Tag Archives: Evidence Based Associates

Videos: SPLOST VIII, Grassy Pond Sewer, and Hospital Authority funding @ LCC 2019-07-23

Five and a half minutes of the Regular Session fifteen minutes was on the county guaranteeing refinancing Hospital Authority debt, due to County Manager Joe Pritchard reciting what’s in the agreement, and Hospital Authority CEO Bill Forbes speaking, and Chairman Bill Slaughter thanking him. The agreement is in the board packet on the LAKE website from a LAKE open records request.

Citizen Michelle Williams of Hahira asked for a spay and neuter ordinance, noting Macon and Dalton have those already. County Clerk Paige Dukes praised Michelle Williams and other volunteers.

Second at almost two minutes was Continue reading →

Board Packet @ LCC 2019-07-22

For the first time ever, the county returned the complete board packet before the Lowndes County Commission voted on it! This was in response to an open records request sent Wednesday, so the statutory three days were actually up Monday morning. They emailed the packet Monday afternoon about 5PM.

Google Map annotated by LAKE to show the quit claimed part of Reed Road in magenta (this map was not part of the board packet).

All the dirt part of Reed Road, back from the old Skipper Bridge over the Withlacoochee River, to the entrance to Pine Grove Middle School, is what is being abandoned. It is possible to decipher this from the quit claims in the board packet for yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session and tonight’s Regular Session.

All the SPLOST VIII Project Lists, for the county and the five cities, are included; see below.

Everything the county sent, plus images of each page, is on the LAKE website. LAKE looks forward to the county putting all these packet documents on the county’s own website, along with the agenda and agenda sheets.

SPLOST VIII Project Lists

Valdosta Project List
PDF

Hahira Project List
PDF

Remerton Project List
PDF

Dasher Project List
PDF

Lake Park Project List
PDF

Videos: SPLOST VIII, Grassy Pond Sewer, and Hospital Authority funding @ LCC 2019-07-23 2019-07-22

The whole Work Session took eleven minutes, of which three were about the county guaranteeing refinancing Hospital Authority debt. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM; Gretchen will be there with the LAKE video camera. Update 2019-07-23:< Obtained in response to an open records request from LAKE, board packet is on the LAKE website.

Second longest yesterday morning at a minute and a half was the SPLOST VIII Agreement, for which it seems the list is already finished, finalized at a “public” meeting between the county and the five cities, which was not announced to the public.

Most of the bids for the Grassy Pond Sewer Connection were not in the board packet, we discovered due to a question by a Commissioner. The Abandonment of Portion of Reed Road is the bit to the Withlacoochee River, which they county says was “unopened”, which is a strange way to describe the old dirt road that used to cross the river on a bridge.

Below are Continue reading →

SPLOST VIII, Grassy Pond Sewer, and Hospital Authority funding @ LCC 2019-07-22

Not on Lowndes County’s online calendar, the county already met with the five cities about SPLOST VIII:

On July 8, 2019, Lowndes County met with the cities of Valdosta, Hahira, Lake Park, Remerton and Dasher to officially call for SPLOST VIII. As a result, the attached SPLOST VIII Agreement between Lowndes County and the cities has been prepared for consideration. Once approved by Lowndes County, the agreement will be forwarded to the cities for consideration during a public meeting.

Lowndes County on the previous SPLOST.

Will when and where for that upcoming “public meeting” be announced in advance? Where is “the attached SPLOST VIII Agreement”? Wednesday morning at 9:35 AM, I sent the county a Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request for the board packet for this week’s Lowndes County Commission meetings. By a very generous interpretation of the three business days GORA permits to respond to such a request, time’s up this morning at 9:35 AM. So far, the county has not even acknowledged receipt of the request.

The Hospital Authority, over whom the county has so little authority it has to Continue reading →

Videos: 2 KLVB appointments, lift station pump, 2 rezonings @ LCC 2018-07-10

Scottie Orenstein and Mark Wisenbaker were absent, so they barely had a quorum with three Commissioners: Joyce Evans, Mark Wisenbaker, and Clay Griner, plus Chairman Bill Slaughter, who does not vote unless there is a tie. Spoiler: they passed everything unanimously, except one item.

They took almost 2.5 minutes (less than the five minutes I predicted) on the KLVB appointments. Remember, Tracy Chapman asked for her name to be withdrawn. See previous post about the Work Session for that and what applicant Regina Kimbrough said. And see the agenda post for more about the applicants.

Slightly longer and longest at 2:49 was 6.b. REZ-2018-14 Coventry Villas, Mulligan Rd, followed by 1:32 for 7.d. Ordinance Adopting Current Board of Health Rules, which did not go as planned, and then 1:49 for the other rezoning, 6.a. REZ-2018-13 Sims, Beaver Lane.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: 2 KLVB appointments, lift station pump, 2 rezonings @ LCC 2018-07-09

They vote this evening on what you can see they discussed yesterday morning, in these LAKE videos of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session. They barely had a quorum. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall is never at Work Sessions because he’s at work, and Commissioner Scottie Orenstein was on some beach.

Tracy Chapman asked for her name to be withdrawn from the KLVB appointment. Regina Kimbrough spoke. See previous post for more about the applicants.

Longest at more than 3 minutes was 6.b. REZ-2018-14 Coventry Villas, Mulligan Rd, a rezoning for a planned development, in which Commissioner Clay Griner actually asked a question.

Third longest (after the KLVB item) was the 7.d. Ordinance Adopting Current Board of Health Rules, because of Continue reading →

2 KLVB appointments, lift station pump, 2 rezonings @ LCC 2018-07-09

This morning at 8:30 AM at the Work Session and tomorrow at 5:30PM for voting by the Lowndes County Commission, Vivian Miller-Cody wants to be reappointed to Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful, while Adam Floyd does not. Three people applied for that second slot: Tracy Chapman, Regina Kimbrough, and Travis Morgan). “Three applications… are included”, apparently in the board packet, but not in what is posted with the agenda, so we don’t know who these people are. I would guess Tracy Chapman is the Assistant District Attorney; that Regina Kimbrough is the second grade teacher at Sallas Mahone Elementary School,

City of Valdosta PR, 2017 Jr. Fire Marshal School of the Year, “Trey Sherwood of Valdosta Insurance Service, sponsor of the Jr. Fire Marshal program, presented the 2017 Jr. Fire Marshal School of the Year awards to Regina Kimbrough (left) of Sallas Mahone Elementary School and to Danielle Gibbs of Pinevale Elementary School.”

and that Travis Morgan is a manager at Best Buy, but I’m only guessing, while the county could just post the applications, like counties in metropolitan areas eleswhere do.

Jason A. Smith, Valdosta Daily Times, 10 April 2018, Volunteers work recycling event, Continue reading →

Videos: alias for Val Tech Road, Moody, Library, KLVB, DFCS, Construction Board @ LCC 2017-07-25

They actually spent the most time on the fire pages, but the biggest item was renaming Val Tech Road: they decided not to do that, rather to designate “a portion” of it as Wiregrass Technical College Way or something like that.

For two boards, KLVB and DFCS, they didn’t have an application for one seat, so they left it until the next meeting.

The meeting lasted more than fifteen minutes, so they’ll probably have to pay staff overtime! Below are links to the LAKE video for each item in the agenda, for yesterday morning’s Regular Session, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of hte previous morning’s Work Session.

1. Order 2. Invocation 3. Pledge
Video.
Continue reading →

Videos: Moody, Library, KLVB, DFCS, Construction Board, renaming Val Tech Road @ LCC 2017-07-24

Below are links to the LAKE video for each item in the agenda, for yesterday morning’s Work Session, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Preparing
Video.
Continue reading →

Air Force lobbyists, appointments to four boards, renaming Val Tech Road @ LCC 2017-07-24

The agenda still says 8:30 AM Monday morning for the Work Session, and they have only half an hour left to change it and still comply with state law.

In case anybody has forgotten Moody AFB is by far the biggest employer in these parts, the county wants to hire for $36,000 a year a pair of lobbyists to the Air Force: Parker and Lucy Greene, “to provide consulting services on behalf of Lowndes County to enhance relationships with the Air Force and Department of Defence regarding Moody AFB.”

Kari L. Sands (R.I.P.), VDT, 22 June 2007, Parker Greene honored with award, Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange