Category Archives: Economy

Packet: Construction Board Appointment, Budget, DUI Court, Water, Sewer, Paving, Cyber Security @ LCC 2022-06-27

The packet for the June 26 and 27, 2022, Lowndes County Commission meetings is on the LAKE website.

[Hotel/Motel Taxes]
Hotel/Motel Taxes

Follow this link:
Packet: Construction Board Appointment, Budget, DUI Court, Water, Sewer, Paving, Cyber Security @ LCC 2022-06-27

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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!

Videos: DUI Court, Cyber Security, Road Paving, Water and Sewer, and Budget @ LCC 2022-06-27

Update 2022-06-28: Three Citizens, budget, DUI, water, sewer, paving, cyber security, tractor @ LCC 2022-06-28.

Yesterday morning at their 11-minute Work Session the Lowndes County Commission and staff ran through everything as fast as the items could be read off.

Vice-Chair Scottie Orenstein presided in the absence of Chairman Bill Slaughter.

[Items]
Items

They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.

Below are Continue reading

Construction board appointment, Budget, DUI Court, water and sewer, TIA, and cyber security @ LCC 2022-06-27

Update 2022-06-28: Videos: DUI Court, Cyber Security, Road Paving, Water and Sewer, and Budget @ LCC 2022-06-27.

No rezonings this week, but a board appointment, budget adoption, money shuffling for the DUI Court, and two water and sewer infrastructure adoptions that, as usual, Lowndes County pretends will not cost the taxpayers money. Plus a mower for Public Works and some cyber security stuff. All at the Monday morning Work Session and the Tuesday 5:30 PM Regular Session.

[Both pages of the agenda]
Both pages of the agenda

Here is the agenda. A LAKE open records request has gone in for the board packet.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2022, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2022, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

Videos: Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27

The Valdosta meeting about grants to non-profits from American Rescue Program Act (ARPA) funds consisted of a five-minute welcome by Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber, and a summary of the application process by Mike Smith of Valdosta United Way, followed by a half hour of questions and answers.

[Chuck Dinkins, Valdosta Finance Director, and Mike Smith, Valdosta United Way ]
Chuck Dinkins, Valdosta Finance Director, and Mike Smith, Valdosta United Way

The actual application is thirteen pages, yet is pretty straightforward.

Below are links to LAKE videos of those three segments, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading

Videos: 4 long Lowndes County cases + 2 long Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-14: Agenda, 4 rezonings, 2 xourts, 1 appointment, and a big ARPA-funded water project @ LCC 2022-06-16

An overflow crowd, some in the lobby, came for the four Lowndes County cases at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, May 23, 2022. Two of the Valdosta cases were also contentious. The whole meeting took more than three hours, so long there was griping about people getting hungry. The door alarm went off at 8 o’clock, but they plowed ahead with three remaining cases. When they adjourned at 8:52 PM, nobody was left in the audience but Gretchen Quarterman with the LAKE video camera.

[Flannigan, Campus, Makesh, Pittman]
Flannigan, Campus, Makesh, Pittman

One county and one city case were on James Road. The county case got a unanimous recommendation to deny, moved by famously pro-development Franklin Bailey. The Commissioners really did not seem to like “speculative commercial use on the subject property.” Continue reading

Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27

Update 2022-06-23: LAKE videos.

Posted yesterday on facebook and twitter, one of the committees announced a week ago is having a presentation this morning:

City of Valdosta
@CityofValdosta

Join the City of Valdosta tomorrow at 9 a.m. as we present to the community our Non-Profit Committee application process from the ARPA allocation. @greatervaldostaunitedway @valdostachamber

[Flyer, Committee members]
Flyer, Committee members

When: 9 AM, Friday, May 27, 2022

Where: Women’s Building, 1409 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA Continue reading

Videos: Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23

No citizens showed up other than Gretchen Quarterman, behind the LAKE video camera. Commissioners did not vote, because this is presumably the first of several Budget Hearings. Or is it? It was billed as a Work Session. Anyway, it took seventeen minutes.

[Executives and Revenue]
Executives and Revenue

County Manager Paige Dukes said Continue reading

5 Valdosta rezonings, 1 Hahira ordinance amendment, 4 Lowndes County rezonings with without packets @ GLPC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-03: 4 long Lowndes County cases + 2 long Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2022-05-23, including the board packet materials for the county cases and the minutes for the previous meeting.

Everything from a pair of personal care homes to a fraternity to a church to the Salvation Army wants rezoning or variances at this evening’s Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting.

The board packet materials for the Hahira and Valdosta items are on the LAKE website, thanks to City Planner Matt Martin.

[Maps]
Maps

LAKE has no materials for the Lowndes County items, and no copy of the draft minutes from the previous meeting, because Lowndes County has not yet sent them in response to a LAKE open records request.

Here is the agenda:

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

Monday, May 16, 2022 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, May 23, 2022 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading

Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23

Update 2022-05-23: Videos: Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23.

Appeared on lowndescounty.com/calendar a few days ago:

[Budget Work Session Notice]
Budget Work Session Notice

No agenda. No draft budget on the Finance Department web pages (the most recent is the one about to expire).

The budget meeting is after the 8:30 AM Work Session. Continue reading

Videos: Mayor announces first trash trap, committees for ARPA funds @ VCC 2022-05-19

Update 2022-06-23: Videos: Process for non-profit applications for ARPA funds 2022-05-27.

Update 2022-06-21: Valdosta Watergoat installed in Sugar Creek 2022-06-21.

Council Sonny Vickers was welcomed back warmly after abscence due to illness (I welcomed him before the meeting). Later, he thanked staff and council for their assistance.

[Collage]
Collage

Mayor Scott James added two council members each as observers to each of the ARPA fund disbursment committees, for non-profits and for for-profit businesses.

After Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman asked for action about trash, Council Andy Gibbs and Mayor James vied for who would get to announce what the city had already done. Mayor James in Council Comments announced the city had ordered Continue reading