Category Archives: Solid Waste

Budget Public Hearing @ LCC Budget 2019-06-11

If the Commissioners are so proud of their proposed budget, why do they make it so hard for the taxpayers and voters to see?

All we have on lowndescounty.com is Public Hearing on the Proposed FY 2020 Budget,

Date: June 11, 2019

Time: 5:00 PM

Location: Board of Commissioners
Administration Building

Address: 327 N. Ashley Street
2nd Floor
Valdosta, GA 31601


A slide from a 2011 Lowndes County budget presentation.
Maybe the proportions are the same this year; maybe they’re not; who can say?

See also the announcement of this June meeting in an unannounced May meeting. Back then Commissioners said the $108 million proposed budget includes a new litter collection division which they’re considering using to replace Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB).

Which is more than we know from the agenda of today’s budget meeting, because no agenda is posted.

The proposed budget is not on Continue reading →

Unannounced special session on budget and litter @ LCC 2019-05-29

The Lowndes County Commission said there will be a public hearing on their proposed $108 million budget at 5PM, Tuesday, June 11, 2019 (today). That public hearing is on the county’s online calendar. They also said the budget included a new trash collection division, and they were considering using that to replace Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB).

But the meeting at which that Tuesday Budget Public Hearing was announced, which was some time Wednesday afternoon, May 29, 2019, is nowhere on lowndescounty.com that I can find, not in the calendar, news, or agendas, and they said nothing about it the previous day in their Work Session and Regular Session, both on that Tuesday. Also, I received no notification of the Wednesday meeting, even though I’m signed up for such things. We only know of it because of Continue reading →

Cancelled: Deep South Solid Waste Authority special called meeting today, 2019-03-27

According to DSSWA Chair Kevin Beals, today’s special called meeting is cancelled. Instead, they will handle business at their regular April meeting. There is no agenda for that meeting yet, but he will ask for one to be sent when it is ready.

The topics of the special called meeting were the July 1, 2019 increase in local government surcharges per ton, from $1.00 to $2.50, as passed last year in HB 792 and SB 385. Also ADS wants to increase its rates, due to that and apparently some federal rule changes.

Julia Shewchuk, Plaque

In other news, Julia Shewchuk is no longer with SGRC, since about a year now. According to the February 2018 SGRC newsletter, In the Region,

…Julia Shewchuk received Continue reading →

Videos: six minutes on Lighting, Paving, and Trash @ LCC 2019-03-26

Subtract out the invocation, pledge, and approval of minutes (which you couldn’t hear anyway because the county’s sound system wasn’t working) and the Chairman’s ending comments on Youth Leadership, and your elected Commissioners spent about six minutes on the business of the county, including spending some unknown amount of money on road services.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: Lighting, Paving, Trash, retirement, and death @ LCC 2019-03-25

Chairman Bill Slaughter mentioned the recent death of his predecessor Fred DeLoach. County Manager Joe Pritchard said he tried to talk Carmella Braswell out of retiring, but she has done so.

County Engineer Mike Fletcher clarified that more than one engineering firm was working on professional surveying and engineering for road projects.

Kevin Beals presented the solid waste franchises for annual renewal, and we were reminded he is also Chairman of the Deep South Solid Waste Authority that dispenses funds from their tipping fees, and which the next day announced a special called meeting for Wednesday.

Chad McLeod said the county has successfully cleaned up from a nearby closed gasoline station.

Below are Continue reading →

Deep South Solid Waste Authority special called meeting today, 6PM 2019-03-27

Update 2019-03-27: Cancelled.

Not in the public notices, rather as an article, Valdosta Daily Times, 26 March 2019, Deep South holds called meeting,

VALDOSTA — The Deep South Solid Waste Authority will hold a special called meeting, 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, at the Southern Georgia Regional Commission office, 327 W. Savannah Ave.

Photo: John S. Quarterman, DSSWA meeting 2019-02-07
Photo: John S. Quarterman, DSSWA meeting 2019-02-07

I have asked for a copy of the agenda. Until it arrives, I can only guess Continue reading →

Lighting, Paving, and Trash @ LCC 2019-03-25

Update 2019-03-27: LAKE videos of Monday morning Work Session and Tuesday evening Regular Session.

A single-source no-bid contract with Lovell Engineering is on the agenda for Professional Surveying and Engineering Services for Improvements to Lester Road. The dollar amount is not given in the agenda sheet.

The Basic Decorative Street Lighting District is not the one defered last time (Walker’s Run). They want to charge $61.50 per lot per year.

No special trash collection tax district for Lowndes County, though, although state law explicitly authorizes that. Instead, once again they are renewing curbside trash pickup licenses for ADS and DSS; the latter of course only after the county sued all the way to the state Supreme Court to try to stop it.

Here is the bid sheet from 2012. You may want to compare Veolia’s bid to what its new owner ADS is charging now.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2019, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Lowndes County Bird Supper, Atlanta, GA 2019-02-13

Annually Lowndes County and its cities including Valdosta feed quail to state legislators at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot in Atlanta: this is the Bird Supper.

Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter, Valdosta Mayor John Gayle, Inside
Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter, Valdosta Mayor John Gayle

Valdosta describes the Bird Supper: Continue reading →

Videos: County paying for road right of way @ LCC 2019-01-08

They added two items to the agenda they didn’t even mention in the previous morning’s Work Session: purchase of some real estate on Davidson Road near Moody Air Force Base, and “just compensation” for right of way on Simpson Road.

Wait a minute! For ten years we’ve been told the county no longer buys rights of way: if you want your road paved, you have to donate the right of way. So why this exception? And why sneak it in like this?

Will Kamisha Martin get paid for right of way if the county paves Black Road? Will Rev. Berlinda Hart Love get paid for right of way if the county paves Williams School Road? They were the two citizens who were heard.

Not on the agenda were Continue reading →

Videos: Retreat! Appointment to Development Authority, Abandon Reed Road, Ed Hay Lease, Forestry Speaks @ LCC 2019-01-07

Longest Monday morning was Chief Ranger Stephen Spradley’s Georgia Forestry report, a copy of which, scanned by Gretchen, is on the LAKE website.

Second longest was Chairman Bill Slaughter’s comments, in which he listed four upcoming events: Continue reading →