Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Videos: Trash disposal renewals, regional T-SPLOST, another lift station pump, Dasher Streets @ LCC 2017-03-27



More than four minutes yesterday morning on

Residential Solid Waste Franchise Renewal: maybe it’s still contentious
because they still don’t have a good model.
Maybe not everybody wants to have their trash picked up at the end of their
driveway like they lived in town.
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM, and they agreed
add an agenda item amending the ordinance to change insurance requirement from $5 million to $1 million.
As of this writing at 8AM, they have not yet changed their online agenda.
We’ll see how it eventually changes from

the agenda already blogged.

They spent more than three minutes on

Regional T-SPLOST; follow the link for details.
Another
Lift Station Pump

lift station pump
needs replacing
And

Dasher wants the county to maintain a couple of dirt streets.

Below are links to each LAKE video, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also the agenda. Continue reading →

First of three budget meetings @ LCC 2017-03-27

In the third public meeting this morning,
after the Work Session and the

Goals meeting,
the Lowndes County Commission is holding the first
of three daily budget meetings.
This one is 10:30 AM to 4:50 PM, Monday, March 27, 2017.
There’s no agenda, just this calendar notice.

We can guess this is a followup to the

audit report
and
finance
discussions from their February planning session.

Why they didn’t post an agenda is mysterious.
They didn’t post one for the

Goals meeting, either.

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

-jsq

Lowndes County Commission Goals @ LCC 2017-03-27

No agenda, but on their
calendar for this morning 9:30-10:30 AM Monday March 27, 2017:


“Lowndes County Commission Goals”.

We can guess this is a continuation of the rather testy
goals discussion at their February planning session,
in which they disagreed on things such as whether to hold Work Sessions
at times when working people could attend.
And ten days later held a three-minute Work Session.

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

Trash disposal renewals, regional T-SPLOST, another lift station pump, Dasher Streets @ LCC 2017-03-27


Regional T-SPLOST is on the agenda this morning.


Back in 2012 we all voted down a statewide T-SPLOST (Transportation Special Sales Tax).

As we learned at the

February Lowndes County Commission Planning Session Day 2,
on 28 February 2017 in Waycross there was a “public hearing” about a possible regional T-SPLOST.
When I asked SGRC about that, they sent the Waycross agenda, saying
“This is
not a public meeting and was not advertised as such, however it is open
to the public.”
Apparently something happened at that meeting, since T-SPLOST is on the
Lowndes County Commission agenda now, with this in the attached document:

HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: According to House Bill 170, counties within a Regional
Commission District have the option to institute a Regional T-SPLOST. The Georgia
Department of Transportation is requesting action to be taken by April 1, 2017, either in
favor of or opposed to a Regional T-SPLOSI’. If ten (10) of the eighteen (18) regional
counties fail to get support for a Regional T-SPLOST, then individual counties can initiate an
independent T-SPLOST’.

.

After Lowndes County spent unknown hundreds of thousands of dollars suing Continue reading →

Videos: Coal ash, Calles, Val North PD Water Sewer, Habitat CDBG, Sewage Valves, Stone Creek Antenna, Sheriff, Alcohol @ LCC 2017-03-14



Not on the agenda:
Coal Ash
and

Y-Lead from Hahira Middle School and Teen Explosion.
Also

Stone Creek train quiet hours.

In a fifteen minute item, the Commission approved a split rezoning for
REZ-2017-02 Calles,
and they approved the removal of conditions from
REZ-2017-03 Val North Dr, Stewart Circle.
They approved the
CDBG Grant preparation,
but they didn’t mention they can’t actually apply until the resolve
their feud with the local cities about tax allocation.

Below are links to each LAKE video of the 14 March 2017 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also Continue reading →

Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority after privatized landfill

Local counties and cities
sold off one landfill in Lowndes County in the late 1990s,
and a second one in 2005 through the Deep South Solid Waste Management Authority.
Yet in 2007 the


Deep South Municipal Regional Solid Waste Management Authority (WMA),
with the same county and city member governments,
was still active, discussing a regional recycling station.
And it is still active today, including some of the same board members
the entire time since 2005,
such as

Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson.
Hanson was not present last week

when Valdosta Mayor John Gayle said
Valdosta does not control the landfill, or perhaps he would have
mentioned that Valdosta through its longterm seat on the WMA board
does have some degree of control over the landfill’s operations.

I notice quite a few of the Valdosta City Council’s own minutes

record discussions and votes related to that WMA
including this item from

their Regular meeting of 4 October 2014, which was called to order by Mayor Gayle:


  1. Boards, Commissions, Authorities, and Advisory Committees

    1. Consideration of an appointment to the Deep South Regional Municipal Solid Waste
      Management Authority. — Appointed Richard Hardy, Public Works Director (7-0 Vote).

There must be some advantage to the City of Valdosta to have two members
(Hanson and Hardy) on the WMA board.
Certainly the average citizen or organization does not have that.

