Tag Archives: court

Videos: Surprise boat landing, MAZ, WWTP, tax lighting, civic center, court, insurance, hazardous waste @ LCC 2015-12-08

County Manager Joe Pritchard asked the Lowndes County Commission to spend the funds the citizens of Lowndes County approved on the SPLOST VII referendum for the Naylor Boat Ramp:

Motion by Commissioner Demarcus Marshall We are proposing for the purchase of 4.35 acres of property on the Alapaha River designated for the purpose of a boat ramp. You have the documentation there before you, the warranty deed. And as you are aware, this also reserves for an easement by the current owner, a proposed easement, and the appraisal is for $24,000, as is the purchase price, and that is the consideration for the proposed easement.

Commissioner Scottie Orenstein asked: Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ, WWTP, tax lighting, civic center, court, insurance, hazardous waste @ LCC 2015-12-07

Here are videos from Monday morning’s Work Session. They already met again to vote this evening. See also the previous Planning Commission agenda with the packet materials obtained by LAKE for the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) condition changes, the Moody Activities Zones (MAZ) changes to the ULDC, and the Orchard at Tillman Crossing and the LAKE videos of that meeting.

Here’s the Lowndes County Commission agenda, which also includes many other items, such as the obscurely named Execution of the Resolution for Hazardous Waste Trust Fund, which is about the closed landfill at Clyattville.

Here’s a video playlist:


Videos: MAZ, WWTP, tax lighting, civic center, court, insurance, hazardous waste
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 December 2015.

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MAZ, WWTP, tax lighting, civic center, court, insurance, hazardous waste @ LCC 2015-12-07

This morning at 8:30 AM, then for voting Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM, the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) condition changes, the Moody Activities Zones (MAZ) changes to the ULDC, and the Orchard at Tillman Crossing from the previous Planning Commission agenda are on this morning’s very long Lowndes County Commission agenda, along with many other items. Among them, the obscurely named Execution of the Resolution for Hazardous Waste Trust Fund is about the closed landfill at Clyattville.

See also the LAKE videos of the 30 November 2015 GLPC meeting, and this morning’s agenda is below.

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LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, December 7, 2015, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, December 8, 2015, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Ashley Paulk’s Guardian Bank sues Hahira

Hahira declared a moratorium on water and sewer taps in a subdivision financed by Guardian Bank, apparently in hopes of getting the bank to do something about a drainage problem there. Instead, the bank is suing Hahira, echoing a lawsuit the county is pursuing about a contract let when the bank’s Chairman was Lowndes County Chairman.

According to Stuart Taylor in the VDT Friday, Guardian Bank’s chairman said, perhaps using the royal “we”:

“We’re a little disappointed with Hahira,” said Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Guardian Bank. “We’ve actually helped them build up their tax base up there…Over the years, we’ve encouraged builders to be up there.”

Me, I think Hahira should have Continue reading →

Vermont Yankee may be next nuke to close

UBS predicts Entergy will close its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant soon: that’s the same Entergythat couldn’t keep the power on during the SuperBowl and that can’t keep Pilgrim 1 nuclear reactor up in Massachusetts during a winter storm (down 3 days now, for the third downtime in a month). A few days later, UBS set Entergy up on a quarterly earnings call to mention that Vermont Yankee had already been taken off the New England energy capacity auction, which would make it easy to replace. San Onofre still down in California, Dominion Power closing Kewaunee in Wisconsin, NRC terminated Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Duke closing Crystal River in Florida, and maybe Vermont Yankee next? How about we pass HB 267 to stop Georgia Power charging for cost overruns for Vogtle 3 and 4 and see how long before Southern Company stops that project?

Andrew Stein wrote for vtdigger 6 February 2013 (updated 7 Feb), In report, financial firm forecasts that Entergy may close Vermont Yankee,

In an investment research letter, the Swiss financial services company UBS Securities anticipates Entergy Corp. will retire one of its nuclear power plants in 2013, and it cites “Vermont Yankee as the most tenuously positioned plant.”

UBS representatives met with Entergy’s new leadership team on Feb. 1, the same day Leo Denault became CEO and chair of the board for the Louisiana-based company that operates the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

And that’s how a clean-broom new CEO often signals his intentions: by bringing in outside experts to provide him cover for what he already intends to do anyway. And this new-broom CEO is Entergy’s former Chief Financial Officer who as CFO has repeated fiddled with Vermont Yankee to try to make it less unprofitable. What did those experts say?

Continue reading →

Alcohol ordinance and license plus two road abandonments @ LCC 2012 02 13-14

What does a Community Corrections Director do? What is the proposed modification to the alcohol ordinance? We don’t know, because the county doesn’t post the details of agenda items, just cryptic shorthand that may mean something to Commissioners or staff, but that means nothing to the public.

At this morning’s work session and tomorrow evening’s regular session, the Lowndes County Commission has a brief but eventful agenda, including a modification to the alcohol ordinance, an alcohol license, a DHS grant a GDOT grant for a road project on Davidson Road (presumably related to the new Moody AFB gate), two road abandonments, and this interesting item:

6.h. Request from Superior Court to establish salary of the Community Corrections Director
Your guess is as good as mine.

Here’s the agenda.

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LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Filming of public officials

Two weeks ago today a U.S. appeals court ruled that citizens can video police. The actual decision is broader than that. It’s not just about police, it’s about “The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place”.

Quoting from United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit, No. 10-1764, August 26, 2011.

Page 8:

The First Amendment issue here is, as the parties frame
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
it, fairly narrow: is there a constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the affirmative.

It is firmly established that the First Amendment’s aegis extends further than the text’s proscription on laws

Continue reading →

Lawsuit against school charter surrender

In Tennessee, supporters of education decided to fight a bogus consolidation attempt.

Lawrence Buser and Sherri Drake Silence wrote for the Memphis Commercial Appeal 12 February 2011, Shelby County Schools files suit over Memphis charter surrender: Complaint says city shirking duty to kids; rapid takeover ‘impossible’

Shelby County school leaders have taken their fight against consolidation to the courts, filing a federal lawsuit Friday alleging that the city school board’s “irrational” charter surrender deprives Memphis students of their constitutional rights.

In the lawsuit, suburban district leaders also blast the city of Memphis and the Memphis City Council for supporting “the (MCS) board’s unplanned and un-thoughtful effort to abandon its obligations to the children of Memphis.”

Hm, I wonder if there would be legal grounds for this around here?

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How to bring a case to the Sheriff’s attention

Sheriff Prine was at last night’s budget hearing (his office accounts for more of the county budget than anything else). Afterwards I asked him how matters such as the complaints about the animal shelter could be brought to the attention of his office. He said that was a code enforcement matter, and if code enforcement thought it rose to a criminal matter, they would take it to Magistrate Court, which would issue a warrant, which would go to the Sheriff’s office, where it would be pursued.

Remember who code enforcement is in Lowndes County. Continue reading →