Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

No public agenda for Planning Commission today @ GLPC 2013-11-25

Why so secretive, planning board that recommends on issues that affect citizens all over Lowndes County? Where is your agenda for your meeting at 5:30 PM today? Sure, Gretchen only asked for it today, but why does LAKE have to wheedle it out of somebody? Why don’t you or the county publish it so the public can see? Do you, the affected public, agree with Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter that transparency is not a problem?

We can guess the proposed Nottinghill subdivision will be back, since it got tabled (again) at GLPC’s October meeting. Also probably the attendance policy, since last time the GLPC Chairman wasn’t there and only 6 of 11 Commissioners showed up. But what else? And why should have to guess what public business a public board is taking up tonight? Why do we have this Planning Commission if it doesn’t take its responsibilities to the citizens of this county seriously enough to show up or to tell us what it’s doing?

Lowndes County doesn’t even have today’s meeting on its public calendar. The City of Valdosta does; here’s Valdosta’s GLPC listing for today: Continue reading →

SpectraBusters Informational Meeting 2013-11-16

Standing room only while Ellis Black (GA Dist. 174), Bill Slaughter (Lowndes County Chairman), and Tim Carroll (Valdosta City Council) spoke after Gretchen Quarterman gave an introduction at the first SpectraBusters Informational Meeting last Saturday. A second meeting is scheduled for this Saturday morning at 10AM at the Valdosta City Hall Annex.

Video. Gretchen asked if there were any representatives from the pipeline company present. Nobody spoke up. Several affected landowners did speak: Beth Gordon from Levy County, Florida and Larry Rodgers and Carol Singletary from Lowndes County, Georgia.

Video. Elected officials spoke. Bill Slaughter (Lowndes County Chairman) said Continue reading →

Why south Georgia actions start in Lowndes County and Valdosta

The biggest population center for 80 miles around is Valdosta and Lowndes County.

Map of population around Valdosta and Lowndes County Albany to the northwest actually has more people than Valdosta, but Dougherty County has fewer than Lowndes County. Beyond Albany it’s Columbus and then Auburn is about the same size as Valdosta.

Farther north it’s Warner Robins and Macon. Due west Dothan it’s Dothan. The closest bigger place is Tallahassee and Leon County, Florida to the southwest. Farther south it’s Gainesville, then Orlando and Tampa. East it’s Savannah, and of course Jacksonville.

History of population around Valdosta and Lowndes County

On this handy interactive google population comparison chart, you can see in the 3-6,000 range: Adel, Ashburn, and Lakeland.

14-20,000: Americus, Brunswick, Moultrie, Thomasville, Tifton, and Waycross.

55-60,000: Auburn and Valdosta.

67-80,000: Continue reading →

Maybe county should check its work about other budgets @ LCC 2013-11-14

Who’s responsible for the recent partiality in budget reports? The newspaper, or its source of information, namely the county government at its secretive retreat on the Chairman’s private property that even the VDT reporter had trouble finding?

When the Coroner and the Sheriff (often at odds lately) agree that the VDT’s version of the county government’s remarks about their budgets was at best partial, where is the source of that partiality? Who’s responsible for budgeting for the county, reporter Matthew or editor Kay Harris or Dean Poling? Or is it the local government our taxes pay to do that job, namely the Lowndes County Commission and its staff, which is managed by County Manager Joe Pritchard?

Maybe somebody down at the county palace should, as Gretchen suggested recently, “check our work”.

-jsq

More sinkholes in Florida.

Just a few cracks a couple of years ago turned into a 90 foot wide and 60 foot deep sinkhole Thursday. At least six houses affected in north Florida, above the same Floridan Aquifer that produces sinkholes here in south Georgia. Here in Lowndes County Michael McCormick has more than a few cracks: he has a sinkhole in his garage. Will Lowndes County do something before we wake up to news of man’s house fell into a sinkhole overnight?

