Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Videos: Leadership Lowndes, rezonings approved, one citizen about a Water Trail @ LCC 2015-03-10




Leadership Lowndes Class of 2015
was there,
and Gretchen Quarterman spoke about

the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Conference
.
Everything else went as predicted
with the rezonings and pretty much everything else unanimously approved,
at the Tuesday 10 October 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Continue reading

Videos: Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09



These videos are of yesterday morning’s Work Session,
and they’re voting right now on

the annual grant paperwork

for the county’s on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc.,
on a

commercial
and a

subdivision
rezoning, both previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission.
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two

Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes

on the board of the

hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC)
,
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a

Resolution

to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for

each agenda item
,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.


Judge H. Arthur McLane spoke
yesterday about the

Courthouse Preservation Committee
; see
LAKE videos of its public meetings.

Tonight they have Citizens Wishing to Be Heard on the
agenda.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic
on nearby roads, unlike

back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said
:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.



Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to

regular routes on the bus system
.

Below are links to the LAKE videos from Monday morning,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

The county has an on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., and
they’re doing

the annual grant paperwork
.



Judge H. Arthur McLane will speak
this morning about the

Courthouse Preservation Committee
; see
LAKE videos of its public meetings.
Tuesday the County Commission will decide
the rezonings, one

commercial
and one

subdivision
, previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission:
will they discuss the poor people they’re displacing, unlike the Planning Commission?
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two
Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes
on the board of the

hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC)
,
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a
Resolution
to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for

each agenda item
,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic
on nearby roads, unlike

back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said
:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to

regular routes on the bus system
. Continue reading

Videos: Day 3 of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-05



The

Airport Authority
got inserted among the judges and lawyers,
and the

Coroner’s Office
failed to turn in a budget.
The day was mostly sitting around waiting,
because most of the actual presentations were only a few minutes each,
yet were scheduled hours apart,
in the last day of the
three days of
“Budget Hearings” which aren’t really hearings because nobody from the
public can speak and they don’t have a budget to hear yet.
See the first day for
the agenda.

Here are links to videos of each item with some notes by Gretchen,
followed by a video playlist.
No video for the first item, EMS, due to camera failure; sorry.
For the rest,

as the Chairman said
, referring to Gretchen and the LAKE camera:

We have our videographer back there, so we’re ready.

Hm, maybe LAKE should submit a budget request to the county…. Continue reading

Videos: Day 2 of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-04



Maybe Georgia should fund mental health facilities instead of

local jails having to act as mental hospitals
.
On a positive note,

Agriculture is an $81M industry in Lowndes County.

Law, taxes, and education, in the second day which was only in the morning,
of the
three days of
“Budget Hearings” which aren’t really hearings because nobody from the
public can speak and they don’t have a budget to hear yet.
See yesterday for
the agenda.
Here are links to videos of each item with some notes by Gretchen,
followed by a video playlist.
And one more day to go today. Continue reading

Videos: Day 1 of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-03


300x400 Commission and agenda, in Agenda, by John S. Quarterman, 3 March 2015

It’s good the Commission is having these meetings where they can
hear directly from the various department heads.
And with LAKE’s videos, you the citizens can hear what the departments
are asking for.

Also, why are these called budget hearings?
The public doesn’t get to speak, so they are not actually public hearings,
and they are not the state-required budget hearings before passing a budget:
they don’t even have a draft budget yet.
And the next time the Commission rushes citizen speakers to finish,
remember
this 14 minutes of dead air
or the several others like it in yesterday’s meeting.

They met in the Commission Chambers,
nevermind the address
on the Commission’s calendar
yesterday,
and

still says for today’s meeting
.

There’s still no agenda posted, except for paper copies in the Commission building, which read as below. Continue reading

Three days of Budget Hearings @ LCC Budget 2015-03-03



Billed

back in December as
“Commission Meets with Constitutional Officers,
Elected Officials, and Outside Agencies”
and two weeks later than originally scheduled, it’s
three days of what is on the County’s calendar now as

Budget Hearings
,
today, Wednesday,
and
Thursday,
all three days at the Lowndes County Governmental Building,
300 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA 31601.

There’s no agenda posted.

At least these meetings are on the county’s calendar before the last minute,
which is an improvement on
last year.
However, last year they did publish an agenda.
Here are videos of last year’s similar hearings.

-jsq

Sabal Trail contractor yard at end of Valdosta Airport runway


300x388 Lowndes County, GA, next to Valdosta Airport, in Sabal Trail Contractor Yards aerial maps, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 20 February 2015

The same company that sued Lowndes County in 2007 to try to put a
tall building above the 30-foot height limit in Valdosta’s Runway Protection Zone
now appears to want to put a contractor yard for Sabal Trail’s fracked methane
pipeline in the same location.
Will this involve any tall cranes?
What about Moody’s flights off of that runway at Valdosta Airport?
And what about those aquifer recharge zones?

Among the contractor yard maps

Sabal Trail filed with FERC 20 February 2015
,
there’s this one: Continue reading

Videos: 1 commercial, 1 subdivision @ GLPC 2015-02-23



In the briefest Planning Commission meeting I can recall,
Stovall got her

rezoning of 5.84 acres to General Commercial
on Oak Street Extension
recommended unanimously Monday 23 February 2015.
Ivy Gate subdivision’s second phase

to rezone 10.33 acres to R-10 on Cat Creek Road

at

4088 Cat Creek Road

was also recommended unanimously.
Nobody spoke for or against either rezoning,
and there was no discussion from Commissioners,
other than a recommendation by Commissioner Wildes that all lots
face interior roads for Ivy Gate.

After the rezonings,

Commissioners joked that with a meeting so brief they might catch
up with the County Commission
.
County Chairman Bill Slaughter responded, “Actually, we just showed up
to show you how to run a quick meeting.”
The difference is GLPC actually does discuss when there’s something to discuss.
These cases will show up on the County Commission agenda for March 10th,
so we’ll see who takes longer on them then.

Here’s
the agenda,
and below are links to the videos, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

1 commercial, 1 subdivision @ GLPC 2015-02-23



Stovall wants

to rezone 5.84 acres to General Commercial
on Oak Street Extension
and
Ivy Gate subdivision wants a second phase

to rezone 10.33 acres to R-10 on Cat Creek Road
.
The existing Ivy Gate Subdivision is on Bowen Way.
The only nearby property on Cat Creek Road is

4088 Cat Creek Road
, across the road,
owned by James Arthur Kutzli.

Thanks to Lowndes County for starting to

post Planning Commission agendas

including

this one
.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park


REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA


Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue


Monday, February 23, 2015 * 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading