Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Harrisburg prepares to file bankruptcy

After defaulting on its incinerator bonds
and

preparing to sell off pieces of itself,
Harrisburg, PA,
is preparing to file bankruptcy.

Laura Vecsey wrote in Pennlive 16 June 2011,

Harrisburg City Council looks to introduce resolution that would allow bankruptcy paperwork to be prepared:



Harrisburg City Council member Brad Koplinski is seeking to introduce a
resolution that will allow the council to prepare paper work that might
become necessary should a majority of the council decide to file for
Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Koplinski said the urgency of being prepared escalated Thursday when
state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola introduced legislation that called for a
state takeover of Harrisburg should the distressed city fail to adopt
the Act 47 plan it was presented Monday.

It seems Harrisburg applied for Act 47, which is apparently a state
bankruptcy protection plan last October, but now:

Continue reading →

$7.5 million T-SPLOST for a bus system

What costs less than

$10 million to widen New Bethel Road from 2 to five lanes
and less than

$8 million to widen Old US 41 North?
The answer is $7.5 million for a Valdosta Urbanized Area Transit System


…including the creation and maintainance of a Public Transit System in the City
of Valdosta and Greater Valdosta-Lowndes County.

What would be the benefits?

This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve
access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use
of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.

And that’s the entire description for this project.
Nothing about promoting sprawl.
Would actually promote dense close-in development.
Can’t be very important, then, right?

Not when the sprawl plans for

Val Del Road
and

Cat Creek Road
add up to $6 million, or almost enough for the entire bus system.



Last time the transit system was being considered by the county,
I was asked by a prominent local politican, “would you ride it?”
Not every day.
But more often than I would drive on the $10 million five lane New Bethel Road.

If you’re interested in a potential bus system, here is
a lot more information about it.

Here’s what Lowndes County submitted for
T-SPLOST funding, extracted from the
171 page PDF.

Project Sheet

Continue reading →

Incinerator forces Harrisburg to sell off parking lots

After defaulting on its incinerator bonds,
Harrisburg, PA, gets even more desperate and starts selling off pieces of itself.

William Alden wrote in huffpo 15 June 2011,

Harrisburg’s ‘Bad Deal’: City Forced To Pursue Parking System Lease Despite Fears:



The finances of Harrisburg, Pa., are so desperate that local officials are
considering a deal they fear will ultimately make the city more miserable.

A state-appointed panel, charged with crafting a financial recovery plan
for the city, announced this week that Harrisburg must pursue the sale of
public assets to help resolve its fiscal crisis. The nearly-bankrupt state
capital, weighed down by debt more than four times the size of its budget,
“is not in control of its own destiny,” the state team said in a report.

Three years ago, confronted with a similar budget shortfall, the city
considered leasing parking garages and meters in exchange for quick
infusion of cash, but that deal was never approved. Last month, the offer
resurfaced when New York-based developer LambdaStar expressed renewed
interest. Some city leaders harbor a growing fear that Harrisburg will
be forced into a deal that will bleed its coffers over the course of
decades, after it surrenders valuable assets to a profit-driven company
with the power to raise rates on a captive base of customers.

But those misgivings may not matter, as a budget crisis chokes Harrisburg
into submission.

“This is a situation where Wall Street will get paid, and the little
guys on Main Street, taxpayers, are going to get stuck holding the bag,”
Harrisburg City Council Member Brad Koplinski said.

Couldn’t happen here, right?
Our local governments would never

hastily approve bonds that could force raising taxes or default,
would they?
Oh, right: they already did.

-jsq

$3 million T-SPLOST for sprawl on Cat Creek Road

Three million dollars buried on page 90 of the

171 page T-SPLOST Unconstrained Investment List
for the Southern Georgia Region
to funnel traffic along Cat Creek Road to Moody Air Force Base, promoting sprawl in far north Lowndes County,
in an area the Comprehensive Plan says should be for agriculture
and forestry.

In amongst the boilerplate and the red herrings (“potentially reducing
the incidence of crashes”, “mitigating congestion”) is the real purpose
of this project:



Also as a part of the project, protected left turn lanes will be added at
various intersections along Cat Creek Road. The proposed intersections
include Pine Grove Road, Radar Site Road, New Bethel Road, and Hambrick
Road.