Bill Roberts, VDT, 5 December 2005,

Authority closes on landfill deal, Continue reading →

Videos: Calles back again for Alexandria Street + another County + 2 Valdosta @ GLPC 2017-02-27



Here are the LAKE videos for the 27 February 2017 Greater Lowndes Planning Commission,
with

Wilmer Calles on behalf of Rosa Calles
again about
going “backwards” to agricultural zoning (the neighbors don’t like it).
See

the agenda.
Plus

another county rezoning
(the county votes on those two tonight).
There were also to
Valdosta rezonings,
but Gretchen had to leave with the LAKE camera before
the first one
was finished.
The county or the city could video these Planning Commission meetings themselves. Continue reading →

Videos: Calles again, Val North PD Water Sewer, Habitat CDBG, Sewage Valves, Stone Creek Antenna, Sheriff, Alcohol @ LCC 2017-03-13



Maybe more will show up at 5:30PM today for the Regular Session
than the Chairman and only two Commissioners at yesterday’s Work Session
(Joyce Evans and Mark Wisenbaker).

Chairman Bill Slaughter

revealed why he had been missing from the meetings two weeks before:
he had been attending an America’s Defense Community event in in San Antonio, Texas about Moody AFB.
Follow

the link
for more about this.
He complimented Vice-Chair Joyce Evans for running the meeting better than usual
in his absence.
She did beat his former record of five minutes by holding a
three-minute Work Session.

The returning
REZ-2017-02 Calles rezoning now
wants to split half conservation and half R-A.
Apparently the other rezoning,
REZ-2017-03 Val North Dr, Stewart Circle, PD Amendment and Conditions Removal, Water & Sewer, ~9 acres
had been heard before and was now being reconsidered because
a road had been paved.
Remember that when they try to claim roads don’t drive development.

Below are links to each LAKE video of the 13 March 2017 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
See also

the agenda, and the LAKE videos of the 27 February 2017 Greater Planning Commission meeting. Continue reading →

Calles again, Val North PD Water Sewer, Habitat CDBG, Sewage Valves, Stone Creek Antenna, Sheriff, Alcohol @ LCC 2017-03-13

The county apparently doesn’t want its
Peterson Road Isolation Valves
leaking like Valdosta’s famous January 2017 WWTP failure.
Two other water cases are on
the agenda
for this morning’s 8:30 AM Work Session, both rezonings:
REZ-2017-02 Calles, Alexandria St, R-10 and CON to R-A and CON, Well and Septic, ~13 acres
back again (Planning Commission still doesn’t like it; staff maybe),
a new one,
REZ-2017-03 Val North Dr, Stewart Circle, PD Amendment and Conditions Removal, Water & Sewer, ~9 acres.


Parcel 0167 098A

Parcel 0167 098A

The “Conflict of interest certification, resolution, and authorization”
under
FY 2017 CDBG Grant, Valdosta- Lowndes County Habitat for Humanity
actually means no conflict of interest, according to
the agenda sheet,
which also notes “Lowndes County is currently on course to apply for $750,000.00 in CDBG funds from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for a
new public facility for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Habitat for Humanity.”
Well, they’re not on course until they stop feuding with the local cities
about tax revenue allocation, because they can’t apply for any state
or federal grants until that is resolved.

Two safety items:
Stone Creek Antenna Space License Agreement
and
Sheriff's Office Vehicle Lease Agreement.

And no County Commission meeting is complete without alcohol:
Beer & Wine License – Rajendrakumar N. Patel of Bhumi Corporation – 6685 Bemiss Rd., Valdosta, GA.
I don’t recall they’ve ever denied one of those,
so I don’t know why they don’t just make an ordinance that permitting
staff can approve them.

Here’s
the agenda.
Gretchen is there with the LAKE camera.
Will the meeting take more than the three minutes last time?

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, March 13, 2017, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, March 14, 2017, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Deputy Butler, Jacobs Ladder road paving, and seven minutes on the agenda @ LCC 2017-02-28


Front camera
They started with some words about Deputy Chris Butler and a moment of silence
(see VDT Obituary.
Then they plowed through
agenda.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall did introduce a little levity by asking

if the drug testing for the MIDS bus service was just for the drivers.
Answer: yes.

On the dozen Sheriff pursuit vehicles bid,

Commissioner Marshall also noted that a few years ago

(they voted 25 March 2014
there was a similar bid of Cass Burch vs. Langdale Ford
for which

they had additional testimony.
The excuse for picking Cass Burch even though once again not the low bid
was that it was that the Burch price was still less than the state contract price,
and maintenance would cost less.
It’s refreshing to see them actually discussing bids.
It’s curious they only ever seem to choose a bid that is not the lowest
when it’s from Cass Burch.

The County Manager had no additional report to his no report of the previous morning.

There was one citizen wishing to be heard:

Leslie Jacobs of Jacobs Ladder on 5866 Bradford Road North,
in Continue reading →