Tag Archives: VDT

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 →

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? 300x533 IMG 1545, in Shiloh Road Sinkhole, by Gretchen Quarterman, 4 August 2015

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 →

Videos: Development Authority’s BRAT @ VLCIA 2015-06-16

They meet again tonight with a bylaw amendment scheduled, which is probably for extending officer terms to two years as Roy Copeland proposed. (He first suggested that at least several years ago when he was re-elected Chairman.) And their nominating committee nominated the same officers again.

Lots of dials showing targets and where they are in reaching them, which is good, because I keep getting questions about what they’re doing with all that tax money and are they doing enough to justify it.

One citizen asked about the airport and another (OK, me) handed out Alapaha River Water Trail brochures and once again suggested solar panels at the airport to turn that otherwise-unusable space into profit.

Here’s the agenda and below are LAKE videos, followed by a playlist. Continue reading →

Development Authority’s BRAT @ VLCIA 2015-06-16

Late o tonight’s agenda but big on their minds, and described and pictured by Stuart Taylor, VDT, 31 May 2015, as consisting of:

  • Georgia Department of Economic Development — Michelle Shaw
  • Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce — Myrna Ballard
  • University of Georgia’s Small Business Development Center — Lynn Bennett
  • Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority — Stan Crance
  • Georgia Department of Labor, Valdosta Career Center — Jamon Williams
  • Wiregrass Georgia Technical College — Bill Tillman
  • Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute — Art Ford
  • Georgia Power Company — Scott Purvis

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority’s Business Retention Action Team, or BRAT, brings together a number of local and state organizations to offer services, information, solutions and contacts that a company might need.

“We’ve always had an existing industry program,” said Meghan Duke,VLDA marketing and community relations. “These organizations have always worked together, but now we’re formalizing it.”

Here’s the agenda:

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, June 16, 2015 5:30 p.m. Continue reading →

Solar energy is a part of God’s plan –Valdosta minister with rooftop solar

Early adopter Rev. George Bennett of First Christian Church of Valdosta gets creation care plus 8% return on investment in his 20 solar panels, just like the Savannah Georgia National Guard got two years ago from the same solar installer. Bennett is very well known around Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia, so his solar decision could be quite influential. If he didn’t even wait for the new solar financing law, solar must be something lots of people will want, especially when they see Rev. Bennett explain it in terms they understand.

Adam Floyd, front page, Valdosta Daily Times, today, 12 May 2015, Valdosta homeowner turns to solar power system, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail is claiming customers that do not want its gas, and city and county resolutions are relevant, it seems

Sabal Trail asked the judge to throw out my letter to the court yesterday, but the judge said the contents were public record anyway.

300x400 Letter, in Sabal Trail is claiming customers that do not want its gas, and city and county resolutions are relevant, it seems, by John S. Quarterman, 24 March 2015 Six minutes before yesterday’s eminent domain hearing in Leesburg, GA was scheduled to start I submitted the letter you see below, noting that Sabal Trail was claiming customers in counties and cities that had passed resolutions and otherwise said they didn’t want Spectra’s fracked methane pipeline. Naturally Sabal Trail’s attorneys didn’t like that, and asked the judge to disregard and strike from the record “the Quarterman letter” because they said I didn’t have standing, and you can’t just submit materials a few minutes before a hearing. The judge said he would entertain that motion, but he proceeded to leaf through the attachments, noting resoutions by Lowndes County, by Valdosta, a letter from Spencer Lee (Dougherty County attorney), a resolution by Terrell County, one by Albany, and one by Colquitt County. The judge remarked that all this was public record anyway, so striking the letter wouldn’t have much effect.

And it was pretty clear, at least to me (and remember I am not an attorney), that attorneys for both sides and the judge did Continue reading →

Don’t let Sabal Trail get eminent domain judgment in Leesburg they could claim applies in Lowndes County

Sabal Trail is already sending “final request” eminent domain threatening letters to Lowndes County landowners saying it is “imperative” for that invading company from Houston, Texas to survey local land for its fracked methane 36-inch pipeline in a hundred-foot right of way. Tomorrow morning at 11:30 AM in Leesburg, Georgia, Sabal Trail demands a judge provide a summary judgment for eminent domain surveying against some Mitchell County landowners. If they get that judgment, they will very likely claim it applies to Lowndes County landowners. There’s still time to write a letter to the Clerk of Superior Court in Leesburg against such a judgment. And you can come to Leesburg yourself to protest.

An eminent domain survey “final request” Sabal Trail sent a Lowndes County landowner this month cited Continue reading →

Sugar Creek sewer main, permit, WWTP –VDT @ VCC 2015-03-19

The VDT has some information apparently from the agenda packet the city didn’t publish with its agenda for Thursday. Joe Adgie, VDT, 17 March 2015, City Council to consider revisions to radar ordinance,

Bids will be considered for the sewer main at Sugar Creek near Gornto Road and near the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.

The sewer main has become exposed due to ongoing steam bank erosion, and the sewer main has started to sag. The city said this exposure needs to be repaired sooner rather than later, as the exposure could lead to a failure, and could allow raw sewage to directly leak into Sugar Creek.

This would be a violation of the city’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit with the state.

The recommended bid comes from Garney Companies, Inc., for $286,000.

Other bids come from Continue reading →

Sewage spill not Valdosta’s fault this time

Not every spill is the city’s fault.

City of Valdosta PR, VDT, 18 February 2015, Sewage spilled into waterway,

VALDOSTA — An estimated 375 gallons of sewage dumped into a tributary of Dukes Bay Canal Monday, according to city officials.

A spokesperson for the city said the wastewater spill near Old Statenville Road and Arlington Ave. was the result of a manhole overflow at the 1100 Block of Old Statenville Road around 11 a.m. Monday.

The public is being cautioned Continue reading →

Finance report @ LCC 2015-02-05

300x225 Around the table, in Finance, by Gretchen Quarterman, 5 February 2015 Your elected Commissioners and top county staff listening to Finance Director Stephanie Black’s report, around 9:30 AM on the all-day retreat agenda. The seemingly most boring subject, but the key to all the others. Gretchen is there videoing, but apparently nobody else other than the VDT reporter. Continue reading →