Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

“our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge” –Dr. Matthew Richard

Here is Dr. Richard speaking before the Valdosta City Council. He summarized in a comment on this blog:
as i endeavored to point out at the last city council meeting, our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge. my example: the brain has two types of cells: neurons and glial cells. there are NO white blood cells; thus, the brain has no immune system, relying on the the tiny diameter of the capillaries themselves to keep infectious agents out. this is called the blood-brain barrier. BUT, as dr. sammons pointed out, PARTICULATE MATTER is small enough to make it through the body and into the brain. as dr. bob gannon (dept. head of biology at VSU) told me again the other night, this constitutes a major threat to health in the form of brain cancer.

Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

-jsq

Content-neutral procedures good, economic obsolesence bad –Leigh Touchton

First citizen to speak after adoption of the new rules was Leigh Touchton, President of the local NAACP. She noted NAACP promotes equality for all and Dr. Noll is a member of NAACP (see Paulk interrogates Noll for context). She thanked the board for adopting content-neutral procedures, but said she has asked NAACP for legal review of them. Then she discussed economic obsolescence, as in when a nuisance moves into a community, property values go down.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

New Policies and Procedures: Citizens Wishing to be Heard

The Lowndes County Commission Tuesday voted in and Chairman Paulk announced new Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard


Videos by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Interestingly, since the Commission rushed through these new rules after the last meeting, there was no time to completely implement them, so the first thing the Chairman did was to set them aside for this meeting.

-jsq

“An error was made” –Luana Goodwin

This LTE appeared in the VTD 23 Jan 2011. -jsq
I wonder if there is any way for the Industrial Authority, County Commission and City Council to now do the right thing for Lowndes County. How can they save face?

Reading the scientific data makes it clear that an error was made, and clearly this data wasn’t made available to those who have been charged with finding appropriate industry for us, industry that will raise the quality of life for the citizens of Lowndes County by providing good jobs. They can be excused for an industry that provides only a few jobs. Jobs are jobs, after all. But how can we help them apologize to all of us and thank those citizens who have spent so many hours of their own time gathering information and providing a forum to educate us? I wish it were possible.

Luana Goodwin
Valdosta

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Act

The Act of the Georgia Legislature that created VLCIA in 1960.

Note III.4.F:

F. To encourage and promote the expansion of industry, agriculture, trade, commerce and recreation in the City of Valdosta, County of Lowndes, and to make long-range plans therefor.
Hm, so its board appears to have understated the range of VLCIA’s state-chartered scope when it stated:
“We’re industrial development.”
See also Section 9. – Liberal construction.

This Act was found via search.municode.com, which notes:

Editor’s note—Printed in this article is 1960 Ga. Laws, page 2786, as adopted by the Georgia General Assembly. Amendments to this act are indicated by parenthetical history notes following amended provisions. The absence of a history note indicates that the provision remains unchanged from the original act. An act (1960 Ga. Laws, page 1359), substantially identical to the act set forth in this article, was also passed as a constitutional amendment. Such constitutional amendment was continued in force and effect by 1985 Ga. Laws, page 3653, as a part of the state constitution.
The text of the Act is appended below.

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Biomass Rising echoes from Macon

Patrick Davis sums up the Valdosta biomass situation from Macon:
It appears to be the mainly conservative power structure of Lowndes trying to force this business venture into Valdosta’s community and not considering the environmental dangers.
He has some interesting points, such as who just got appointed to the EPD. I think he overestimates the power of the Valdosta mayor, however.

-jsq

Draft Resolution on Citizens Wishing to be Heard

Here’s the draft resolution on Citizens Wishing to be Heard. Previously we posted that on Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission agenda is an item about:
5. Resolution Establishing Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard and Consideration of Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
Today I went by the county palace (hey, they call it that, too!) and asked Paige Dukes, the County Clerk, what was in the old resolution and what’s in the new draft resolution. She said there was no old resolution, and a bit later she sent me the new draft resolution, which is in the PDF below.
From: “Paige Dukes” <paiged@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:32:35 -0500
To: “John S. Quarterman” <jsq@quarterman.org>
Subject: Resolution Draft 1.24.2011.pdf – Adobe Acrobat Professional

Resolution Draft 1.24.2011.pdf

It’s a PDF of a scan of a paper page, so I don’t have the plain text. If somebody wants to type it in and send it to me, have at it.

See you 5:30 PM tomorrow evening (Tuesday 25 Jan 2011) at 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. They start on the dot or slightly early, and it’s a light agenda, so be on time and don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

-jsq

No Work Session Today; County Commission still meets Tuesday

No work session today; regular session still on for 5:30 PM Tuesday 25 Jan 2011. The county website has under Special Events this notice:
Work Session Meeting Cancelled (1/24/2011)

PUBLIC NOTICE
COMMISSION MEETING
WORK SESSION CANCELLED

Due to the lack of agenda items requiring additional information or discussion, the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Work Session on Monday, January 24, 2011, has been cancelled.

The regular session meeting is still scheduled for
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street
Valdosta, GA

For questions please call Paige Dukes at 229-671-2400.
This has happened several times before. Paige Dukes is the County Clerk.

See the previous post for the one unusual item on the agenda, about policies and procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard.

-jsq

County Commission Meetings Monday and Tuesday


left to right: Ashley Paulk (Chairman),
Joyce E. Evans (District 1),
Crawford Powell (District 3),
Richard Raines (District 2).
The next scheduled meetings of the Lowndes County Commission are:
  • 8:30 AM Monday January 24, 2011: work session
  • 5:30 PM Tuesday January 25, 2011: regular session
The agenda is posted on the county website. This meeting will probably be very brief, since it has no rezoning cases; those come every other meeting. This one is mostly contracts for consideration. However, there is this interesting item:
5. Resolution Establishing Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard and Consideration of Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard

It also has the regular item:

7. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address
This item is for the regular session, not the work session, although in the work session the Chairman sometimes notes somebody is there wanting to talk and asks them to say what they want to say. Conversely, in the regular session we don’t usually hear much from this one:
8. Reports-County Manager
The county manager often gives a longer report in the work session.

By “very brief” I mean work sessions typically run about 15 minutes, with the record being something like 8 minutes. And they start on time, or a minute early. Be there or miss what you want to hear or say.

-jsq

“I don’t feel my interests were adequately represented” –Matt Flumerfelt

First-time speaker Matt Flumerfelt notes the Valdosta City Council and the Lowndes County Commission both disclaim responsibility for the Industrial Authority even though both appoint its members, and he thinks that may make VLCIA’s contract for the biomass plant challengeable on constitutional grounds. He also sent LAKE the appended article on 20 Jan 2011.

Video by John S. Quarterman of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011, for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Faith In Technology Is What Got Us Into This Mess

by Matt Flumerfelt

Many people in the Valdosta-Lowndes County community have faith that the proposed Biomass incinerator won’t harm anyone or anything, but faith in technology is what got us into our current environmental mess in the first place. Those old enough to remember the nuclear power debate will remember how many people gave assurances that nuclear power was safe, yet we see today how difficult nuclear waste is to dispose of and how much damage it has caused when things go wrong, which, human nature being what it is, they inevitably do. The recent gulf oil spill would not have happened if

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