minutes.

Personally, I don't see what's the rush, and I'd think that a room full of people who want to speak would indicate a publicly-elected Commission would want to take more time to hear them, not less.

As previously reported, the Commission tabled this item for two weeks. Commissioner John Page made the motion, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall seconded, Commissioner Joyce Evans asked how long, County Attorney said it could be for a specified time or until they vote to take it up again. Mover and seconder amended to say table to next meeting. Commissioner Richard Raines asked if they needed two motions, one to table the public hearing, and one to table the vote. Chairman responded that only one vote was needed. He then took the vote by voice, and it was unanimous.

So this item comes back up at the Work Session 8:30 AM Monday morning 25 February 2013, with a vote at the Regular Session 5:30 PM Tuesday 26 February 2013.

Update: Here’s the video:

-jsq