Tag Archives: GEFA

Packet: Proposed Annual Budget, City of Valdosta, FY 2025, for Budget Meeting 2024-05-22

In this Proposed Annual Budget for the City of Valdosta Budget Meeting Wednesday afternoon, 3-8 PM, there are two bond series, one refinancing, the other new, both for water and sewer improvements.

Apparently the city has previously financed more than $32 million in loans from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA), and last year floated a bond at a lower interest rate for about $22 million still to be paid.

Even more interesting, if I am reading it correctly, this budget proposes a new bond for $67 million.

Maybe the Valdosta City government is getting more serious about fixing their sewer system problems.

This is all in addition to the water and sewer improvements paid for by Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) line items, by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, or from other revenue; see below.

[Extracts, Proposed FY 2025 City of Valdosta Budget]
Extracts, Proposed FY 2025 City of Valdosta Budget

W&S 2020 Bond Series

  • Purpose: Refinance GEFA notes at a lower interest rate
  • Maturity Date: 2033
  • Original Principal Amount: $32,134,000; July 1, 2023, Principal Outstanding $22,264,065
  • Interest Rate: 2.29%
  • Funding Source: Water and Sewer Revenue Fund

Pending for FY 25 – estimate
W&S 2024 Bond Series

  • Purpose: Upgrades Water and Sewer
  • Maturity Date: 2054
  • Original Principal Amount: $67,000,000; July 1, 2023, Principal Outstanding $67,000,000
  • Interest Rate: 4.5%
  • Funding Source: Water and Sewer Revenue Fund

See page 49, Debt Service, FY 2025, City of Valdosta. Continue reading →

Packet: Lead Service Line Inventory and MCWTP Micro Screen, Lakeland Ave. Stormwater, New water wells @ VCC 2024-01-25

The board packet for tonight’s Valdosta City Council meeting, full of wastewater, stormwater, and trash items, is on the LAKE website, all 137 pages of it.

The packet includes some details about the proposed Lakeland Avenue Regional Stormwater Facility, which is item 5.c) on the agenda.

[Collage, Valdosta City Council Packet 2024-01-25]
Collage, Valdosta City Council Packet 2024-01-25

If you can’t attend in person, you can watch it on facebook live on Valdosta, A City Without Limits.
https://www.facebook.com/CityofValdosta

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Agenda: Lead Service Line Inventory and MCWTP Micro Screen, Lakeland Ave. Stormwater, New water wells @ VCC 2024-01-25

Update 2024-01-25: Packet: Lead Service Line Inventory and MCWTP Micro Screen, Lakeland Ave. Stormwater, New water wells @ VCC 2024-01-25.

Tonight’s Valdosta City Council agenda is full of wastewater, stormwater, and trash items.

[Agenda, Valdosta City Council, 2024-01-25 and Lakeland Avenue map]
Agenda, Valdosta City Council, 2024-01-25 and Lakeland Avenue map

If you can’t attend in person, you can watch it on facebook live on Valdosta, A City Without Limits.
https://www.facebook.com/CityofValdosta

Here is the agenda.

[Agenda, Valdosta City Council, 2024-01-25]
Agenda, Valdosta City Council, 2024-01-25
PDF

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, January 25, 2024
CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS

Continue reading →

Videos: Court * 4, Boards * 2, Sewer * 4, Beer, Computers, Pest, Fire, Grounds, Road truck @ LCC 2021-06-21

They spent the most time discussing the several court funding cash match requests, two weeks ago at the Lowndes County (GA) Commission Work Session. At the end, Project Manager Chad McLeod had updates on the Courthouse renovation and the Commission Chambers audio and video restoration.

Judge Golden, Accountability Court

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. The board packet is on the LAKE website, received in response to a LAKE open records request.
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-06-21–lcc-packet Continue reading →

Boards * 2, Sewer * 4, Court * 4, Beer, Computers, Pest, Fire, Grounds, Road truck @ LCC 2021-06-21

The biggest item on this week’s Lowndes County Commission agenda, for voting this eventing, is Grounds Maintenance. Planting some native shrubbery, flowers, and trees instead of all that lawn would reduce that cost.

Three sewage system items add up, for Whitewater Lift Station Control Panel Emergency Repair, Bemiss Low Pressure Sewer Main Replacement Change Order, and the $2,500,000.00 GEFA Loan for the Sewer System Rehabilitation Project. That last does not show up in the agenda sheet as BUDGET IMPACT, but county taxpayers will pay for it over time. However, proactive sewer system fixes are lot better than reactive sewage spill repairs.

Four courts in three agenda items require cash match. Plus a road work truck and pest control round out the dollar figures.

Cost What
$158,140.00Bid for Grounds Maintenance for County Buildings
$53,140.00Whitewater Lift Station Control Panel Emergency Repair
$48,307.21Compute and Storage for South Lowndes Data Center
$46,777.50Purchase of Fire Turnout Gear
$39,135.00Office of the Governor Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Accountability Court Lowndes County DUI Court Grant Award – State Court
$33,989.00Bemiss Low Pressure Sewer Main Replacement Change Order
$28,074.84Purchase of a Truck for Public Works
$23,557.16Lowndes County Accountability Court Adult Drug Court Program – Grant (Cash Match)
$10,000.00Lowndes County Juvenile Accountability Court – Drug Court Program – Grant (Cash Match)
$6,734.40Bid for Pest Control Service
$447,855.11Total

There’s a reappointment to Children’s Services and a new appointment to the Library Board.

And there’s a beer license, which brings in fees of $250 Off Premises + $150 Administration = $400.

[Beer, Lawns]
Beer, Lawns

Here is the agenda. The board packet is on the LAKE website, received in response to a LAKE open records request.
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-06-21–lcc-packet

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 21, 2021, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Roads, Water, and Taxes @ LCC 2021-02-22

Four million dollars in tax money discussed this morning, to be voted on at 5:30 PM tomorrow (Tuesday) by the Lowndes County Commission.

[Table: Four Million Dollars]
Table: Four Million Dollars

Yet their video cameras seem to be broken and I haven’t seen anything about paying to fix them or buy new ones. Meanwhile, Valdosta City Council started online through an iphone, and numerous other counties in Georgia and Florida have made their meetings accessible online.

Cost What
$1,974,139.00Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) Loan Application for the Lake Park Bellville Road Widening Project
$1,875,000.00 Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) Loan Application for Lift Station & Manhole Rehab Project
$219,000.00Approve Purchase of West Savannah Avenue and Briggs Street Properties
$168,880.00Purchase of Wetland and Stream Credits for Old US 41 North Widening Project
$59,500.00Contract with Condrey and Associates, Inc.
$34,024.64Request for the Purchase of Motorola Radios for Public Works
$19,167.00 Approval of the Solicitor General’s VAWA Competitive Grant Award
$10,195.00Approval of Hightower Road and Cooper Road Right of Way Purchases
$6,000.00GMASS Rural Land Maintenance Contract
$339.00Just Compensation – Right of Way Parcel 10 Hightower Road and Cooper Road, TSPLOST Project
$4,366,244.64Total

We don’t know where are the lift stations or manholes to be financed through a GEFA loan for $1,875,000, but I’d say that’s a good use of funds. Not so sure about the $1,974,139 for relocating utilities for widening Lake Park Bellville Road, because I’m not clear on why that road needs widening. I do wonder why sewer and drinking water improvements have to be funded through loans while road building gets tax funds.

Here is the agenda. The board packet is on the LAKE website, received Friday in response to a LAKE Open Records request.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2021, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Jury, Paving, and GEFA in Work Session @ LCC 2019-09-23

The Lowndes County Commission spent nine minutes yesterday morning discussing spending $124,454 and borrowing $1,734,000. They vote this evening at 5:30 PM.

The county has now gotten up to not just demanding landowners give road right of way to the county, but also condemning property if they don’t get it donated.

The longest item at less than two minutes was 6.d. Request for Professional Engineering Services Proposals – CDBG. As Gretchen remarks in the notes, apparently this is in support of Arglas, the Japanese glass products manufacturer locating on Rocky Ford Road.

Second longest was 7.b. Bid for a Breathing Air System for the Fire Department, due to a question by a Commissioner.

Below are Continue reading →

Jury, Paving, and GEFA in LCC Packet @ LCC 2019-09-23

Lowndes County staff are proposing to spend $124,454, according to all the “BUDGET IMPACT”s board packet: $48,500 for a Jury Management System, $1,469.00 for Condemning ROW for Howell Lane Paving Project, $3,500.00 (approx.) for Second Modification of GEFA Loan Agreement, and for the Fire Department $29,195.00 for a 1/2 Ton Truck and $41,790.00 for a Breathing Air System.

[Survey plat: Revised County RoW for Howell Lane]
Survey plat: Revised County RoW for Howell Lane

They propose to borrow $1,734,000 from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA).

The Lowndes County Commission discusses Monday morning at 8:30 AM. They vote 5:30 PM Tuesday.

[Project Budget]
GEFA Loan Agreement Project Budget

For the first time ever! Lowndes County has returned the board packet before the Work Session.

LAKE sent an open records request Tuesday, and the county actually supplied the packet Friday, with this note: Continue reading →

Videos: Grants, Budget, Tax, Bonds, Parks, Land, Water, Waste, 911 @ LCC 2018-06-26

The most interesting items were not on the agenda of the Regular Session two weeks ago of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session. The County Engineer had One more thing: Loch Laurel Bridge Work and Closure 7/16 – 7/23, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall reminded everyone the Georgia hands-free driving law was going into effect, and the Chairman announced swearing in of the newly un-privatized Probation Officers the following morning.

The longest scheduled item at almost 3 minutes was New Consoles For 911 Dispatchers, followed by Contract With Parks And Recreation Authority, because both had questions from Commissioners.

The two grant items added the previous morning, for Accountability Court and DUI Court, sailed through, as did the Francis Lake Lift Station Repair and the LAS Storage Pond Improvements.

Below are Continue reading →

Videos: KLVB appointment, Stafford Wright Road R.I.P., GEFA, pumps, and dollars @ LCC 2017-10-23

They vote today at 5:30 PM. At yeasterday morning’s Work Session, Commissioner Scottie Orenstein, the current Vice Chair, presided in the absence of the Chair. Chairman Bill Slaughter was in Atlanta on his way to D.C. The Vice Chair said what they were not going to cover until the Regular Session, which was unusual: 8.f. GEFA Loan Agreement. Also at the end he mentioned Citizens Wishing to be Heard is in the Tuesday evening meeting.

Below are links to each LAKE video, with a very few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda and the notes I put in that previous post. Continue reading →