Tommy Willis says the plaque is real purty: Continue reading
Category Archives: LAKE
Anne-Marie Wolff: Not Ornery
Ken Sherrill reminds us she’s not ornery: Continue reading
CHANCE: Changing Homes and Neighborhoods, Challenging Everyone
![](http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/MGVu4el-QUY/1.jpg)
CHANCE had an organizational meeting 7 Jan 2010 at Floyd Rose’s Serenity Church. Here’s a playlist.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE.
Help give some people a needed push? Take responsibility and help solve a problem what will reduce crime by increasing employment? Here’s a chance to do that.
Valdosta Civic Round Table, 3 December 2009
Meeting notes for the past year or so are are on the LAKE web pages.
If you’re looking for something to do, like Jane says, all of our nonprofit boards are in need of board members….
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE.
DoJ Rejects Lowndes County Redistricting
In denying the Lowndes County Commission the right to expand under the current proposed “superdistrict” plan, the DOJ stated in its opinion, “Our analysis of the evidence precludes a determination that the county has met its burden of showing that the proposed plan was not adopted, at least in part, with the purpose of making minority voters worse off.” In addition to stating that the plan was done deliberately to disenfranchise black voters, the letter of explanation that the DOJ sent to the county Tuesday regarding its denial of the petition states that the proposed plan was not in compliance with the Voting Rights Act regarding discrimination.Saying the county has not shown that it has not done something is not the same as saying the county deliberately did that thing.
The commission chairman seems to be forgetting his history:
Paulk said he is certain that the map met all of the criteria in the Voting Rights Act. The initiative was approved by the state’s General Assembly and voters approved the plan on Nov. 4, 2009.In denying the proposal, Paulk says the DOJ is denying the right of the people to vote on a plan of their choosing, noting that it passed overwhelmingly in the majority minority districts.
“We had a democracy when we drew those maps, not the socialist government we have now,” Paulk said.
The county districts currently in use were required in 1984 as part of a court settlement under that well-known socialist, Ronald Reagan.
That’s a good point about the plan passing overwhelmingly in the majority minority districts, but it also passed when nothing else was on the ballot for the county (everything else was for the various cities in the county), so few people outside Valdosta, Hahira, and Dasher voted on it. This problem was noted beforehand by state representative Ellis Black:
“My concern is about the inequity where it’s a special election in the unincorporated areas but it’s a regular city election,” Black said. “I’m concerned about the impact on the turn out as there will be a greater emphasis on city voters more so than the unincorporated voters.”The VDT quoted Ashley Paulk as saying he didn’t want to spend the money to hold a special election: “$40,880 minimum.” This from a county government that just spent $15 million for a bridge that few people use and $1.5 million to pave a road the majority of whose residents didn’t want paved. Is the will of the people in the unincorporated areas so unimportant? In any case, it looks like the county will now need to pay for developing another redistricting plan.
The VDT quotes Joe Pritchard, County Manager:
“We are satisfied that we did everything we possibly could to create a plan that met all of the criteria,” he said.If so, apparently all they could do was not enough. Also, the plan the county government proposed was not the only possible plan.
Back in 1997 a plan was proposed that would have put two commissioners in each of the two districts. The voters voted it down, and for that one the VDT wondered if the voters got it right, because the SPLOST tax was the big issue at the time, not commission expansion.
Another way would be to split the current districts lengthwise, creating two out of each of them. I don’t think that possibility was ever seriously entertained by the current commissioners. Why not is mysterious.
