Tag Archives: Stephanie Black

No T-SPLOST means 30% match for LMIG, and what else? @ LCC 2012-12-10

To pave or not to pave? That is the question that was danced around by County Engineer Mike Fletcher and County Manager Joe Pritchard, with interest, at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session, on agenda item 8.d. Georgia Department of Transportation Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant.

County Engineer Mike Fletcher said Lowndes County was receiving from GDOT a Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) of $746,984.75 for FY “two thirteen”. Because T-SPLOST didn’t pass, the county has to come up with a 30% match, which is $224,095.43. He said there was a work sheet and project list in the board packet (which the rest of us don’t get to see).

County Manager Joe Pritchard said with change from LARP (Local Assistance Road Projects, primarily for resurfacing) to LMIG the county could now use these funds for any purpose, and had planned to use LMIG for Continue reading →

Land Development For Future Industries —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA

Executive Director Andrea Schruijer explained the Industrial Authority’s theory behind all those industrial parks. And she mentioned market analysis for a sustainable local economy. Nothing about market analysis about whether industrial parks actually bring in new businesses….

Valdosta CEO posted 28 NOvember 2012, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Invests in Land Development For Future Industries,

Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority. A few years ago the community had the foresight to approve a mill that they would set aside for the Industrial Authority to provide for economic development. And because the community did that, the industrial authority is able to better plan for the future in growing our opportunities for economic development. One of the things that we noticed a few years ago is that we didn’t have enough land for development. And we didn’t have the right sized tracks in case we had a large user coming in looking at the community, where would we put them?

She says “the community did that”? That’s funny, Gary Minchew said he organized that. Kari L. Sands wrote for VDT 20 June 2007, Lowndes preps for vote on budget,

Continue reading →

Public Works Expenditures @ LCC 2012-06-26

Sheriff’s Office $0.35
Public Works (Facilities, Road Maintenance, Road Construction) $0.15
Court Services $0.11
Board of Commissioners and Administration $0.08
Recreation Authority (VLPRA) $0.07
Industrial Authority (VLCIA) $0.06
Other — including outside agency support $0.04
Tax Commissioner $0.03
Board of Assessors $0.03
Ambulance Service $0.02
Other Emergency Services (EMA, Coroner, Emergency Telecommunications) $0.02
Election Services $0.01
Engineering Services $0.01
Contingency $0.01
Animal Control Services $0.01

On the county’s web pages Finance Director Stephanie Black has made available Where does your money go? She narrated that table in the 26 June 2012 Second Budget Hearing. Here it is in plain text on the right. I’ve taken the liberty of sorting it by largest expenditures first.

That order is more or less what she showed in this pie chart, although the categories don’t quite seem to match. In the pie chart, public safety (Sheriff) and court services are lumped together, so they make the biggest slice. In the table, the second biggest category is “Public Works (Facilities, Road Maintenance, Road Construction)”. Hm, so how much do we spend on road construction?

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Budget Hearing wrapup: no questions were entertained from citizens

Paulk and Pritchard wrapped up the budget hearing, quite well, except at the very end, when about 2 seconds were allowed for citizens to say they wanted to speak before the hearing was ended. So that’s two budget hearings with no citizen input: the first one nobody knew about, and this one where nobody was permitted to speak.

Chairman Ashley Paulk thanked county employees for their cooperation. He noted that even the constitutional officers, who could appeal their budgets, had not. He noted the jail accounted for about half the sheriff’s budget, calling it an expensive operation. He said that his office had accounted for 3 of the 8 layoffs last time, and fortunately there were no more this time. He said: Continue reading →

Budget presentation —Stephanie Black @ LCC 28 June 2011

More than half of Lowndes County expenditures go to law enforcement, including sheriff, courts, and the jail.

At Tuesday’s budget hearing, Lowndes County Finance Director Stephanie Black presented the proposed 2012 budget to the Commission.

Here are the details of the budget, as photographed by Gretchen from the single copy provided for the public to see by the county clerk.

Here are photographs of her slides.

Here’s a playlist of the videos.

A couple more videos of this hearing to come of remarks by Chairman Ashley Paulk and County Manager Joe Pritchard in this budget hearing, plus a related video from the Citizens Wishing to be Heard later that same day.

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You Build It, They Will Come: Quarterman Road Drag Strip

Carolyn Selby reminds the Lowndes County Commission at their regular meeting on 9 February 2010 that residents asked the Commission to redesign Quarterman Road for slower traffic.

“You did throw us a bone by limiting the speed limit at 35 miles per hour. But it’s not enforceable We asked you to put in speed humps…. Nope. Couldn’t do that.

You designed a mile and a half straight-away, and they have come. Welcome to the Quarterman Road Drag Strip!

She took pictures. She called 911, and they caught one of the dragsters. Neighborhood Watch in action.

The Commission responds by looking at County Engineer Mike Fletcher: Continue reading →