According to
In the City this Week, Sept. 16-21
The Valdosta City Council meeting = scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 19 has been canceled. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Oct. 10. The Mayor and Council look forward to seeing you there. Click here for information about Mayor and Council meetings.
I guess you’ll have to get your entertainment elsewhere downtown this week.
From that same newsletter: Continue reading
They voted to put the
SPLOST VII Resolution on the ballot in November,
“to reimpose the tax”, with not even a hint of those
town halls that never happened.
They reappointed
Mac McCall to ZBOA.
The Proclamation
was for a boy who called 911 to help an old neighbor
who was trapped under a refrigerator
(nope, not for
South Georgia Pride).
And we learned that nobody has to fear arrest or threat
and everybody can speak their mind
in the Commission chambers; nevermind recent history to the contrary.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Citizen Anita L. Armstrong wants help with Gaines Lane,
but it’s a private road, and it would have to be paved to state
highway standards to get accepted into the county’s road system.
She spoke at
the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013.
I come before you again asking to see if we can get some help with our road. It is so bad and we don’t have the money. If we could get just a little help, maybe we could get it kind of straightened out so we could get in and out. The last bad weather that we had, we had to be pulled out of the road for at least five times. And each time that we pulled out, we have to pay someone to do it…. And we are asking your help.
Her problem is that Gaines Lane is a private road, not county maintained. To get it into the county road system, right of way would have to be donated to the county, because some years ago the county made a policy (try to find it in writing) that it would no longer pay for rights of way. Some of the landowners on Gaines Road have not agreed to donate. And even if they do, the county also has a policy (try to find that one in writing, while you’re at it) that it only accepts roads that are up to county standards, which means already paved to state highway standards. So basically unless you’re a developer, you’re not going to get a road into the county road system.
Ms. Armstrong spoke in the previous session, 13 August 2013, about garbage trucks damaging her road.
A Bess Armstrong 11 May 2010 according to the minutes:
Bess Armstrong, Gaines Lane, thanked the Commission for their help in assisting with road improvements made on Gaines Lane. Mr. Armstrong added that he needed some guidance on how to maintain the road in the future. Chairman Paulk stated that the credit should be given to Reames Construction, since the county was unable to work on the private road.
There was extensive discussion in the 23 February 2010 meeting, according to the minutes: Continue reading
In a surprise move, Commissioner Crawford Powell insisted
on showing the audience what the Commission was voting on
regarding extending sewer service for the Lowndes County Board of Education,
at
the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013.
8.b. Sewer Service Requested for Lowndes County Board of Education
Utilities Manager Mike Allen said LCBOE wants sewer service for Lake Park Elementary to help out their failing septic tank; he recommended Option 3.
Commissioner Crawford Powell asked for Option 3 to be displayed or read. IT Director Aaron Kostyu noted that if there was a copy it could be projected. Allen moseyed over to the table by the podium with a copy, pictured here, with transcript below.
Option 3) Direct county attorney to draft two documents: Continue reading
The invocation didn’t match what the Commission did
at
the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013,
or at many another session, for that matter.
The invocation included this:
…we can gather here and not have to face the fear arrest or threat. That we can express our opinions openly.
I guess Minister Commissioner John Page hasn’t heard of Ashley Paulk’s Greatest Hits which include a not-so-veiled threat of arrest right there in that same chamber Continue reading
The big surprise in the eleven-minute meeting
was they called up former
County Engineer Charlie Clark to explain the Utility Director’s
comment about making a profit on wastewater to Lake Park Elementary School.
Yes,
the SPLOST VII Resolution is to put it on the ballot in November,
“to reimpose the tax”.
So much for those
town halls that never happened.
Yep, it’s Mac McCall for
reappointment to ZBOA.
No Proclamation this morning, so
it could still be for
South Georgia Pride
like
Valdosta Mayor John Gayle refused to proclaim last year.
And they vote tomorrow night at 5:30 PM.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Presumably the SPLOST VII Resolution is to put it on the ballot in November.
So much for those
town halls that never happened.
I’m guessing the ZBOA appointment is for the finally-expired term
of Dave Kirk;
they appointed
John “Mac” McCall last December to the unexpired part of Kirk’s term,
so McCall would be the odds-on reappointment.
Maybe the Proclamation is for
South Georgia Pride
like
Valdosta Mayor John Gayle refused to proclaim last year.
Why do we have to guess what all those items are for, anyway?
Why don’t they just make the agenda items descriptive,
or, even better,
link the board packet items in with the agenda?
The two
For Consideration
items are more intelligible, but would still make more sense
with those board packet materials.
Here’s the agenda.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Flood control to keep water out of houses seems like a good idea,
but it turns out that it causes the flood control measures to keep
needing to be raised higher, and it encourages people to build
too close to flooding areas, plus
“rare and catastrophic events take place”.
Like the 2009 “700 year flood” and the
four or more floods this year
that have overflowed the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant.
In our case, there are also the issues of widespread clearcutting
and buildings and streets with impervious cover.
The local runoff containment requirements in the various local government zoning codes may be
like levees: “flood control
structures might even increase flood risk as protection from
frequent flooding reduces perceptions of risk”.
This encourages human settlements in floodplain areas, which are then vulnerable to high-consequence and low-probability events.Much simpler just not to give out building permits for flood zones. Or we could put medical buildings right next to a creek, assuming because it’s never flooded it never will….
Socio-hydrology: conceptualising human-flood interactions, G. Di Baldassarre, A. Viglione, G. Carr, L. Kuil, J. L. Salinas, and G. Bloschl, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3295–3303, 2013 doi:10.5194/hess-17-3295-2013, © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License.
Abstract. Over history, humankind has tended to settle near streams Continue reading
Magaret Ellen Hill is
Employee of the month, and
they rejected
the sidewalk bids
putting them out for rebid,
after they unanimously approved
the medical development to span One Two Mile Branch
at the Valdosta City Council Regular Session of 5 September 2013.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, and a few notes.
AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, September 5, 2013
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
- Opening Ceremonies
- Call to Order
- Invocation
- Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag
Awards and Presentations
- Consideration of the September, 2013 Employee of the Month Award (Margaret Ellen Hill, Main Street Department).
She helped extend Downtown Valdosta Farm Days by two months.
- Minutes Approval
- Valdosta City Council – Regular Meeting – Aug 22, 2013 5:30 PM
Approved unanimously with no changes.
- Public Hearings
Commissioner Franklin Bailey summed up the Dollar General proposal for Hahira:
There’s just a lot here we don’t have.
Hahira City Council votes tonight on the Teramore Development items, which are for a Dollar General (like the one in Naylor), as we discovered at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission Regular Session 26 August 2013, even though the agenda doesn’t say. GLPC recommended for it, even though engineering details hadn’t been done for water management, the site plan wasn’t finalized, and no solution was proposed for Dollar General’s corporate habit of using sidewalks for cart storage, among many other issues.
Planning Commission Agenda for 2013-08-26,
with links to the videos: Continue reading
