Tag Archives: Georgia

Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04

See for yourself the Tax Assessor response to local landowners, in these LAKE videos of last night’s meeting at Farm Bureau. Do you think there’s a problem? If so, what do you think we should do to fix it?

The attendees appointed Gretchen to take notes. Here are her notes, followed by the videos.

Accessibility is not about access, it’s about geographic location…. That was done by one of our appraisers on staff. —Chief Appraiser Silas Hrobar

Rural and commercial land owners got surprises in the mail in July when they received the updated assessments of their properties. Lowndes County Assessors engaged a contractor last year to help with the reassessments of approximately 10,000 properties. Rural properties were categorized as small (under 20 acres) and large (over 20 acres) but complaints were the same, inconsistent and confusing application of criteria.

On Tuesday evening, Farm Bureau hosted Continue reading →

The usual detour around Shiloh Road sinkhole

LAKE learned about this because the County Clerk shared it on facebook to her friends some of whom happen to be Gretchen’s friends. Maybe mighty Lowndes County can afford its own facebook page? 300x533 IMG 1545, in Shiloh Road Sinkhole, by Gretchen Quarterman, 4 August 2015

PLEASE SHARE. Lowndes County Engineering has closed Shiloh Road at Franks Creek due to a very large sinkhole. Citizens will need to take the usual detour. Please do not visit the area, this is not a photo opportunity. Sinkholes are unpre…

That personal Paige Dukes facebook post did not seem to have any corresponding information on lowndescounty.com last night.

The VDT took it as a photo opportunity. Adam Floyd, VDT, 7:27 am 5 August 2015, Large sinkhole swallows pond, closes Shiloh Rd., Continue reading →

Moody Family Housing doesn’t want to replace trees it cut down on Val-Del @ ZBOA 2015-08-04

2:30 PM today, should developers not have to follow code and put back trees on the unnecessary and environmentally hazardous Moody Family Housing on Val-Del Road? You wouldn’t know who this was by a pretty name like Azalea Commons, or an acronym like ACC Group III Housing, and only the board packet mentions Balfour Beatty, but it’s the same Moody Family Housing in an aquifer recharge zone that already had a sinkhole as admitted by a K Street lawyer to the Lowndes County Commission and told to them and to the Air Force by VSU professors that the Air Force proceeded to ignore in its environmental assessment and the Lowndes County Commission rezoned anyway. Staff recommend 20% “relief” from planting trees. How about the county get some relief from unnecessary sprawl?

They did provide a table of the trees they want to cut down.

Here’s the agenda, which is not on the City of Valdosta website, appearing here courtesy of Continue reading →

Videos: Building and billboard locations @ ZBOA 2015-06-02

June 2nd 2015, ZBOA approved Fairway’s new billboard request, and building location variance for Gloryhill Cowboy Church, both unanimously, 6-0. They meet again today at 2:30 PM (they didn’t meet in July).

They welcomed new ZBOA member, John Hogan III, who ran for Valdosta City Council in 2015, appointed to ZBOA by that Council 7 May 2015. Laverne Gaskins declined to be reappointed.

Here’s the agenda, from the City of Valdosta website, followed by the video. Continue reading →

Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04

Are Bill Gates and subdivisions really more important than agriculture or rivers or public transportation? Come to Farm Bureau tomorrow evening and find out what’s going on with the rural land revaluation. facebook event.

When: 7PM, Tuesday, 4 August 2015

Where: 3296 Greystone Way, Valdosta, GA, (229) 242-7876

By: Farm Bureau board member Buddy Coleman called this meeting.

What: Compare the Comprehensive Plan to this revaluation here (PDF).

Sprawl: sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin (Or at least big tax increases). PDF of the report by UGA Prof. Jeffrey H. Dorfman Lowndes County paid for in 2007, The Local Government Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in Lowndes County.

Who: At least some of the Lowndes County Tax Assessors Continue reading →

Nydia Tisdale wins First Amendment Award for her Citizen Journalism, Fighting for the Right to Record

Update 2015-08-07: corrections by Nydia, including a timeline.

Only a bit more than three years since the pictured incident, Nydia Tisdale gets some of the recognition she deserves.

Georgia Woman Wins First Amendment Award for her Citizen Journalism, Fighting for the Right to Record,

Georgia citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale is in the news again but this time, the story doesn’t involve her getting thrown out of a public meeting or arrested in a pumpkin patch.

Tisdale is being honored by Georgia’s First Amendment Foundation for her work in making public meetings available to the citizens of her community and for her dedication to keeping government open for everyone’s participation.

After getting thrown out of the Cumming City Council for videoing in April 2012, Nydia got Continue reading →

Who is on the Lowndes County Board of Equalization?

The lowndescounty.com list of the Board of Equalization (BoE) also is not correct, like their incorrect list of Tax Assessors. 300x388 LGS GCP Board Of Equalization Schedule-001, in Georgia Certification Program Board of Equalization Schedule, by Georgia Department of Revenue, 30 July 2015 but there seems to be no other public website list of BoE members.

Members

  • Jimmy Griffis, Chairman
  • Gelana Goddard
  • John Avera

Alternates

  • Wayne Ricks
  • Lanelle Rogers
  • Joe Clark

A new BOE member was appointed in late 2014.

I called Beth C. Greene, Clerk of Superior Court, and asked her for the real list, which is: Continue reading →

Who are the Lowndes County Tax Assessors?

This should be an easy question, but it isn’t. Why not?

300x353 W.G. Walker, in Rural land re-evaluation, by Tax Assessors, 14 July 2015 300x336 Mike Hill, in Rural land re-evaluation, by Tax Assessors, 14 July 2015

And the answer is a saw sales owner who previously promoted development in an agricultural region of Lowndes County, a realtor whose job is to promote development, and a preacher who previously chaired a board that wanted to take tax money from the county without rural citizens being able to vote on it. None of them appear to have any experience in agriculture. These are the people who oversaw the recent revaluation of rural (and commercial) properties that would drive development into parts of Lowndes County that the Comprehensive Plan says should be agricultural. Now I know all three of them, and they’re fine people. But perhaps some rural people need to ask them some questions.

The list on lowndescounty.com of Lowndes County’s elected Tax Assessors is not remotely correct: Doyle Kelly is no longer serving due to illness, yet he’s still on that list, along with Mike Hill and W.G. Walker.

Mike Hill runs Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ tabled, Naylor Boat Ramp and Sabal Trail CWTBH @ LCC 2015-07-28

The proposed MAZ changes were tabled for 90 days, they approved everything else, and welcomed new Utilities Director Steve Stalvey again, at the 5:30 PM Tuesday 28 July 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. Valdosta City Council Sandra Tooley didn’t fill out a form and so didn’t get to speak, but another citizen asked about the Naylor Boat Ramp (answer after the meeting: on schedule for this fall) and about Sabal Trail (answer: none).

See also Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ tabled + 2 small rezonings @ GLPC 2015-07-27

Once County Planner Jason Davenport admitted the MAZ ULDC text amendments weren’t ready (as he had indicated might happen at the same morning’s County Commission Work Session), and the Planning Commission recommended tabling it 4:1, the meeting was very brief, even with the SGRC Transportation presentation (which they weirdly heard after adjourning the meeting, even though it was on the agenda). The David Brown Melody Lane rezoning and the Ron Borders Bemiss Road rezoning flew through to 5:0 unanimous recommendations, with three Planning Commissioners absent.

The county rezoning isn’t on the County Commission agenda yet, and they will probably table the ULDC MAZ item at its meeting 5:30 PM tonight.

See the Continue reading →