Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, you have handed, or were placed at your seats,
a revised alcohol beverage brown bagging ordinance.
There were some changes that came about, wording changes,
yesterday, after our work session.
Ah, that passive voice!
I guess it was the ordinance elf that made those changes and left paper
copies at each Commissioner’s seat.
The ordinance elf didn’t put a copy of that draft on the web where
the rest of us could see it, however.
Yesterday morning’s County Commission Work Session
started on time!
In addition to the open records and open meetings items,
it included a report from KLVB, two rezonings, typo fixes and date changes
in the ULDC, a vanity road name change, an alcohol license and an
alcohol ordinance change, a USGS river gauge, surplus vehicles,
purchase of a new fire truck, and more!
They vote on all this tonight at their Regular Session, 5:30 PM.
Here’s
the agenda.
Haley Hyatt videoed
yesterday’s Remerton City Council
decision about Strickland Mill.
Citizens pled, unsuccessfully, for it to be saved.
Then the owners made a surprise offer.
I will be there for about half an hour, after which I have to go video
something else.
Could someone else video the rest of tonight’s Remerton City Council meeting?
Here’s
the agenda,
which for some reason (I’m guessing City Clerk Rachel Tate not being available)
is a scan instead of a text-extractable PDF.
I’ve transcribed it below this time.
CITY OF REMERTON
REGULAR SESSION AGENDA
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
5:30 PM
Apparently the Lowndes County Commission has noticed the
new provisions of the Georgia Open Records and Open Meetings laws
that
VLCIA’s lawyer explained to the Industrial Authority back in May,
seeing these two items on the agenda for Monday morning and Tuesday evening:
5.a. Adopt Resolution Appointing an Open Records Officer
5.b. Resolution Regarding Review & Approval of Minutes of Executive Sessions
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Here are videos of the entire 11:11 minute 24 April 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. They time at 0:57 (before call to order; doesn’t count), 0:42 (mostly dead air), 0:33 (invocation and pledge: not business), 0:29, 0:37, 0:40, 0:10, 0:46, 1:09, 0:46, 0:53, 1:22, 2:08, 1:30, and 0:08: eleven minutes and eleven seconds total. And that’s including the invocation and pledge and the two citizens who spoke (3:38 for those last two). It would seem a good guess that the Commissioners and staff discussed more in the previous morning’s work session, but not really; you can see for yourself.
A Commissioner asked a question! Before they accepted a bid for mowing Bemiss Road, Joyce Evans wanted an explanation of the timeframe of the cutting of the grass. Public Works Director Robin English wanted to know work time or response time? County Manager Joe Pritchard and somebody else simultaneously said “response time”. Hm, how did they know that? In what open meeting was that question previously raised? Also, Pritchard demonstrated he could speak into the microphone and be heard when he wanted to. English clarified the response times quoted by the bidders, and Evans moved to go with the low bidder, which the Commissioners approved, unanimously as usual.
Videos, Regular Session Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 April 2012. Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Here are videos of the entire ten and a half minute 23 April 2012 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission. As you can see, these videos time at 1:01, 0:33, 0:44, 1:07, 1:45, 1:40, 0:33, 2:59, and 0:10, and that’s with a camera that stops and starts almost instantaneously. Those times add up to 10 minutes and 32 seconds. Is that adequate discussion for the county’s business?
Finance Director Stephanie Black said the county sent out an RFP for banking services to local banks. Three responded, and one was incomplete. The two complete bids were Regions Bank and SunTrust. Regions will waive charges with $6M balance; SunTrust will waive charges $2.8M balance.
On the FDIC charge, Regions will charge .135 per thousand dollars; SunTrust is waiving that.
She said that was currently about $3500 or $4500 per month. Commissioner Powell asked who they were currently using. Answer: Regions. There’s more in the video, and there was a written report the Commissioners were looking at.
Apparently the county’s own water isn’t good enough for Commissioners and staff,
Continue reading →
is owned by the county which wants to sell it off. Commissioner Richard Raines even read from Georgia Code the reason why the county could do that without putting it up for bids. If you did have any objection, or maybe you wanted to buy it, you’re too late, because a few seconds after we learned what it was, they sold it off. That was the longest item, at 1 minute and 20 seconds.
They didn’t mention that the subject property is apparently a splinter of a much larger 538.31 acre parcel, 0172 119, which is presumably the “land application site” they referred to. According to the 8 December 2009 minutes they use it as a hay field. After land application of what?
Continue reading →
A somewhat complicated agenda at Lowndes County Commission Monday
morning (Work Session) and Tuesday evening (voting Regular Session):
adoption of infrastructure for Laurelbrooke Subdivision Phase II, four public hearings
(a rezoning, a road abandonment, a beer and wine license, and a liquor license).
And these cryptic items:
7.a. Seminole Circle Property
7.b. Request from LCSO — GOHS Grant #2013-TEN-0077-00 & #2013-GA-0040-00
Your guess is as good as mine about the Seminole Circle Property.
If the Commission wanted we the public to know, they would have told us.
Update 2012 05 06: fixed the date in the title.
However, I believe that 7.b. alphabet soup translates as
Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO)
— Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS).
The TEN in the grant numbers makes me
wonder if those grants are related to GOHS’s
Georgia Traffic Enforcement Networks:
The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in cooperation with state
and local law enforcement agencies has organized regional Traffic
Enforcement Networks around the State of Georgia. There are
currently sixteen regional traffic enforcement networks servicing
all 159 counties in Georgia. The regional networks are open to all
sworn law enforcement officers and prosecutors and are designed to
enhance traffic enforcement activities through networking, training
and legislation. The networks serve as a catalyst for traffic
enforcement officers to voice their concerns and share ideas with
their counterparts from other agencies in their region. Guest
speakers and panelists have included state and municipal court
judges, prosecutors, legislators, MADD representatives, Public
Service Commission, and ALS judges.
LCSO participates in this TEN:
Southern Regional Traffic Enforcement Network (SRTEN)
Counties included: Atkinson, Lowndes, Berrien, Brooks, Clinch, Coffee,
Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Ben Hill and Tift.
Or maybe they’re just buying another
tank.
Or will the Commission require that
“surrounding counties could be persuaded to contribute” financially
like they did when refusing
an emergency vehicle grant?
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Other notable parts of this meeting were when
staff
said conservation status was a small detail and
and
Commissioners
proceeded to get rid of it in a rezoning.
Videos
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission, (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).