Tag Archives: Valdosta

Public Hearing at private law firm for VSU bond to private LLC 2016-10-21

Why is a public hearing for VSU bonds being held at a private law firm? Part 1 Is there no parking at VSU for the public to hear about this $58,805,000 bond issue? There is free parking at the county palace for which we the people footed around $51 million in bonds.

For that matter, why are bonds for a public university being held by a private LLC? Why are they being issued to that private LLC by the shadowy South Regional Joint Development Authority, to which the Lowndes County Commission just appointed Commissioner Clay Griner this May, even though County Manager Joe Pritchard couldn’t tell Griner when that Authority meets?

Can’t the Lowndes County Commission provide this bond Public Hearing with a public place to meet?

In the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday, October 5th 2016, and not online anywhere I can find it, was this Public Notice. Gretchen scanned it, and I OCRed it and formatted the lists to make it more legible. Continue reading →

Wal-mart sign variance on Bemiss Road, and water and storage in Lowndes @ ZBOA 2016-10-04

2:30 PM today: Wal-mart wants a sign variance on Bemiss Road at Guest Road (see previous LAKE blog post), water and sewage on Bemiss Knights Academy Road, and a self-storage facility on Old US Highway 41 North, make a relatively light agenda for the decision-making Zoning Board of Appeals.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563

Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 671-2430

AGENDA
October 4, 2016
2:30 p.m.

Continue reading →

Videos: 3 no-bid lift station pumps, BHDD Appointment, USGS GA 122 Little River gage @ LCC 2016-09-27

Citizen Delores Matchett wanted to know why Howell Lane isn’t paved when all the streets around it are; she mentioned several new subdivisions. She said Commissioners had no idea how fast people drive on that dirt road.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall noted (as a different Commissioner did Monday morning) that the three lift station pumps are no-bid. The agenda sheets for them said because of some unexplained county policy.

Below are links to each LAKE video, followed by a video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session and the agenda.

Continue reading →

Videos: 8.5 minutes, Appointment to BHDD, USGS GA 122 Little River gage, 3 lift station pumps @ LCC 2016-09-26

They vote Tuesday night at 5:30 PM. In these LAKE videos of Monday morning’s 8.5 minute Work Session, you can see they are buying three new lift station pumps, and for each: “This pump has not been bid due to it being a sole source item in accordance with the County’s standards and specifications.” One commissioner did ask about that. Where can we see these no-bid standards and specifications? In other water news, they are likely to approve the annual renewal of the USGS Little River GA 122 stream gauge, which they started paying for after the 2009 floods.

In transportation, Continue reading →

Meet the Candidates –VLCoC 2016-09-27

“Come meet and hear from the candidates running in the November general election,” says the Chamber, and this is usually the best-attended candidate forum. This is not a debate. Each candidate gets a few minutes to say something, and nobody takes questions. However, they also have tables with information and you can usually catch them before or after.

When: 5-7PM Tuesday September 27th 2016

Where: Mathis City Auditorium
2300 North Ashley Street
Valdosta, GA 31602

Organized by: Continue reading →

Florida state-owned uplands crossed by Sabal Trail

FDEP is fine with Sabal Trail boring through the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway in Marion County, FL, Marjorie Carr Cross Florida Greenway State Recreation and Conservation Area, FLORIDA NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL, Marion Co., FL as well as drilling under Suwannee River State Park in Hamilton and Suwannee County, FL.

For that Greenway, see the maps shown here (click on any one of them for a larger image), pulled from Sabal Trail’s Continue reading →

Appointment to BHDD, USGS GA 122 Little River gage, 3 lift station pumps @ LCC 2016-09-26

They actually named an appointee in the agenda! Dr. Wilhelmenia Howell for Georgia Department Of Behavioral Health And Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD).

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2016, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail path, Mitchell County, GA

Update 2016-09-25: Added google map.

3 * Raccoon Creek & 8555 GRAVEL HILL RD, Doerun, GA 31744, STA. 9277+00 TO STA. 9330+00, 31.3789230, -84.0439910 Sabal Trail must really like Raccoon Creek, the number of times they cross it (at least eight times). Or they really don’t like that creek, considering the destruction bulldozing for that pipeline is causing.

See the google map and the individual alignment maps shown here (click on any one of them for a larger image), pulled from Sabal Trail’s alignment sheets of 7 April 2016, filed with FERC as Continue reading →

Videos: Under budget but low tax collection, Nature Nate ahead, PO Box Woes @ VLCIA 2016-09-20

Authority under budget, Nature Nate’s ahead of schedule, USPS contentious, manufacturing week, and WWALS water trails: all packed into a brief meeting last Tuesday of the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority.

CPA Tom Davis said the Development Authority is under budget but tax collection is also slow, with no new funds expected until January.

Existing Industry Coordinator Stan Crance announced that Nature Nate’s is beyond projections, now up to 25 jobs and $3 million capital investment and needs more parking. They’d also like to move their postal mail delivery from a downtown post office box to a local mailbox. But Nature Nate’s is the only tenant of Miller Business Park, and USPS requires central box units for any business park. This would require modifying the roundabout “just in case any other businesses were to locate out there”. Some Development Authority board members found this USPS requirement to be a contentious situation, “worse than Continue reading →

Sabal Trail protests continue –VDT 2016-09-23

Front page today in the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee River Basin: the WWALS protest against DAPL and Sabal Trail at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge last Saturday, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA.

Vdt Desiree Carver, Valdosta Daily Times, Friday, September 23, 2016, front page, Sabal protests continue,

The WWALS Watershed Coalition stood on the bridge between Brooks and Lowndes County Saturday to show solidarity with Dakota Access Pipeline opponents in Dakota and to continue its battle against the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline.

That’s the US 84 bridge over the Withlacoochee River, on the Continue reading →