Local resident Chris Mericle asked his county commission
to once again oppose the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline,
this time by opposing a permit
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection proposes to issue for Sabal Trail to bore under the Suwannee River and other sovereign submerged lands and wetlands of Florida.
This time, Continue reading
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce members just got a message from Bruce Allred, Government Affairs Council Chairman, saying:
MONDAY IS DEADLINE TO APPEAL PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS!
You can look up your property on the Tax Assessors’ website: www.qpublic.net/ga/lowndes.
See also the LAKE Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04.
That Chamber message includes this useful information: Continue reading
Will nearby buildings fall into this 120-foot sinkhole?
Will Shiloh Road have to be moved like Snake Nation Road was?
What about sinkhole insurance?
If there are “fault lines” causing sinkholes heading westwards in Lowndes County,
wouldn’t they cross the proposed path of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline?
What will Lowndes County do if that thing goes in and a sinkhole opens under it?
What if Sabal Trail declares such a sinkhole force majeure and doesn’t pay?
More on the usual detour on Shiloh Road. Joe Adgie, VDT, 6 August 2015, Sinkhole threat to Shiloh Road, Continue reading
See for yourself the Tax Assessor response to local landowners, in these
LAKE videos of
last night’s meeting at Farm Bureau.
Do you think there’s a problem?
If so, what do you think we should do to fix it?
The attendees appointed Gretchen to take notes. Here are her notes, followed by the videos.
Accessibility is not about access, it’s about geographic location…. That was done by one of our appraisers on staff. —Chief Appraiser Silas Hrobar
Rural and commercial land owners got surprises in the mail in July when they received the updated assessments of their properties. Lowndes County Assessors engaged a contractor last year to help with the reassessments of approximately 10,000 properties. Rural properties were categorized as small (under 20 acres) and large (over 20 acres) but complaints were the same, inconsistent and confusing application of criteria.
On Tuesday evening, Farm Bureau hosted Continue reading
LAKE learned about this because the County Clerk shared it on facebook
to her friends some of whom happen to be Gretchen’s friends.
Maybe mighty Lowndes County can afford its own facebook page?
PLEASE SHARE. Lowndes County Engineering has closed Shiloh Road at Franks Creek due to a very large sinkhole. Citizens will need to take the usual detour. Please do not visit the area, this is not a photo opportunity. Sinkholes are unpre…
That personal Paige Dukes facebook post did not seem to have any corresponding information on lowndescounty.com last night.
The VDT took it as a photo opportunity. Adam Floyd, VDT, 7:27 am 5 August 2015, Large sinkhole swallows pond, closes Shiloh Rd., Continue reading
2:30 PM today,
should developers not have to follow code and put back trees
on the unnecessary and environmentally hazardous Moody Family Housing
on Val-Del Road?
You wouldn’t know who this was by a pretty name like
Azalea Commons,
or an acronym like
ACC Group III Housing,
and only the
board packet
mentions Balfour Beatty,
but it’s the same
Moody Family Housing
in an
aquifer recharge zone
that
already had a sinkhole
as admitted by
a K Street lawyer to the
Lowndes County Commission
and told to them and to the Air Force by VSU professors
that the Air Force proceeded to ignore in its
environmental assessment
and the Lowndes County Commission rezoned anyway.
Staff recommend 20% “relief” from planting trees.
How about the county get some relief from unnecessary sprawl?
They did provide
a table of the trees they want to cut down.
Here’s the agenda, which is not on the City of Valdosta website, appearing here courtesy of Continue reading
June 2nd 2015, ZBOA approved
Fairway’s new billboard request,
and
building location variance for Gloryhill Cowboy Church, both unanimously, 6-0.
They meet again today at 2:30 PM (they didn’t meet in July).
They welcomed new ZBOA member, John Hogan III, who ran for Valdosta City Council in 2015, appointed to ZBOA by that Council 7 May 2015. Laverne Gaskins declined to be reappointed.
Here’s the agenda, from the City of Valdosta website, followed by the video. Continue reading
Are Bill Gates and subdivisions really more important than agriculture
or rivers or public transportation?
Come to Farm Bureau tomorrow evening
and find out what’s
going on with the rural land revaluation. facebook event.
When: 7PM, Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Where: 3296 Greystone Way, Valdosta, GA, (229) 242-7876
By: Farm Bureau board member Buddy Coleman called this meeting.
What: Compare the Comprehensive Plan to this revaluation here (PDF).
Sprawl: sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin (Or at least big tax increases). PDF of the report by UGA Prof. Jeffrey H. Dorfman Lowndes County paid for in 2007, The Local Government Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in Lowndes County.
Who: At least some of the Lowndes County Tax Assessors Continue reading
Update 2015-08-07: corrections by Nydia, including a timeline.
Only a bit more than three years since
the pictured incident,
Nydia Tisdale gets some of the recognition she deserves.
Georgia citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale is in the news again but this time, the story doesn’t involve her getting thrown out of a public meeting or arrested in a pumpkin patch.
Tisdale is being honored by Georgia’s First Amendment Foundation for her work in making public meetings available to the citizens of her community and for her dedication to keeping government open for everyone’s participation.
After getting thrown out of the Cumming City Council for videoing in April 2012, Nydia got Continue reading
The lowndescounty.com list of the
Board of Equalization (BoE) also is not correct,
like their
incorrect list of Tax Assessors.
but there seems
to be no other public website list of BoE members.
Members
- Jimmy Griffis, Chairman
- Gelana Goddard
- John Avera
Alternates
- Wayne Ricks
- Lanelle Rogers
- Joe Clark
A new BOE member was appointed in late 2014.
I called Beth C. Greene, Clerk of Superior Court, and asked her for the real list, which is: Continue reading