Tag Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Rome-Floyd SPLOST Committee 2024-12-31

The

opaque SPLOST process
the Lowndes County Commission is using,
in which it

just sent an Agreement and a Project List
to
its cities for approval without the taxpaying citizens ever seeing either,
is not the only way.


[Rome-Floyd County, GA, Citizen SPLOST Committee, Less Population than Lowndes, More transparent process]


Rome-Floyd County, GA, Citizen SPLOST Committee, Less Population than Lowndes, More transparent process

Rome and Floyd County, Georgia, have a citizen committee that decides what is on their Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) list.
That committee has open meetings and publishes its draft lists.


https://www.floydcountyga.gov/bc-splost

Floyd County, at 100,113 people, has

less population
than Lowndes County, at 120,712.

If Floyd County can be transparent, Lowndes County can also choose to be transparent. Continue reading

Video: Special Called Meeting about SPLOST IX Agreement @ LCC 2025-08-04

Update 2025-08-05:
Rome-Floyd SPLOST Committee 2024-12-31.

Here is the one LAKE video of the two-minute Special Called Meeting
in which the Lowndes County Commissioners unanimously agreed
to forward a SPLOST IX Agreement to the cities within the county.


[Collage @ LCC 4 August 2025]


Collage @ LCC 4 August 2025

The tax-paying citizens have not seen this Agreement nor the list of projects
on which the county projects $17 million to be spent in Fiscal Year 2026.

According to County Manager Paige Dukes, the County Commission will
have to vote again after the cities approve it.

Citizens get to vote on SPLOST IX in the General Election on November 4, 2025.

Today, they unanimously approved sending to the cities,
on a motion by Commissioner Scottie Orenstien and a second by Commissioner Michael Smith. Continue reading

Videos: Four small items, 2 Valdosta, 2 Lowndes County @ GLPC 2025-07-28

Update 2025-08-08:
Packet: 2 small rezonings, Comprehensive Plan, USGS Gauges, GDOT for Shiloh Road, Civic Center Hurricane Repair @ LCC 2025-08-11.

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commissioners unanimously recommended approval
of all the items before them, some with staff-recommended conditions.

Including the Valdosta Land Development Regulations (LDR),
which Valdosta still has GLPC review, even though Lowndes County
no longer has GLPC review for its Unified Land Development Code (ULDC).

But see Gretchen’s comments on

6. REZ-2025-13 ENCC
.


[Collage @ LCC 28 July 2025]


Collage @ LCC 28 July 2025

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item,
with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the Continue reading

Vote on SPLOST IX? @ LCC 2025-08-04

Update 2025-08-04:
Agenda: Special Called Meeting about SPLOST IX Agreement @ LCC 2025-08-04.

There’s nothing about this on lowndescounty.com, not in the calendar,
not in agendas, not in news.

Yet according to
the slides for
the June Budget Hearings,
the Lowndes County Commission and staff expect to derive $17 million from
SPLOST IX in FY 2026.

What projects will this penny sales tax fund?
Where is the list for Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) IX?
What is this Agreement mentioned in the VDT article?


[Vote on SPLOST IX?, Special Called Meeting 2025-08-04, Lowndes County Commission, Where is the Project List?]


Vote on SPLOST IX?, Special Called Meeting 2025-08-04, Lowndes County Commission, Where is the Project List?

By Staff reports, Valdosta Daily Times,
Published 3:23 pm Friday, August 1, 2025,
County to meet for SPLOST discussions,

VALDOSTA — The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will hold
a called meeting at 4 p.m. Monday in the Commission Chambers, 327 N.
Ashley St., second floor, for the purpose of considering the SPLOST
IX Agreement.

-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!


http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Agenda: Special Called Meeting about SPLOST IX Agreement @ LCC 2025-08-04

Update 2025-08-04:
Video: Special Called Meeting about SPLOST IX Agreement @ LCC 2025-08-04.

Since
LAKE posted
the VDT notice of the SPLOST IX Special Called Meeting for this afternoon,
an agenda and agenda sheet have popped up on LowndesCounty.com.

They’ve been working on this SPLOST IX Agreement since April,
yet they couldn’t discuss it during a regularly-scheduled meeting,
nor tell the tax-paying public what’s on the project list?


