Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

DFSCS Board appts, Old Hwy 41 N rezoning, paving, and alcohol @ LCC 2019-04-08

On

the agenda for this morning is

reappointing Mrs. Elsie Napier
to the
Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board.
I don’t know if she will speak, but here’s video of her previously speaking at the Valdosta City Council
about community grants.


Photo: Gretchen Quarterman, still of LAKE video of Elsie Napier at Valdosta City Council, 2016-10-05

Photo: Gretchen Quarterman, still of

LAKE video of Elsie Napier at Valdosta City Council, 2016-10-05.

There’s also a
rezoning for offices on Old US 41 North,
two
alcohol licenses,
a
Bid for Purchase of Structural Fire Fighting Gear,
and two road paving items, for
Boring Pond Lane
and
2019 Resurfacing of Five County Roads,
plus
2019 Re-striping of Four County Toads.

They expect this Work Session to take less than 15 minutes,
since they have

a Special Called Meeting at 8:45 AM:
“There could be a slight delay if the work session runs longer than expecte.”
Why they couldn’t wait one day to vote on that also in tomorrow’s
Regular Session is mysterious.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2019, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Cancelled: Deep South Solid Waste Authority special called meeting today, 2019-03-27

According to DSSWA Chair Kevin Beals,
today’s

special called meeting
is cancelled.
Instead, they will handle business at their regular April meeting.
There is no agenda for that meeting yet, but he will ask for one to be
sent when it is ready.

The topics of the special called meeting were the
July 1, 2019 increase in local government surcharges per ton,
from $1.00 to $2.50, as passed last year in

HB 792
and

SB 385.
Also ADS wants to increase its rates, due to that and apparently some federal rule changes.


Julia Shewchuk, Plaque

In other news, Julia Shewchuk is no longer with SGRC, since about a year now.
According to the
February 2018 SGRC newsletter, In the Region,

…Julia Shewchuk received Continue reading →

Videos: six minutes on Lighting, Paving, and Trash @ LCC 2019-03-26

Subtract out the invocation, pledge, and approval of minutes (which you couldn’t hear anyway because
the county’s sound system wasn’t working) and the
Chairman’s ending comments on Youth Leadership,
and your elected Commissioners spent about six minutes on the business of the county,
including spending some unknown amount of money on road services.


Below are Continue reading →

Videos: Lighting, Paving, Trash, retirement, and death @ LCC 2019-03-25

Chairman Bill Slaughter mentioned the recent death of his predecessor
Fred DeLoach.
County Manager Joe Pritchard said he tried to talk

Carmella Braswell out of retiring,
but she has done so.


County Engineer Mike Fletcher clarified that more than one engineering firm was working on
professional surveying and engineering for road projects.

Kevin Beals

presented the solid waste franchises for annual renewal,
and we were reminded he is also Chairman of the Deep South Solid Waste Authority
that dispenses funds from their tipping fees,
and which the next day announced
a special called meeting for Wednesday.

Chad McLeod said

the county has successfully cleaned up from a nearby closed gasoline station.

Below are Continue reading →

Deep South Solid Waste Authority special called meeting today, 6PM 2019-03-27

Update 2019-03-27: Cancelled.

Not in the public notices, rather as an article,
Valdosta Daily Times, 26 March 2019,

Deep South holds called meeting,

VALDOSTA — The Deep South Solid Waste Authority will hold a
special called meeting, 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, at the Southern
Georgia Regional Commission office, 327 W. Savannah Ave.


Photo: John S. Quarterman, DSSWA meeting 2019-02-07

Photo: John S. Quarterman, DSSWA meeting 2019-02-07

I have asked for a copy of the agenda.
Until it arrives, I can only guess Continue reading →

Lighting, Paving, and Trash @ LCC 2019-03-25

Update 2019-03-27: LAKE videos of Monday morning Work Session and
Tuesday evening Regular Session.

A single-source no-bid contract with Lovell Engineering is on

the agenda
for
Professional Surveying and Engineering Services for Improvements to Lester Road.
The dollar amount is not given in the agenda sheet.

The
Basic Decorative Street Lighting District
is not the one defered last time (Walker’s Run).