The DoJ was aware of the possibility of splitting at least the existing minority district, and said so:
Moreover, the evidence establishes that this retrogression was avoidable. Several alternatives exist that meet the county’s stated criteria and do not have a prohibited retrogressive effect. For example, it is possible to create an illustrative plan that follows the county’s 3-2 configuration, but which, unlike the county’s proposed plan, creates a second district in which census data show that the African American community would be able to elect a candidate of choice. The most recent data indicate that African Americans constitute 53 percent of the registered voters in this illustrative district. Although the county’s contention that the 2000 Census data understate this district’s current African American population percentage appears to be correct, it does not alter our conclusion, based on an analysis of voter registration data from October 2009, that the district would not afford black voters the ability to elect candidates of choice to office.That’s the paragraph in the DoJ letter immediately before the passage the VDT quoted. Neither the VDT nor the county government has chosen to put a copy of the DoJ letter on the web, but fortunately the DoJ did, so we don’t have to go by what we’re told to think; we can read the letter for ourselves.
The VDT article about redistricting history neglects to mention that another plan was put to a vote around 1983 that would have expanded the county commission to 9 members, if I recall the number correctly from the VDT article of that period I saw in the county museum. That plan was only narrowly defeated by the people of the county. Perhaps a similar plan, better prepared and presented, might fare better today.
Thomas County, with about half the population of Lowndes County, has eight commissioners.
Current commissioners are aware of that mid-1980s plan, and at least one of them objects to it because it would have created a district entirely within Valdosta, which is already represented by the Valdosta City Council. This makes me wonder if all the voters in the current county commission districts who happen to live inside Valdosta (or Hahira, or Remerton, or Dasher, or Lake Park) don’t count? That would be ironic, since they’re the ones who just voted for the plan these same commissioners favored.
The county government also did everything it thought it possibly could to create a new county waste disposal plan last year, but external reality intervened in that case, too. The county couldn’t get bids for its plan at the minimum it required. This was just as well, since there were strenuous objections to the county’s plan, voiced by hundreds of people at the meetings the county held not to get early input, rather to tell the people what the county government had decided.
The incoming chairman, Ashley Paulk, came up with a new, simpler plan that addressed most of the objections of the old waste disposal plan and that’s the one now working fine. The current waste plan was sort of an emergency solution arrived at without much external input.
Here’s a chance for the new chairman to once again demonstrate the adaptability of the county government. Given that circumstances have repeatedly indicated that the county government’s solution to a problem isn’t necessarily correct just because the county government believes it is, perhaps this time a transparent process for citizen participation could be used so that the people and the DoJ could be convinced that a solution is correct.
Deidra White elected to Valdosta City Council, District 2
![Deidra White Prepares to Speak](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2582/4153081051_fa22629dc8_m.jpg)
Deidra White will fill the District 2 seat currently held by Mayor Pro Tem Willie T. Head on the Valdosta City Council.The VDT says she said:White defeated Dr. L.W. Williams in the runoff election with 56.87 percent of the vote, or 178 votes and Williams received 43.13 percent of the votes, or 135 votes.
“My main focus is to make decisions that will help and not harm the people of the community,” White said.Through the election and then the runoff White said she learned the process is very exhausting and tiring.
“No one can do it on their own, it takes many people from many different areas of the community to make something like this happen,” she said.
Here is her victory speech:
Local Thanksgiving
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A growing local food community, anchored by Jason DeLoach’s F.M. Guess Pecan Company of Valdosta, the Packhouse Market of Hahira, and of course Jim Fiveash’s Food Store of Hahira. Let’s not forget the Valdosta Farmer’s Market (1500 South Patterson Street) and Farmer Brown’s Produce. There’s even at least one local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) starting up.
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- Long distance transportation: Interstate 75 near I-10, numerous state highways, and an airport.
- Delta Airlines (I never thought I’d be writing this) for competitive airfares (except during holidays). And landing on one of the longest runways in the state.
- Railroads going in every direction carrying freight, which can also carry passengers whenever state and local people and governments get organized to do it.
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Businesses moving in to take advantage of the transportation; working towards enough good jobs that young people don’t have to move away to find one.
- County and city governments that are at least a little bit sceptical about exactly which businesses they encourage to move in.
- Moody Air Force Base, by far the biggest employer, bringing diversity to the community both in serving personnel and in later retirees.
- Two hospitals: South Georgia Medical Center and Smith Northview Hospital.
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There’s even a
Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
including the counties of Lowndes, Brooks, Lanier, and Echols, with
a combined population of about 130,000.
This is enough people to try things without waiting for Atlanta or Washington to tell us what to do.
- Valdosta State University, one of two large regional campuses of the University of Georgia System, and one so active politically that it got its own voting precinct this year, the only college precinct in the state.
- Live election results during each election, on the Lowndes County website. It’s the only county in the state that does this!
- Georgia Military College, a liberal arts junior college.
- Valdosta Technical College, or whatever it’s being called since the state reorganized it.
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Thriving downtowns in Valdosta and Hahira. First Friday, Winterfest, Honeybee Festival: those are doing more to attract attractive businesses than any number of road projects.
- Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area, preserving a little bit of the original ecosystem of the area; you know, pine trees, live oaks, wiregrass, pitcher plants, cypress swamps, alligators, great blue herons, and bobcats. Maybe you don’t. Go and see!
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Trees, for forestry, and for themselves. See Patterson Street (a little planning kept it from looking like Ashley Street), and the oldest longleaf pines in the county are on the VSU campus; older than Valdosta. There are even a few left elsewhere in the county. Protecting forests is not just the right thing to do, it’s good business.
- Rain, so trees and crops will grow.
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Sunshine, much more than Germany, for example, so we can do solar if we want to.
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Winning sports teams in Lowndes County and Valdosta high schools and VSU
caused ESPN to name Valdosta
TitleTown.
Maybe that winning attitude can carry over to
improving academics.
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Theatre at the
Dosta, VSU, and the high schools.
If theatre was a sport, we’d be winning that, too!
Dites-moi
Pourquoi
La vie est belle,
Dies-moi
Pourquoi
La vie est gai?Tell me why
The sky
is filled with music,
Tell me why
We fly
on clouds above?
Why stop with what we’ve got? Why not play up our advantages of transportation, natural environment, local culture, etc., and attract jobs for young people and make the place even better for everybody?
Thoroughfare Plan for Lowndes County
In case you haven’t heard of the Thoroughfare Plan, it was described by the County Engineer during the County Commission’s work session yesterday morning as
…works as a guide for development and potential use changes in property.Here is the Valdosta Daily Times report on that meeting: “Thoroughfare Plan sparks lengthy debate,” By Malynda Fulton, 9 Oct 2009. She writes that:
The Thoroughfare Plan, first adopted in 1983, is used as a guide for road improvement projects, private developments and land use changes.
The “20/30 plan” referred to in that newspaper article is the Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan developed in conjunction by the South Georgia Regional Development Commission, the County Commission, and the Valdosta City Council. Its purpose is:
The Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan is a road map for ensuring growth and development in the Greater Lowndes Communities occurs in a way as to maintain our quality of life and unique community character.It’s quite interesting that both plans are intended to guide development, yet they recommend opposite outcomes. In particular, the justification given at the meeting for the proposed reclassification of Quarterman Road from local to minor collector was that “if it were developed” within 20 years there would be enough trips to justify such a classification. Yet the Comprehensive plan shows the same area as agricultural through 2030:
Perhaps better coordination is needed. Fortunately, the Chairman and the County Manager appear to be soliciting input.
The scheduled vote on approval of the new Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan is at the regular Commission meeting at 5PM today, Tuesday 10 November 2009, at 325 West Savannah Avenue (near the water tower).
This blog post by John S. Quarterman.
-jsq
Valdosta Candidates at LCDP, 5 October 2009
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
More are still uploading. All the local candidate videos that LAKE took
on 5 Oct 2009 are now in the playlist, as of 10PM 25 Oct 2009.
Videos taken at the 15 Sep 2009 political forum are already online.
Rally for president Obama, 17 Oct 2009
![Gretchen Quarterman and George Rhynes](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2734/4027492317_404a66f528_o.jpg)
In this example, Gladys Lee asks us all to think for ourselves: Continue reading