[Agenda and Sheet @ LCC 2025-08-04, 4 PM, Special Called Meeting, SPLOST IX Agreement]


Agenda and Sheet @ LCC 2025-08-04, 4 PM, Special Called Meeting, SPLOST IX Agreement

Here is the
agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

SPECIAL CALLED MEETING

PROPOSED AGENDA

MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2025, 4:00 P.M.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

Packet: Four small items, 2 Valdosta, 2 Lowndes County @ GLPC 2025-07-28

Update 2025-08-04:
Videos: Four small items, 2 Valdosta, 2 Lowndes County @ GLPC 2025-07-28.

Crossroads Baptist Church wants to expand at 3001 Country Club Drive and
the City of Valdosta is entertaining some LDR text amendments.

The two Lowndes County rezonings are both to bring their properties into conformity or compliance.

These are on the agenda for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC)
this evening.


[Collage @ GLPC Packet 2025-07-28]


Collage @ GLPC Packet 2025-07-28

Here is the

agenda
.

The board packet materials, received in response to a LAKE open records request,
are

on the LAKE website
,
with images below.


Greater Lowndes Planning Commission


~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~

~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

Monday, July 21, 2025 5:30 P.M. Work Session

Monday, July 28, 2025 5:30 P.M. Regular Session

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading

Videos: Appointments to 2 boards, 2 law grants, 2 lift station items, 1 Comp. Plan contract @ LCC Regular 2025-07-22

Two citizens spoke at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Gretchen Quarterman about water wells
, including private wells
getting contaminated since Hurricane Helene, or running dry,
and expenses of testing and well drilling.
Commissioners actually discussed afterwards that you can take a water sample
and get Public Health to test it.


Keyara Hamilton spoke about Goodwill
.


[Collage @ LCC 22 July 2025]


Collage @ LCC 22 July 2025

The Lowndes County Commissioners appointed Scottie Orenstein, Joe Brownlee, and Rob Green
to the

Lowndes County Development Authority
,
which apparently never meets.
Then they also

reappointed
Jerome Tucker and Barry Green.

They reappointed Michael Walker and J.D. Rice to the

Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority
.
Then they also appointed Lowndes County Commissioner Mike Smith
to succeed Clay Griner, and Andy Griffin to succeed Crawford Powell.
They also clarified the when each term will end.

Chairman Bill Slaughter

recommended that Commissioners should

get a list of boards and their meeting dates and times so they
can attend an learn things.
This is good advice for citizens in general.

The Commissioners approved everything else unanimously.

County Manager Paige Dukes’s

Reports
lasted almost ten minutes,
including Fire Department people speaking.

Below are Continue reading

Videos: Appointments to 2 boards, 2 law grants, 2 lift station items, 1 Comp. Plan contract @ LCC Work 2025-07-21

Update 2025-07-25:
Videos: Appointments to 2 boards, 2 law grants, 2 lift station items, 1 Comp. Plan contract @ LCC Regular 2025-07-22.

The Lowndes County Commissioners discussed much more than usual,
making yesterday morning’s Work Session 44 minutes long.


[Collage @ LCC Work Session 21 July 2025]


Collage @ LCC Work Session 21 July 2025

They vote today at 5:30 PM, which is about now.

Yesterday, the County Attorney weighed in on

both
the board appointment

items
.

The

Comprehensive Plan update
won’t change the Service Delivery Strategy (SDS)
that the county and the five cities agreed would last for ten years.

Both of the

Juvenile Justice grant items
lasted more than 9 minutes.

The longest item was not on the agenda:
a

report by Jeff Lovell
on well issues and river water infiltration.

And we got a clue where the

Blue Lake Lift Station
is:
near I-75 Exit 13.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item,
with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the Continue reading

Packet: Appointments to 2 boards, 2 law grants, 2 lift station items, 1 Comp. Plan contract @ LCC 2025-07-21

Update 2025-07-22:
Videos: Appointments to 2 boards, 2 law grants, 2 lift station items, 1 Comp. Plan contract @ LCC Work 2025-07-21.

