Received today: PDF, with transcription appended below. -jsq
Continue readingMarch 15, 2013
Joe Pritchard
County Manager
Lowndes County
327 N. Ashley St.
Valdosta, GA 31601
Dear Mr. Pritchard:
It is with great regret that I find the need to step down from the Lowndes County
and South Georgia Regional Library Board of Trustees. I fear that I am no longer
capable of holding this position in light of the county’s recent actions.
As you are aware,
Sinkholes aren’t just
for Florida anymore: Albany’s got them.
Are sinkholes risky?
You may think so if one is under your house.
And here above the Floridan Aquifer you probably won’t know that
until your foundations starts cracking.
Maybe we should do something to prevent the problem,
and to help people who are affected by it.
Perhaps the Lowndes County government till pay attention when
somebody’s house falls into a sinkhole.
Jim Wallace wrote for WALB 9 March 2013, Expect more sinkholes,
Some sinkholes have opened up in South Georgia since the recent heavy rains.
And engineers and public works experts say they expect more sinkholes to develop in the coming weeks. It’s just nature at work, but it can really cause some problems.
Really? Does “nature at work” include sinkholes predictably forming after massive water pumping to sprinkle strawberries during a cold snap?
The WALB story pooh-poohs the possibility of anything like that Sefner sinkhole showing up in south Georgia, and then details two Albany sinkholes:
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Sinkholes in
Seffner, Fort Myers,
Tallahassee,
and now even closer.
Follow the Withlacoochee River south to the Suwannee River,
and two counties south of us in Suwannee County, Florida,
they’ve got dozens of sinkholes,
one of them massive, with another one this month,
including apparently a cavern under some yards.
This is in the same Floridan Aquifer that underlies Lowndes County,
where we had
a road drop into a sinkhole three years ago
and sinkholes were discovered under a man’s garage and yard last year.
Greg Gullberg 4 March 2013, The Science Behind Sinkholes,
Continue readingMikell Cook says he and his neighbors have learned more about Geology than they ever cared to since last summer when Tropical Storm Debby swept through much of Florida leaving Live Oak and surrounding areas peppered with sinkholes.
He and his neighbors live in the town of McAlpin, where
Even closer than Tampa Bay or Fort Myers, Tallahassee has sinkhole problems in our same Floridan Aquifer just across the state line. Will the Lowndes County Commission do anything about our sinkhole problems before people start losing their insurance and get sucked into holes in the ground?
Andy Alcock wrote for WCTV Wednesday, Tallahassee Woman Faces Sinkhole Problem,
Imagine living in a home you can’t insure, no one wants to buy and it may not be safe.
A Tallahassee woman is currently facing that problem.
At first glance, her home in Tallahassee’s Mission Manor neighborhood on the city’s northwest side doesn’t look much different from any of the other homes in the neighborhood.
Then about two years ago, homeowner Vickie Gordon found a problem.
“I started noticing that the doors were getting stuck in the bathroom, couldn’t open them,” said Gordon.
Then the issues became more noticeable.
Cracks started showing up all over the house.
After Gordon contacted her insurance company, investigators found sinkhole activity at her home.
I wish this part was a joke:
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Why do citizens have to nag our local governments to find out what's
going on even about
cleaning up sewage all over their back yards and under their houses?
How about if our governments deploy issue tracking systems?
Here's an example of how that works.
As previously mentioned,
Leon County, Florida, lets anyone
Report a Problem or Request a Service
through their web page.
Then you can
find your service request
and
track a problem
using a ticket number.
This is not rocket science. Thousands of businesses have been using such issue tracking systems (also known as trouble ticket systems) for many years. There is off-the-shelf software to implement them. Beyond the obvious advantages to the citizens of being able to tell what's going on with their issues, such systems also greatly aid local governments by
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A surprising number of questions were asked by Commissioners
at yesterday morning’s Work Session, yet still nobody asked
about the well near
one of the proposed rezonings.
