Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

County Public Hearing on Comprehensive Plan

Tuesday the Lowndes County Commission finally held the missing public hearing about the Comprehensive Plan, and it was pretty painless: only one citizen spoke, and she spoke for. If they’d held it two months ago like all the local cities did, they wouldn’t now be risking not getting state or federal grants because they may not be certified. They still didn’t distribute the draft STWP and ROA before the hearing as the state requires them to do, so they could still be in trouble with the state. However, at least they reset their timeline and held the hearing. That’s a step towards transparency as defined by the state guidelines the county already agreed in writing to follow.

Commissioners had as much to say as they did at the Work Session Monday morning: nothing.

The one citizen, Gretchen Quarterman, said:

I’m a super fan of planning, and I’m a fan of the Comprehensive Plan. I think that if we don’t know where we are going, and we don’t have a plan on how we’re gonna get there, we’re not gonna get there. And the five year plan that tells us exactly what we’re going to in the next five years to get to our 2030 plan is a groovy idea. So that part I’m in favor of. I’ve been over this document pretty thoroughly with Jason, and I still have some questions outstanding which I’m sure that they’ll get resolved. He’s been super helpful.

The one thing I talked to Mr. Raines about and I would encourage the other Commissioners to consider is that in section 4.5.1, at least that’s what I have it on my document. Investigate

Continue reading →

About the audio, and thanks to Aaron Kostyu

Answering part of Barbara Stratton’s questions, the audio access was part of the award the Commission gave LAKE for blogging questions like yours. You may know it as a bill of attainder. When the commission moved to the palace, we tried sitting in several locations and found that the front couple of rows, near the edges have the best sound. When we were banished to the back corner, we found the audio on the recordings was nearly inaudible. Perhaps our readers and listeners noticed that too.

When we mentioned the poor audio quality to Aaron Kostyu, Director of Technology, he informed us of the possibility of a direct microphone feed in the “media nook” (to the right of the door as you go in) to a properly equipped camera. He even showed Gretchen a camera that had the proper features. A bit of shopping later, we purchased a Canon HFR21 that appears to have many of the features needed for effective recording of these meetings.

Because the “media nook” speaker output had never been used before Monday, Continue reading →

I feel we are selectively being left out of the process. —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Videos for Lowndes County Commission 13 December 2011. -jsq
These videos are fantastic & I love the sequential playlist. How did you get permission to connect to the county microphones? Thanks to both of you, John & Gretchen, we citizens who can’t make all the numerous meetings have excellent access to view the proceedings. I need info on the new camera please.

I have a question. Since all meetings are open to the public & all information is accessible by open record requests why do the various entities have a habit of not publically answering questions related to money amounts publically? Very often I have noticed all local government entities share a habit of referring money & budget amounts and/or bid questions to the packets each member has in front of them instead of vocalizing them. Since the public attendees do not have access to this information I feel we are selectively being left out of the process. Citizens should not have to process & fund open record requests for information that should be part of the public meeting. Since you have more experience with local entities can you explain this practise?

-Barbara Stratton

Videos for Lowndes County Commission 13 December 2011

Here are videos for the entire Lowndes County Commission Regular Session of Tuesday 13 December 2011. Gretchen took these using a new camera with fast stop-start, high zoom, and taking audio input directly from the county’s own microphones. How do you like it?

See also the previously-posted agenda and the videos of Monday morning’s Work Session.

Here’s the playlist:


Videos for Lowndes County Commission 13 December 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

8.a. Ankle Monitoring System —Joe Pritchard @ LCC 12 December 2011

County Manager Joe Pritchard briefly described agenda item
8.a. Ankle Monitoring System
He said it would permit jail inmates to serve some of their time outside the jail. He mentioned early discussions with Commissioners Joyce Evans and Richard Raines, and said it started related to drug court, but the idea had expanded. He recommended the board approve the County Manager working with the judges to organize the monitoring.

Chairman (and former Sheriff) Ashley Paulk remarked that this could lower the jail population. He seemed to be in favor of it.

