Tag Archives: Quail Branch Lodge

Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting 2020-02-04-06

The annual Lowndes County retreat, er, Planning Meeting, is in the middle of this week, starting tomorrow morning.

When: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, Tuesday – Thursday, February 4-6, 2020

Where: Quail Branch Lodge, 7601 Zeigler Road, Lake Park, GA 31636
The lowndescounty.com calendar item says “Board of Commissioners Administration Building”, but nevermind that.

Agenda: They never post an agenda in advance for these retreats.

Yes, LAKE will be videoing this meeting.

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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!

Videos: Annual Planning Meeting Day 2 @ LCC 2017-02-17

We learned why Lowndes County has gotten religion about Internet access and speed: Moody AFB wants it.

Commissioner Scottie Orenstein made the case for board packets and agendas in electronic form instead of the paper packets they currently use. Maybe they’ll even reveal them to the public before their meetings, like real MSAs do. Meanwhile, Community Engagement means marketing, as in telling people what the county did, not listening to the citizens.

They talked about interconnecting (almost) all of the county’s water systems, about routes to get trucks out of downtown Valdosta. The water-sewer ordinance is in ten or twelve pieces, and the county is all for expanding water and sewer throughout the county as long as it doesn’t cost developers money.

There’s a regional T-SPLOST meeting in Waycross by SGRC Feb 28 2017, but Lowndes commissioners and staff said nothing Continue reading →

Videos: Annual Planning Meeting Day 1 @ LCC 2017-02-16

Two newly-elected officials spoke at the Thursday session: new Tax Commissioner Rodney Cain who was full of praise for his staff, and new-old Sheriff Ashley Paulk, who said he had more important things to do than to go get undocumented workers out of the fields. “I tell ICE come show me a warrant.” Here are LAKE videos of that day, and stay tuned for Day 2!

Total 2016 revenue was Continue reading →

Agenda, 2017 Commission Annual Planning Meeting @ LCC 2017-02-16

This agenda finally showed up on the county’s website less than 24 hours before the meeting. 2017-02-16--lcc-planning-agenda-0001 No doubt their excuse would be they informed the newspaper 24 hours in advance. Nevermind the taxpaying public.

I wonder what “Citizen Engagement” means? It’s on the agenda for 2PM tomorrow.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
2017 Commission Annual Planning Meeting
Quail Branch Lodge
7601 Zeigler Road, Lake Park, Georgia

Thursday, February 16 Continue reading →

Videos: Planning Meeting, Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2016-02-04

Suing local businesses helps run up fees to the county attorney, says County Manager Joe Pritchard. He didn’t mention that continuing to promote sprawl for example through the county’s thoroughfare plan also runs up fees that property taxes will never meet. Commissioners seemed very concerned about “stakeholders” whom they said were “the development community, the real estate community” and “the construction and homebuilder industries”. Maybe somewhere they mentioned the agricultural and forestry industries, or sales tax payers even if they don’t own real estate; if so I missed it. At least they’re thinking about the Comprehensive Plan and the general direction of the county in a public forum. And the County Planner did talk about quality of life. Plus it seems business prospects bringing that up got the attention of the County Manager. They said they have a responsiblity to set the direction of the county. How about instead of continuing to drive sprawl outwards, which is a fiscally (and environmentally) irresponsible path, turn to directing development to be more dense in already-developed areas? They continue this morning at 8:30 AM, and Gretchen is there again with the LAKE video camera.

Here’s the agenda followed by links to each LAKE video with a few notes. See also two previous pictures.

We are looking forward to the improved communication that was touted in the VDT headline. Jason Stewart, VDT, 4 February 2016, Slaughter wants to strengthen communication, Continue reading →

It Begins: Planning Meeting @ LCC 2016-02-04

They were waiting on Demarcus Marshall. He arrived shortly with his own food. Can being the lone vote be worrisome? Here’s the agenda.

Waiting on Demarcus Marshall

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Agenda, Planning Meeting @ LCC 2016-02-04

Turns out they did post an agenda for the Planning Meeting this morning and tomorrow, Agenda just not on the county calendar nor in their agenda section. Hm, Accountability Court: will they have to go to that? Gretchen is there with the LAKE video camera at Quail Branch Lodge, 7601 Zeigler Road, Lake Park, GA.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMSSIONERS
2016 Commlssion Plahning Meeting Agenda
Quail Branch Lodge
7601 Zeigler Road, Lake Park, Georgia

Thursday, February 4-

0:00 a.m.Breakfast
8:30 a.m.Audit Report — Henderson & Godbee, LLC
9:15 a.m.Finance — Stephanie Black
10:15 a.m.Break
10:30 a.m.Speclal Purpose Local Option Sales Tax — Harrison Tillman Continue reading →

HB 170: counties vs. cities? @ LCC 2015-02-10

Yesterday a Georgia House subcommittee did exactly what Valdosta urged it not to do about distributing HB 170 funds. Given that LMIG mismatch between cities and counties to replace the previous mismatch of forced double taxation on cities and counties, is the legislature trying to cause dissension between counties and their cities, or is it just that inept? We know Valdosta’s position. What will the Lowndes County Commission do?

Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson wrote to bill’s sponsor: Continue reading →

HB 170 voted out of subcommittee; what will Lowndes County Commission do? @ LCC 2015-02-06

How long will the Lowndes County government and ACCG wait to act, while the Georgia legislature moves on its stealth transportation tax hike for Atlanta that would defund local school boards and city and county governments? A House subcommittee has made some changes to the bill, but it would still force local governments to raise taxes, and it adds an unrelated repeal of an electric vehicle tax credit to its boondoggle for trucking companies and Atlanta. Do we want our local public schools to be defunded like wildlife programs were through the state’s wildlife license plate revenue tax taking? If not, now’s the time to lobby against HB 170, before the full House Transportation Committee meets Thursday. Yet there’s still nothing about HB 170 on the county’s agenda for this evening’s voting Regular Session.

Valdosta has already Continue reading →

Videos: Hospital, transportation, water, incarceration, taxes, Internet, and military @ LCC 2015-02-06

Commission and staff followed up on safety on Val Del Road that John Page brought up in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard a month ago. Appointed board and agency openings: they have a list, but you can’t see it, for the Bad Dog Board or any other. The Chairman had “support” for a referendum to appoint Tax Assessors, although “this is not a vote”. About Internet access, County Manager Joe Pritchard discussed a map of a “skeletal framework” of city and county, VSU, SGMC, Georgia Military College, Wiregrass Technical College, “the outlying cities”, as well as the industrial parks, for DSL, cable modems, etc. This discussion has come a long way in the year since Chairman Bill Slaughter said “We have broadband”.

They seem to want the county to be Continue reading →