Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Videos: KLVB, DFCS, SGCSB, LCLB appointments, prisoners, mosquitos, grants, contracts, and a sidewalk bid @ LCC 2016-06-13

Sandra Tooley, Valdosta City Council District 2, was among the very few people present who did not have business on the agenda of the Lowndes County County Commission Work Session this Monday morning. They vote 5:30 PM Tuesday evening.

Below are LAKE videos of Monday morning’s Work Session, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

KLVB, DFCS, SGCSB, LCLB appointments, prisoners, mosquitos, grants, contracts, and a sidewalk bid @ LCC 2016-06-13

Here’s the agenda for this morning’s 8:30 AM Work Session and tomorrow evening’s voting Regular Session: will the Lowndes County Commission spend more on mosquito testing than on renting prisoners from Valdosta State Prison? (Answer: no, $45,790 on mosquitos and $118,500 on three prisoner work details at $39,500 each: “The details are utilized in the maintenance of over 5,000 easements that require manual hand cutting.” Hm, if the county didn’t insist on 80-foot easements….

They’re also appointing people to four different boards. If you wanted to apply, how would you know to do so?

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

Videos: Abandoned Voting @ LCC 2016-05-24

Record low attendance, not record but very short session time, even with a full agenda; at least you can see last month’s last Lowndes County Commission Regular Session in these LAKE videos. They meet again 8:30 AM this morning.

See also the LAKE videos of the May 23rd Work Session. In the May 24th Regular Session, there were still no questions yesterday from Commissioners about that $55,979.00 in two no-bid items.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall did ask Continue reading

Budget Meetings with less than 24 hours notice @ LCC Budget 2016-06-01

Does 9:28 AM to 8:30 AM the next day sound like 24 hours notice to you? And as usual there’s no draft budget posted. Also no agenda.

From: listserv@civicplus.com
Date: 31 May 2016 09:28:22 -0500
Subject: New Event Budget Meetings For cp-stcity2.civicplus.com

A new Event now appears on our site. Please click on the link below to go directly to the new posting.
http://www.lowndescounty.com/Calendar.aspx?EID=160

The actual event posting says “There will be no votes taken at these meetings.” Which probably gets them off the hook for the Georgia Open Meetings Law, but still doesn’t indicate they want the taxpayers to see what they’re doing.

Budget Meetings Continue reading

Videos: Abandon Beaver Lane, Aging Development Appointments, Kinderlou Lift Station Pump @ LCC 2016-05-23

Will they take longer to vote this evening at 5:30 PM than the 8 1/2 minutes for yesterday morning’s Work Session with a full agenda?

No questions yesterday from Commissioners about that $55,979.00 in two no-bid items, although the County Manager did say “quotes” about the . lift station pump. The County Manager’s Report did say he’d received an annexation request from Hahira for the W. Main St. property and he indicated no grounds for the county to protest.

The only question from a Commissioner was about which one of them might be picked to serve with “Ms. Andrea Schuijer” on the South Regional Joint Development Authority. Answer: maybe Clay Griner. Nobody asked why the county’s web page on that Joint Authority says Andrea Schruijer is already on it. Is this a reappointment? And which slots are vacant? Also, what does this Joint Authority do?

For the Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging, yes it’s Commissioner Joyce Evans for reappointment.

County Engineer Mike Fletcher said the Beaver Lane closing previously came up in 2002 and was denied, but now some of the opponents from then are for it. Tonight is not the public hearing: merely a determination on scheduling a public hearing. Continue reading

No agenda for Planning Commission Work Session @ GLPC 2016-05-23

On Lowndes County’s website there’s no agenda for tonight’s Planning Commission Work Session, Notice of Public Hearing Sign, thanks to Barbara Stratton even though the City of Valdosta’s calendar lists that Work Session for 5:30 PM Monday May 23rd 2016 at South Health District Administrative Office (former Lowndes County Administration Building), 325 W Savannah Ave, Valdosta, GA 31601. Presumably the Hahira rezonings and annexation will be discussed. And will County Manager Joe Pritchard say this morning at 8:30 AM at the Lowndes County Work Session that he has received an annexation letter from Hahira?

Neither of these Monday meetings are public hearings: the public can attend, but can not speak. See previous post for when the public hearings are.

-jsq

Abandon Beaver Lane, Aging Development Appointments, Kinderlou Lift Station Pump @ LCC 2016-05-23

This morning’s 8:30 AM $45,600.00 for new grounds for four radio towers: was it in the budget, or is this another emergency no-bid item? Ditto the $10,379.00 for the Kinderlou Lift Station Pump? Each item names only one company quoting.

After abandoning Beaver Lane, will the county vote to fix it as a private road, 4689 Mt. Zion Road, parcel 0061 01 like they did with Carter Way? And from whom did the county receive the abandonment request? Will the County Manager’s Report include the Hahira W. Main St. annexation?

Also on the Lowndes County Commission agenda for discussion Monday morning and vote Tuesday evening, appointing “Ms. Andrea Schuijer and a Commissioner” to the Continue reading

Hahira rezoning and annexation, W. Park St @ GLPC 2016-05-31

Update 2016-04-23: Fixed date of Hahira City Council Work Session to May 31st per comment from Barbara Stratton.

Josh Thomason wants to combine three parcels and annex one of them into Hahira. Parcels 0026 026, 027 & part of 029 Some people are rightly concerned about whether Hahira’s sewer system can handle it. Apparently Hahira Mayor and Council have already discussed these three related cases, and they come up for two Planning Commission meetings and a Hahira vote in the next few weeks, plus the annexation goes past the Lowndes County Commission. Oh, and Valdosta is indirectly involved.

Barbara Stratton, facebook, 17 May 2016: Continue reading

Videos: Attorneys v Carter Way tar baby, Appointment, big subdivision, Hwy 84 lift station @ LCC 2016-05-10

Multiple attorneys (ka-ching!) were needed to negotiate access for the county to fix private Carter Way, which the Lowndes County Commission approved unanimously at its 10 May 2016 Regular Session. This is the same Commission that signed an easement with Sabal Trail because they didn’t want to spend attorney fees to defend a lawsuit. The same Sabal Trail that wants to put its three-foot pipe only three feet deep just downhill from where Carter Way washed out.

County Planner Jason Davenport showed an updated site plan for 6.a. REZ-2016-10 Freedom Heights, 4301 Bemiss Rd, C-H to P-D, but as usual it’s not posted on the county’s website, and you had no way of seeing it before the meeting unless you filed an open records request three days before.

Commissioner Clay Griner remembered flooding, fence, and forgot the third thing a constituent asked him for about 6.b. REZ-2016-11 Creekside West Subdivision, 7551 GA Hwy 122 W. Developer Young Tillman said the changes were because Continue reading

Videos: Carter Way tar baby, Appointment, big subdivision, Hwy 84 lift station @ LCC 2016-05-09

The County Manager asked for Carter Way to be on the agenda for tonight’s 5:30 PM Regular Session. At yesterday morning’s Work Session the County Attorney reminded us that in a previous episode (March 25th Work Session) we learned that the Loretta B. Moore irrevocable living trust owns half of the access to the damaged part of the road. Since then he’s learned that the trustee is the Loretta Anne Ruth, who lives in Panama City, Florida. He has contacted her, and has a copy of the trust formation document. He says Ms. Ruth has signed an agreement with the county, and he expected Charles Cowart of Cowart and Sons to sign an agreement that same morning.

Below are LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session, followed by a video playlist. See also the agenda and the LAKE videos of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting at which the two rezoning cases were discussed. The County Commission votes tonight at 5:30PM. Continue reading