Deputy Butler, Jacobs Ladder road paving, and seven minutes on the agenda @ LCC 2017-02-28

Front camera They started with some words about Deputy Chris Butler and a moment of silence (see VDT Obituary. Then they plowed through agenda. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall did introduce a little levity by asking if the drug testing for the MIDS bus service was just for the drivers. Answer: yes.

On the dozen Sheriff pursuit vehicles bid, Commissioner Marshall also noted that a few years ago (they voted 25 March 2014 there was a similar bid of Cass Burch vs. Langdale Ford for which they had additional testimony. The excuse for picking Cass Burch even though once again not the low bid was that it was that the Burch price was still less than the state contract price, and maintenance would cost less. It’s refreshing to see them actually discussing bids. It’s curious they only ever seem to choose a bid that is not the lowest when it’s from Cass Burch.

The County Manager had no additional report to his no report of the previous morning.

There was one citizen wishing to be heard: Leslie Jacobs of Jacobs Ladder on 5866 Bradford Road North, in walking distance of the next county. She said they’d put up a roof over their arena about a year ago, and they’d been in operation since 1999. They had previously asked for improvement to the road leading there, and the county had put up a better surface, limestone rock. She said maintenance since then had been minimal; she had to call to get “the ripples” (aka washboards) fixed. She seemed especially concerned about the ditches, the number of vehicles, and school busses. She presented a petition asking for road paving.

The one citizen concluded at 13 minutes, and with no response other than a perfunctory thank-you, they hastily adjourned. The citizen took three minutes. The business agenda part of the meeting started three minutes in. So your elected Commissioners spent seven minutes on the actual business of spending your tax dollars.

Like the previous morning, Vice-Chair Joyce Evans presided. Chair Bill Slaughter and Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker were absent.

I’d like to commend Aaron Kostyu for the excellent editing job he does on the county’s own videos, in which he uses close shots of the staff when speaking and a front camera on speakers from the audience.

Front camera

Especially thanks since after Gretchen took the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session she didn’t spend another hour going in for the Regular Session. It’s too bad the county takes its own videos off its website after two weeks when it approves the minutes for a given meeting. No other county of the many I deal with does that. Many video their own meetings; none take them down later.

Here’s the video:


Deputy Butler, Jacobs Ladder road paving, and seven minutes on the agenda
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, February 28, 2017.

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