Gretchen's summary:
Thank you to everyone who voted for me, to everyone who helped me in so very many ways. I was not successful in winning my campaign, but I was successful in raising issues and have a lot of fun.
Final Score: GQ:16,752 BS:19,531
When the VDT called, she added:
If the chairman-elect is for good communications, I challenge him to be transparent.
-jsq
There’s an election going on!
Here are some pictures of precincts around Lowndes County today.
I’ve seen no lines, and everything seems to be flowing smoothly.
Except there are multiple reports that when people call the Board of Elections
to ask where they vote they’re getting a “this number disconnected” message.
Apparently there are ten phone lines down there but only three people
answering them, and the phone is not rolling over properly.
Given all the recent changes in precincts, this is a problem.
Around 1PM Sara Crow said she heard at Pine Grove that about 900 people had
already voted there today.
I’m not blogging much today because I’m out helping
Gretchen for Lowndes County Commission Chair.
If you’ve got something interesting,
send it in;
I’m checking in frequently.
Here’s a slideshow:
Everyone Matters, so go vote!
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 November 2012.
Everyone matters, so go vote!
-jsq
Here are the submissions from the final four architects
that were considered for the new Five Points Lowndes County Library.
This continues the series with
Library Architect Selection Documents (part 1)
and
Library Architect RFP and “Bible” (part 2)
which presents documents received by LAKE from SGRL in response to
an open records request.
The four architect submissions are linked on this LAKE web page. Here they are separately:
BDS: Barganier Davis Sims Architects
CRA: Clemons, Rutherford & Associates, Inc.
ERA: Ellis, Ricket and Associates Architects
McCall: McCall & Associates, Inc.
If we missed anything please let us know.
Architects: feel free to put your submissions on your own web pages and send us a link.
-jsq
More people have voted early in Lowndes County than ever before,
with cars often backed up onto the street waiting to get into
the Board of Elections.
Eames Yates wrote for WCTV Friday, Record Breaking Number of Early Voters in Lowndes County,
Continue readingMore people have now voted early in Lowndes County than any time in history. Sherrie Luther was voter 22,00[0]…
making her ballot the one that broke the previous record set four years ago.
In the 2008 presidential election, there were 45 days of early voting in Lowndes County. In this year’s election there were just 16 days. Nevertheless the record was broken.
Sherrie was rewarded
Received today on County trash plan already failing. -jsq
Yet another example of government contracting not following the fair bidding practices or allowing community public input. Even if you attend government meetings no bid information is made public & even if bids are referred to the amounts are always in those elusive "packets before you" that only the members have access to.
In a recent Hahira City Council meeting the city attorney ruled that the city council did not have to put out the garbage service for bids & that it did not even have to have a contract. As of December 31, 2012 the city collection services will not be under contract at all so who knows what the rates may be or if a lower bid would have saved citizens money?
I've been involved in government contracting for years & I can tell you that the recent path government bodies have endorsed is leading further & further away from the bidding procedures that were enacted to prevent good old boy politics & kick backs & is opening the door wide for public/private partnerships that never answer to the citizens.
The state attorney general's office which should regulate bidding practices will not interfere with county or municipal issues unless a citizen is willing to pay $500 to a lawyer to present the case to them. They justify this as catering to "home rule" but in actuality they are turning a blind eye because it is within their jurisdiction to rule on non-adherence to proper bidding practices.
If the state believes in "home rule" why is Governor Deal pushing a state charter school board amendment that will take away local rule? The state seems to pick & choose its standards.
-Barbara Stratton
-jsq
The recently adopted-by-stealth Lowndes County waste disposal plan is already failing.
Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT yesterday, Garbage carts vanish,
Some residents in unincorporated Lowndes County have complained that their garbage cans have been taken up, leaving them without a way to dispose of their trash until Jan. 1.
Allgreen Services, one of the waste management companies ousted out of unincorporated Lowndes County with the Oct. 9 Commissioners decision to award a waste contract bid to Veolia Environmental Service, has begun picking up the waste carts in anticipation of the holiday season.
“We hate to have to remove them, but we have to,” Allgreen General Manager Sam Sullivan said. “We thought about waiting a month, but the problem is if we wait until the end of the year, we would be removing the carts around Christmastime. We didn’t want to be out there then.”
Funny how there was no mention of this possibility in
the County Commission meeting that adopted this new solid waste plan.
“I don’t think it could get any easier,” said Commissioner Richard Raines.
It looks like it’s not getting easier for county residents who want
to dispose of their trash.
This is currently on the county’s own front page:
Continue reading2,151 Friday and 23,324 Total voted early in Lowndes County Georgia thru 2 November 2012. I hear (unconfirmed) that those are both records, and you can see for yourself in the table below that Friday’s count was the highest for any early voting day this election. About half of active voters in the county voted early. That leaves another half to vote Tuesday. And there are more registered voters than typically active voters, so we could break a record for active voters Tuesday!
| Date | Daily | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Monday October 15 | 1,636 | 1,636 |
| Tuesday October 16 | 1,225 | 2,861 |
| Wednesday October 17 | 956 | 3,817 |
| Thursday October 18 | 643 | 4,460 |
| Friday October 19 | 1,433 | 5,893 |
| Monday October 22 | 1,289 | 7,724 |
| Tuesday October 23 | 1,449 | 9,173 |
| Wednesday October 24 | 1,363 | 10,536 |
| Thursday October 25 | 1,408 | 11,944 |
| Friday October 26 | 1,783 | 13,727 |
| Saturday October 27 | 1,279 | 15,003 |
| Monday October 29 | 1,707 | 16,713 |
| Tuesday October 30 | 1,533 | 18,246 |
| Wednesday October 31 | 1,386 | 19,632 |
| Thursday November 1 | 1,541 | 21,173 |
| Friday November 2 | 2,151 | 23,324 |
| Data courtesy of Lowndes County Board of Elections. | ||
You can still vote
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
on that great election day, November 6th,
at
your precinct.
To find out which is your precinct, plus a sample ballot,
go to
My Voter Page by the Georgia Secretary of State.
Several recent elections here have been decided by less than 100 votes.
Your vote counts!
-jsq
1,541 people voted Thursday, for a total of 21,173 voting in Lowndes County Georgia thru 1 November 2012:
| Date | Daily | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Monday October 15 | 1,636 | 1,636 |
| Tuesday October 16 | 1,225 | 2,861 |
| Wednesday October 17 | 956 | 3,817 |
| Thursday October 18 | 643 | 4,460 |
| Friday October 19 | 1,433 | 5,893 |
| Monday October 22 | 1,289 | 7,724 |
| Tuesday October 23 | 1,449 | 9,173 |
| Wednesday October 24 | 1,363 | 10,536 |
| Thursday October 25 | 1,408 | 11,944 |
| Friday October 26 | 1,783 | 13,727 |
| Saturday October 27 | 1,279 | 15,003 |
| Monday October 29 | 1,707 | 16,713 |
| Tuesday October 30 | 1,533 | 18,246 |
| Wednesday October 31 | 1,386 | 19,632 |
| Thursday November 1 | 1,541 | 21,173 |
| Data courtesy of Lowndes County Board of Elections. | ||
You can still vote
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday at the Board of Elections,
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta,
or on that great election day, November 6th,
at your precinct.
Several recent elections here have been decided by less than 100 votes.
Your vote counts!
-jsq
Here is the Request for Proposals and the
“Bible” of related documents
that served as background for the architect selection process
for the new library at Five Points.
These were received on a CD as part of
the library architect selection documents in
the very organized open records response from the South Georgia Regional Library;
see
the previous post
for related agendas and minutes.
Included in
the RFP
(which was issued by the County, not by the Library Board),
is a list of fourteen numbered submittal instructions
that looks like it might have been the basis for the list of
90 items on the
Library Scoring Worksheet.
The RFP also includes this interesting section:
RESERVATIONS
Lowndes County Board of Commissioners reserves the following rights:
Rejection of any and all submittals
Negotiate changes in the Scope of Work
Negotiate services to be provided
Negotiate fee proposal
Waive any and all technicalities
That last line basically seems like it could be interpreted to mean they could select whatever appealed to them no matter what the fit (or not) with what was asked for in the RFP.
The “Bible” includes a cover sheet that says:
Continue reading19,632 voted in Lowndes County Georgia thru 31 October 2012, including 1,386 Wednesday.
| Date | Daily | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Monday October 15 | 1,636 | 1,636 |
| Tuesday October 16 | 1,225 | 2,861 |
| Wednesday October 17 | 956 | 3,817 |
| Thursday October 18 | 643 | 4,460 |
| Friday October 19 | 1,433 | 5,893 |
| Monday October 22 | 1,289 | 7,724 |
| Tuesday October 23 | 1,449 | 9,173 |
| Wednesday October 24 | 1,363 | 10,536 |
| Thursday October 25 | 1,408 | 11,944 |
| Friday October 26 | 1,783 | 13,727 |
| Saturday October 27 | 1,279 | 15,003 |
| Monday October 29 | 1,707 | 16,713 |
| Tuesday October 30 | 1,533 | 18,246 |
| Tuesday October 31 | 1,386 | 19,632 |
| Data courtesy of Lowndes County Board of Elections. | ||
You can still vote
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
today and Friday at the Board of Elections,
2808 N Oak St., Valdosta,
or on that great election day, November 6th,
at your precinct.
Several recent elections here have been decided by less than 100 votes.
Your vote counts!
-jsq