Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

Agenda! yes Nottinghill and new chair and vice-chair, 1 Hahira, 4 Valdosta @ GLPC 2013-11-25

Agenda page 2 @ GLPC 2013-11-25 How would you as a citizen have known Nottinghill is on the real agenda they’re using right now in the Planning Commission meeting? What if you wanted to speak for or against in that public hearing? The one in the last post wasn’t the real agenda, and even some people who work for local governments didn’t know that.

Here is the real agenda, photographed by Gretchen just now, followed by text version. It also contains an additional item about election of a new Chair and Vice Chair.

Agenda page 1 @ GLPC 2013-11-25

Update: I had the date of this meeting wrong in the transcription; fixed now to November 25, 2013. If the county published the agendas and minutes of the Planning Commission, nobody would have to be transcribing by hand….

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue

Monday, November 25, 2013* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

CALL TO ORDER, INVOCATION, PLEDGE

  1. Approval of the Minutes: October 28, 2013

CITY OF HAHIRA CASE:

FINAL ACTION by the City of Hahira Mayor-Council
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Hahira City Hall, 102 S. Church Street, Hahira, Georgia
7:30 p.m.
  1. HA-2013-05 Wendy Black
    Property Location: 7495 Union Road
    Request for Variance from Section 10-6 of the Hahira Zoning Ordinance pertaining to size requirements for signs

CITY OF VALDOSTA CASES:

FINAL ACTION by the City of Valdosta Mayor-Council
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Valdosta City Hall, 216 E. Central Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia
Council Chambers, 2nd Floor
5:30 p.m.
  1. CU-2013-04 Cynthia McDougle
    Property Location: 808 Bethune Street
    Request for a Conditional Use Permit to establish a personal care home for 4-6 residents in a Single-Family Residential (R10) zoning district
  2. CU-2013-05 Jessie Marshall, III
    Property Location: 625 East Gordon Street
    Request for a Conditional Use Permit to establish a church in a Single-Family Residential (R-6) zoning district
  3. CU-2013-06 Theresa Patterson
    Property Location: 108 East Adair Street
    Request for a Conditional Use Permit to establish a personal care home for 4-6 residents in a Residential Professional (R-P) zoning district
  4. VA-2013-16 Mac Mackey
    Property Location: 103 B Avenue
    Request to rezone 2.2 acres from Manufacturing/Distribution (M-2) to Wholesale Light Industrial (M-1)

Agenda page 2 @ GLPC 2013-11-25

LOWNDES COUNTY CASES:

FINAL ACTION by the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Lowndes County Judicial and Administrative Complex
Commission Chambers, 2nd Floor
327 North Ashley Strcet, Valdosta, Georgia
5:30 p.m.
  1. REZ-2013-11 Nottinghill
    Location: Orr Road, Valdosta, Georgia
    Request to rezone 14.99 acres from R-A (Residential Agricultural) to R-21 (Medium Density Residential)
    *Note: This case was tabled from the GLPC’s September 29th and October 28th, 2013, regular mtg.

    REZ-2013-11 Nottinghill was tabled by GLPC 30 September 2013 and again 28 October 2013. REZ-2013-11 was also tabled by the Lowndes County Commission 8 October 2013 and 12 November 2013, specifically until the County Commission’s 10 December 2013 meeting.

OTHER BUSINESS

  1. Attendance policy for appointed Boards
  2. Election of 2014 GLPC Chair and Vice Chair
  3. GLPC 2014 Meeting Schedule

ADJOURNMENT

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Agenda: No Nottinghill and no county cases, 1 Hahira, 4 Valdosta @ GLPC 2013-11-25

I guessed wrong: Nottinghill is not on the agenda. Yet the County Commission decided at its November meeting to hear Nottinghill at its 10 December 2013 meeting, which will be without the Planning Commission ever having discussed this item. How is that right? If Planning Commission agendas were made public some days before the meetings, the public could point out things like this in time for them to be fixed.

REZ-2013-11 Nottinghill was tabled by GLPC 30 September 2013 and again 28 October 2013. REZ-2013-11 was also tabled by the Lowndes County Commission 8 October 2013 and 12 November 2013, specifically until the County Commission’s 10 December 2013 meeting. So if the Planning Commission doesn’t discuss Nottinghill tonight, the County Commission can vote on it in December without the Planning Commission ever having discussed it.

Here’s the agenda for tonight, supplied by an informant about an hour ago. Will anyone from the county even show up, since without Nottinghill there are no county cases on the agenda? Continue reading →

No public agenda for Planning Commission today @ GLPC 2013-11-25

Why so secretive, planning board that recommends on issues that affect citizens all over Lowndes County? Where is your agenda for your meeting at 5:30 PM today? Sure, Gretchen only asked for it today, but why does LAKE have to wheedle it out of somebody? Why don’t you or the county publish it so the public can see? Do you, the affected public, agree with Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter that transparency is not a problem?

