A VSU professor said he was in favor of the economic benefits, but geotechnical issues should determine whether the new Moody Housing on Val Del Road (REZ-2013-09) should be built, and those were still unclear, at the 13 August 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Dr. Michael Noll of VSU said he was speaking because he had been referred to by previous speakers (Jason Davenport and Tom Kurrie), and he was neither for nor against REZ-2013-09. Dr. Noll’s neither-in-favor-nor-against position seemed to puzzle County Engineer Mike Fletcher. Noll said he and his colleagues had looked at the Environmental Assessment (EA) which has been available at the public library and concluded that they had a number of questions they’d like answered, and he was sure the developers had similar concerns for safety of the project.

Dr. Noll said they’d been trying to get a copy of the geotechnical analysis mentioned on page 4-13 of the EA. Especially he was concerned about karst formations which may or may not exist in the area. He wondered why there were problems in getting that report. He said the phone number was listed incorrectly, but through Moody AFB he got the right number and had spoken to Mr. Richmond who was listed on the VDT announcement of the EA.

Dr. Noll said a private entity such as Balfour Beatty was not subject to Georgia Open Records Requests. (However, if Lowndes County has a copy of either of these reports, the county is subject to such requests.)

Dr. Noll said (very politely) that the new base commander asked Dr. Noll and colleagues to come with him to look at the site, but even Moody hadn’t been given permission to visit the site. Noll said he and his colleagues would like to examine the site and that wouldn’t take very long.

Here’s some of their previous work, on the sinkhole under Michael McCormick’s garage, which the county still has done nothing about, as far as I know.

Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know whether Dr. Noll was just concerned, or was he offering his services, or both. Dr. Noll said he was generally speaking concerned because of what he saw in the EA, which indicated there had been some sampling, but not enough to determine whether the foundations were sound. “We don’t know.”

Here’s the video:

Geotechnical conditions and maybe sinkholes –Michael Noll
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 August 2013.

-jsq

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