There’s a more long-term reason, too, which is hinted at with this
further unnecessary work:

Continue reading →

Harrisburg defaulted on incinerator bonds

Last year Harrisburg, PA defaulted on bonds it issued to build an incinerator,
according to Aaron Smith in CNNMoney,

Harrisburg, Pa., defaulting on its bonds:



The capital city Pennsylvania is broke and will be skipping this month’s
multi-million dollar bond payment.

On Sept. 15, Harrisburg, Pa., was scheduled to make a $3.29 million
payment on the bonds it issued to build a trash plant. But, the
cash-strapped city doesn’t have the dough.

“The city’s budget is in deficit,” said Chuck Ardo, spokesman for
Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson. “We’re looking for ways to trim the
budget just to keep services going.”

“Now the chickens have come home to roost,” the mayor said in a statement
released Wednesday.

You remember,

“Officials here decided seven years ago to borrow $125 million to rebuild and expand the city’s enormous trash incinerator….”



Well, that could never happen here,
could it?

-jsq

This is what a mayor with vision sounds like

Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio

speaks at 44:25
about



…the nexus between sustainability and job creation.
Every now and then, perhaps once in a generation,
there presents itself a moment, an opportunity,
for those cities that are willing to seize it,
to truly benefit the region for generations to come.

Here’s
the video:

Continue reading →

$3 million T-SPLOST to widen Val Del Road

In the Lowndes County T-SPLOST boondoggle of the day,
the county wants $3 million to widen Val Del Road:
all of it that’s in the county, plus adding paved shoulders,
and at some intersections turn lanes, plus fiddling with drainage.
Nothing in the writeup about promoting new development,
although we saw in

the proposal for Old US 41 N
that that’s exactly what road widening projects are for.

Here’s what Lowndes County submitted for
T-SPLOST funding, extracted from the
171 page PDF.

Project Sheet

Continue reading →

Widening Old US 41 North: It’s Back, for $8 million T-SPLOST!

Lowndes County wants $8 million T-SPLOST to widen Old US 41 North from
North Valdosta Road to Union Road, and the map shows the entire road
to the center of Hahira as part of the plan.



Back in 2009, a local citizens group called
car41no managed to fight off widening Old US 41 North all the way
into Hahira, at least temporarily.
Well, it’s back!
This time, instead of asking for general GDOT money,
Lowndes County is asking for funds from the proposed T-SPLOST one cent sales tax.

What is in the plan for old US 41 North between Union Road and Hahira?

It is proposed to construct bike lanes and possibly sidewalks throughout
the project for the residents of this area to use.

I suspect “construct bike lanes” means paint lines on the pavement,
and note that sidewalks are just “possibly”.

So what is this plan really for?

Continue reading →

$10 million T-SPLOST to widen New Bethel Road for Lanier County sprawl?



Lowndes County wants

$10 million dollars in T-SPLOST funds to widen New Bethel Road from 2 to 5 lanes,
even though Bemiss Road (GA-125) is right next to it and also connects to GA 122.

That $10 million might save Lanier County residents about one minute
getting to Lowndes County to spend their money,
while promoting
more sprawl of developments into Lanier County.



It would cost a lot less to put a four-way stop or a light
at Walker’s Crossing where GA-122 and GA-125 meet.

The details of this $10 million boondoggle are appended below,
extracted from this 171 page PDF.

-jsq

Project Sheet

Continue reading →

Animal cruelty does not require malicious intent to be illegal

A blog called Rattlin’ Georgia’s Cages

wrote at some unspecified date recently:



I beg to differ with Mr. Pritchard’s opinion regarding “malicious
intent”.

Lowndes County Manager Joe Pritchard says, “I don’t believe through
our investigation, nor through any info we received from the Department
of Ag, are able to indicate any malicious intent.”



Mr. Pritchard should understand that it matters not if this was done
with “malicious intent” or not. “Malicous intent” should be
determined by the investigating criminal agency, not a county manager.
“Malicious Intent” is only important in determining whether the
crime should be filed as a felony, or a misdemeanor.

The law is crystal clear regarding the denial of necessary medical care,
and/or humane euthanasia, for any animal deemed to be in need of such. Any
time a shelter impounds/houses a live animal, the shelter is required,
by law, to afford that animal with humane care – to include necessary
medical care or treatment.

The blogger then goes on to quote Georgia Code, which only brings
in the word “maliciously” for higher fines or imprisonment
for aggravated cruelty to animals.

The blogger summarizes:

Continue reading →