Category Archives: Safety

Sinkhole under houses in The Villages, Florida, 20 miles from Sabal Trail pipeline path

Yet another sinkhole in Florida. And guess what goes within 20 miles of that Florida retirement community? The proposed Sabal Trail Transmission methane pipeline. Does poking holes in the already-fragile karst limestone that holds up houses and contains our drinking water, anywhere in Florida or south Georgia, sound like a good idea to you?

Susan Jacobson wrote for Orlando Sentinel, 19 April 2014, Sinkhole in The Villages threatens 2 homes,

This sinkhole was growing April 19, 2014 near 2 houses in The Villages. (Helicon Property Restoration)

A large sinkhole has opened under two houses in The Villages.

A picture provided by Helicon Property Restoration, which is working to stabilize the hole, shows a house teetering at the edge.

Video in report by Lisa McDonald for WKMG, Orlando, 19 April 2014, Crews fill sinkhole that threatened 2 homes in The Villages:

Continue reading →

Brooks County asks FERC for five-foot top cover on pipeline

Colquitt, Brooks, next Lowndes?

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT yesterday, Brooks urges deep-dug pipeline,

Brooks County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month encouraging Sabal Trail to bury its proposed natural gas pipeline two feet deeper than the three-feet requirements.

“We do a lot of farming over here, and that was the loudest concern was making sure we try to encourage Sabal Trail to make sure they went the extra mile to make sure their investment, and our citizens were protected,” said Justin DeVane, Brooks County administrator. “The pipeline itself is only traversing three of our five districts and all five of our commissioners were receiving concerns about it. So we wanted to make sure that Continue reading →

Change order, KLVB, and Pipeline @ LCC 2014-04-08

$78,892.56 for an unbid change order for Val Del Road. The Board of Tax Assessors’ appeal to a Board of Equalizations decision to grand PCA an unusual depreciation was approved by the Lowndes County Commission by a rare split decision, 2 to 1. Greg Powell of Langdale Industries appointed to KLVB. And Citizen Noll recommended the Commission pass a resolution or ordinance about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline.

Three voting Commissioners (Raines was absent and Page vacated his seat) unanimously approved three rezonings with nobody speaking for or against. They granted permission to the Sheriff’s office and to Emergency Management to apply for equipment grants. There was a weather report, and a report on an animal adoption event the previous weekend.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also the videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Defibrilators from Homeland Security @ LCC 2014-04-07

The KLVB presentation told us up to three states dump in the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County, for which the county gets some unspecified amount of tipping fees, which go to fund KLVB. An appointment to KLVB was added to the agenda, although nobody deigned to reveal who was “that individual that has requested to serve on that board”. The Homeland Security grant application turned out to be for defibrillators.

Here’s the agenda, with a few annotations and links to the videos.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
AMENDED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

U.S. Rep. Bishop to listen to landowners about Sabal Trail pipeline

Maybe Lowndes County Commissioners can ask Rep. Austin Scott (GA-08) to do what Dougherty County Commissioners have successfully asked Rep. Bishop (GA-02) to do: those two Congressional districts cover the entire Georgia part of the proposed path of that methane pipeline. And maybe they could help Greenlaw get the FERC scoping period extended and get the GIS data from Sabal Trail.

Carlton Fletcher wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop to take part in pipeline listening session: Metting called to address safety, other concerns surrounding controversial natural gas pipeline,

Two Dougherty County Commissioners and one of their former colleagues who is running to rejoin them have scheduled a listening session at 10 a.m. Thursday with U.S. House District 2 Congressman Sanford Bishop to discuss the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission Gas Pipeline project and a planned accompanying Continue reading →

On the behalf of the Commission and Citizens of Lowndes County –Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter to FERC about the Sabal Trail methane pipeline

These are the fourteen items he promised two weeks ago at the SpectraBusters panel at VSU: Sabal Trail will be expected to adhere and honor all Lowndes County Ordinances –Bill E Slaughter, JR to FERC, 10 April 2014. I thank Chairman Slaughter for making that statement to FERC.

Despite his apparent refusal to speak on behalf of all the citizens of the county after the 24 February 2014 Commission meeting, he did actually say his ecomment to FERC was “on the behalf of the Commission and Citizens of Lowndes County”, and that he expects Sabal Trail to follow all Lowndes County ordinances, plus Continue reading →

Videos: Garbage falling off trucks @ LCC 2014-03-25

If the County Commission hadn’t privatized garbage collection, Frenchie could have registered his complaint about garbage falling off trucks through the new turnkey government website service once it’s online. No mention of the annexation request by the City of Hahira from the Work Session.

Commissioner Powell noted the three SPLOST VII projects were “a direct reinvestment into the community of those funds”. The road resurfacing of four roads is actually mostly from a GDOT LMIG grant, but the other three, shoulder paving on Val Del Road and Boring Pond Road and a bridge replacement on Cat Creek Road are all from SPLOST VII funds. Plus some trucks for Animal Control and tablets for the Fire Department, an alcohol license, and some alphabet-soup agreements, one of which turned out to be for a grant for a victim advocate position in the Solicitor General’s office.

Here’s the agenda. See also the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: Candidates, Landowners, Methane and Solar Power @ SpectraBusters 2014-03-29

Candidates for Lowndes County Commission went on the record ( Mark Wisenbaker and Tom Hochschild both running for District 3, and Norman Bennett and Gretchen Quarterman both running for District 5), plus a statement by County Chairman Bill Slaughter, in addition to essential background information from directly affected landowners in the audience and from the panelists on why the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline is bad for property values, is hazardous here and elsewhere, and will be obsolete in a few decades, all at a SpectraBusters panel on the Sabal Trail pipeline at VSU, Saturday 29 March 2014.

The panelists were Continue reading →

Annexation and watershed monitoring @ Hahira 2014-04-03

The rezoning and annexation previously recommended by the Planning Commission and discussed by the Lowndes County Commission.

And there’s a Proposal for Long-term Watershed Monitoring from TTL, which may or may not be related to the flood risk management study or flood mapping previously discussed by the city of Valdosta and the Lowndes County Commission.

Curiously, both Wikipedia and the Hahira City Council’s own web page seem to think Wayne Bullard is still mayor. I read in the VDT that Bruce Cain was sworn in as mayor in January.

Thanks to City Manager Jonathan Sumner for the agenda.

Hahira City Council
April 3, 2014
Agenda
7:30 pm-Hahira Courthouse
Continue reading →

Videos of Day 1 @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10

It’s a good thing the county held these first-ever (as far as I know) comprehensive budget sessions. Here are videos of the first day. Most of the departments are asking for more money, due to increased population and increased demand for services during a period of economic downturn. Something needs to be done, and these sessions are one step in getting to doing something.

Here’s the agenda.