Category Archives: Transparency

Videos: More Natco on Val Del Road + 2 more Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2019-09-30

Longest at 22 minutes was the second Natco subdivision on Val Del Road. At least they’re moving back towards Valdosta, remaining within existing services (which were run out Val Del Road for Nelson Hill).

The Wisenbaker rezoning on Great North Road sailed through even faster, with nobody speaking against. The Hogan heavy manufacturing rezoning at US 41 N and Wellman Place was recommended to be tabled, 7:0, at the request of the applicant, who discovered a variance is needed first.

They also recommended 7:0 approval by the various elected bodies a Joint Ordinance, which is apparently about the operations of GLPC itself. What’s in it is mysterious. Why they can’t put it on the county or city website is even more mysterious.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with Continue reading →

More Natco on Val Del Road + 2 more Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2019-09-30

Look who’s back after last month’s rezoning on Val Del Road, which was heard by the Planning Commission and approved by the Lowndes County Commission: Natco, with another rezoning for twice as many acres, also on Val Del Road, just south of that previous rezoning.

[56 acres for sale just to the south]
56 acres for sale just to the south

Also a Joint Ordinance, which one can guess is the one Lowndes County Chairman talked to the Planning Commissioner about after adjournment last month, which one can guess is the SPLOST VIII agreement.

Why do we have to guess what our elected and appointed boards are up to? Would it be so hard to include a few words on that agenda item to say which Joint Ordinance? For that matter, would it be so hard to publish the GLPC board packet along with the agenda, like many counties much smaller than Lowndes have already been doing for years?

Here is the agenda:

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
Monday, September 30, 2019 5:30 P.M.
Public Hearing, Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading →

Videos: Jury, Paving, and GEFA in Work Session @ LCC 2019-09-23

The Lowndes County Commission spent nine minutes yesterday morning discussing spending $124,454 and borrowing $1,734,000. They vote this evening at 5:30 PM.

The county has now gotten up to not just demanding landowners give road right of way to the county, but also condemning property if they don’t get it donated.

The longest item at less than two minutes was 6.d. Request for Professional Engineering Services Proposals – CDBG. As Gretchen remarks in the notes, apparently this is in support of Arglas, the Japanese glass products manufacturer locating on Rocky Ford Road.

Second longest was 7.b. Bid for a Breathing Air System for the Fire Department, due to a question by a Commissioner.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: Bonds, Val Del Road, GLPC appointments, 1/2 million to Motorola @ LCC 2019-09-10

The longest item at 2:23 was the Val Del Road rezoning case, for which one Commissioner recused himself. The others passed it unanimously.

Second longest was the GLPC appointments. No surprise, Ed Hightower was reappointed, and the second appointment was….

Third longest was the Chairman’s unscheduled recognition of Leadership Lowndes and advertisement for a 9/11 ceremony. If he’s going to do this every time, maybe it could be put on the agenda.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with Continue reading →

Jury, Paving, and GEFA in LCC Packet @ LCC 2019-09-23

Lowndes County staff are proposing to spend $124,454, according to all the “BUDGET IMPACT”s board packet: $48,500 for a Jury Management System, $1,469.00 for Condemning ROW for Howell Lane Paving Project, $3,500.00 (approx.) for Second Modification of GEFA Loan Agreement, and for the Fire Department $29,195.00 for a 1/2 Ton Truck and $41,790.00 for a Breathing Air System.

[Survey plat: Revised County RoW for Howell Lane]
Survey plat: Revised County RoW for Howell Lane

They propose to borrow $1,734,000 from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA).

The Lowndes County Commission discusses Monday morning at 8:30 AM. They vote 5:30 PM Tuesday.

[Project Budget]
GEFA Loan Agreement Project Budget

For the first time ever! Lowndes County has returned the board packet before the Work Session.

LAKE sent an open records request Tuesday, and the county actually supplied the packet Friday, with this note: Continue reading →

Videos: Surprise Bonds, Val Del rezoning, GLPC appointments, 1/2 million to Motorola @ LCC 2019-09-09

Apparently more was shown on the screen yesterday morning that we finally received this morning in the board packet, such as this picture of the Nelson Hill subdivision on Val Del Road.

They also added 7.b. Refunding Revenue Bonds by South Region Joint Development Authority for VSU ASRE, which makes no sense until you can see details in the board packet.

After the agenda items, the Chairman made unscheduled announcements of a Continue reading →

Packet: Surprise Bonds, Val Del Road rezoning, GLPC appointments, 1/2 million to Motorola @ LCC 2019-09-10

After four days, but before the Commission votes at 5:30 PM in its Regular Session this evening, the county sent the packet, at 10:50 AM this morning. Three is more than the statutory 3 days in the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA). The packet is on the LAKE website.

Now we can see who are the applicants to the Planning Commission.

[Survey Plat]
Survey Plat

Now we can see where is the Val Del rezoning: from the trailer park south to the power line. There’s also this interesting flood map: Continue reading →

Val Del Road rezoning, GLPC appointments, and half a million to Motorola @ LCC 2019-09-09

Two new GLPC members, half a million dollars to Motorola for some unexplained acronym, and the Val Del Road rezoning, which breezed through the preceding Planning Commission meeting with no opposition, is on the agenda for the Work Session Monday morning and the voting session Tuesday evening of the Lowndes County Commission.

[Notice of Public Hearing]
Notice of Public Hearing

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission will have two new members soon: Continue reading →

Videos: Private Roads, Alcohol, and Water @ LCC 2019-08-27

The longest item was 5. Proclamation Presentation to Lowndes County Fire Rescue at two minutes. The longest actual business, one and a half minutes, was 6.f. South Regional Joint Development Authority Resolution, endorsing appointing Jason Shaw to an At Large slot. Do you ever get the feeling they already decided everything before they arrived?

A Lowndes County Commissioner

And you wouldn’t know about the somewhat contentious proposed process for accepting private roads into the county road system if Gretchen hadn’t been there the previous morning to video it.

Below are Continue reading →

Lowering the Millage Rate @ LCC Millage 2019-08-27

Finance Director Stephanie Black said due to the Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, if the tax digest (total assessed property value in the county) goes up, the county has to reduce the millage (tax per $1,000 of property value), or announce the difference as a tax increase and hold three public hearings, so they’re rolling back the millage rate slightly: 0.126 mills, down from 11.064 for 2018 to 10.938 for 2019. That’s Georgia Senate Bill 177, Act 431, signed April 30, 1999, effective January 1, 2000. Here is the millage resolution they adopted half an hour later, in the board packet, which LAKE only received after this millage meeting and after the Commission voted on this millage change:

[A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE 2019 AD VALOREM TAX MILLAGES FOR LOWNDES COUNTY]
A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE 2019 AD VALOREM TAX MILLAGES FOR LOWNDES COUNTY

She showed some quite informative slides, which for unknown reasons do not seem to be on the Finance Department’s web page. For example, she had a nice summary slide of the five chunks of sales tax these days:

  • 4 cents to the State of Georgia,
  • 1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), split between county and its cities for property tax reduction,
  • 1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), split between county and its cities for capital improvements,
  • 1 cent to Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST), split between the county and city school systems for capital improvements
  • 1 cent to Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST), regionally approved, and split between the county and its cities for transportation capital improvements.

Billed on the lowndescounty.com calendar as Millage Meeting, 5PM, Tuesday, 27 August 2019, in Commission Chambers before the voting Regular Session, as usual almost nobody attended, and nobody from the public spoke.

But you can see the whole eight-minute meeting for yourself. Here’s a LAKE video playlist:


Lowering the Millage Rate
Millage Meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC Millage),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, August 27, 2019.

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!