The sinkholes are not just in
Michael McCormick’s garage.
According to groundscan radar by a VSU professor and students,
the sinkholes are also
spreading
under his
front steps and
his house.
The steps are sinking and there’s a crack on the wall inside the house.
Continue reading
In what the County Planner calls “central Lowndes County” there’s
a sinkhole in a garage,
deeper than a hoe handle.
Michael McCormick called me up yesterday and told me about this
sinkhole in his garage at 4326 Norman Hall Road.
Naturally he’s a bit concerned about this problem.
He thinks his insurance may cover it, but he’s looking for other
options in case.
So far, nobody seems to know what to do.
Which can’t be the case:
this isn’t the first sinkhole in Lowndes County.
We’re helping get the word out to help find whoever does know more about
sinkholes and what resources are available to deal with them.
It’s not only straight down and under the carport concrete.
Continue reading
Did you know
last night’s Planning Commission meeting included
a public hearing about changes to the county’s
Unified Land Development Code (ULDC)
related to land disturbances and water quality?
You wouldn’t have found out about that in the agenda,
because
it wasn’t posted anywhere you’d be likely to see it.
(Where does GLPC post the one physical copy of the agenda required by law,
anyway?)
Supposedly it was advertised in the Valdosta Daily Times,
but a search
of Public Notices in Statewide Database of Public Notices from Georgia’s Legal Organ Newspapers
for 1 June 2012 through 27 August 2012 finds nothing.
Here’s what
the agenda item for the 27 August 2012 GLPC meeting
(that we only know about because Gretchen went to that GLPC meeting
and asked County Planner Jason Davenport)
says:
From a procedural standpoint the amendment has been advertised in the Valdosta Daily Times to fulfill legal requirements. Beyond legal requirements staff has plans to post this agenda item and draft ULDC on the Lowndes County Website at http://www.lowndescounty.com/content.asp?pid=23&id=224. Regarding staff review of the amendments, the TRC recommended for their approval at their 08/16 regular meeting.
If you’d happened to look several levels deep on the Lowndes County website you would have found that undated announcement:
Continue reading
Gretchen Quarterman
canvassed on Summerlin Street in Valdosta Saturday:
The number one thing we need to do is to make the government accessible and transparent, so that the business of the people goes on in public.
Here’s a video playlist:
LAKE videoing George videoing Gretchen canvassing on Summerlin Street in Valdosta,
Canvassing, Lowndes County Commission (GretchenForLowndes.com),
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
and by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2012.
Gretchen mentioned she’d been going to County Commission meetings for about four years now, and thought it was her turn to serve. George asked why she was canvassing on the west side of Valdosta, and she answered:
The thing that is important for people to know is that every single citizen in the county gets to vote, Whether you live in Valdosta, Hahira, Lake Park, Dasher, Remerton, or the unincorporated areas. Every single person who lives in Lowndes County who is a registered voter gets to vote.
You have until October 8th to register
to vote for the November 6th election.
You can register at the Board of Elections at 2808 North Oak Street,
or there are people going around with forms you can fill in and mail
in or they will hand carry down there.
Participatory media!
Doing what traditional media could do, George Boston Rhynes
interviewed Gretchen Quarterman as she canvassed on
Summerlin Street in Valdosta Saturday.
Doing what traditional media can’t do, I videoed
George videoing Gretchen, and he later videoed me
helping Gretchen canvass.
-jsq
Where and when did the preliminary information or discussion happen? And among whom? According to the county's website:
Lowndes County Work & Regular Session Meetings Cancelled (8/28/2012)
Due to lack of agenda items requiring additional information or discussion, the Lowndes County Work and Regular Session meetings for August 27-28, 2012, have been cancelled. For more information please call County Clerk, Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400.
According to
Georgia's new sunshine law modifications,
as explained
by VLCIA's attorney in an open meeting,
open meetings now include any time a quorum discusses business,
even if there was no scheduled meeting.
And if you wanted to address the Commission about a matter of interest to the public? Not this week.
The scheduled next meetings on their calendar are a Work Session on Monday 10 September 2012 and a Regular Session on Tuesday 11 September 2012.
-jsq
Looks like history may repeat itself like last decade,
now that LOST negotiations between the cities and the county have failed.
Except this time apparently the law has changed so they can’t sue each
other directly.
Instead next it goes to
Superior Court “baseball arbitration”.
However, I bet that still involves lawyers at taxpayer expense,
not to mention the Court’s time.
