Leadership Lowndes Class of 2015 was there,
and Gretchen Quarterman spoke about
the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Conference.
Everything else went as predicted
with the rezonings and pretty much everything else unanimously approved,
at the Tuesday 10 October 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Tag Archives: transit
Videos: Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09
These videos are of yesterday morning’s Work Session,
and they’re voting right now on
the annual grant paperwork
for the county’s on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc.,
on a
commercial and a
subdivision rezoning, both previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission.
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two
Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes
on the board of the
hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC),
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a
Resolution
to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for
each agenda item,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.
Judge H. Arthur McLane spoke yesterday about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings.
Tonight they have Citizens Wishing to Be Heard on the agenda.
It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:
I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.
Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to
regular routes on the bus system.
Below are links to the LAKE videos from Monday morning, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09
The county has an on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., and
they’re doing
the annual grant paperwork.
Judge H. Arthur McLane will speak this morning about the
Courthouse Preservation Committee; see
LAKE videos of its public meetings.
Tuesday the County Commission will decide
the rezonings, one
commercial and one
subdivision, previously recommended
unanimously by the
Planning Commission:
will they discuss the poor people they’re displacing, unlike the Planning Commission?
Plus they will accept
Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer.
They will declare at least two
Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes
on the board of the
hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC),
before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a
Resolution
to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a
$500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC.
We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual
the county only published the agenda sheets for
each agenda item,
without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.
It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:
I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.
Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system. Continue reading
Unemployed need public transit to get to jobs: T-SPLOST doesn’t help
If you're unemployed, you may not be able to afford a car: then how do you get to work even if you can find a job? As our own Industrial Authority's Community Assessment of last October said, we need public transportation to promote business by getting employees to jobs. T-SPLOST doesn't do that: it would widen more roads and build no public transportation.
Peter S. Goodman wrote for Huffington Post today, Unemployment Problem Includes Public Transportation That Separates Poor From Jobs
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — In the two months since he lost his job
driving a delivery truck for a door company, Lebron Stinson has absorbed a bitter geography lesson about this riverfront city: The jobs are in one place, he is in another, and the bus does not bridge the divide.
Stinson lives downtown, where many of the factories that once employed willing hands have been converted into chic eateries. The majority of jobs are out in the suburbs, in the strip malls, office parks and chain restaurants that stretch eastward. Most of this sprawl lies beyond reach of the public bus system, and Stinson cannot afford a car.
The report Janus Economic did for VLCIA 11 October 2011, Community & Economic Assessment: Lowndes County says:
There is a plan for a public transportation system in Valdosta-Lowndes County but it currently lacks funding for implementation. Under current budget constraints it will be difficult to implement such a project, but businesses in the industrial parks and outlying areas may want to implement a limited transportation system if they discover that employee attendance is an issue.
That would be the plan for $7.5 million for a four line bus system that got cut first pass from the T-SPLOST project list, while widening a few miles of Old US 41 North got raised from $8 million to $12 million and is still in the final list.
T-SPLOST would promote more sprawl of exactly the kind we don't need. Let's not do that.
-jsq
$12M to widen US 41 N is more than $7.5M for a bus system
There is no public transit in Lowndes County, except for the
tiny MIDS bus system (I like it, but it’s small).
Meanwhile,
the county proposes to spend more in a new sales tax to widen one road,
$12 million dollars for Old US 41 North,
than
a bus system would cost, $7.5 million.
One short stretch of road vs. a three-line bus system to connect Wiregrass Tech, Five Points, Downtown, Moody, East Side, South Side, West Side, and the Mall.
Road and bridge proponents usually mutter that a bus system won’t pay back for years, if ever. And that’s right: bus systems usually operate at a loss because local governments subsidize them for the social and economic benefits they bring, such as these:
This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.Employment, safety, and less sprawl, all from a bus system.
What road and bridge proponents don’t ever mention is: Continue reading