You might think these solar panels covered with snow weren’t generating anything:
But they are. Not much, true, but they are generating: Continue reading
Category Archives: Weather
Videos: Hurricane Irma, Register rezoning, Utility Authority @ LCC 2017-09-26
23 minutes last night to approve 3:2 with many conditions rezoning the 6c. REZ-2017-09 Robert A. Register Estate, with no shouting afterwards like there was at at the previous evening’s Planning Commission meeting, yet a lot of grumbling at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, especially since they seem to have forgotten the greenspace condition.
I would like to commend the Commission for the amount and depth of discussion in this meeting, especially in the unscheduled 10. Commission Comments and Recognitions and Meeting Adjournment, which was mostly about Clay Griner’s idea of having a county-wide utility authority including all the cities in the county. Update 2017-10-20: moved the rest of this utility authority commentary down to the video item below.
Also not on the agenda was Chairman Slaughter comments on community response to Hurricane Irma (which were mostly about county staff; well-deserved especially for Ashley Tye) and Georgia Power Representative recognizes county hurricane response.
While it’s great that Georgia Power came to compliment the county, does that electric utility rep. reside in or pay property taxes in Lowndes County, and why was he not required to state his name and address? Ditto the software salesman for Continue reading
Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission Regular Session @ LCC 2017-09-12
The Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission is cancelled. There is no notice of this on lowndescounty.com because county offices are still closed today and power is still out in parts of the county, according to Commissioner Scott Orenstein. He responded to an inquiry from Gretchen Quarterman after no county business numbers answered this morning.
2017-09-11 5PM Cone of Probable Path of Tropical Storm Irma,
National Hurricane Center, NOAA.
Lowndes County Emergency Management did include a notice of cancellation of yesterday’s Lowndes County Work Session in its PR of Continue reading
ZBOA cancelled @ ZBOA 2017-09-12
Today’s meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals is cancelled, according to Tracy Tolley, Zoning Coordinator for the City of Valdosta, in response to an inquiry from Gretchen Quarterman.
Hurricane Irma Wind Field History, National Hurricane Center, NOAA.
ZBOA did not meet in July or August due to lack of business. An agenda for today’s cancelled meeting is still posted on Valdosta’s website, which I am copying here, just in case. Probably most items will reappear on next month’s agenda. Continue reading
Hurricane Andrew was record-breaking, Irma is much worse
Seth Borenstein, NBC Miami, 8 September 2017, Hurricane Andrew Was a Monster; Irma Could Blow It Out of the Water: Andrew, “an incredible buzz saw giant tornado of a hurricane,” killed 65 people; Irma is much larger,
Satellite imagery of Hurricane Andrew (inset, at left) from Aug. 23, 1992, is digitally superimposed, to scale, over imagery of Hurricane Irma on Sept. 7, 2017.
Photo credit: NOAA
At the time, Andrew was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history with damages of $26.5 billion in 1992 dollars (about $50 billion in current dollars), according to the National Weather Service.
“The effect of Irma on the state of Florida is going to be much greater than Andrew’s effect,” said Continue reading
Videos: CDBG, Seago retracted, road crossing closures, CDBG, GEMA, and public safety radios @ LCC 2017-01-24
It’s great they’re talking early about the
CDBG grant for Habitat for Humanity and maybe some others,
but they can’t get any state or local grants until the county finishes
feuding with all the cities in the county about tax distribution.
They spent second most time on
the Kinderlou Road CSX RR crossing closure.
Seago rezoning was withdrawn by the applicant.
For Emergency Manager Ashley Tye’s report on tornado damage, see the
videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.
See also
the agenda.
Below are links to each LAKE video of the 2017-01-24 Regular Session, with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. Continue reading
Videos: Seago back again, road crossing closures, CDBG, GEMA, and public safety radios @ LCC 2017-01-23
Lowndes County had no fatailities or major injuries from the recent storm,
but our neighbors to the west and north were not so lucky,
reported Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye.
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM on
is no longer on
the agenda,
but not on the
Seago rezoning,
because the applicant withdrew it.
They can talk about
CDBG funding,
because of “all the circumstances”, namely that the county is feuding
with all the cities in the county about tax distribution,
and can’t apply for any state or federal grants until that is resolved.
They
adjourned to executive session to discuss litigation:
does that mean they’re going to sue the cities about tax distribution
all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court again?
Below are Continue reading
Seago back again, road crossing closures, CDBG, GEMA, and public safety radios @ LCC 2017-01-23
This morning at 8:30 AM
we’ll probably hear a storm report from Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye.
And back on the agenda for the third time,
REZ-2016-21 Seago, 4678 US Hwy 41 S,
still trying to buy a bit of adjoining land to get up to the minimum acreage:
see
the LAKE videos of the previous regular session, which link to all the previous stuff.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Continue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2017, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2017, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Videos: Water, VSU bonds, 3 road abandonments, 1 widening, MIDS bus, Comprehensive Plan @ LCC 2016-10-11
Two weeks ago,
County Manager Joe Pritchard announced that
Commissioner Joyce Evans is now serving as Vice Chairman,
yes, the
resolution to approve the VSU bonds
was requested by the
South Regional Joint Development Authority (SRJDA),
and
John Stevens is the new VDT reporter.
Citizen Shirley Moore said she’d like a connection to
county water and sewer.
They tabled the
Comprehensive Plan update, apparently because the Commissioners wanted to
“dig into it deeper”.
The rest was mostly approving what they already discussed the previous morning. They meet again Monday morning.
Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes, followed by a video playlist.
Continue readingVideos: Art, hurricane, engineering reports, VSU bonds, 3 road abandonments, 1 widening, MIDS bus, Comprehensive Plan @ LCC 2016-10-10
The Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and others already in the county
came up in the
Comprehensive Plan approval discussion, as you can see in these
LAKE Videos from Monday morning; they vote tonight 5:30 PM.
Stephen Spradley and Georgia Forestry were still helping after Hurricane Matthew, but Ashley Tye reported on evacuees, Chad McLeod reported on engineering projects including the Naylor Boat Ramp at the Alapaha River, and Angela Crance reported on an art district; actually Buddy Boswell did that.
They also heard about a self storage rezoning, three road abandonments, a road widening, the annual MIDS bus service renewal, and a county resolution about bonds for another private LLC by the South Regional Joint Development Authority (SRJDA), different from the one with the public hearing October 21st at a private law firm. What does the resolution say? It’s not in the documents with the agenda.
Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading