What do you the citizens want Lowndes County to be?
Here’s a chance to speak up, so when somebody asks where were you when
the decisions were being made, you don’t have to answer “lying on the couch
watching television.” (Thanks to Nolen Cox for that phrase.)
My office is conducting a survey and gathering public input on
Facebook (go to
www.facebook.com/valdostalowndesmpo) about what they
want the Lowndes County Common Community Vision to be
(
www.bit.ly/LowndesCCV). So far our participation has been low. I am
calling on all of you to encourage your friends, family and
colleagues to spread the word and let us know what you think about
the future of Lowndes County and its cities.
Over the next two months there will be future opportunities for
public input so stay tuned.
Regional Bicycle Workshop On Monday, June 10, 2013, from 2 p.m. to 4
p.m. the Southern Georgia Regional Commission will host a Regional
Bicycle Workshop to discuss local bicycle infrastructure planning
and safety efforts.
Bicycling is becoming a more popular mode of transportation
throughout the nation and here in Southern Georgia. Our pleasant
climate and relatively flat landscape makes bicycling popular for
both commuting and recreation. Individuals of all ages are bicycling
more for various reasons, whether it be to save money on gas, to get
to work or the store, for exercise, or to go see a friend across
town.
This event will feature speakers on the topics of challenges to
building bicycle friendly infrastructure, bicycle safety and how our
communities can be healthy, happy, wealthy and wise when it comes to
bicycling. Brent Buice, from Georgia Bikes! will help lead a
discussion on what our communities can do to become more bicycle
friendly.
To RSVP for this event, please contact Corey Hull at chull@sgrc.us
or at 229-333-5277.
Received 1 June 2012 about the
22 May 2012 VLMPO Open House at SGRC.
The “Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP, is the short-range
plan approved by the VLMPO Policy Committee that allows federal funds
to be spent on various transportation projects in the region.”
-jsq
I attended the transportation plan open house on the day that anyone could
come from early morning until 7:00 PM and when I went at 5, I was only the
sixth person who had been there all day. Corey Hull showed me and four
other people the plan, answered our questions, explained the difference
between this long term plan and the TSPLOST and there was a discussion about
how one might go about becoming a bus services provider in the area. The
amount of money allocated to the city of Valdosta for transportation is not
an amount that is near what a bus system would cost, so there still will
have to be other funds available to make that possible. Even though our
group brought the attendance for the day up to 10 citizens, it was a huge
improvement over the last open house, when NO ONE showed. Corey Hull was
very helpful and had a lot of information that probably would have been
fascinating to others if they had attended, but once again there was
virtually no input.
-Jane F. Osborn, MSSW
Valdosta, GA
229-630-0924
According to
projects submitted for T-SPLOST,
a bus system would cost about $7.5 million (startup and a few years run-time),
but that got cut first pass, while $12 million for widening one road
is still in the T-SPLOST list.
I’m told that public transportation is not an issue around here.
If people think it is, maybe they should show up at meetings
like the one SGRC organized about the other transportation plan
and say they want a bus system.
And finally, beware! Most of the discussion in these videos is about specific lists of non-discretionary projects. There’s also 25% of the T-SPLOST money that could be spent on discretionary projects, which are already being specified by the local governments,
and which may include many of the same projects that were on the original unconstrained project list but got bumped off the constrained list.
Videos T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), Corey Hull, Travis Harper, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Larry Hanson, Valdosta City Manager, asked for the regional council to reconsider aviation projects, especially considering that the tax was supposed to be for projects of regional significance. Then he pointed out
Out of that $503 million about 40% of it or $212 million is projected to be generated here in Lowndes County. And when you look at what's being returned, for instance to the city of Valdosta, it's $47 million. It is certainly one thing to be a donor, but that's a pretty substantial donor.
He said he appreciated all the other counties, but much of the money would go to counties that are not contiguous to Lowndes County and are not part of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes the four counties of Lowndes, Brooks, Lanier, and Echols. He continued:
Lowndes County is about 26% of the region's population and we generate about 38% of the revenue, and we're not quite getting that back in terms of the distribution.
