Tag Archives: Lowndes County

Development, Planning, Health Board Appointments, budget, qualifying @ LCC 2018-01-08

Where did they advertise for applications for the three boards on the agenda for tomorrow morning, voting Tuesday evening? Who was the mysterious term expiration on the Development Authority of Lowndes County (not the same as the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority, VLCIA)? If we assume the county’s web page for the Lowndes County Development Authority is the relevant one, it doesn’t say what term expired nor who was in that slot, it just says “Vacant”. However, we can deduce that the missing board member is Jeff Reames, whose seat expired June 8, 2017. When they appointed six members to that board the next month, they did not appoint anyone to that slot, even though Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker asked about that at the time.

Brad Folsom quit the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission to join VLCIA.

Five people want to be appointed: Keven Bussey, Gary Moser, Ed Hightower, and Bart Davis. Also, Franklin Bailey wants to be reappointed.

“Mr.” Myron Faircloth (I thought he was a doctor) resigned from the Board of Health, and nobody is mentioned as wanting to be appointed.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, JANUARY 8, 2018, MONDAY, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION,JANUARY 9, 2018, TUESDAY, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: Emergency road repair bids! Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage @ LCC 2017-08-22

The added agenda item 6e. Emergency Repairs to Rocky Ford Road got a couple of bids (unusual procedure; different from their usual no-bid emergencies) passed. The Chamber sent Gary Wisenbaker to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard to ask for (after a very long preamble by John Page) apparently money from GDOT for a long list (in a letter the taxpayers did not get to see) of transportation projects to help “the business community”, apparently including the truck bypass.

They only appointed six of the seven members of the Development Authority of Lowndes County, although a Commissioner did ask about that. It’s also curious they said all the terms expired right then, since the Wayback machine has a snapshot of 4 April 2017, which shows three expiring in June 2017 and four already expired in December 2016. Apparently they just didn’t bother to appoint anybody to the four slots that expired in December 2016 until eight months later, and then they didn’t appoint anybody to one of the 2017 slots.

Below are links to Continue reading →

Snowy Solar Panels 2018-01-03

You might think these solar panels covered with snow weren’t generating anything:

But they are. Not much, true, but they are generating: Continue reading →

Nydia Tisdale should be emulated, not punished: LAKE to Judge 2017-12-17

You can also write a letter of support. Please send it today before the sentencing hearing 9AM December 18, 2017.

Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
3338 Country Club Road #L336, Valdosta, GA 31605
www.l-a-k-e.org
lakesubmissions@gmail.com
229-242-0102

December 17, 2017

Hon. Senior Judge Martha Christian
Dawson County Judges Office
25 Justice Way, Suite 4202
Dawsonville, GA 30534
C/o Catherine Bernard
catherine@bernardlawoffices.com

Your Honor,

Nydia Tisdale is an inspiration for everyone who is in favor of the First Amendment, especially citizen journalists such as ourselves. Her years of educating local governments about Georgia’s open meetings laws by handing out materials, and of shining a light on local government activities by videoing their meetings, are exemplary and should be emulated, not punished.

Photo: John S. Quarterman for LAKE, 14 October 2016.

The misdemeanor conviction of Nydia Tisdale makes no sense, since Continue reading →

Videos: Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11

They vote this evening on what you can see them discussing yesterday morning in these LAKE videos of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session. The longest business item was not even a minute and a half on REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park.

By far the longest item was not on the agenda: 11. Reports – County Manager a. Steve Gupton- LODAC Presentation, about a local drug counseling organization, originally private, but for long now funded by Valdosta and Lowndes County plus grants. As one of the presenters noted, probably only Commissioner Joyce Evans was thoroughly familiar with LODAC.

Below are Continue reading →

Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11

A very busy agenda this morning, including the controversial REZ-2017-14 Cothron, Tucker Rd rezoning.

They’ll probably reappoint Commissioner Joyce Evans and Gerone Anderson to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority, although Robert Jefferson and Ellen Hill have also applied.

Mary Gooding is retiring from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development (Industrial) Authority, and four people have applied: Ed Hightower Jr., Brad Folsom, John (Mac) McCall (currently on ZBOA) and Giovanni Panizzi.

Nevermind the REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park rezoning had nothing to do with the Industrial Authority that I know of.

No meeting would be complete without Continue reading →

The shift has come: GE, Siemens massive job losses as fossil fuels crash and the sun rises

The carbon bubble is bursting, as jobs fly from some of the biggest companies in the world, because solar and wind power are taking over right now. It’s too late to bet on the wrong nuclear horse or the wrong pipelnie snake. Get out of fossil fuels now: the sun is rising.

Tiffany Hsu and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 7 December 2017, G.E. Cuts Jobs as It Navigates a Shifting Energy Market,

General Electric, whose new leadership is moving to eliminate bloat and grapple with the fallout from earlier, ill-timed decisions, is taking drastic steps to keep pace with seismic shifts in the global energy industry.

Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg, 7 December 2017, GE Ranks First in 2017 Downsizing After 12,000 More Job Cuts.

The company said on Thursday that it would cut 12,000 jobs in its power division, reducing the size of the unit’s work force by 18 percent as part of a push to compete with international rivals in a saturated natural gas market, adjust to “softening” in the oil and gas sectors and stay abreast of the growing demand for renewable energy.

Solar and wind energy technology is increasingly being deployed Continue reading →

Sign variances @ ZBOA 2017-12-05

“[V]ariances are designed to provide an opportunity for relief in circumstances beyond design’s control where it would be difficult if not impossible to meet the regulations,” said city staff, about APP-2017-07 — Messiah Lutheran Church, on the the agenda for this afternoon at the decision-making Valdosta-Lowndes Zoning Board of Appeals. Ditto APP-2017-06 — Axis Infrastructure, but they like the signs proposed in APP-2017-05 — Staten Station.

You can see all the details of the three Valdosta cases on on the LAKE website. I don’t have the packet items for the four Lowndes County cases.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin,
Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563
Carmella Braswell,
Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 671-2430

AGENDA
December 5, 2017
2:30 p.m.
Continue reading →

Videos: Cothron on Tucker Road and second West Ridge Business Park rezoning @ GLPC 2017-11-27

Twenty five minutes on 7. REZ-2017-14 Cothron 5310 Tucker Road 5 acres from E-A to R-A to split out two 2.5 acre house lots and a home business office (is there a deed restriction?), fourteen minutes on a storage building in 3. VA-2017-16 220-224 Myddleton Road 0.58 acres from R-6 to M-2 (probably will be at ZBOA for a variance later), and six minutes each on 5. REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park 1.2 acres from C-G to C-H and 4. VA-2017-17 City of Valdosta LDR text amendments. Everything else sailed through.

They nominated the same Chair and Vice-Chair as currently: Franklin Bailey and Jody Hall. County Planner Jason Davenport pointed out traditionally they rotate every two years, but the Commission could decide to keep the same officers, and they did.

Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. Continue reading →

Videos: Office in the woods, B&B, Church @ GLPC 2017-10-30

Well, it wasn’t all that brief, because 3. REZ-2017-11 Dasher Johnson & Howell Roads for an office far away from any similar zoning was contentious and almost 40 minutes long, with a split vote against, although later the Lowndes County Commission passed the rezoning anyway.

Second longest was 4. CU-2017-05 206 East College Street (B&B) at almost nineteen minutes. Everything else sailed through.