We can guess the proposed Nottinghill subdivision will be back, since it got tabled (again) at GLPC’s October meeting. Also probably the attendance policy, since last time the GLPC Chairman wasn’t there and only 6 of 11 Commissioners showed up. But what else? And why should have to guess what public business a public board is taking up tonight? Why do we have this Planning Commission if it doesn’t take its responsibilities to the citizens of this county seriously enough to show up or to tell us what it’s doing?

Lowndes County doesn’t even have today’s meeting on its public calendar. The City of Valdosta does; here’s Valdosta’s GLPC listing for today: Continue reading →

Great Promise and Leadership at Industrial Authority @ VLCIA 2013-11-19

Really; those are the names of two of the organizations they spoke before: Great Promise Partnership and Leadership Lowndes. And what is the mystery Project XX2?

Here’s the agenda:

Valdosta — Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

Maybe county should check its work about other budgets @ LCC 2013-11-14

Who’s responsible for the recent partiality in budget reports? The newspaper, or its source of information, namely the county government at its secretive retreat on the Chairman’s private property that even the VDT reporter had trouble finding?

When the Coroner and the Sheriff (often at odds lately) agree that the VDT’s version of the county government’s remarks about their budgets was at best partial, where is the source of that partiality? Who’s responsible for budgeting for the county, reporter Matthew or editor Kay Harris or Dean Poling? Or is it the local government our taxes pay to do that job, namely the Lowndes County Commission and its staff, which is managed by County Manager Joe Pritchard?

Maybe somebody down at the county palace should, as Gretchen suggested recently, “check our work”.

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Coroner responds to County Commission about budget @ LCC 2013-11-14

Like the Sheriff, the Coroner reports that something’s rotten in the Lowndes County Commission and staff’s version of his budget.

Dean Poling write for the VDT today, Coroner responds to county budget issues,

Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson explained Friday that comments calling him one of the county budget’s “worst offenders” did not explain why his office’s expenses change from year to year.

“I have no control over the number of people that dies each year,” Watson told The Times, “and I have to fund the transportation for autopsies. Any time there is an autopsy, it costs my office about $750.”

These costs include Continue reading →

Sheriff responds to County Commission about budget @ LCC 2013-11-14

LTE in the VDT today. -jsq

Sheriff’s Response to “budget woes”

The Sheriff’s Office has received a lot of criticism in the last several months. It appears to be the fashionable thing these days and an easy target. Sheriff Prine did not receive an invitation to the Chairman’s personal property for a review of the county’s budget and criticism of the Sheriff’s budget in particular. There are some facts that have not been reported by the Valdosta Daily Times, which may or may not have been provided.

First it should be noted that the Sheriff’s Office general fund budget was reduced from last year’s budget by $171,306. This was before another $130,492 was taken away in August as a result of shift in traffic citation processing responsibilities to the Clerk’s Office.

A closer look at some of the specific line items targeted for criticism will show Continue reading →

Videos: Budget, SPLOST, and 2014 Planning @ LCC 2013-11-14

They detailed spending by the Sheriff and the Coroner, yet never seemed to say how much the Commission itself has spent sueing a local business. And what was that executive session about? Doesn’t Georgia Open Meetings Law say they have to say what it’s for?

Here’s the agenda. See also County discusses budget woes: Sheriff’s department, coroner are ‘worst offenders’, by Matthew Woody, VDT, 15 November 2013.

Here’s a video playlist for the entire Lowndes County Commission Retreat Work Session.


Videos: Budget, SPLOST, and 2014 Planning
Retreat Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 November 2013.

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We desperately need your help –Carol Singletary @ VCC 2013-11-07

A local mom said she was one of many landowners being bullied by a pipeline company and asked for help from local leaders, at the 7 November 2013 Valdosta City Council Regular Session.

Carol Singletary @ VCC 2013-11-07

Here’s Part 1 of 2:

Carol Singletary’s impassioned and reasoned plea got a response from Mayor John Gayle, even if it was only Continue reading →

Check our work, esp. about the pipeline –Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2013-11-12

Fan of local government Gretchen suggested it “check our work” before whipsawing citizens in for items that didn’t happen or failing to schedule a public hearing even after the Chairman asked for it, plus failing do deliver what was promised in open records requests, at the 12 November 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. Today she’s checking their work at their secretive Retreat Work Session.

At the Regular Session she noted that the Sabal Trail item that was misscheduled for the previous morning caused several citizens to take off work to come in for something that didn’t happen. (You can find out more about that pipeline Saturday morning at 10AM at the SpectraBusters Informational Meeting.

She mentioned the Green Lane item that the Chairman had asked Continue reading →