Received yesterday evening. Contested mayoral election in Hahira and not in Lake Park, so far. Also one contested Valdosta school board seat, but none for Valdosta City Council so far. -jsq
Lowndes County Board of Elections
2808 N. Oak St. P.O. Box 10130 Valdosta, Georgia 31604
Telephone: (229) 671-2850, Fax: (229) 333-5199
Email: elections@lowndescounty.com
QUALIFYING
November 5, 2013 – Municipal Election
AUGUST 26, 2013
City of Valdosta
City Council District 2
Continue reading
Two Valdosta cases, both for health care company UHS Pruitt, and two Hahira cases, both for real estate developer Teramore Development, at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission tonight.
Here’s the agenda.
Greater Lowndes Planning CommissionContinue readingLowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING
AGENDA
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah AvenueMonday, August 26, 2013* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing
Valdosta Mayor Gayle was standing next to the video ghetto after the county’s rather rudimentary SPLOST VII presentation Monday morning, so I asked him why I hadn’t seen anything about Internet access either Valdosta’s or Lowndes County’s SPLOST lists? He said that was because it was being handled by the Community Assessment Group (CAG). What’s that?
Mayor Gayle said CAG is a group of representatives from the county
and all the local cities, the two school districts (Valdosta and Lowndes County),
VSU, Wiregrass Tech, the Industrial Authority, the Chamber, and he may have
said others.
It’s an attempt at better local cooperation, specifically about issues
that cross all the various local governmental and non-governmental groups.
So far they’ve had two meetings, Continue reading
Hahira declared a moratorium on water and sewer taps in a subdivision
financed by Guardian Bank, apparently in hopes of getting the bank
to do something about a drainage problem there.
Instead, the bank is suing Hahira, echoing a lawsuit the county is pursuing
about a contract let when the bank’s Chairman was Lowndes County Chairman.
According to Stuart Taylor in the VDT Friday, Guardian Bank’s chairman said, perhaps using the royal “we”:
“We’re a little disappointed with Hahira,” said Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Guardian Bank. “We’ve actually helped them build up their tax base up there…Over the years, we’ve encouraged builders to be up there.”
Me, I think Hahira should have Continue reading
The last several times I saw him he reminded me that his illness was terminal, but it still comes as a shock. I was one of the many babies he delivered. -jsq
Picture from the VDT; obituary via McLane Funeral Services, Jesse Lyle Parrott
the VDT;Born in Salley, SC on Dec. 23, 1918
Departed on Jun. 21, 2013 and resided in Hahira, GA.
Visitation: No Visitation
Service: Private
Cemetery: Private
Jesse Lyle Parrott, M. D.Dr. Jesse Lyle Parrott, 94, husband of Nancy Wainer Parrott for 58 years, died peacefully at home in Hahira on Friday, June 21, 2013. He was born in Salley, SC on December 23, 1918 to the late Lily Price and Glen Peake Parrott during the historic influenza epidemic. At the age of 12 he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, was baptized and joined the Methodist Church. He attended high school in Collins, Ga during the Great Depression. He worked as a gas station attendant, a “drugstore cowboy” and in the CCC until he entered South Georgia College in Douglas, GA. Eventually he received his Bachelor of Science pre-med degree from the University of Georgia where he was also proctor of the football dormitory. Entering Medical School at the Medical College of Georgia under the Navy program he was commissioned as an intern at the naval Hospital at New Orleans and Pearl Harbor. Following completion of training, Dr. Parrott was assigned to a flotilla of landing craft as the singular medical officer. Duty was principally in the Marshall-Gilbert Islands. In 1945, Dr. Parrott moved to Hahira, GA to join the practice of his brother in law, Dr. Raymond Smith at Smith Hospital. He worked 16-18 hour days in General Practice for 40 years during which he delivered over 5,000 babies, performed thousands of surgical procedures and treated many thousands of patients. The exception to his devotion to patients was his afternoon off every Thursday during which he fished with his father in law, the late David Samuel Wainer or his best friend, H. M. Barfield and then took his bride and family out to dinner. Dr. Parrott abruptly retired from private practice due to macular degeneration. He served another 15 years as the Chief Medical Director of the South District Detoxification Facility at Smith Hospital. Dr. Parrott was President of the South Georgia Medical Society, served as mayor of Hahira from 1957-1958 and again from 1987-1993. He was a long term member of Hahira United Methodist Church serving in many roles as well as Sunday School teacher for the Adult Class. He was also a member of the Valdosta Rotary Club.