Sheriff Chris Prine had some concerns that were hard to hear, but seemed to be related to budget.

Pritchard indicated that everybody realized the program was an experiment, and everyone would work with the Sheriff to avoid any unnecessary impact.

Commissioner Raines also reassured the Sheriff along the same lines.

They vote on it tonight, 5:30 PM.

Here’s the video:


8.a. Ankle Monitoring System –Joe Pritchard @ LCC 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Commissioners Uncommunicative on Comprehensive Plan @ LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011

The Commission started early, and they were already into agenda item
7.a. REZ-2011-16 South Beach Commercial, US Hwy 41 South R-10 & TLA to C-G, ~1.7 acres
when this video started. Then they moved right into
7.b. Lowndes County – Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan Updates — Resolution to Transmit
As you can see, County Planner Jason Davenport had little to say about that (mostly that this draft isn’t the final version; they’ll revise it some time next year after they hear back from the state), and the Commissioners even less (they said nothing), at Monday morning’s Work Session. Tonight at 5:30 PM they vote on sending these materials to the state. If you want to know what’s in these documents, see Gretchen’s writeups The actual documents are on the LAKE web site. LAKE obtained them from elsewhere after the county refused to honor an open records request. The Chairman told Gretchen yesterday that those versions were “close enough” to what they’re going to vote on tonight.

Here’s the video:


Comprehensive Plan @ LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Videos of LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011, and Regular Session tonight

Videos from Monday morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission are here. The previously-skipped hearing related to the Comprehensive Plan is on the agenda for tonight’s Regular Session, 5:30 PM at the county palace, 327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor.

These videos of Monday morning’s work session start some way into the agenda, because they started about five minutes early. Here are the videos.


Videos of LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

No Private Prisons at CCA headquarters, Nashville, TN, 10 December 1011

Visiting CCA HQ in Nashville, Tennessee the other day, Gretchen said:
Here we are at CCA, Corrections Corporation of America. They think that they’re patriotic; they have a U.S. flag. And they have a Corrections Corporation of America flag and it says Excellence in Corrections. We don’t think too much of private prisons.
No private prisons.
No CCA.
Here’s the video.

You can help stop CCA right here at home. We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead. Follow this link to petition the Industrial Authority.

-jsq

ZBOA decides to publish agendas and minutes on Valdosta website

The Zoning Board of Appeals decided unanimously at its 6 December 2011 meeting to publish its agendas and minutes on the City of Valdosta’s website. This item was not on the agenda, but members of such a board can make motions anyway. Member Gretchen Quarterman suggested it. Valdosta City Planner Matt Martin said they could do it no problem. Discussion ensued. They all agreed to post agends before their meetings, and to post minutes after they are approved (usually at the next meeting, a month later). Maybe other local boards and authorities will follow this example.

Left to right: Laverne Gaskins (V), Gretchen Quarterman (L), Paul Alvarado (V), Allan Strickland, Chair (V), Nancy Hobby (V), Dave Kirk (L), Carmella Braswell (Lowndes County Zoning Administrator), Matt Martin (Valdosta City Planning and Zoning Administrator). Absent: Scott Orenstein, Vice-Chair (V), Dr. William Houseal (L). L: Lowndes County appointee. V: Valdosta appointee.

Here’s the video:


ZBOA decides to publish agendas and minutes on Valdosta website
Agendas and Minutes,
Regular Session, Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 December 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Some answers and some remaining questions about the Comprehensive Plan

When I spoke at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) about the Short Term Work Projects (STWP) document on Monday, November 28th, I had questions about several sections, and many of the deleted or modified items. The next day I met with Lowndes County Planner Jason Davenport to discuss my questions. Some of my questions were answered to my satisfaction, some I still had concerns about, and some are still unanswered because they were not actually in his area of expertise.

The document covers all the cities in Lowndes County as well as the unincorporated area. I did get some questions about Valdosta projects answered by Valdosta City Planner Matt Martin in a telephone conversation.

Questions I had about Conservations of Sensitive Areas were answered in detail. For example: Continue reading →