Tag Archives: bus

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.

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Videos: 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

VSU bond resolution, 3 road abandonments, 1 widening, MIDS bus, Comprehensive Plan @ LCC 2016-10-10

Monday morning 8:30 AM, a self storage rezoning, (final?) Comprehensive Plan approval, three road abandonments, a road widening, the annual MIDS bus service renewal, an art district presentation by Angela Crance, a Georgia Forestry presentation by Stephen Spradley, 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.


U.S. Air Force Col. Billy Thompson, 23d Wing commander, expresses his gratitude to Continue reading

Public Transit Open House @ VLMPO 2016-06-28

Received yesterday via email:

June 28 2016 Open House Dear Stakeholders,

I am pleased to let you know that the Valdosta Urbanized Area Transit Implementation Study is well under development and it is time to share the draft recommendations with you and with the community. With your help, we reached over 500 members of the community through our online survey this Spring! The input has been very helpful in the development of the study and in fine-tuning our Pilot Shuttle Program which just received additional funding to operate through September of this year.

We will hold a Transit Implementation Study Open House from noon to 7pm on Tuesday, June 28 at the Lowndes County Judicial and Administrative Complex, 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. We look forward to Continue reading

Live Oak bus service starts Monday 2015-07-20

How come Live Oak (pop. 6,974) in Suwannee County (43,734), Florida can do what mighty Valdosta (56,481) in Lowndes County (112,916), Georgia can’t?

Amber Vann, Suwannee Democrat, 17 July 2015, Live Oak bus route starts Monday,

The Suwannee Valley Transit Authority’s Live Oak bus route will begin operating on Monday, July 20, running continuously from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. throughout every direction of the city, Monday through Friday. The route’s unofficial stops include apartment complexes and other residential neighborhoods, public schools, grocery stores, parks, government offices, nursing homes, the library and the hospital.

The route starts at the intersection of Walker Avenue and US 90 West Continue reading

Green corridors are good for people, business, plants, and animals

Some of this is happening locally: Valdosta is planting trees along Hill Avenue, Lowndes County is building Naylor Park with a boat ramp that will be part of the Alapaha River Water Trail and VLPRA has long been thinking about a blueway on the Withlacoochee River, where it already has a string of parks and ramps. Valdosta has the Azalea City Trail across several parks and VSU. Imagine if that Trail extended a little farther on each end, connecting the Withlacoochee River and the Alapaha River: a greenway between two blueways. Imagine if Lowndes County planted trees in that concrete median in Bemiss Road. Imagine a bus running down that parkway….

Janice Astbury, the nature of cities, 29 March 2015, Green Transport Routes Are Social-Cultural-Ecological Corridors,

…natural corridors do not appear on the standard online GPS systems that people increasingly use to plan their routes. In other cases, the path is suddenly interrupted by infrastructure hostile to pedestrians and cyclists. It is clear that green and active transport routes are an afterthought, an add-on, rather than a core part of the city’s transport strategy.

Local government should invest in developing and maintaining the natural connective tissue of the city. In the same way that significant investment is made in arterial roads because they are believed to serve everyone and to connect up vital places, so inviting connective green infrastructure should be supported. The canals, footpaths, and cycleways that provide routes for active transport should appear prominently on maps and signage. Whole systems should be indicated when possible, even when portions of them are currently inaccessible, in order to enhance system understanding, and to encourage thinking about connecting up fragmented corridors.

Few people complain when a county or city spends millions of dollars on Continue reading

Videos: Leadership Lowndes, rezonings approved, one citizen about a Water Trail @ LCC 2015-03-10

Leadership Lowndes Class of 2015 was there, and Gretchen Quarterman spoke about the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Conference. Everything else went as predicted with the rezonings and pretty much everything else unanimously approved, at the Tuesday 10 October 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

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Videos: Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

These videos are of yesterday morning’s Work Session, and they’re voting right now on the annual grant paperwork for the county’s on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., on a commercial and a subdivision rezoning, both previously recommended unanimously by the Planning Commission. Plus they will accept Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer. They will declare at least two Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes on the board of the hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC), before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a Resolution to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC. We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual the county only published the agenda sheets for each agenda item, without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

Judge H. Arthur McLane spoke yesterday about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings.

Tonight they have Citizens Wishing to Be Heard on the agenda.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system.

Below are links to the LAKE videos from Monday morning, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

The county has an on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., and they’re doing the annual grant paperwork. Judge H. Arthur McLane will speak this morning about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings. Tuesday the County Commission will decide the rezonings, one commercial and one subdivision, previously recommended unanimously by the Planning Commission: will they discuss the poor people they’re displacing, unlike the Planning Commission? Plus they will accept Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer. They will declare at least two Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes on the board of the hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC), before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a Resolution to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC. We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual the county only published the agenda sheets for each agenda item, without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system. Continue reading

Board Packet @ LCC 2014-11-11

Here is the board packet for the 11 November 2014 Regular Session and 10 November 2014 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Although the County Clerk once again provided this packet only on paper and only in black and white, we got via CD-ROM color maps for REZ-2014-17 Grand Bay Estates and REZ-2014-18 White from County Planner Jason Davenport in response to a separate Open Records Request. The request to the County Clerk also asked for electronic copy, but once again she chose not to honor that part of the request.

But who can say? Perhaps things will be different after the Open Government Symposium this Friday, 21 November 2014.

Meanwhile, I have already filed an Open Records Request for the board packet for the next County Commission meeting, which is in December.

-jsq