Category Archives: Valdosta City Council

Valdosta Wastewater presentation to Greenlaw, Save Our Suwannee, SRWMD, Hamilton Co., and WWALS 2015-03-17

Due to requests from Greenlaw in Atlanta and Save Our Suwannee in Florida, WWALS Watershed Coalition asked the City of Valdosta for a presentation on their wastewater situation. Valdosta presented less than two weeks later, and brought their entire hierarchy related to this issue, from the mayor on down. Plus Lowndes County, which isn’t even responsible for Valdosta’s wastewater, was represented by their Chairman and a Commissioner. Not all questions could be answered that quickly, but many were.

The slides are on the LAKE website and the videos are on the LAKE YouTube channel; see below. See also Valdosta’s Sanitary Sewer System Improvements web page.

At the meeting, clockwise from Tim Carroll (introducing), were: Continue reading →

Sugar Creek sewer main, permit, WWTP –VDT @ VCC 2015-03-19

The VDT has some information apparently from the agenda packet the city didn’t publish with its agenda for Thursday. Joe Adgie, VDT, 17 March 2015, City Council to consider revisions to radar ordinance,

Bids will be considered for the sewer main at Sugar Creek near Gornto Road and near the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.

The sewer main has become exposed due to ongoing steam bank erosion, and the sewer main has started to sag. The city said this exposure needs to be repaired sooner rather than later, as the exposure could lead to a failure, and could allow raw sewage to directly leak into Sugar Creek.

This would be a violation of the city’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit with the state.

The recommended bid comes from Garney Companies, Inc., for $286,000.

Other bids come from Continue reading →

Sewer Main bids and Wastewater Plant contract @ VCC 2015-03-19

Fixing wastewater problems requires bids and contracts, some of which are on the Valdosta City Council agenda for Thursday.

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, March 19, 2015
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail contractor yard at end of Valdosta Airport runway

300x388 Lowndes County, GA, next to Valdosta Airport, in Sabal Trail Contractor Yards aerial maps, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 20 February 2015 The same company that sued Lowndes County in 2007 to try to put a tall building above the 30-foot height limit in Valdosta’s Runway Protection Zone now appears to want to put a contractor yard for Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline in the same location. Will this involve any tall cranes? What about Moody’s flights off of that runway at Valdosta Airport? And what about those aquifer recharge zones?

Among the contractor yard maps Sabal Trail filed with FERC 20 February 2015, there’s this one: Continue reading →

Valdosta sewage into Alapaha River watershed three times in February 2015

Valdosta didn’t mention it and the Florida Department of Health doesn’t seem to know it, 300x219 Knights Creek in Valdosta, in Knights Creek, Valdosta, Georgia, by USGS Streamer, for WWALS.net, 28 February 2015 but Knights Creek is in the Alapaha River watershed. Valdosta spilled sewage into it twice in February. Plus that 16 February spill into Dukes Bay Canal also ends up in the Alapaha River. But never you mind, Valdosta also spilled into the Withlacoochee River through the usual Sugar Creek. Somehow I don’t think all these spills are not Valdosta’s fault. Seems like it’s time for Valdosta to finish fixing its wastewater problem. And since the most recent spills were due to rainfall directly on Valdosta, the levee proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers on Sugar Creek at the Withlacoochee River wouldn’t help, nor would it help at any time for spills directly into the Withlacoochee River at GA 133, nor for Dukes Bay Canal nor Knights Creek, which flow into the Alapaha River.

News Release, Florida Department of Health (FDH), 27 February 2015, Florida Department of Health Advises of Possible Wastewater Contamination, Continue reading →

Sewage spill not Valdosta’s fault this time

Not every spill is the city’s fault.

City of Valdosta PR, VDT, 18 February 2015, Sewage spilled into waterway,

VALDOSTA — An estimated 375 gallons of sewage dumped into a tributary of Dukes Bay Canal Monday, according to city officials.

A spokesperson for the city said the wastewater spill near Old Statenville Road and Arlington Ave. was the result of a manhole overflow at the 1100 Block of Old Statenville Road around 11 a.m. Monday.

The public is being cautioned 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 →

HB 170: counties vs. cities? @ LCC 2015-02-10

Yesterday a Georgia House subcommittee did exactly what Valdosta urged it not to do about distributing HB 170 funds. Given that LMIG mismatch between cities and counties to replace the previous mismatch of forced double taxation on cities and counties, is the legislature trying to cause dissension between counties and their cities, or is it just that inept? We know Valdosta’s position. What will the Lowndes County Commission do?

Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson wrote to bill’s sponsor: Continue reading →

HB 170 voted out of subcommittee; what will Lowndes County Commission do? @ LCC 2015-02-06

How long will the Lowndes County government and ACCG wait to act, while the Georgia legislature moves on its stealth transportation tax hike for Atlanta that would defund local school boards and city and county governments? A House subcommittee has made some changes to the bill, but it would still force local governments to raise taxes, and it adds an unrelated repeal of an electric vehicle tax credit to its boondoggle for trucking companies and Atlanta. Do we want our local public schools to be defunded like wildlife programs were through the state’s wildlife license plate revenue tax taking? If not, now’s the time to lobby against HB 170, before the full House Transportation Committee meets Thursday. Yet there’s still nothing about HB 170 on the county’s agenda for this evening’s voting Regular Session.

Valdosta has already Continue reading →

$12 million loss to local Lowndes County governments –text of Valdosta resolution against HB 170

Local schools would lose $4 million annually and local governments overall $12 million annually, 300x389 Resolution, in Resolution against million tax local tax loss to HB 170., by City of Valdosta, 5 February 2015 because HB 170 would “re-allocate local sales tax funding from local governments to the state of Georgia”, resolved Valdosta’s Mayor and Council last Thursday. Plus HB 170 would effectively authorize “double taxation of municipal residents”, because both Lowndes County and Valdosta would have to raise property taxes, which would result in Valdosta’s citizens being taxed more twice (by both the county and the city). For how serious Valdosta considers this threat to its ability to provide services to local citizens, witness how fast this resolution got passed (within weeks after HB 170 was introduced into the legislature) compared to how long it took for Valdosta to pass a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline (about eighteen months).

Here’s the complete text of the Valdosta resolution that passed 5 Febuary 2015. See also Valdosta’s PR about this resolution, which contains links to the evidence, and Valdosta’s letter to the sponsor of the bill.

RESOLUTION NO. 2015-3

A RESOLUTION TO OPPOSE THE STATE OF GEORGIA’S
TRANSPORTATION FUNDING ACT OF 2015 Continue reading →