Tag Archives: Valdosta

Sinkhole under houses in The Villages, Florida, 20 miles from Sabal Trail pipeline path

Yet another sinkhole in Florida.
And guess what goes within 20 miles of that Florida retirement community?
The proposed Sabal Trail Transmission methane pipeline.
Does poking holes in the already-fragile karst limestone
that holds up houses and contains our drinking water,
anywhere in Florida or south Georgia,
sound like a good idea to you?

Susan Jacobson wrote for Orlando Sentinel, 19 April 2014,

Sinkhole in The Villages threatens 2 homes,



This sinkhole was growing April 19, 2014 near 2 houses in The Villages.
(Helicon Property Restoration)

A large sinkhole has opened under two houses in The Villages.

A picture provided by Helicon Property Restoration, which is working
to stabilize the hole, shows a house teetering at the edge.

Video in report by Lisa McDonald for WKMG, Orlando, 19 April 2014,

Crews fill sinkhole that threatened 2 homes in The Villages:

Continue reading →

Brooks County asks FERC for five-foot top cover on pipeline

Colquitt, Brooks, next Lowndes?

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT yesterday,

Brooks urges deep-dug pipeline,


Brooks County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution earlier
this month encouraging Sabal Trail to bury its proposed natural gas
pipeline two feet deeper than the three-feet requirements.



“We do a lot of farming over here, and that was the loudest
concern was making sure we try to encourage Sabal Trail to make sure
they went the extra mile to make sure their investment, and our
citizens were protected,” said Justin DeVane,

Brooks County administrator. “The pipeline itself is only traversing three
of our five districts and all five of our commissioners were

receiving concerns about it. So we wanted to make sure that Continue reading →

Dangerous Dog Board, Juvenile Justice, a pump, and Hahira Annexation @ LCC 2014-04-21

Another

Hahira annexation request (on the agenda this time),
a

bid for an emergency bypass pump (water well? wastewater force main? other?),
two



Juvenile Justice grant application items, for

Continuation
and for

Enhancement (more about that), and
I didn’t know we had a

Dangerous Dog Board.
All I can find is

some related Georgia laws.

Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Change order, KLVB, and Pipeline @ LCC 2014-04-08




$78,892.56 for an unbid change order for Val Del Road.
The Board of Tax Assessors’

appeal to a Board of Equalizations
decision to grand PCA an unusual depreciation was approved
by the Lowndes County Commission
by a rare split decision, 2 to 1.
Greg Powell of Langdale Industries
appointed to KLVB.
And

Citizen Noll recommended the Commission pass a resolution
or ordinance about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline.

Three voting Commissioners
(Raines was absent and Page vacated his seat)
unanimously approved
three

rezonings with nobody speaking for or against.
They granted permission to

the Sheriff’s office
and to

Emergency Management
to apply for equipment grants.
There was a

weather report,
and a report on
an animal adoption event the previous weekend.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also the videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Defibrilators from Homeland Security @ LCC 2014-04-07



The

KLVB presentation told us up to three states dump in
the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County,
for which the county gets some unspecified amount of tipping fees,
which go to fund KLVB.
An appointment to
KLVB was added to the agenda,
although nobody deigned to reveal who was “that individual that has
requested to serve on that board”.
The

Homeland Security grant application turned out to be for defibrillators.

Here’s
the agenda, with a few annotations and links to the videos.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

AMENDED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Valdosta working to fix sewer problems



The city of Valdosta does have a plan to fix its sewer problems;
it’s funded; and it’s moving along rapidly.


In the Spotlight on Valdosta’s front page says:


Click here for updates to Valdosta’s Sanitary Sewer System improvement projects.

That link leads to

Valdosta Sanitary Sewer System Improvements [Since moved by Valdosta to a new URL. 2018-01-28 -jsq], Continue reading →

Sewage into the Withlacoochee again –WCTV

Although the
Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)
didn’t overflow in the rains earlier this week, and apparently
not yesterday, either,
there were
manhole sewage overflows then
and according to the
Florida Department of Health
there were similar overflows yesterday, from Valdosta into
the Withlacoochee River.

WCTV posted yesterday a

News Release: Florida Department of Health,



TALLAHASSEE- The Florida Department of Health today issued an
advisory to residents in counties surrounding the Withlacoochee and
the downstream Suwannee River. The City of Valdosta has reported a
spill, made up of a combination of storm water and untreated sewage,
that has overflowed into the One-Mile Branch, Two-Mile Branch, Sugar
Creek and Cherry Creek which flow into the Withlacoochee River. Lab
test results received April 18, 2014, indicate higher than normal
levels of fecal coliform bacteria in the river waters.

Oddly, there doesn’t seem to be anything about this on
the city of Valdosta’s own website yet,
but no doubt there will be.
More in later posts about what that.

-jsq

Effingham County YouTubes its Commission meetings

A county half the size of Lowndes videos its own Commission meetings
and puts them on YouTube.
When will mighty Lowndes County do what smaller Effingham County already does?
We already knew
Effingham County puts its board packets online.
When will Lowndes do that?



On the Effingham County website

front page
there’s a link under the picture of the Commissioners to

Effingham County YouTube Channel.
The most recent meeting on there, for 1 April 2014, lasted for three hours and 38 minutes.
Real discussion in a Commission meeting!

-jsq

The Quitman 10 retrial prosecution reads this blog



George Boston Rhynes is reporting the retrial of Lula Smart
of the Quitman 10+2
in Brooks County, Georgia, and its serious issues of voting rights,
justice, and education;
his first three videos are linked in below.
First an amusing observation from yesterday, posted here with permission.

I am lounging outside the Brooks County Courthouse and this is just
what I was thinking. We have been here since 8 AM and jury selection
is ongoing. To actually eyeball perceived enemies is an humbling
experience. How pitiful you have to be to live your life consumed
with hatred, venom, bigotry, and a multitude of demonic spirits!
Anyway, the greatest take away from day one of the Lula Smart
retrial aka the Quitman 10 + 2 is the prosecuting attorney’s
question to potential jurors: “have you read or talked to or
followed a blog called “On the Lake Front?” Hilarious for those of
us who knows what that means!! This kind of evil does kill, but I
refuse to allow it to rob me of my joy! Blessed nite. Nite!

-Fannie MJ Gibbs

I’ve always said we had a reader.
I just didn’t know it was the Quitman 10+2 prosecution.

Here are George’s first three videos:

Continue reading →

Golf and aviation @ VLCIA 2014-04-15



Some interesting stuff on there, such as the

South Georgia Golf Classic,
which

appears to actually be 2-4 May 2014
(even though that event’s
facebook about still refers to last year),
and the
South Georgia Fly-in,
which apparently already happened on April 4th.
I wonder what is the
Presentation by Mr. Ben Futch about?
And VLCIA’s May meeting has a time change, to when

this agenda
does not say.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority

Thursday, April 15, 2014 5:30 p.m.

Industrial Authority Conference Room

2110 N. Patterson Street

Continue reading →