Longest at four and a half minutes on November 12, 2019, was
6.e. Grant Re-Application for the Rural (5311)Transportation Program,
in other words, the MIDS on-demand bus system; follow the link for more notes,
including a question about where have the county funds for this been coming from.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall about the MIDS bus system.
Let’s hope the Arglass project doesn’t turn out like the James Road project a decade ago,
with massive road paving and road and utilities rerouting, and nothing else,
given that the county just approved
a grant and VLDA match of more than a million dollars
for road repaving for Arglass.
Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
with detailed definitions and tax classifications for every occupation in the county.
The mysterious
Joint Ordinance the
Planning Commission keeps cryptically alluding to
turns out to be about revising the charter of the Planning Commission
to add Remerton, to note Lowndes County now handles GLPC’s budget, and other updates.
Received 3:48 PM, Friday, November 8, 2019, “The agenda packet for next week’s meetings is attached. The October 21 & 22, 2019, minutes will be available Monday.”
That Lowndes County Commission in response to a LAKE open records request is now
on the LAKE website.
Meet the Candidates 2019,
organized by the Valdosta Lowndes Chamber of Commerce:
no questions from the audience, but Gretchen Quarterman videoed for LAKE
the few minutes each candidate for Valdosta Mayor, City Council, or Valdosta Board of Education held forth.
Plus
seven minutes about SPLOST, the Special Local Option Sales Tax,
the only thing voters in the unincorporated parts of Lowndes County get to vote on this election season.
Below are links to each LAKE video Gretchen took,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
Most people missed a chance to ask whatever they wanted of the Valdosta City Council,
without time limits or fear of ejection from the room.
This town hall, hosted by Council members Andy Gibbs and Eric Howard,
apparently was not announced on Valdosta’s own website nor in the Valdosta Daily Times.
But Gretchen Quarterman was there for LAKE and videoed it, and provided the notes below.
The few people who did attend were interested enough to take an hour and a half of their time to participate in the community and local government.
Lowndes County Commissioner Scottie Orenstein was there, and occasionally answered,
as did Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll.
City Council Sonny Vickers was also there.
Sidewalks were a major topic.
Gretchen wondered why every street doesn’t have one.
Instead, the city thinks it will improve
traffic on Bemiss Road by making it wider.
Naturally, Taxes in County and City and property values were a major topic.
Valdosta City Council Sandra Tooley said she thought sidewalks make property values go up, so why should the county get any of that tax money when the city paid to put the sidewalks in?
Others misunderstood that, and more discussion ensued.
People remain confused about how SPLOST works between city and county.
Back on transportation, a final speaker spelled out how Valdosta is not bicycle-friendly,
so children can’t ride bicycles to school, students to VSU, employees to work, or people to see friends, because it is not safe. Same for Lowndes County: not safe for this healthy, family-friendly activity and transportation method.
Andy Gibbs said this is one of the topics being gathered into the Parks and Rec. Master Plan, currently in progress.
Below are links to each LAKE video, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
Continue reading →
The Lowndes County Commission spent nine minutes yesterday morning discussing spending $124,454 and borrowing $1,734,000.
They vote this evening at 5:30 PM.
Finance Director Stephanie Black said due to the
Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights,
if the tax digest (total assessed property value in the county)
goes up, the county has to reduce the millage (tax per $1,000 of property value),
or announce the difference as a tax increase and hold three public hearings,
so they’re rolling back the millage rate slightly: 0.126 mills,
down from 11.064 for 2018 to 10.938 for 2019.
That’s Georgia Senate Bill 177, Act 431, signed April 30, 1999, effective January 1, 2000.
Here is the millage resolution they adopted half an hour later,
in the
board packet, which LAKE only received after this millage meeting and after the Commission voted on this millage change:
She showed some quite informative slides, which for unknown reasons do not
seem to be on
the Finance Department’s web page.
For example, she had a nice summary slide of the five chunks of sales tax these days:
4 cents to the State of Georgia,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (LOST),
split between county and its cities for property tax reduction,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), split between county and its cities for capital improvements,
1 cent to Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST),
split between the county and city school systems for capital improvements
1 cent to Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST),
regionally approved, and split between the county and its cities for transportation capital improvements.
Billed on the lowndescounty.com calendar as
Millage Meeting,
5PM, Tuesday, 27 August 2019, in Commission Chambers before the voting Regular Session,
as usual almost nobody attended, and nobody from the public spoke.
Lowering the Millage Rate
Millage Meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC Millage),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, August 27, 2019.
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Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!