They want to charge $61.50 per lot per year.

No special trash collection tax district for Lowndes County, though,
although
state law explicitly authorizes that.
Instead, once again they are renewing curbside trash pickup licenses for

ADS
and
DSS;
the latter of course only after the county sued all the way to the state Supreme Court to try to stop it.

Here is the bid sheet from 2012. You may want to compare Veolia’s bid
to what its new owner ADS is charging now.


LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2019, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Taxes, water, sewer, LAS, paving, road abandonment @ LCC 2019-03-12

Five minutes and 46 seconds Sixteen minutes to vote on the people’s business in the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Where do they actually discuss things?


By far the longest item at three minutes and fourteen seconds was

5a. REZ-2019-04 Southeastern Freight 2120 West Hill Ave., C-H/R-1 To M-2,,
and that only because somebody spoke in favor of the request in the Public Hearing.

Second longest at one minute and 46 seconds was the controversial

7 a. North Lowndes Spring Creek Utility Inter-connection Project Phase II,
for which they made a decision about the yellow paper.
They still never said who the rest of the bidders were, nor how much they bid,
on this $3,889,825.23 project.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with Continue reading →

Videos: Taxes, water, sewer, LAS, paving, road abandonment @ LCC 2019-03-11

They don’t have any wheelchair seating areas, so Jody Hall planted his wheels
in front of the front row, to see the county not tell the public
who bid what on an almost $4 million item.


By far the longest item at almost seven minutes was

North Lowndes Spring Creek Utility Inter-connection Project Phase II,
because one bidder objected that the others did not use the correct color paper.
They never said who any of the bidders were, nor how much they bid,
on this $3,889,825.23 project.

The third longest was

6.f. Water and Sewer Service Areas – Lake Park Area,
as the county continues its plan to encircle Valdosta.
Yet the county has no plan for additional sewage treatment beyond the Land Application Site (LAS),
where Lowndes County sprays sewage onto land near Grassy Pond, close to the state line,
and where they’re reducing the

Row Crop Lease Agreement
by 71 acres for unexplained reasons.

Second longest was Continue reading →

Taxes, water, sewer, LAS, paving, road abandonment @ LCC 2019-03-11

How much will they drive development into places it does not belong this time?
GMASS Rural Land Maintenance Contract:

The Lowndes County Board of Assessors has approved a contract between the Board of Assessors and GMASS to perform maintenance updates to the Rural Land schedules for the 2019 Digest.


Rural land re-evaluation, 15 July 2015

They continue encircling Valdosta with county water and sewer, with the
North Lowndes Spring Creek Utility Inter-connection Project Phase II.
And on the south side of Valdosta,
Water and Sewer Service Areas within and in the Vicinity of Lake Park,
with “maps… attached” that as usual they did not show we the taxpaying public.
Is the one rezoning,
REZ-2019-04 Southeastern Freight Lines, 2120 West Hill Ave., C-H/R-1 To M-2, County Water/Sewer, ~18.96 Acre ,
related to the recent expansion of water and sewer across that same US 84?
Apparently not: “existing water and sewer customer.”
They’re

removing 71 acres from the 219 acres they

rent at the Land Application Site (LAS), where Lowndes County sprays sewage onto land near Grassy Pond, close to the state line.

They’re

buying the former office of Coleman-Talley law firm at 910 N. Patterson Street
for use

by the Public Defender.

And no agenda is complete without a
road abandonment.

Here is
the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2019, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2019, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Service Delivery Strategy (SDS) Meeting: Lowndes County and cities @ SDS 2019-02-04

The longest topic was

water and wastewater, when
elected officials from Lowndes County and its cities, Valdosta,
Lake Park, Dasher, and Hahira (but apparently not Remerton),
gathered on neutral ground to discuss tax revenue allocation,
in a public meeting.
Curiously, the Chairman and the Mayors were not invited.
It’s not clear whether omitting them helped or not.
There was actually mention that

growth close to existing services is better than sprawl.

Below are links to each WWALS video Gretchen took,
with a few notes,
followed by a WWALS video playlist.
See also

the meeting announcement.