Greg Gullberg reported for WCTV yesterday, Tax Negotiations Hit Another Dead End In Lowndes County, and asked Gretchen down at the County Extension, who said,
It’s sort of sad because it is a waste, if you will, of taxpayer dollars. That the elected officials can’t get together and come to some agreement to say that they all understand how the money has to be divided up Yeah, it’s sad that more money has to go to lawyers insted of being spent on services.
I continue to think the local governments could spend their time together better trying to increase the size of the pie instead of squabbling over slices of it.
-jsq
Inaccurate labelling is the reason T-SPLOST was defeated, along with Atlanta is not all of Georgia, but the Wall Street Journal doesn’t understand that.
Cameron McWhirter wrote for the Wall Street Journal 1 August 2012, Tea Party Ties Up Tax to Ease Atlanta Traffic
ATLANTA—Money and heavyweight endorsements don’t secure an election — especially when you propose higher taxes in a deeply conservative state with a robust tea-party movement.
A plan for a transportation sales tax was endorsed by Georgia’s Republican governor and the Democratic mayor of the state’s largest city. It was backed by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the area’s top businesses. It was pushed by top political consultants funded by more than $8 million in corporate and other donations.
Those against the plan were a loose coalition of tea-party activists, some environmentalists and a local branch of the NAACP. Their total raised? About $15,000.
But David slew Goliath.
That’s lazy reporting. Those “some environmentalists” included the Georgia Sierra Club, an organization which reportedly has more members than the state Democratic Party. And that’s just in Atlanta.
Opponents in our region included
Democrat Ashley Paulk,
who was on the T-SPLOST executive committee
and is the current Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission,
Democrat Gretchen Quarterman,
who is the Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP)
and
is running for Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission,
as well as
Nolen Cox, Chairman of the Lowndes County Republican Party (LCRP),
and Roy Taylor,
LRCP First Vice Chair and well-known Tea Party activist,
along with a wide range of other opponents.
Look at the difference between that Region 11 T-SPLOST vote map and this map of
the Atlanta Metro T-SPLOST vote.
Atlanta metro is clearly centered around Atlanta.
Region 11 isn’t an economic region:
the vote was split right down the middle between No on the east and west
and Yes in between.
Region 11 throws together three population centers: Lowndes, Tift, and Ware Counties, with their largest cities Valdosta, Tifton, and Waycross. Lowndes and Tift are at least connected by I-75, and they and most of the ones around them voted against (Ben Hill, Turner, Berrien, Cook, Lanier, Echols, and Brooks). Ware County and all the counties east of it (Pierce, Brantley, and Charlton) voted against. In between there’s a complete barrier of counties that voted for T-SPLOST (Irwin, Coffee, Bacon, Atkinson, and Clinch). Those No counties completely separate the eastern Ware County group from the western Lowndes-Tift group.
The perception around here is that T-SPLOST was made up to affect metro Atlanta, and the rest of the regions were Continue reading
With all precincts reporting in the Republican Primary Runoff
for Lowndes County Commission District 5 (West half of the county),
the numbers are:
| Jody T. Hall | 48.06% | 855 |
|---|---|---|
| John P. Page | 51.94% | 924 |
| Total votes | 1,779 |
So how is the election not decided yet? Provisional ballots, which won’t be completely sorted out until Friday. Those are for people who may have been in the wrong district or there was some other irregularity that must be deciphered. It’s unlikely there are enough of those to swing this election, but it’s possible. I congratulated both candidates.
There is no Democratic candidate, so less than 2,000 people are deciding who will be the County Commissioner representing about 55,000 people.
More pictures below.
Back at the Board of Elections.
Deb Cox is Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 August 2012.
One of those last two people, as County Commission Chair, will have to organize the Commission including whoever wins this race. I got them to grin by saying “Ashley Paulk.”
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Jody Hall, running for Lowndes County Commission District 5 (west side) said at the 100 Black Men BBQ:
If I'm elected, I will work for the people of Lowndes County. I'm their employee. That's the way it needs to be.
Here's the video:
I will work for the people of Lowndes County –Jody Hall 2012-08-04
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
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The Hahira Historical Society’s parking lot was full at 6:30, with people parking in front of the building to vote. I found some last-minute campaigners, as well.
The two sign wavers were the mother of Sandra K. Guest for State Court Judge and John Page, running for Lowndes County Commission District 5 (west). In the video you can hear Page say he hopes to be in a runoff. The election results so far look like it may indeed be Jody Hall and John Page in a runoff.
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 31 July 2012.
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