Category Archives: Safety

Videos: Why Emergency bridge fixes? Appoint Tax Assessors? Rush Project Max? @ LCC 2016-01-11

Why did bridge repairs turn up on the agenda for yesterday morning’s Work Session and tonight’s Regular Session only after problems were reported by citizens (Clyattville Nankin Road) or GDOT (Jumping Gully Road)? Also, “>neither GDOT restriping nor county road resurfacing take into account the complete streets initiative for bike lanes or sidewalks, even though two Commissioners asked about that. Hm, three Commissioners could vote to require it.

County Clerk didn’t have the minutes of December’s Work Session ready, so Lowndes County Commissioners will get very little time to review them before voting this evening.

This is the only county in Georgia that does not appoint its Tax Assessors, and the County Commission is considering a resolution to ask the General Assembly to start the process to change that. For hush-hush Project Max, the big-fish container manufacturing plant proposed for Rocky Ford Road, next to the protected watershed of Mud Swamp and near Valdosta Airport, see separate post for what little the public (or the Planning Commission) is allowed to know. Also on the Lowndes County Commission agenda for Monday morning and voting Tuesday evening, are quite a few other items as the Commission catches up after the holidays.

Below are links to each LAKE video of yesterday morning’s Work Session, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Agenda Item for Project Max before County Commission @ LCC 2016-01-11

Here’s the item summary for the hush-hush REZ-2016-01 Project Max Summary on Monday morning’s the Lowndes County Commission agenda, after the rush-rush Special Called Planning Commission meeting. -jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA ITEM

SUBJECT: Rezoning Case REZ-2016-01

DATE OF MEETING: January 12th 2016

Regular Meeting (x)
Work Session (x)
Recommendation (x)
Policy/Discussion ( )
Report ( )

BUDGET IMPACT:

FUNDING SOURCE:
( ) Annual ( ) SPLOST ( ) Capital (X) N/A

REZ-2016-01 Project Max, Rocky Ford Rd
E-A to M-2, County Water and Sewer, ~123 acres

ACTION REQUESTED ON:
 

HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: Continue reading →

Appoint Tax Assessors? Rush Project Max? @ LCC 2016-01-11

Appointing Tax Assessors will take an act of the legislature and a local referendum to repeal the 1972 state law that made Lowndes County the only county in Georgia to elect them, but the Lowndes County Commission Monday morning will consider a resolution to ask the General Assembly to start that process. in Lowndes County, subject to approval by voters, so after 1 January 2021 they’d be appointed, not elected. This is the only county in Georgia that does not appoint its Tax Assessors, and after the extremely unusual rural land revaluation last year, it does seem something needs to be changed.

For hush-hush Project Max, the big-fish container manufacturing plant proposed for Rocky Ford Road, next to the protected watershed of Mud Swamp and near Valdosta Airport, see separate post for what little the public (or the Planning Commission) is allowed to know. Also on the Lowndes County Commission agenda for Monday morning and voting Tuesday evening, bridge repairs on Clyattville Nankin Road and Jumping Gully Road, and quite a few other items as the Commission catches up after the holidays.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, January 11, 2016,  8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, January 12, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Valdosta election results and oaths @ VCC 2016-01-07

Tonight, election results, a homeland security thermal imaging grant, and bench placement on streets. And a church food bank, already heard by the Planning Commission 30 November 2015.

Here’s the agenda.

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, January 7, 2016
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL

Continue reading →

Pipeline in Floridan Aquifer is total insanity –Marcellus Shale drilling veteran @ FERC Lake City 2015-10-01

“If you go through with this, you stand a very good chance of destroying this [the Floridan Aquifer] the rest of our lifetimes. And in many lifetimes to come.” Said Marcellus shale drilling veteran Rocky Stewart to FERC in Lake City, Florida, October 1st 2015. Transcript and video:

I am a homeowner in Suwannee County, by Boys Ranch, I currently do not live there, I live in Corpus Christi [Texas]. I’m sure some people here regard me as the enemy, but I am in total opposition to what you all have planned.

By profession, I’m what’s known as Continue reading →

Insanity: Sabal Trail pipeline in karst sinkhole Floridan Aquifer @ FERC Lake City 2015-10-01

“What you all have proposed is total insanity…. experts lie… The companies, they don’t care. It’s just greed and arrogance,” said a Marcellus Shale drilling veteran. Karst mitigation won’t work according to Sabal Trail’s own FERC filings, children downwind of compressor, Sabal Trail quashing evidence of its unwanted, unneeded, and unsafe Sinkhole Pipeline, and FERC is cigarette companies pushing cancer cigarettes: on the wrong side of history. We aren’t your test subjects and we can win!

Videos from previous FERC meetings:

-jsq

Let’s stop Sabal Trail before it makes any more mistakes

Thanks to Julie Bowland for the picture of my VDT op-ed today. -jsq

jsq op-ed in VDT The same day the Sabal Trail was quoted in the VDT August 5th as saying it had done enough subsurface analysis on our fragile karst limestone topography, a sinkhole opened up next to Shiloh Road. Sabal Trail already had to move its Albany compressor station because arrowheads had been found there. The pipeline itself is a much bigger mistake: let’s stop it before it damages our property values, forests, rivers, or our people.

Spectra Energy’s paid staff are continue to assert that Sabal Trail’s proposed gouge through our fields, farms, and under our rivers will proceed according their plan to profit executives and investors in Houston, Texas.

Actually, Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ tabled, Naylor Boat Ramp and Sabal Trail CWTBH @ LCC 2015-07-28

The proposed MAZ changes were tabled for 90 days, they approved everything else, and welcomed new Utilities Director Steve Stalvey again, at the 5:30 PM Tuesday 28 July 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. Valdosta City Council Sandra Tooley didn’t fill out a form and so didn’t get to speak, but another citizen asked about the Naylor Boat Ramp (answer after the meeting: on schedule for this fall) and about Sabal Trail (answer: none).

See also Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ again, Lake Alapaha, Emergencies, but no Sabal Trail @ LCC 2015-07-27

300x297 Parcel 0181 001, in Davidson Road, by John S. Quarterman, 27 July 2015 The proposed MAZ changes have “absolutely nothing to do with” the 23 acres on Davidson Road that were proposed to be rezoned R-21 back in 2010, after the county paved Davidson Road, said County Chairman Bill Slaughter at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session. County Planner Jason Davenport said he had hoped to get “on the same page with Moody” before that same evening’s Planning Commission meeting for the MAZ ULDC Text Amendments, but as yet he had nothing to report, and tabling was an option. I don’t think that word “ultimately” means what he thinks it does. See more below about Davidson Road.

Not on the agenda were three, no four, reports:

Like the MAZ changes, also requiring a public hearing Tuesday evening is Continue reading →

MAZ again, Lake Alapaha, Emergency Management and Liability, but no Sabal Trail @ LCC 2015-07-27

While Dougherty County, Albany, and their state and federal reps plan a joint opposition meeting to the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline invader, there’s nothing about that pipeline on Monday’s 8:30 AM agenda of the Lowndes County Commission. Three items on emergency response, emergency planning, and 911 operations, plus one on liability, but nothing about the invading pipeline soft target.

The highly controversial Moody Activity Zoning Districts (MAZ) are back, despite massive opposition. The Planning Commission will hear MAZ again Monday evening, and because there’s only one day from then until the County Commission can vote on MAZ Tuesday, the County Planner says: Continue reading →