Not quite most of the money for roads, streets, and bridges (none of them named to the public), plus everything from animals to public safety, in the county’s SPLOST VII list. But don’t be alarmed: it contains no new library and no new auditorium, and the Chairman referred to it as a “back to basics” list. It also contains nothing about Internet access; more on that in a separate post. You can be told about this list tomorrow night or at a forthcoming joint county-cities public telling: no town hall meetings have yet been scheduled. These videos and slides are from this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

5. Special Presentation & Consideration — Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax VII

There was something new in what Joe Pritchard said:

Commissioners each had an opportunity for independent review and evaluation.

That’s better than the county tradition of the staff write down the list and Commissioners rubber-stamp it. However, where are those town hall meetings Commissioner Joyce Evans promised? She reminded me afterwards that she had said “hopefully”. Mayor Gayle told me afterwards the problem was they were too close to the deadline for turning in the lists for the election. He indicated that was because the county was late. Remember Valdosta already presented its list 9 July 2013. Rumor has it the delay was in some Commissioners insisting on actually having input. That’s a good thing, but if the county planned ahead, there still would have been time for the rest of us to provide input before the lists were finalized.

The slides presented say they’re also available on the county’s website, but I don’t see them there, so I’m posting stills from the LAKE video here.