The Lowndes County Commission this Monday and Tuesday will consider and decide
on many appointments to two boards, and two Juvenile Justice grants.

The county is also outsourcing part of its five-year Comprehensive Plan Update to the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), for $30,000.


[Collage @ LCC Packet 2025-07-21]


Collage @ LCC Packet 2025-07-21

Lowndes County is still fixing problems from Hurricane Helene,
this time at the Blue Lake Lift Station.

  • In
    September 2016
    they replaced a pump there for no-bid $43,959.
  • In
    June 2020
    they did a $71,789 no-bid emergency repair there due to corrosion.
  • In

    October 2021

    they applied for
    $700,000
    from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
    for
    “Permanent bypass pumps at lift station” for
    Bevel Creek,
    Whitewater,
    Heart road,
    Blue Lake,
    Highway 84,
    and
    Frances Lake,
    as well as
    $300,000
    for “On-Site Crane/ Hoist lift station” for Whitewater, Frances Lake, and Blue Lake,
    all at the recommendation of Carter & Sloope.
  • In
    June 2022

    they approved an apparently no-bid agreement with Carter & Sloope:

    “The scope of work at the County’s lift station is two-fold. A permanent bypass pump will be
    installed at the following six (6) lift stations: Bevel Creek, Whitewater, Heart Road, Blue Lake,
    Highway 84, and Frances Lake. The bypass pump will serve as the station’s
    backup/redundancy method if the primary pumping failed at any time. The new pump will be
    connected to the existing wet well and force main at the station on a concrete housekeeping
    pad. Where necessary based on location, the pump can be installed in an enclosure to reduce
    sound (i.e. if near a residential neighborhood). Electrical and controls will be installed on site
    with the new pump. Of the 6 stations, the following three (3) will also be retrofitted with an on-
    site crane/hoist system: Whitewater, Frances Lake, and Blue Lake. Those stations need a local
    mechanism for retrieving pumps from the wet well because of their layout and location.”

This time they have bids for the control panel,
but still only one no-bid source for the pump: xylem, Inc.
However, the county is going for repairing the pump this time, for $44,661.

It’s good Lowndes County is fixing its sewer infrastructure before it breaks.
And it’s good they’re bidding at least part of the repairs this time.

Meanwhile, we still don’t know where the Blue Lake Lift Station is.
So far as I can tell, there is no waterbody, road or street, or subdivision
name Blue Lake in Lowndes County.
More on that in a later post.

Cost What
$44,661.00 Blue Lake Lift Station Pump Repair
$43,615.00 Blue Lake Lift Station Control Panel
$88,276.00 Blue Lake Subtotal
 
$30,000.00 2026 Comprehensive Plan Technical Assistance Contract
 
$118,276.00 Total

Here is the
agenda.

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request,
is
on the LAKE website
.
Images of each page are below.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 21, 2025, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2025, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

Videos: Two rezonings and a beer and wine license @ LCC Regular 2025-07-08

The Lowndes County Commissioners approved everything unanimously at their Regular Session of July 8, 2025.

There was (for them) extensive discussion of the large rezoning off Coleman Road and North Valdosta Road that was controversial at their Work Session the previous morning,
as it was at the preceding Planning Commission meeting.
Each speaker pro and con and the Commissioners’ remarks
are in these LAKE videos.


[Collage @ LCC 8 July 2025]


Collage @ LCC 8 July 2025

County Engineering Services Director Chad McLeod

reported
they
are still on target to be finished by August 2nd with the Val Del Road
intersection with North Valdosta Road.

Two citizens spoke.
Suwannee Riverkeeper

John S. Quarterman

thanked the Chairman for paddling in the Mayor and Chairmans Paddle by Suwannee Riverkeeper.
He provide dates for the 2026 paddle.
He invited everyone to a chainsaw cleanup on the Withlacoochee River,
and to the WWALS River Revue including the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.


Jamie Parks, 106 E Grace Street, Hahira
,
said on behalf of some people he had been trying to get a rezoning on
on Horace Ave. off of Madison Highway next to Mud Creek,
which he needed to get the Army Corps to delineate the floodplain.
Chairman Bill Slaughter said they would look into it.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item or speaker,
with some notes by John S. Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also Continue reading