It’s a good thing the county held these first-ever (as far as I know)
comprehensive budget sessions.
Here are videos of the first day.
Most of the departments are asking for more money,
due to increased population and increased demand for services
during a period of economic downturn.
Something needs to be done, and these sessions are one step in
getting to doing something.
Here’s the agenda.
Lowndes County Sheriff Prine
talked about
Administration,
the
Jail,
the
Commissary,
and
Enforcement
at the
first day of Budget Presentations to the Lowndes County
Commission, 10 March 2014.
Like most other county-funded departments, he asked for more personnel.
The long squeeze of the economic downturn needs to be addressed somehow.
These videos show how the Sheriff proposes to address them.
The Brookhaven apartment building
packed the Planning Commission meeting last night
and
it’s on the agenda in Lake Park tonight.
The annexation request discussed at length at the 10 March 2014 Lowndes County Commission Work Session was on the agenda for last night’s Planning Commission but was withdrawn. It’s still on this agenda.
And they have Citizens’ Concerns not once but twice.
Here’s the agenda. They put it in HTML right on their website!
Date/Time
Date(s) – April 1, 2014
7:30 PM – 9:30 PMLocation
Continue reading
Lake Park City Hall
Seen on Silentdisaster.org’s facebook page. The EPA and GA-EPD meeting last November and later test results did not satisfy them. Wastewater from that Waycross contamination was shipped to the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County, adding to the other toxic materials in that landfill. -jsq
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 1, 2014
By: Silentdisaster.org, a citizens group in Waycross, Georgia
Testing conducted by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) have left residents frustrated and angry. Many children are sick and have died from being poisoned by toxic chemicals and residents who live, week-to-week on small budgets, are spending their own money to do testing because they don’t trust government officials who are paid to protect the people and keep them safe’. They should be spending their money on feeding their families and getting well. The lack of honesty in the EPD’s reports is a disgrace to our community and our State.
Newly released environmental testing results Continue reading
North Valdosta Church of God
is back for perhaps the fourth time about the parking lot for their new building.
Plus
a house variance in
Lowndes County
and
a gas station variance
in
Valdosta.
Here’s the agenda. The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes online in real PDFs.
Continue reading
The twin
Hahira cases are to
rezone
and then
annex
a lot on the east edge of town.
No city of Valdosta cases this time,
but three each for
Lowndes County
and
Lake Park.
One of the Lake Park cases is
a Zoning Ordinance change.
Here’s the agenda, which arrived as a PDF of an image, which I have OCRed into HTML.
Continue readingGreater 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 AvenueMonday, March 31, 2014* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing
A question asked about big oil and Mobile is just as relevant to every local and state government along the proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, and Transco and Florida Southeast Connection, too. A couple of local elected officials and several candidates did make public statements Saturday (stay tuned), so maybe we’re starting to get some answers to this question in Lowndes County, Georgia. Some other locations have already been getting answers.
Brad Nolen wrote for New American Journal 28 March 2014, How Big Oil Controls Local Governments: Whom Do You Serve? Thoughts on Local Government and Dirty Industries,
Now, it should go without saying that the purpose of councils, commissions and public office in general is to represent the varied interests of the citizens, and hopefully through consensus- seeking achieve some semblance of collective wisdom; and then, if we’re really lucky to apply said wisdom in charting our course toward a Mobile our great grandchildren will be proud to inherit.
Yet, when it came to finding a voice to protect our drinking water from Big Oil, we heard nothing substantive from our local leaders, even though we marched on their doorsteps in boots that are still wet with BP oil.
And now, Continue reading
Maybe we should stop inviting toxic industries to Lowndes County.
We’ve been doing that with coal ash, PCBs, superfund wastewater,
used diapers in recycling, and suing local businesses while not terminating
an exclusive franchise with a company that is involved in all of that.
Not to mention Sterling Chemical.
Here in Lowndes County we have
TVA coal ash and Florida coal ash
in our landfill,
and the landfill operator spreads the coal ash on roads on the site,
which is just uphill from the Withlacoochee River.
GA EPD
fined that landfill operator $27,500 in January 2013
for accepting PCBs into that same Pecan Row Landfill.
The same landfill that accepted
196,500 gallons of wastewater from the
Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross, GA.
A landfill that is in an aquifer recharge zone. Continue reading
Bull riding, barrel racing, calf roping, for the first-ever
Lake Park Rodeo, at
Raisin Cane, 3350 Newsome Road,
gates open 5PM, events start 5:30PM,
tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday).
Fun, community, and lots of business and political leaders.
Kay Harris wrote for the VDT 23 March 2014, Rodeo Lake Park a big event this week,
A small community can do great things when everyone comes together, and Lake Park folks are definitely coming together for this event.
Support the rodeo this week in Lake Park!
-jsq
Nonprofit As You Sow got mighty Southern Company to agree to report on renewable energy, which is the first step towards widespread adoption of solar power. How about taking on FPL next, about that Sabal Trail methane pipeline? And that green bond idea, how about our Industrial Authority take that up?
Dave Williams wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle yesterday, Southern Co. to report renewable energy spending,
Atlanta-based Southern Co. has agreed to produce a comprehensive report on its current renewable energy projects and plans for future development of renewables, an environmental organization reported Thursday.
The company’s decision prompted Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit As You Sow to withdraw a shareholder resolution asking Southern to consider President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the group said in a news release.
“To achieve that goal, utilities need to immediately shift Continue reading
