Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Photographers stay to the back

After the County Commission meeting today, Chairman Ashley Paulk and I were chatting and he mentioned that starting at the next meeting everyone with a camera would be moved to the back of the room.

As I went out of the commission chambers, Continue reading →

Snake Nation Decision, Lowndes County Commission, Tonight 5:30PM

Here are videos of yesterday’s Lowndes County Commission work session. Tonight, come see the local government decide about a change order for routing around the sinkhole at Snake Nation Road. Agenda after the videos.

Here’s a playlist:


Snake Nation Decision, Lowndes County Commission, Tonight 5:30PM
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — August 8, 2011
    2. Regular Session — August 9, 2011
  5. For Consideration
    1. Change Order to Snake Nation Road Contract
    2. Assistance to Firefighters Grant
    3. James Road Water Main Repair
    4. Capacity Fee Waiver for Country View Mobile Home Park
    5. SCADA Upgrade
    6. USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge
    7. Declaration of Merchandise as Surplus — Fire Department and Public Works
    8. Approval of TAN and Resolution
  6. Bids
    1. Training Tower for the Fire Department
    2. Asphalt Surfacing at Naylor and Clyattville Parks
    3. Striping and Signage on 29.34 Miles of Roadway
  7. Reports-County Manager
  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

-jsq

Snake Nation Road at Lowndes County Commission Monday 8:30AM, Tuesday 5:30PM

No rezonings this time, but plenty of money to be spent on this and that. The one I wonder about is
5.a. Change Order to Snake Nation Road Contract
We heard last time from Joe Pritchard that the county had received some estimates for resurfacing on Snake Nation Road, but he needed some time to organize funding before presenting details. OK, fair enough, but why is it a Change Order? Didn’t they just vote on realignment of Snake Nation Road in June? Why two months later a Change Order, which usually means have to do it right now with no competitive bids?

Here’s a backgrounder from the VDT about a sinkhole being discovered on Snake Nation Road last December. And here’s the VDT in May on costs for fixing it:

“We are purchasing the property to the north, 5.22 acres, for $40,000 to reroute the road,” said County Manager Joe Pritchard.

Rerouting the road will cost approximately $300,000 versus at least twice that amount to reinforce the hole, put in concrete supports, and fill it to prevent the road from collapsing again.

Here’s the agenda for this morning and tomorrow evening.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

T-SPLOST projects as of 15 August 2011

Here’s what’s still on the agenda for T-SPLOST funding for our T-SPLOST region: Constrained Draft Project Listing, Southern Georgia Most of Lowndes County’s boondoggle road widening projects seem to have been bounced off the list. This one is still on there: $8 million to widen old US 41 North.

Some of the other projects may also be boondoggles for all I know, but at least all the ones to widen roads right to the north edge of the county and thus drive development all the way into agricultural and forest areas are gone. Here’s the list: Continue reading →

Animal issues on facebook

For those who miss their regular daily diet of animal shelter issues, Susan Leavens has started a facebook group called Georgia’s Regulatory Animal Protection Division the truth behind them.

And who knows? Maybe soon we’ll hear results of that investigation down at the sheriff’s office. Or maybe Gary Black will live up to his campaign promises. Or maybe Lowndes County will let the Humane Society train animal control officers. The more people ask for these things to happen, the more likely they will happen.

-jsq

Retrofitting suburbia —Ellen Dunham-Jones

There are many jobs in this. The Five Points redevelopment is an example of what she’s talking about. It’s a lot better than building more sprawl: safer, less expensive, more jobs, less energy cost, more energy independence, better health, and more community.

Georgia Tech Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones spole January 2010 at TEDxAtlanta, Retrofitting suburbia

In the last 50 years, we’ve been building the suburbs with a lot of unintended consequences. And I’m going to talk about some of those consequences and just present a whole bunch of really interesting projects that I think give us tremendous reasons to be really optimistic that the big design and development project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia. So whether it’s redeveloping dying malls or re-inhabiting dead big-box stores or reconstructing wetlands out of parking lots, I think the fact is, the growing number of empty and under-performing, especially, retail sites throughout suburbia gives us actually a tremendous opportunity to take our least-sustainable landscapes right now and convert them into more sustainable places. And in the process, what that allows us to do is to redirect a lot more of our growth back into existing communities that could use a boost, and have the infrastructure in place, instead of continuing to tear down trees and to tear up the green space out at the edges.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Comprehensive Plan Update Due

Hm, does Lowndes County also have to provide an update for the Comprehensive Plan? If so, where is it? And how are we to find out about it?

Found in the August Valdosta Planners Post:

STWP Update Due Fall 2011

The five‐year Short Term Work Plan (STWP) for the 2030 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan is due for an update later this year. The STWP is a key implementation tool that reflects the activities and strategies to support the Comprehensive Plan goals, which the City of Valdosta has undertaken for the past five years (2007‐2011). It also sets future activities and strategies for the next five years (2012‐2017). A ‘report of accomplishments’ that identifies the current status of each activity in the current STWP must be submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. A local public hearing must be held and a local resolution passed in order to adopt a the STWP update. Please check our website at www.valdostacity.com/planning for news and meeting schedules related to the STWP update.
According to the FAQ for the 2030 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan: Continue reading →

Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

Many T-SPLOST projects submitted by Lowndes County would make traffic safety worse.

More from Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones of Georgia Tech:

Even Buford Highway, she says, could be transformed with medians, trees and buildings set closer to the road. Changes that are known to slow traffic. But outside of the ivory tower, change does not come easily. Or quickly.

Last year Georgia spent more than two billion dollars on transportation, but only a tiny fraction, less than 1 percent, went specifically to pedestrian safety.

And what Lowndes County has sent in for T-SPLOST funding includes: Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

-jsq