Tag Archives: Valdosta

Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, and paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-08

Monday morning 8:30 AM, the Lowndes County Commission will hear about (they vote Tuesday evening) four well and septic rezoning cases, one of them from R-10 to E-A, and another of 114 acres from E-A to R-A. The usual wine, beer, and liquor licenses, a County Purchasing Card and Credit Card Ordinance, a 2016 Public Defender Contract Renewal and Proposal from Lovell Engineering for Stafford Wright Road Paving Project. I remember residents of that road asking years ago for it to be paved; instead the county paved Quarterman Road. Here’s the agenda. See also the LAKE videos of the Planning Commission Work Session and Regular Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

LAKE meeting Tuesday after County Commission 2016-02-09

County government and local issues: change orders, sole-source contracts, suing local companies, meetings with little notice, going back on their own resolutions, can’t see what they are voting on, and what are their ordinances? If you want to help, we have a little list of tasks you can do. And two County Commission seats and the Chair are up for election this year, plus county school board, sheriff, and a bunch of other offices.

What: LAKE Meeting

When: 6:15PM Tuesday 9 February 2016
after the Lowndes County Commission meeting

Where: Michael’s Deli
1307 N Ashley St.
Valdosta, GA 31601

If you’re on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.

-jsq

Crosspointe Church @ ZBOA 2016-02-02

2:30 PM today, only one case on the Zoning Board of Appeals agenda: VAR-2016-01 (CrossPointe Church, Valdosta GA). Not clear what are the buffer or landscape requirements they want a variance from. If ZBOA published its board packets online, we all would be able to see that. Same issue as for Lowndes County Commission, Valdosta City Council, and the other four cities in the county. Continue reading →

Videos: Sold out to Sabal Trail @ LCC 2016-01-26

Thank you Commissioner Demarcus Marshall for voting no. Calling it “a good business decision”, the CEO of Waller Heating and Air lauded the others for voting to sell county land for a pittance to a company from Houston, Texas, nevermind their resolution of a year ago. We thought we elected them to represent the people of Lowndes County, and we thought they did back in December 2014 when they unanimously voted “the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners opposes the construction of the Sabal Trail pipeline in any portion of Lowndes County.” But at least one of them (“Wisenbaker) didn’t even remember that the county voted to oppose Sabal Trail. Apparently most of them concur with what the County Engineer said about landowners who have not taken Sabal Trail’s money, “I don’t know who they are.”

Update 2016-01-28: WCTV report, plus Gret chen’s question: “Is less than 50 cents per person in Lowndes County enough to risk drinking water for all?”

Landowners who did take the money mostly did not have Continue reading →

The hazardous waste Lowndes County Clyattville landfill is not just another Sabal Trail easement @ LCC 2016-01-26

There is no reason our only county-wide elected government should rush to take a pittance from a company from Houston, Texas for an easement through the closed landfill toxic waste site that would risk our drinking water and enable more easement takings from local landowners. On the front page of today’s VDT the County Clerk contradicted what Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter has written repeatedly to FERC, that he and the Commission represent “Citizens of Lowndes County”. She also didn’t mention the GA-EPD permit for any work within that landfill that the Chairman previously demanded from Sabal Trail, nor the multiple state other and federal permits Sabal Trail does not have. Although it’s still not on the published agenda, the Commissioners have an opportunity tonight to vote to support their own unanimous resolution of December 2014 against Sabal Trail.

Page A1

The County Clerk tried to roll back the clock to Continue reading →

Videos: Board appointments + Sabal Trail easement! @ LCC 2016-01-25

The main Work Session took six minutes this morning, followed by an executive session, which turned out to be about easements for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, which they’re adding to the agenda to vote on tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM.

See also the agenda. Below are links to each video, followed by a video playlist.

Continue reading →

Lowndes County Commission Trailer

Fade A movie trailer for your local government, the Lowndes County Commission! No, it didn’t win at the CAUSES 5 mini-film festival at VSU Saturday night, but you can, by speaking up at your local government (and state and federal).

-jsq


Lowndes County Commission Trailer
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Submitted to the CAUSES 5 mini-film festival at VSU, 23 January 2016, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.

Appointments to 3 boards @ LCC 2016-01-25

Did you know there were openings on three boards? Probably not, since the county didn’t post anything in public. Now the day before they’re appointed, we learn “Dr. Lynne Feldman resigned from the Hospital Authority, leaving a vacant seat on the board. Dr. Steven Brian Dawson, Dr. John W. Devine, and Dr. John D. Roan have all been recommended for the position.” County Manager Joe Pritchard did not say who recommended them, or how they knew to apply. Similarly, on the Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board (DFCS), somebody unnamed didn’t want to be reappointed, and “Elsie C. Napier has been recommended for the position.” And on the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority Board, David Motley wants to be reappointed. At least we know how he knew.

There’s more on the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Chancy R6M, Stallings Road Cemetery, 4 County cases, one to E-A @ GLPC 2016-01-25

The owner of a parcel on US 41 South wants to rezone from R-10 back to Estate Agriculture. That Lowndes County case is the opposite of the Hahira case that wants rezoning from single-family to multi-family, and there are many other cases in between, plus another cemetery case!

Here’s the agenda for Monday’s Regular Session, and also for last Monday’s Work Session, even though it doesn’t say that.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING
AGENDA
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue
Tuesday, January 25, 2016 * 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

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Seven levels of disagreement

Many people these days think name-calling is argument (thank you, Newt Gingrich*), so here’s a handy picture of seven levels of disagreement.


Image by abagond 26 July 2010, from How to Disagree, by Paul Graham, March 2008.

There’s nothing like a good discussion, with actual arguments on facts, theories, or context. But we really don’t have time for name-calling or ad hominem here on the LAKE blog. As noted in our submissions policy, you can submit anything you like, but “LAKE reserves complete discretion to select, edit, and annotate submissions, and to delete blog or facebook comments that are spam or personal attacks, or for any other reason whatever.” Name-calling and ad hominem are personal attacks.

The source of the above image includes some useful examples, and Continue reading →