One month ago, the entire Lowndes County Commission Regular Work Session took eight and a half minutes.
Plus an
Executive Session for Real Estate.
Below are LAKE videos for each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. The board packet is on the LAKE website.
Neither of the two Valdosta cases at Monday evening’s Planning Commission Regular Session looks controversial, although you never know. Jon Nijem wants to rezone and then get approval for a Planned Development at 406 & 410 Baytree Road. And Pregnancy Support Clinic of Valdosta wants to rezone for office space at 2203 N. Oak St.
In Lowndes County, yet another Val Del Road subdivision, REZ-2020-03 Wetherington Property, is proposed diagonally northeast across the road from Nelson Hill, which makes even clearer why the county wants to pave Clyattstone Road, going from Val Del Road between those two west to Old US 41 North (see below).
![[Wetherington property]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/glpc/2020-02-24--glpc-packet/wetherington-property.jpg)
Lowndes County Property Appraiser,
Wetherington property,
WETHERINGTON FRANK L LIVING TRUST, parcels 0071 055, 056, 056A (not 55A), at
4154 and 4424 Val Del Road.
The subject property is in the watershed of Bay Branch, but apparently Continue reading
Surprisingly the longest item on this (possibly) longest-ever Planning Commission agenda was 5. CU-2020-01 Verizon Wireless, conditional use cell tower at Country Club, clocking in at almost an hour, accounting for almost a third of the more than three-hour meeting, and getting a denial recommendation on a split vote of 6:3:1.
Second longest at more than forty-two minutes was 6. CU-2020-02 Natalie Bailey, 4019 Forrest Run Circle – Halfway House, resulting in a very unusual unanimous recommendation for denial. The actual decision will be made at the Valdosta City Council meeting tonight.
Usually church requests sail through, but 13. HA-2020-01 Providence Missionary Baptist Church, 707 West Park Street, took more than sixteen minutes, largely to everyhone acting as a committee designing an access ramp which turned out to already be there.
Pete’s Otto had it pretty easy at nine minutes Pete’s Otto was previously at GLPC in January 2017 about establishing its business, and at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) in in July 2019 about setbacks.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the GLPC agenda. And the Valdosta City Council agenda for the meeting where they will decide the half-way house and other Valdosta items.
For unknown reasons, the Lowndes County Commission votes tonight at 5:30 PM.
By far the longest at this morning’s Work Session was 5.d. Lake Park Annexation and Rezoning of Register Property, running 14 and a half minutes.
Second at almost three minutes was the $99,700 jail software change order.
The 2020 Public Defender Contracts got a minute and a half, even though they are unchanged from last year.
The $789,567.21 Arglass Road Paving item didn’t even get a minute.
County Chairman Bill Slaughter took about a minute thanking the Commissioners for the recent Retreat; LAKE video to come of that.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item for this morning’s Work Session. See also the Continue reading
Postponed from last Thursday due to weather, the Valdosta City Council meets tonight, to consider some rather contentious cases from the Planning Commission, and to make a bunch of appointments, plus some bids for equipment.
Photo: Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE,
CU-2020-02 Natalie Bailey, 4019 Forrest Run Circle – Halfway House @ GLPC 2020-01-27.
This Valdosta City Council bid item is interesting:
4.d) Consideration of bids for a Trailer-Mounted Mobile Televising Unit for the Utilities Department (Bid No. 27-19-20 A).
Maybe with that Valdosta Utilities can see what’s happening with equipment they leave in a park overnight, for example maybe in McKey Park after today’s 200-gallon sewage spill.
Here is the agenda. It says February 6, but the Valdosta calendar entry for today says “RESCHEDULED – Valdosta City Council Meeting, Monday, February 10, 2020 – 5:30pm” See also Continue reading
A month ago at the Valdosta City Council we learned that Valdosta has a $2,410,000 budget surplus.
5b) Presentation of the Municipal Audit for Fiscal Year 2019
Maybe they could spend some of that to help fix the well and river testing costs downstream on the Withlacoochee River of Valdosta’s record 7.5 million gallons of raw sewage spill into Sugar Creek, which has taken two months to maybe finally get diluted down the Withlacoochee River, twice entering Florida, with three Florida river advisories, and with Georgia warning signs on the Withlacoochee River downstream of Sugar Creek by Lowndes County and by WWALS (but not by Valdosta).
One City Council member tells me that audit doesn’t mean Valdosta has $2 million cash lying around. But they do have several hundred thousand unspent.
Maybe they could also budget some of that surplus to help fix the stigma, the decades-long reputational damage to all our rivers, caused by Valdosta’s chronic sewage spills. That would involve for example water quality testing or paying for testing downstream on the Withlacoochee River and doing marketing.
Four Citizens spoke at the end of the meeting: Continue reading
Here is the agenda and a few pictures of the first Valdosta City Council meeting of 2020, including the installation of new Mayor Scott James Matheson and new Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Carroll.
A few City Council members were re-elected and took the oath of office again; none are new. LAKE videos will follow. Continue reading
Maybe it was “custom fit” that caused Commissioner Clay Griner to ask for postponement of approval of purchase of firefighting equipment until after the county’s retreat. All five Commissioners voted for tabling. More detail below in the notes on that item.
Bob Dewar has discovered the county wants an 80-foot right of way to pave Clyattstone Road, “What we do not want is a highway. It’s a quaint county road.” Well, that’s not why the county paves roads. More in the item notes below.
Everything else was passed with little or no discussion.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the Continue reading
Update 2020-02-10: Videos: Verizon Country Club tower, halfway house, and Providence Missionary Baptist Church @ GLPC 2020-01-27.
This may be the longest agenda ever for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, meeting tonight at 5:30 PM. Gretchen Quarterman will be there with the LAKE video camera.
Pete’s Otto was at GLPC in January 2017 about establishing its business, and at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) in in July 2019 about setbacks.
This time Pete’s Otto seems to want to spread down the street.
And Nancy Hobby wants to go “backwards” to E-A on 10 acres on Loch Laurel Road.
Here is the agenda: Continue reading
Not on the agenda, Chairman Bill Slaughter at the end of the meeting said Utilities Director Steve Stalvey had been testing water quality on the Withlacoochee River. On December 31, bacterial counts were acceptable. But on January 6, 2020, counts were quite high, so the county made and posted some warning signs at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line (GA 31) Boat Ramps.
Here is one of the county’s signs, at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp, with a sign by WWALS Watershed Coalition (Suwannee Riverkeeper) at the bottom of the other pole with Continue reading
![[Seldom seen this full]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/valdosta/2020-01-09--vcc-agenda/20200109_173017.jpg)