“Let me decide who I want to haul my waste,”
said a former Chairman of the Industrial Authority
at Tuesday night’s
Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Jerome Tucker thanked
Commissioner John Page for bringing up the topic of freedom,
since that was his main topic, too.
I’m here to talk about… where I have a choice who handles my waste…
Cary didn’t come to me looking for business. I saw his truck come along and Continue reading
The owner of Deep South Sanitation thanked the community and his family and said he didn’t understand what was going on. The Commission offered no explanation.
Cary Scarborough handed in a petition and sat down. The crowd applauded.
That rapidly turned into a standing ovation. Continue reading
Does the Commission already has reputation problems when
it’s being compared unfavorably to Lester Maddox?
A citizen canceled a business trip to ask “what if we only had one hardware store”
at last night’s
Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Our prices we pay would be through the roof; we would not have a choice.And you’re welcome, Duane Roark: it was LAKE who put you on YouTube last month.
He also quoted a headline from the Fayetteville Observer,
Operation Tarnished Badge: Years later, tarnish remains.
A corruption investigation that sent the Sheriff and 21 others to prison still casts a shadow over law enforcement in Robeson County.
If we put Deep South Sanitation out of business, it’s gonna give Lowndes County a black eye. People are to say, Continue reading
Only fifteen minutes on any topic, said Chairman Bill Slaughter, even though 8 people wanted to speak about trash at last night’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. But there is no such rule in the county’s relevant ordinance.
He was enforcing an odd mashup of the county’s 25 January 2013 ordinance about
Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.
It does have these two rules: Continue reading
At last night’s
Lowndes County Commission Regular Session,
Commissioner John Page prayed about
“the freedoms to serve in government, knowing that this government is supposed to be of the people by the people and for the people”.But the Commission seems to care more about this part he also said:
“our decisions and everything be done decently and in order”.
The county government still seems determined to take
the shirts
off these people’s backs.
Here’s the video:
Freedom or Order?
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 June 2013.
-jsq
Update 23 June 2013:
Now with sound!
Update 24 June 2013: Added links to separate posts for the newly audible items.
Unscheduled: Emergency Director Ashley Tye said more about
the proposed juvenile justice grant;
Kevin Beals announced the winners of the county’s
Wellness Weightloss Challenge;
and three
unscheduled Library Board applicants.
You can hear starting with the third of those last, but
you can’t hear the few potential appointees for KLVB, VLCCCTA, ZBOA, because
the county’s sound system
was out (due to a consultant or lightning, depending on who you ask)
and Gretchen didn’t notice and go to the camera’s mic until a few minutes in.
They did talk about
fixing the sewer force main that spilled into the Withlacoochee River.
Nothing was said about
the exclusive franchise for solid waste services.
Maybe you’d like to come tonight and say a few words.
Here’s the agenda, plus links to the videos and a few notes.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 10, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Why did the Lowndes County Commission make
this exclusive franchise
with a Florida or Alabama or New York company
and then
sue a local Lowndes County company after
the VDT reported the previous spring that any contract
would be non-exclusive and wouldn’t put anybody out of business?
Here, obtained by LAKE through an open records request,
is the
contract with ADS of Middle Georgia, LLC.
The
the agenda item for the 11 December 2012 Commission meeting at which
this contract was approved
says ADS of Central Alabama, Inc.
The contract says ADS is “a Florida corporation”,
and we know ADS is owned by
Highstar Capital of New York City.
Once again,
why is granting a cheap monopoly to an out-of-state company
more important than either letting local companies compete for the service
or having the county continue to provide a public service directly to
its taxpayers and citizens?
The termination clause I pointed out to the Commission after an ADS executive made excuses for nonperformance is Paragraph 18 of the contract:
Continue reading
No names for appointments (KLVB, VLCCCTA, ZBOA),
and nothing on the agenda about
solid waste collection
or
the public hearing they didn’t hold
or
why they picked Veolia’s highest bid
or
ADS buying more companies when its spokesman said that wasn’t forseen
or
how much the Commission forsees waste collection fees going up
or
suing a local company
at the Lowndes County Commission.
Wasterwater is on the agenda twice,
which is good after that
sewer spill into the Withlacoochee River,
but nothing about
a five-year action plan.
Let’s listen to what the preacher Commissioners pray about:
that’s usually a clue to what’s on their minds,
even if they proceed to do the opposite.
Here’s the agenda.
Continue readingSame agenda as in January, local governance: Water, trash, and money.
|
View Larger Map |
| What: | Monthly LAKE Meeting |
|---|---|
| When: | about 6:30PM Tuesday
(after the Lowndes County Commission meeting) 11 June 2013 |
| Where: |
Let's Eat Cafe
2102 W. Hill Ave. (just west of I-75, at the Shell station) Valdosta, GA 31601 |
Don't let the location fool you: Let's Eat is locally owned, and serves a lot of locally-grown food.
If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.
-jsq
Here’s a
video playlist
of Wednesday morning’s
Lowndes County Commission Budget Discussion Meeting.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 June 2013.
They broke for lunch shortly before noon, and Gretchen had another appointment, so the video ends there, although the Commission apparently continued te discussion in the afternoon. Hm, if they had real discussion at their other meetings, they wouldn’t have to save it up for long marathon sessions like this….
-jsq