One month ago, the entire Lowndes County Commission Regular Work Session took eight and a half minutes.
Plus an
Executive Session for Real Estate.
Below are LAKE videos for each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. The board packet is on the LAKE website.
A month ago at the Valdosta City Council we learned that Valdosta has a $2,410,000 budget surplus.
5b) Presentation of the Municipal Audit for Fiscal Year 2019
Maybe they could spend some of that to help fix the well and river testing costs downstream on the Withlacoochee River of Valdosta’s record 7.5 million gallons of raw sewage spill into Sugar Creek, which has taken two months to maybe finally get diluted down the Withlacoochee River, twice entering Florida, with three Florida river advisories, and with Georgia warning signs on the Withlacoochee River downstream of Sugar Creek by Lowndes County and by WWALS (but not by Valdosta).
One City Council member tells me that audit doesn’t mean Valdosta has $2 million cash lying around. But they do have several hundred thousand unspent.
Maybe they could also budget some of that surplus to help fix the stigma, the decades-long reputational damage to all our rivers, caused by Valdosta’s chronic sewage spills. That would involve for example water quality testing or paying for testing downstream on the Withlacoochee River and doing marketing.
Four Citizens spoke at the end of the meeting: Continue reading
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!
Development Authority, Mutual Aid, and a road quit claim: that’s all, on the lightest agenda in recent memory for the Lowndes County Commission Monday morning at 8:30 AM and voting Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM. You can speak Tuesday in Citizens Wishing to be Heard.
Georgia Power Region Vice President Terri Lupo wants to be reappointed to the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority, where she is currently Chairman. She was first appointed July 8, 2014.
The Mutual Aid Agreement the county made in 2016 with Continue reading
Remerton can’t use SPLOST VI funds for an office building, since the old mill building intended for that has been torn down. That was the longest item in the Lowndes County Commission Work Seesion of December 9, 2019: 7. Reports – County Manager – Remerton SPLOST Resolution.
Then Commissioner Clay Griner moved to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel. Chairman Bill Slaughter reminded him the Commission has only one employee. Griner agreed, and they went into Executive Session. The one employee is the County Manager.
They breezed through everything else their last meeting of calendar year 2019.
Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the Continue reading
In its last meeting of calendar year 2019, the Lowndes County Commission had many items to wrap up, as you can see in the board packet, on the LAKE website. We don’t know why the county sent this packet in black and white.
LAKE videos of the Work Session and Regular Session will follow.
LAKE sent an open records request Continue reading
All three rezonings breezed through, except slightly the longest was the tabling of the proposed 300′ communications tower off of US 84 East. The tower had the most people: those sitting in the back.
Surprisingly, one of the two Authority appointments was not the incumbent. None of the candidates were introduced, and none spoke.
One Citizen spoke, me, on behalf of WWALS, thanking them and inviting them.
Commissioner Clay Griner was not present. The other four voting Commissioners unanimously approved everything, including the one tabling. At least two staff speakers were not introduced, one not named except by last name, and one never named at all.
Below are Continue reading
In the VDT Community Calendar:
Board of Assessors Special Called meeting, 9 a.m. Oct. 25, 1st floor, Lowndes County Governmental Building, 302 N. Patterson St.
There’s no agenda, and nothing about this on Continue reading
The little-known Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan drives development in Lowndes County. With no public notice and no public hearing. the Commissioners voted on it Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Probably you only heard that would happen if you looked at their agenda late last week, or you happened to read what I wrote about it Monday.
Obtained through open records request, it’s on the LAKE website now.
Like the 2009 plan, Continue reading
The Hahira City Council passed two resolutions at its February 1, 2018
Regular Session, one
supporting GA HR 158 to stop state fee diversions,
and another
supporting the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.
Two days before I spoke about both and there was discussion at the Hahira Work Session of January 30, 2018.
Another item from that Work Session has unfortunately become big news: possibly closing the Lawson Street railroad crossing, where a man was killed February 5 when a Norfolk Southern train struck a dump truck, according to WTXL. WALB says, “The Georgia State Patrol identified the driver as Dexter Brown, 48, of Barnwell, S.C.”. Mayor Bruce Cain gave a statement to Hahira Today, which also included some discussion of that agenda item: Continue reading
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