In its last meeting of calendar year 2019, the Lowndes County Commission had many items to wrap up, as you can see in the board packet, on the LAKE website. We don’t know why the county sent this packet in black and white.
LAKE videos of the Work Session and Regular Session will follow.
LAKE sent an open records request Continue reading
Longest at four and a half minutes on November 12, 2019, was 6.e. Grant Re-Application for the Rural (5311)Transportation Program, in other words, the MIDS on-demand bus system; follow the link for more notes, including a question about where have the county funds for this been coming from.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall about the MIDS bus system.
Let’s hope the Arglass project doesn’t turn out like the James Road project a decade ago, with massive road paving and road and utilities rerouting, and nothing else, given that the county just approved a grant and VLDA match of more than a million dollars for road repaving for Arglass.
The truck bypass through downtown Valdosta had some discussion about when the bypass would happen and why the county is passing an ordinance now.
Um, it’s actually a generator for emergency management that took two minutes. 6.j. Hart Road Lift Station Pump took half a minute.
And another big item at three minutes: Continue reading
Unusual on the Valdosta City Council agenda for Thursday are an award to Valdosta Main Street and a request by WWALS Watershed Coalition for support for its Troupville River Camp project; see also WWALS blog post.
Photo: via Valdosta Today.
Possibly controversial is the item to allow Sunday Alcohol Sales to begin at 11:00 a.m. Business as usual includes a rezoning several road widening and other traffic improvement items.
Here is the agenda.
AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, December 5, 2019
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
- Opening Ceremonies
- Awards and Presentations
- Special Recognition of the Valdosta Main Street Program as a Georgia Exceptional Main Street (GEMS) by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Office of Downtown Development.
- Consideration of a request for a Special Presentation at the December 5, 2019 Regular City Council Meeting.
- Consideration of the December, 2019 Employee of the Month Award (Sergeant Heather Willis, Valdosta Police Department).
- Minutes Approval
- Public Hearings
- Consideration of an Ordinance to rezone 6.70 acres from Planned Mixed Use Development (PMD) to Highway-Commercial (C-H) by Quick Trip Corporation (File No. VA-2019-08). The property is located at 1394 North St. Augustine Road. The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission reviewed this request at their November Regular Meeting and recommended approval (8-0 Vote).
- Consideration of an Ordinance for Text Amendments to Chapter 102 – General Provisions, Chapter 106 – Definitions, Chapter 242 – Zoning Procedures, Chapter 302 – Subdivision and Site Development Standards, and Chapter 332 – Infrastructure and Site Improvements of the City of Valdosta Land Development Regulations (File No. VA-2019-09). The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission reviewed this request at their November Regular Meeting and recommended approval (8-0 Vote).
- Ordinances and Resolutions
- Consideration of an Ordinance to amend the City of Valdosta’s Alcohol Ordinance to allow Sunday Alcohol Sales to begin at 11:00 a.m.
- Consideration of a Resolution authorizing the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Revenue to provide sales tax information to the City of Valdosta’s Finance Director.
- Consideration of a Resolution authorizing the acceptance of a Contract with the Georgia Department of Transportation for the Eager Road/Jerry Jones Widening Project.
- Bids, Contracts, Agreements and Expenditures
- Local Funding and Requests
- City Manager’s Report
- Council Comments
- Citizens to be Heard
- Adjournment
-jsq
Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
The longest item at yesterday morning’s Work Session was the unscheduled 8. Reports County Manager – Recognition of Fire Safety. The whole thing took less than nine minutes. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.
Second longest was the Solicitor General combining the two items on Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
Third longest was 7.a.Judicial and Administrative Complex Roof Cleaning
Below are Continue reading
In a session of house-cleaning (including literally), Lowndes County is updating its Revision of the County Occupation Tax Ordinance,
with detailed definitions and tax classifications for every occupation in the county.
The mysterious Joint Ordinance the Planning Commission keeps cryptically alluding to turns out to be about revising the charter of the Planning Commission to add Remerton, to note Lowndes County now handles GLPC’s budget, and other updates.
The county is applying for a Georgia Department of Transportation Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant (LMIG) for resurfacing roads, many of them in subdivisions.
And a GDOT grant for the MIDS on-call bus system.