Picture by Church Street Coffee
Along with his beloved wife, Continue reading
Today is the first
Hahira Southern Village Market Day,
Vendors, food, and live music, 5-8PM!
This happens every Third Thursday in downtown Hahira.
If you come in from I-75 or Valdosta, you’ll see these signs:
Continue reading
The
Austin reporting program is in addition to
the posting a City Council agenda more than a week in advance
(here’s the 28 Feb 2013 agenda already on 16 Feb 2013)
and
including the entire board packets
with working papers and other backup documentation
with the minutes.
Austin
televises and webcasts its meetings live,
with close captioning and transcripts online.
They don’t limit the number of citizens who can speak,
or the subjects they can speak on, and they televise and webcast
all of them as well.
Plus citizens can speak on specific agenda issues,
and Austin
has an online forum for citizen suggestions on which citizens can vote
on the ones they like.
Is there still back-door politics in Austin? For sure. But you can see a lot more of what is going on in Austin than they can about the local governments here, and citizens have a lot more input.
If Valdosta and Lowndes County (and Hahira and Lake Park and Dasher and Remerton) want to be treated like a major MSA, they might consider following Austin’s lead. Instead of decreasing citizen input by exiling all citizen speakers to the end of a meeting and limiting the number who can speak, while not even putting board packets online, consider continually increasing local government transparency and citizen input.
-jsq
Decatur County, that’s
turning an industrial park into a solar park;
why is that county familiar?
Because it’s
the other county that thought it was getting a CCA private prison last year!
Decatur County has already moved on from that boondoggle that would have prisoners competing with local workers while not increasing local employment. Decatur County is already well along towards a solar park that could bring “400 hundred thousand a year in tax revenue”. Has our Industrial Authority got anything in negotiations for a solar park? How about our Airport Authority? And what is Georgia Power doing to help?
-jsq
Our Industrial Authority is in favor of solar business now; what if they seeded some of their industrial parks with solar panels like Decatur County is doing? They think it will make them look like a progressive county. What do we think?
Ty Wilson wrote for WTXL 7 Dec 2012, A solar park is coming to the Decatur County Industrial Park,
The Decatur County Industrial park will go from having green grass to having a green future.
A Lenexa, Kansas company is building a solar farm at the Decatur County Industrial Park.
The Decatur County Industrial park will go from having green grass to having a green future.
Keith Lyle is the chairman of the Bainbridge Decatur Development Authority, he says, “We are just extremely excited to have this come for the community.”
And, it’s private investment!
Trade Winds Energy is leasing at least 100 acres to put in solar panels at ten thousand dollars a year.
Company executives says they will invest 17 million dollars into the project.
Lyle says, “This will add from the tax aspect a significant revenue stream. When it is all said and done you are looking at a taxable amount of 40 million is assets. On the project that is 400 hundred thousand a year in tax revenue.”
Trade Wind Energy doesn’t list this project yet
(and all the projects they do list are wind projects),
but if we take a rule of thumb
Continue reading
As we’ve seen, solid waste is a matter of public health, safety, well-being, and the environment, according to Georgia state law. Whose responsibility is it to protect the environment and the public health, safety, and well-being from solid waste?
Many health and safety issues are handled through the health department,
including the Georgia Department of Public Health,
and the
South Health District
(Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Tift and Turner Counties).
Particularly, water quality (septic tanks, well water), food safety,
cleanliness of hotels, motels, restaurants, swimming pools and so on
are the responsibility of the local health department,
such as the
Lowndes County Health Department.
However, disposal of solid waste (trash/garbage) is handled by the local municipality or governmental body (county).
The EPA has a variety of documents available about solid waste.
So does the state EPD, as enabled through Georgia Legislation: Existing Rules and Corresponding Laws.
So, where does this leave us? See next post.
-gretchen