Category Archives: Transportation

Videos: Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

These videos are of yesterday morning’s Work Session, and they’re voting right now on the annual grant paperwork for the county’s on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., on a commercial and a subdivision rezoning, both previously recommended unanimously by the Planning Commission. Plus they will accept Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer. They will declare at least two Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes on the board of the hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC), before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a Resolution to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC. We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual the county only published the agenda sheets for each agenda item, without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

Judge H. Arthur McLane spoke yesterday about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings.

Tonight they have Citizens Wishing to Be Heard on the agenda.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system.

Below are links to the LAKE videos from Monday morning, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

The county has an on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., and they’re doing the annual grant paperwork. Judge H. Arthur McLane will speak this morning about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings. Tuesday the County Commission will decide the rezonings, one commercial and one subdivision, previously recommended unanimously by the Planning Commission: will they discuss the poor people they’re displacing, unlike the Planning Commission? Plus they will accept Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer. They will declare at least two Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes on the board of the hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC), before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a Resolution to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC. We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual the county only published the agenda sheets for each agenda item, without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system. Continue reading

Renewables outcompete oil –National Bank of Abu Dhabi

A Middle East bank says:

300x309 Ambitious scenario, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015 Renewables accounted for 57 per cent of global power investment in new generation in the period 2000-2013.

And that’s even with all the legal and financial roadblocks thrown up by entrenched fossil fuel companies and electric utilities. The report recommends aligning policy and finance:

To deliver a sustainable energy system for the long term, the financial community and policymakers need to work collaboratively: stimulating and de-risking investment, and developing innovative structures which can support the financing of future energy.

With that collaboration, the Middle East and North Africa could see this kind of energy deployment scenario: Continue reading

REZ-2015-02 Devine packet materials @ LCC 2015-02-24

Gretchen filed an open records request for all the natively-electronic materials from the board packet, especially including the list of the Commission’s own goals, but all we got was the one rezoning item, REZ-2015-02 Devine for the 23 February 2015 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission. At least they sent that much by email, but even so it’s missing important information that I wonder if the Commissioners noted wasn’t there before they voted.

New material in here, different from Continue reading

Videos: Dr. Grow, Devine, VLPRA @ LCC 2015-02-23

Dr. William R. Grow, District Health Director, presented about the state of the Health Department, and County Manager Joe Pritchard reported revisions to both the county’s Solid Waste Ordinance and the franchise agreement for solid waste were in progress. They ended by going into an executive session to discuss real estate.

For Parks and Rec Board, former Lowndes County Commissioner Richard Raines read a prepared statement, while Scott Willis, hearing specialist with Hearing Care Resources, gave an extemporaneous presentation, including that he was formerly on the VLPRA Advisory Board, and he’s been coaching children and working with the elderly. Commissioners had no questions for either applicant.

Tonight they’ll vote on a list of goals that is in their packet but they haven’t shown you the taxpayers.

Perhaps coincidentally, Continue reading

Tesla opening market for home solar batteries

Elon Musk’s recent reminder that Tesla is working on a house-sized battery has caused quite a stir, but not enough. Tesla alone isn’t the significant part: Tesla opening a market for inexpensive home solar storage methods is. And not all those methods will be batteries: also coming are capacitors, organic vats, compressed air, and water pumped up towers, for storage to car- and house- size to municipal- and utility-scale, all of which will drive solar and wind deployment even faster.

John McDuling, QZ, 30 July 2014, How solar energy storage could make Tesla much more than an automaker,

How lucrative could the solar energy storage business be for Tesla? Almost as lucrative as selling cars.

That’s according to Morgan Stanley, which this week Continue reading

Maps for Naylor Boat Ramp, Frank’s Creek Bridge, and Deloach Road @ LCC 2015-02-10

300x186 Naylor Boat Ramp aerial, in Maps from board packet, by John S. Quarterman, 10 February 2015 The three maps arrived by email for the engineering items in the Lowndes County Commission Monday Work Session and Tuesday Regular Session. The rest of the response to that Open Records request did not, so I’ll have to go back again to pick up the rest of it on paper. And the other Open Records request, for Continue reading

Videos: Devine tabled, Naylor boat ramp, no HB 170 or animals @ LCC 2015-02-10

Nothing was said about the GA HB 170 state tax grab from local governments, even though both school boards and the Valdosta City Council already passed resolutions against it. No citizens spoke about animals, or about anything else, not even in the Public Hearings, except for me thanking the Commission about the Naylor Boat Ramp.

The Devine Subdivision at Tillman Crossing was tabled at request of applicant to try to sort out continuing concerns about safety and congestion, while REZ-2015-01 Gramercy 2 and REZ-2015-03 Scurry Property, were unanimously approved. No citizens spoke for or against any of them.

You the taxpaying public didn’t get to see any of the materials in the board packet beyond the one-page agenda item forms, before the Commission voted last night, unless you were in the Commission Chambers or watched the LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session. The open records request for those rezonings came back with paper maps, despite my request for electronic format; at least the paper maps were in color this time. I asked again for electronic format, and will post them soon even if I have to scan them. The other open records request, for maps and materials for the engineering agenda items, came back with no maps at all, so I sent it back to be satisfied. Both County Planner Jason Davenport and County Engineer Mike Fletcher said they had never seen those open records requests, and they’d both be happy to email electronic copy if they were authorized to do so by the County Clerk.

All the other items were unanimously approved: Continue reading

Oppose reducing sales tax funding to local goverments –Lowndes County Board of Education against HB 170

According to Terri Welden at the Lowndes County School Superintendent’s office just now, the Lowndes County Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution against HB 170 last night. It reads in part:

WHEREAS, this Board urges the members of the Georgia General Assembly and our local delegation to strongly oppose any provision or measure to reduce allocation of sales tax funding to local governments;

Here’s the entire LCBOE resolution, which is quite similar to the ones passed that same night by the Valdosta Board of Education and the Valdosta City Council. What will the Lowndes County Commission do at its meeting tonight that still doesn’t even have HB 170 on its agenda? Continue reading

HB 170 would have a devastating effect on our community –Valdosta Board of Education

The Valdosta Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution against HB 170 last night and forwarded it to the local legislative delegation via email and on paper, according to Joy at the Valdosta School Superintendent’s office just now.

Not surprisingly, VBOE’s resolution looks a lot like the City of Valdosta’s resolution. Both were written before yesterday’s changes to HB 170, which still pit counties against cities.

The Lowndes County Board of Education unanimously passed a similar resolution also last night.

What will the Lowndes County Commission do tonight? And what will the Lowndes County Board of Education do Thursday?

Here’s the Rationale in the yesterday’s VBOE agenda:

HB170 has been introduced this legislative session. It proposes to remove the local tax on fuel and replace it with a tax at the distributor level which would be paid to the state. For Valdosta City Schools this would mean a reduction in revenue of approximately $1.8 million annually from ESPLOST. The total loss of revenue for the city and county governments and the city and county school districts would be approximately $12 million annually. If passed, this bill would have a devastating effect on our community.

And here’s the resolution: Continue reading