The county is approving Approval of the Submittal Resolution for the CDBG-EIP Grant Application for Street Paving and Drainage Improvements to Support the Arglass Project, with $750,000 to come from CDBG-EIP funds, and the remainder of $325,591 from the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority. The county also has A Resolution to Support Eliminating Through Tractor Trailer Truck Traffic Downtown Valdosta. And it is fixing a misfiling of the deed for Chitty Park by transfering it to VLPRA for VLPRA to then transfer back to Lowndes County.
Sewage will be aided by a new Hart Road Lift Station Pump, and safety by Bids for a New Generator for 911.
Plus Bids for Lowndes County Judicial and Administrative Complex Roof Cleaning.
There are two Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) items, for the Solicitor General and for the District Attorney, and one Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) item for the Solicitor General.
Received 3:48 PM, Friday, November 8, 2019, “The agenda packet for next week’s meetings is attached. The October 21 & 22, 2019, minutes will be available Monday.” That Lowndes County Commission in response to a LAKE open records request is now on the LAKE website.
Here is the agenda. Continue reading
In their one December 2018 Regular Session, they couldn’t bring themselves to reject a rezoning, but they did require still larger lot sizes, for the Val Del Road rezoning.
That was the most elaborate series of motions I’ve seen on anything in the dozen years I’ve been following the Lowndes County Commission. It even exceeds the time somebody tried to rezone next to my west field and they denied that one by not voting.
Nothing else took more than a few minutes. The County Manager asked for an emergency to Continue reading
Molly Stevenson, Engineering/Planning Technician, reminded Commissioners that the main reason for the Val Del Road rezoning is to be able to subdivide at a greater density. Then she recited the reasons to deny it.
Chairman Bill Slaughter reminded Commissioners they’d tabled it twice, and “I’d very much like to get this resolved at this meeting.” By which he meant the Regular Session this evening at 5:30 PM, not the Work Session yesterday morning at which he said that. At least one Commissioner had a question.
The second longest item was 6 m. Approval of the 2019 Commission Meeting Calendar, because of two questions by Commissioners.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading
The agenda sheet says “the applicant’s conceptual site plan is attached.” But of course we the taxpaying, traffic-affected, and water-drinking public don’t get to see it.
Why the Lowndes County Commission considering rezoning for a subdivision that its own staff says doesn’t fit the Comprehensive Plan Character Area, is outside the Urban Service Area, would add significant traffic, and many neighbors spoke against it, plus the Planning Commission recommended denial? The Commission tabled in October, and again in November, when Commissioners asked for an update, but now staff says, “There are no updates to the overall case status.”
If they can’t deny this one, what rezoning can they ever deny?
Photo: Still by LAKE from Lowndes County Commission video of its
9 Oct 2018 Regular Session.
Here is the agenda. See also Continue reading
On the Valdosta City Council agenda this Thursday, a budget public hearing (no agenda nor draft budget linked for that), and a bunch of bids, including three about the sewer system, ioncluding sewer lines on Iola Drive, manhole rehabilitation, and the Cured-In-Place-Pipe (CIPP) Lining Project. Here’s the Invitation to Bid for CIPP.
Maybe this kind of Sewer System Imprrovements is why Valdosta has not had a major spill in a hear and a half, while Tifton continues to spill. Also, over on the Flint River, Albany recently spilled quite a bit. Don’t worry: if Valdosta spills again, you’ll hear about it.
Continue readingAGENDA
REGULAR MEETING
OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, June 21, 2018
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
Thanks to County Engineer Mike Fletcher for doing almost
what Gretchen asked
at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 26 April 2016.
They rattled through the agenda with almost no questions, unanimously approving everything, including the $89,005 in emergency no-bid repairs. You’d have little idea why they were doing anything if you weren’t at the previous morning’s Work Session or you didn’t view the LAKE videos of the Work Session, in which we discovered for example it’s not Beatty Creek Bridge, rather Bevel Creek Bridge. Nonetheless, the County Engineer still said the creek name wrong.
Here are links to each of the LAKE videos of the Regular Session of April 26th 2016, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of the Work Session of April 25th 2016, and the agenda.
They meet again this morning at 8:30 AM. Continue reading
![[WRPDO Site Map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-12-09--lcc-packet/December-9--10-2019-Commission-Meeting-Packet-0025.jpg)
![[2020 LMIG Project Report]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0040.jpg)
![[Electrical Demolition Plan]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0125.jpg)
![[Electrical New Work Plan]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-11-11--lcc-packet/November-11--12-2019-Agenda-Packet-0126.jpg)