Category Archives: VLCIA

Videos: Office rezoning, Georgia Power, Alcohol, and road abandomnent @ LCC 2017-11-14

They added and agenda item for 7.p. Solicitor-General’s VOCA Grant Renewal; yes, really, the agenda was so long that’s sub-item letter P and the meeting was 51 and a half minutes long.

Longest at seven minutes was 6a. REZ-2017-11 Arrow Engineering, in which the County Commissioners ignored the Planning Commission’s recommendation to deny, and the County Planner’s observation the previous morning that the applicants would accept one acre. Instead they approved 2.5 acres with no conditions as Office Institutional (OI) in an area with no other instances of that.

At six minutes, 7.n. Georgia Power- VisionFirst was about putting $25,000 to hire an unnamed consultant for a joint project for unspecified results.

Update 2017-11-22: According to Chairman Bill Slaughter, the consultant is VisionFirst Advisors out of Tallahassee.

Did they mean the sinkhole-infested Mission Creek instead of 7.k. Grant of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Mission Point?

Five minutes included questions from the Chairman and resulted in a split vote and a stern warning on 7.i. Beer, Wine & Liquor License – Liquor Barn, 3990 N. Valdosta Rd.

One of the two road abandonments, 7.a. Abandonment of Lane Road and a Portion of Sheavette Road, got a very rare split vote, with Commissioner Clay Griner voting alone against.

Below are Continue reading →

Development Authority sells land for solar arrays

Next to ERCO Worldwide, one of the few tenants in VLCIA’s “eight industrial parks”, SolAmerica is buying land for a solar farm that will take up most of the rest of the Perimeter East Business Park.

Site Layout, East of Valdosta
Site Layout submitted by SolAmerica to VLCIA in 14 November 2017 meeting.

Jason A. Smith, VDT, 15 November 2017, Solar arrays planned for land,

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority voted Tuesday to approve the sale of 27.42 acres for $137,100 to be used for solar arrays.

Continue reading →

Update: Chemical smell, schools, and industry on Clay Road

Maybe ask the company that adopted Clay Road? Response yesterday from the EMA Lowndes facebook page:

Hi, as a point of clarification emergency personnel responded to reports of an odor; however, after thorough investigation no evidence of a chemical leak or release could be identified or confirmed. As a precaution, the Board of Education property was accessed by responders. No evidence of contamination was present. A follow up visit to the area later this morning reports the odor was no longer present.

Thank you, EMA Lowndes, for responding, and on a weekend, too.

However, people couldn’t get home that night.

ADM Adopt-A-Street, From Howell Road
Adopt-A-Street ADM, Clay Road north from Howell Road google street view.

I still think it would be good to check with nearby industry. Maybe start with Continue reading →

Videos: Bids for emergency road repair! Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage @ LCC 2017-08-21

Bids for an emergency repair! This could be a first, instead of their usual sole source approve-it-right now method. See the County Manager’s Report, in which County Engineer Mike Fletcher describes bids incoming from both Scruggs and Reames for temporary repair to Rocky Ford Road.

Below are links to each LAKE video of yesterday morning’s Work Session with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda with notes about appointments and millage. And see also the 5 PM today Millage Rate Meeting.

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Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage, cameras @ LCC 2017-08-21

Maybe the county would have enough applicants their Work Session, Monday morning at 8:30 AM, if they advertised for applicants for open board seats, such as on the Development Authority of Lowndes County, And if they posted the application sheets for the applicants they did get, such as for the Lowndes County Library Board, we’d have some idea of who they are. They could even say whether the millage is going up or down.

According to the agenda sheet for the appointment to the Lowndes County Library Board,

There is a vacant seat on the Lowndes County Library Board. The Board of Trustees of the South Georgia Regional Library System respectfully requests the appointment of Mr. Gene Toffolo to fill the vacant seat.

They don’t say who applicant Gene Toffolo is. According to the South Georgia Regional Library he’s a 2016 Friends of the Library Board member:


Front Left to Right: Kay Scott, Janet Toffolo, Mary Helen Watson (President), Merrilee Casady, Sarah Smart (Vice President), Robert DeVan (Treasurer)
Back Left to Right: Gene Toffolo, Patricia Marks, Riley Howard, Karl Osmus, John Swiderski (Secretary)

The county’s agenda and agenda sheet for the Lowndes County Library Board don’t say whose seat expired or maybe somebody resigned. The county’s web page for this board is no more helpful, listing these members and expirations, none of which expires in 2017: Continue reading →

Nature Nates parking and mailbox @ VLCIA 2016-11-15

5:30PM today, Nature Nate’s parking lot expansion and the never-ending mailbox controversy are back on the agenda for the Development Authority.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 5:30 pm
Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda

Continue reading →

Videos: South Georgia Alliance and BRAT @ VLCIA 2016-10-18

The Development Authority is twice as under budget as it is under revenue, and they expect tax collections to catch up in January. National Manufacturing Day had great local and national media coverage. Fussell Tire wants to build a warehouse with a non-coforming face towards St. Augustine Road; the board sent back a look askance. They’re also still feuding with the Post Office about mail delivery to Nature Nate, the only tenant in Miller Business Park.

Prospective businesses want to see communities that “have their arms wrapped around millenials”, including bike trails. Hm, what about water trails, asked WWALS president John S. Quarterman?

They lacked a quorum with Continue reading →

South Georgia Alliance and BRAT @ VLCIA 2016-10-18

Yes, the Industrial Authority is meeting today at 5:30 PM about BRAT, South Georgia Alliance, and National Manufacturing Day, before it meets tomorrow at 11:00 AM about VSU bonds.

Here’s today’s agenda:

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, October 18, 2016, 5:30 pm
Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda

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VSU Bonds Development Authority Meeting Wednesday morning @ VLCIA 2016-10-19

Why a day late and with no agenda?

Update 2016-10-19: Because, according to the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority last night, the meeting this morning is not them: it’s the South Regional Joint Development Authority (SRJDA). The newspaper apparently got it wrong.

Community Calendar, VDT page 12a, 12 October 2016, Upcoming: Development Authority

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority meeting at 11 a.m. October 19, Development Authority office, 103 Roosevelt Dr., Valdosta to discuss refinance of VSU Bonds, election of officers and all other business which may come before the Board at such meeting.

There’s nothing about that on the Development Authority’s Meeting Schedule web page (which lists a meeting “October 18, 2016” with no agenda Update 2016-10-18: that other agenda is posted now.). And nothing about it on their facebook page.

Could this meeting be about one or both of Continue reading →

Videos: Under budget but low tax collection, Nature Nate ahead, PO Box Woes @ VLCIA 2016-09-20

Authority under budget, Nature Nate’s ahead of schedule, USPS contentious, manufacturing week, and WWALS water trails: all packed into a brief meeting last Tuesday of the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority.

CPA Tom Davis said the Development Authority is under budget but tax collection is also slow, with no new funds expected until January.

Existing Industry Coordinator Stan Crance announced that Nature Nate’s is beyond projections, now up to 25 jobs and $3 million capital investment and needs more parking. They’d also like to move their postal mail delivery from a downtown post office box to a local mailbox. But Nature Nate’s is the only tenant of Miller Business Park, and USPS requires central box units for any business park. This would require modifying the roundabout “just in case any other businesses were to locate out there”. Some Development Authority board members found this USPS requirement to be a contentious situation, “worse than Continue reading →