In 2010, 450 people signed a petition to keep open
the road leading to Hotchkiss Landing on the Alapaha River,
according
the Lowndes County Commission minutes
for the 26 October 2010 Public Hearing.
Photograph by Brett Huntley.
Abandon a portion of Old State Road (CR 16), County
Manager, Joe Pritchard, presented the road closure for consideration,
adding that the engineering department had indicated twenty-five
vehicles per day on the road. Glenda Cofield, Mullins Lane, spoke
against the request, and presented
Do big box stores count as development? Are they worth millions in tax incentives and bond investments? Maybe we can find something better for local industry and jobs.
Rumors have been flying for years about a Bass Pro store coming to Valdosta, like this one on a Georgia Outdoor News forum:
01-22-2008, 09:05 PM, bear-229 ive heard the land has been bought. very close to the new toyota lot but it has not made it to the “new locations” on the web site
That’s on James Road, in that huge proposed development that Lowndes County approved around that time.
Both Bass Pro Shops and its archrival, Cabela’s, sell hunting and fishing gear in cathedral-like stores featuring taxidermied wildlife, gigantic fresh-water aquarium exhibits and elaborate outdoor reproductions within the stores. The stores are billed as job generators by both companies when they are fishing for development dollars. But the firms’ economic benefits are minimal and costs to taxpayers are great.
An exhaustive investigation conducted by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity found that the two competing firms together have received or are promised more than $2.2 billion from American taxpayers over the past 15 years.
What kind of investigation can you do in a minute and a half? –Chris Gay for Coroner of Lowndes County 1st Annual Reunion, South Georgia Semi-Pro Baseball & Softball League (Baseball), Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 July 2012.
Allen Lane is one of the two Democrats running for the new County Commission District 4 for the east half of Lowndes County. He spoke at a baseball reunion in Naylor, 14 July 2012.
When you cry, I'm gonna cry; when you laugh, I laugh —Allen Lane for Lowndes County Commission District 4 1st Annual Reunion, South Georgia Semi-Pro Baseball & Softball League (Baseball), Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Naylor, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 July 2012.
Demarcus Marshall is one of two Democrats running for the new County Commission District 4 that covers the eastern half of Lowndes County. He spoke at a baseball reunion in Naylor, 14 July 2012.
Invest in our future now or watch our kids leave —Demarcus Marshall for Lowndes County Commission District 4 1st Annual Reunion, South Georgia Semi-Pro Baseball & Softball League (Baseball), Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Naylor, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 July 2012.
At the Monday morning Work Session, County Manager Joe Pritchard reiterated that there would be a Public Hearing on Millage 5PM 24 July 2012. He added that the millage is “less than calculated rollback”, Two weeks before, at the previous Work Sessioni and Regular Session, he already said staff did not anticipate any increases in millage.
This time he added these details:
Millage
Recipient
7.31
Lowndes County
1.00
Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
1.25
Parks and Recreation (VLPRA)
9.56
Total
Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know whether the school board was only the unincorporated area. He got two answers: “yes”, and “it’s not the city of Valdosta.” Those are not the same answer, since people from some of the cities, such as Hahira, Lake Park, and I think Dasher, go to county schools and are taxed for that. I don’t know about Remerton. Valdosta has its own school system and its own school tax. All the school taxes are separate (and greater than) the county taxes in the table above.
Announcement of Millage Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012 Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 July 2012.
Somebody finally set the invisible clock in front of the Lowndes County Commission Chairman: for the first time in recent memory, they started on time, instead of four or five minutes before the announced start time. Even the old dog on the phone was surprised.
The whole meeting took about seven minutes long.
Note the Millage Hearing announced for just before the
next Regular Session.
7. Approved bid for CDBG construction. First County Manager Joe Pritchard clarified that the initial low bid exceeded the budgeted funds for the contract, and
as allowed by the Georgia statutory law for public works construction projects, the county negotiated with Quillian Powell Construction [the low bidder] to obtain the contract price that Lisa [Burton] has listed.
8. Millage Hearing 5PM 24 July 2012 –Joe Pritchard. The County Manager reiterated what he said in the Work Session that there would be a millage public hearing just before the next County Commission Regular Session, and staff did not anticipate any increases in the millage.
The Lowndes County Commission appointed people to four boards, approved a budget for next fiscal year, made some unspecified changes to this year’s budget, and demonstrated they could both stop speeding traffic on a rural road and put a cap on a construction contract! All this in one meeting, their Regular Session of 26 June 2012.
Budget, boards, and abandonment Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 June 2012.
Gretchen arrived early, but they started even earlier. That’s right, once again the Lowndes County Commission started a meeting before the advertised time. None of the names of prospective appointees to four different boards were listed in the agenda, and many of them didn’t bother to show up. Nor do we know what’s in the budget amendments.
So we have videos starting in the middle of the appointments.
6.a. Valdosta/Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) Nope, they already discussed that before the announced start time, so there’s no video.
6.d. Appointments to Lowndes County Library Board. If the Library Board has its members listed somewhere online, I can’t find it. Nobody showed up to speak. County Manager Joe Pritchard said Edward Rawls and Rabbi Elbaz(?) asked not to be reappointed, and Kay Harris is asking to be reappointed. (They didn’t mention that Harris is also the chairman of the library board and the editor of the VDT.) Names under consideration are [clatter, bang]. It’s impressive the ways Pritchard finds to be unintelligible even with his microphone adjusted correctly.
Our high schools and college graduates mostly have to go somewhere else, because jobs here are few and many of them don’t pay enough for a decent living. Should we not care enough about our families and our community to come up with strategies that grow existing businesses and attract new ones that will employ local people?
We need discussions and strategies that involve the whole community, going beyond just the usual planning professionals, to include all groups and individuals with information or opinions, whether they got here generations ago or last week: for fairness and for freedom.
The Industrial Authority focus group meeting I attended Wednesday was refreshing, because their consultants asked the opinions of people some of whom previously had to picket outside. The previous day, VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland said this strategic planning process was a long time coming. I agree, and while nobody can say what will come of it at this point, I hope it does produce a real Economic Development Strategy.