We had a microphone failure during the first few items;
sound picks up as the Commissioners start asking questions on
5.b. REZ-2013-04.
Because of the sound glitch
you can’t tell that for sure from the videos that nobody discussed SPLOST,
but Gretchen was there from call to order to adjournment, and she didn’t hear anything about
SPLOST.
Maybe they’ll say something about it tonight at their 5:30 PM Regular Session,
at which they vote on these rezonings and contract.
Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and some notes.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
All over the news today:
Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter on radio 105.9 this morning;
Lowndes County Board of Commissioners and Valdosta City Council
reach a SPLOST deal (VDT).
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners and the City of Valdosta reached an agreement Monday on how to divide the seventh cycle of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, which both entities will push to appear for a second time on November ballots after its defeat in 2012.
Last week, the city requested that State Rep. Amy Carter withdraw the bill that would have allowed Valdosta to put a MOST or Municipal Option Sales Tax on the ballot, which would have earned a penny in sales tax for the city, who would not be required to share that money with Lowndes County or other cities.
After negotiations over the phone and via email, County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter and Mayor John Gayle signed an official agreement for SPLOST VII Monday afternoon.
How could this be?
Continue readingMore sinkholes in Florida in the same Floridan Aquifer that’s under us, this time evacuating a church. Maybe sinkhole safety should be important here, too.
WCTV carried an AP story today, Suspected Sinkhole Forces Church Move
Pastor Rick Shuck told WBBH in Fort Myers on Monday the sinkhole has caused uneven floors, cracks in the walls and a hole in the ground so large that a landscaper fell into it.
Shuck says they had to end Faith Community Church’s Sunday service early because “it’s just not safe anymore.” He says some cracks in the walls are a half-inch wide and part of the auditorium floor has dropped about 4 1/2 inches.
Geological engineers say it’s definitely a sinkhole. But the church’s insurance company sent engineers who determined there is no problem. So next month the two sides are heading to mediation.
That second picture above was taken in Lowndes County,
showing
printouts of analysis by a VSU professor of sinkholes
under a yard in Lowndes County.
And they’re
under Michael McCormick’s shed (see picture on the right),
and they’re
in his garage.
The same Floridan Aquifer is underground here as in Florida. Perhaps something needs to be done about sinkholes right here in Lowndes County?
-jsq
On the 27th of February I posted Internet and Energy at the Bird Supper and Gretchen and I went to the Bird Supper in Atlanta and discussed those four bills with legislators. Our local elected officials were lobbying on the same side of many of the same bills. It’s past crossover day now, when bills are supposed to be approved by one house of the Georgia legislature in order to be taken up by the other. How did that come out? We all beat the mighty telcos and cablecos on two bills! But Georgia Power is even mightier, and won on two bills. Plus one legislator’s name is connected with 3 out of 4 of those bills. And our local delegation cancelled itself out on the one vote that actually went to the floor.
The local Industrial Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Valdosta City Council, and Lowndes County Commission have recently realized that fast Internet access is essential to attract businesses, for their employees to work at home, for applicants to apply for jobs, for students to submit assignments, and for general quality of life. And there’s good news from the legislature!
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Five minutes, or maybe ten each for Monday’s Work Session and
Tuesday’s Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission?
Here’s the agenda.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
- Call to Order
- Invocation
- Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
- Minutes for Approval
- Work Session — February 25, 2013
- Regular Session — February 26, 2013
- Public Hearings
- REZ-2013-03 Rezoning for Jeremy Valler, Knight’s Academy Rd. R-21 to R-A, Well/Septic, ~10.4 acres
- REZ-2013-04 Doug Thompson Property, 3432 Bemiss Rd. C-H (conditional) to C-H, Comm. Well & Comm. Sewer, 1.28 acres
- Bid — Land Application Site (LAS) Farm Lease
- Reports-County Manager
- Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address
-jsq