You may wonder why a City of Valdosta official was speaking for Lowndes County. County Manager Joe Pritchard was there at the start of the meeting, and I think County Engineer Mike Fletcher was, as well. County Chairman Ashley Paulk came in late and summoned Pritchard and Fletcher outside the glass doors of the meeting room. They stood there for quite some time, peering in, and then vanished.
Aviation Projects, and Valdosta is a substantial donor –Larry Hanson @ T-SPLOST 2011-09-19 T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), Corey Hull, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
I asked why the Old US 41 North widening project changed from $8 million on the unconstrained list to $12 million on the constrained list, an increase of $4 million or 50% when the description did not change?
The answer indicates GDOT and local governments want to drive development north in the county, leaving pedestrians and bicyclists stranded yet having to pay.
Corey Hull responded:
Halfway through we received new cost estimates….
GDOT did the cost estimates, in cooperation with the local government that was responsible for that.
A state employee told me after the meeting that GDOT raised some estimates because it thought the local government, in this case the Lowndes County Commission and staff, didn’t put in enough to cover the project. I don’t know whether GDOT was figuring by Atlanta costs or not…. At least the cost didn’t go up further in the final project list; I just checked and it’s still $12 million.
Corey elaborated that some projects increased and some decreased. I asked him which ones did which. He said he’d have to go back and compare. Later he helped me produce a list of comparisons of costs of Lowndes County projects, which shows that one went down by 30% and three went up by 50% or more. One, RC11-000099 St. Augustine at Norman Intersection Improvements, went up by 131.5%.
That $12 million for widening less than 3 miles of one road is more than one item that was in the unconstrained list but cut from the constrained list: $7.5 million for a bus system, with three bus lines that would connect Wiregrass Tech, Five Points, Downtown, Moody, East Side, South Side, West Side, and the Mall. A bus system recommended by the Industrial Authority’s Community Assessment to aid in employee attendance, industry recruitment, and workforce.
You could probably even start up a substantial commuter rail system using existing freight line tracks for less than $12 million. Even though GDOT apparently only believes in roads and bridges, busses and trains are actually more cost-effective, especially for lower-income people. The same lower-income people who will be disproportionately taxed by T-SPLOST as a percentage of their income.
Instead, the description for the Old US 41 North project admits the county is driving
Continue reading →
Roy Taylor pointed out gas taxes are higher in Florida, and:
The people who use the gas pay the tax.
Then he told a story about a woman he knows who can't afford T-SPLOST.
Yes, he seemed to be proposing a gasoline tax to pay for transportation projects, an idea which I've been floating for some time. That's how Eisenhower paid for the Interstate Highway System: gasoline and diesel fuel taxes.
Gasoline tax? —Roy Taylor T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), Corey Hull, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Maybe you’d like to know what are the T-SPLOST projects and how much they cost, so you can decide whether you think the tax is worth it (in addition to all the other considerations). That can take some work. Here’s an example.
Gretchen Quarterman wanted to know what the money was going for, with an example:
…at Gornto. That's a total of 5 million dollars! I'm having trouble imagining what you could do for $5 million in that one block. Do you have to buy the new McDonald's that they're building? I mean what are we doing there?
Corey Hull said he didn't know, since at that time many of the projects didn't actually have plans. See the next post for what eventually happened with that one.
Five million dollars for one intersection? —Gretchen Quarterman T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), Corey Hull, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Not a special Local tax: it's a Regional tax –Nolen Cox T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), Corey Hull, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
What do you the citizens want Lowndes County to be?
Here’s a chance to speak up, so when somebody asks where were you when
the decisions were being made, you don’t have to answer “lying on the couch
watching television.” (Thanks to Nolen Cox for that phrase.)
( www.bit.ly/LowndesCCV). So far our participation has been low. I am calling on all of you to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to spread the word and let us know what you think about the future of Lowndes County and its cities.