ABC News Blogs 14 November 2013, Florida Sinkhole Swallows Home

Six other homes have been evacuated as a precaution and Duke Energy has shut down power to the area.

A growing sinkhole in Florida has swallowed Continue reading →

Coroner responds to County Commission about budget @ LCC 2013-11-14

Like the Sheriff, the Coroner reports that something’s rotten in the Lowndes County Commission and staff’s version of his budget.

Dean Poling write for the VDT today, Coroner responds to county budget issues,

Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson explained Friday that comments calling him one of the county budget’s “worst offenders” did not explain why his office’s expenses change from year to year.

“I have no control over the number of people that dies each year,” Watson told The Times, “and I have to fund the transportation for autopsies. Any time there is an autopsy, it costs my office about $750.”

These costs include Continue reading →

Sheriff responds to County Commission about budget @ LCC 2013-11-14

LTE in the VDT today. -jsq

Sheriff’s Response to “budget woes”

The Sheriff’s Office has received a lot of criticism in the last several months. It appears to be the fashionable thing these days and an easy target. Sheriff Prine did not receive an invitation to the Chairman’s personal property for a review of the county’s budget and criticism of the Sheriff’s budget in particular. There are some facts that have not been reported by the Valdosta Daily Times, which may or may not have been provided.

First it should be noted that the Sheriff’s Office general fund budget was reduced from last year’s budget by $171,306. This was before another $130,492 was taken away in August as a result of shift in traffic citation processing responsibilities to the Clerk’s Office.

A closer look at some of the specific line items targeted for criticism will show Continue reading →

Videos: Budget, SPLOST, and 2014 Planning @ LCC 2013-11-14

They detailed spending by the Sheriff and the Coroner, yet never seemed to say how much the Commission itself has spent sueing a local business. And what was that executive session about? Doesn’t Georgia Open Meetings Law say they have to say what it’s for?

Here’s the agenda. See also County discusses budget woes: Sheriff’s department, coroner are ‘worst offenders’, by Matthew Woody, VDT, 15 November 2013.

Here’s a video playlist for the entire Lowndes County Commission Retreat Work Session.


Videos: Budget, SPLOST, and 2014 Planning
Retreat Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 November 2013.

-jsq

Check our work, esp. about the pipeline –Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2013-11-12

Fan of local government Gretchen suggested it “check our work” before whipsawing citizens in for items that didn’t happen or failing to schedule a public hearing even after the Chairman asked for it, plus failing do deliver what was promised in open records requests, at the 12 November 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. Today she’s checking their work at their secretive Retreat Work Session.

At the Regular Session she noted that the Sabal Trail item that was misscheduled for the previous morning caused several citizens to take off work to come in for something that didn’t happen. (You can find out more about that pipeline Saturday morning at 10AM at the SpectraBusters Informational Meeting.

She mentioned the Green Lane item that the Chairman had asked Continue reading →

Annual Retreat Work Session @ LCC 2013-11-14

It’s 9AM: do you know where your County Commission is? They’re at Chairman Bill Slaughter’s house, having what finally got billed as an “Annual Retreat Work Session”. Why so secretive, Commissioners?

Crawford Powell (District 3), Joyce Evans (District 1), Richard Raines (District 2), Stephanie Black (Finance Director), Joe Pritchard (County Manager), Bill Slaughter (Chairman), Paige Dukes (County Clerk), John Page (District 5), Demarcus Marshall (District 4)

At the start time of 8:30 AM, nobody was observing except Jody Hall (GLPC) and Gretchen Quarterman (LAKE). The VDT reporter arrived at 8:59 AM. Here’s the agenda, with picture taken by Gretchen of copy posted on door. The online copy is not in the usual agenda page, rather it’s hanging off a special entry in the calendar.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Annual Retreat Work Session
November 14, 2013
6926 Simpson Road, Hahira, Georgia
Continue reading →