Tag Archives: Valdosta

Minutes from 2006, Lowndes County Commission

Minutes aren’t on Lowndes County’s new website back more than a few years. Even on their previous website, three sets of minutes were not there. More than four years after Gretchen asked, she asked again, and today we finally got those three. Look who signed those minutes as County Clerk: K. Paige Dukes, the same County Clerk who took four years to return them in response to an Open Records request. Here’s the message, and I’ve linked in those minutes.

-jsq

From: Amanda Smith <asmith@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 16:43:18 +0000
To: “‘land@quarterman.org'” <land@quarterman.org>
Subject: Meeting Minutes
As per your request, I have attached the meeting minutes from 8/8/06, 12/12/06, and 12/20/06. Continue reading →

Got one Lowndes County ordinance (nuisance abatement) after five years asking @ LCC 2015-08-10

Back in 2011 the County Clerk didn’t say which May she would provide that list of ordinances…. Her response of today is below. The old ordinance is so old it’s signed by Inez Pendleton. It’s still in force, though, so shouldn’t it be on the county’s website, along with all the other ordinances in force that also aren’t there? See below for list; also notice the dates I’ve boldfaced. The proposed new ordinance is not readily translatable to plain text; looks like she scanned a paper copy. Both are relevant to today’s Lowndes County Commission meeting. For the minutes she mentioned, see separate post.

-jsq

From: Paige Dukes <pdukes@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:42:29 +0000
To: John and Gretchen Quarterman <land@quarterman.org>
Subject: RE: Open Records Request for Ordinances
Good Afternoon Gretchen,
As per your request, please find the attached Continue reading →

Land is not just money: appeal tax valuations today

Appeal today if you think there’s more to land (or business) and woods and fields and streams than money, unlike the Tax Assessors, whose revaluation would drive development into agricultural areas of the county where it doesn’t belong, while avoiding populated areas such as the south side of Valdosta. We can expect pipeline companies and utilities from other states to think nothing of pillaging our lands for their profit. We shouldn’t expect that of our neighbors whom we elected Tax Asssessors. If you have affection for your land, your county, your neighborhood, today’s the deadline to appeal your valuation. And there will be an election later.

As Wendell Berry said,

Whatever has happened in what economists call “the economy,” it is generally true that the land economy has been discounted or ignored.

Are the Tax Assessors boomers? Are you a sticker? Wendell Berry explains: Continue reading →

Unknown ordinance, numerous emergencies, small rezoning, and alcohol @ LCC 2015-08-10

How can we “Know the Laws” as the county’s front page says, if a county ordinance being revised isn’t there and isn’t distributed when the county is about to vote on it Tuesday evening after the Work Session this morning at 8:30 AM?

For the Nuisance Abatement Ordinance the packet agenda sheet says only: Continue reading →

Hamilton County, FL Commission considers opposing FL-DEP Sabal Trail permit 2015-07-21

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 →

Monday August 10th deadline to appeal tax valuations –VLCoC

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.

That Chamber message includes this useful information: Continue reading →

County and news media digging deeper on Shiloh sinkhole story

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 →

Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04

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 →

The usual detour around Shiloh Road sinkhole

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 →

Moody Family Housing doesn’t want to replace trees it cut down on Val-Del @ ZBOA 2015-08-04

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 →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange