Commission and staff followed up on safety on Val Del Road that John Page brought up in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard a month ago. Appointed board and agency openings: they have a list, but you can’t see it, for the Bad Dog Board or any other. The Chairman had “support” for a referendum to appoint Tax Assessors, although “this is not a vote”. About Internet access, County Manager Joe Pritchard discussed a map of a “skeletal framework” of city and county, VSU, SGMC, Georgia Military College, Wiregrass Technical College, “the outlying cities”, as well as the industrial parks, for DSL, cable modems, etc. This discussion has come a long way in the year since Chairman Bill Slaughter said “We have broadband”.

They seem to want the county to be an Inland Port.

They had a whole item about Moody Air Force Base, including Moody’s concern about lack of broadband service. Later, Demarcus Marshall noted that in his Town Hall meeting people wanted help for military veterans, so he wanted that added to the goals.

After the County Manager called for a break after financial background, the Commissioners proceeded to discuss goals without him. The Chairman’s first goal was Solid Waste, but he was very specific about what he wanted.

See the agenda and the LAKE videos of Day 1.

See also County weighs road maintenance, paving at retreat, by Joe Adgie, VDT, 8 February 2015, but the VDT reporter left the retreat after the morning, so the only independent record of the afternoon session is these LAKE videos.

• South Georgia Medical Report by Randy Sauls

  Video.

• Roads, Streets, and Bridges

  Video.

• Val Del Road dropoff safety issue

  Video. Following up on John Page’s issue from 13 January 2015,

• Map of SPLOST water and sewer projects

  Video.

• List of all 66 private water systems

  Video.

• Inmate Housing

  Video.

• Adult drug court, counties with, and ankle monitoring

  Video. Incarceration came up again in Goals.

• Bad Dog Board and other boards and agencies

  Video.

• Elected Tax Assessors: Lowndes County very unusual

  Video.

• Referendum about appointing Tax Assessors?

  Video.

• Broadband

  Video.

• Moody Air Force Base

  Video. Moody is concerned about poor Internet service. The Department of Defense has recommended several areas of public-private partnership. The county was involved in the recent opening to the public of Grassy Pond.

• Inland Ports

  Video.

• Budget process for goal setting

  Video.

• 2015. Goals – Roundtable Discussion

  Video. County Manager Joe Pritchard called for a break (see previous video), but Chairman Bill Slaughter proceeded to discuss goals with the Commissioners anyway. The Chairman’s first goal was Solid Waste. He was pretty clear he was talking about giving ADS its requested raise in exchange for adding DSS as a franchise, but the goal was to have a plan in place to meet scheduled dates, such as April 1st. He also wanted a permanent solution. In general goals were supposed to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely (achievable in a year or long-term). When Mr. Pritchard came back ten minutes later, Commissioners were well into their hour-long goal discussion. Maybe they’re finally moving away from being a staff-driven organization to having the elected Commissioners actually represent the people.

Here’s a video playlist:

Videos: Hospital, transportation, water, incarceration, taxes, Internet, and military
Day 2,
Annual Planning Meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 February 2015.

-jsq

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