Tag Archives: VLCIA

Special Called Meeting @ VLCIA 2018-02-07

Update 2019-07-21: LAKE videos and still pictures.

Alcohol and the economy, on the agenda for this morning’s Special Called Meeting of the Development Authority. I think I’ll go to see Brad Folsom as the new Mary Gooding.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority
Agenda/Special Called Meeting
Wednesday, February 7, 2018, 11:30 am
Industrial Authority Conference Room
103 Roosevelt Drive

Call to Order

  • For the purpose of voting on amended Economic Development Agreement and Lease Agreement for GA Beer Company

Adjourn Special Called Meeting

Only one item, Agenda

Georgia Beer Company’s website says “We are not open for business yet”, but its contact page says “Say hello to the first Georgia brewery in Valdosta.” They also have a facebook page. Neither of which says where they will be located. So, VLCIA, in one of your numerous mostly-empty business parks, or elsewhere?

GA Beer Co. logo

Looks like GA Beer Co. had a kickstarter fundraiser a couple of years ago, which says they all met at VSU.

Presumably this is the same Community and Economic Development Strategy recently approved by the Lowndes County Commission.

-jsq

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Videos: Emergency road repair bids! Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage @ LCC 2017-08-22

The added agenda item 6e. Emergency Repairs to Rocky Ford Road got a couple of bids (unusual procedure; different from their usual no-bid emergencies) passed. The Chamber sent Gary Wisenbaker to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard to ask for (after a very long preamble by John Page) apparently money from GDOT for a long list (in a letter the taxpayers did not get to see) of transportation projects to help “the business community”, apparently including the truck bypass.

They only appointed six of the seven members of the Development Authority of Lowndes County, although a Commissioner did ask about that. It’s also curious they said all the terms expired right then, since the Wayback machine has a snapshot of 4 April 2017, which shows three expiring in June 2017 and four already expired in December 2016. Apparently they just didn’t bother to appoint anybody to the four slots that expired in December 2016 until eight months later, and then they didn’t appoint anybody to one of the 2017 slots.

Below are links to Continue reading →

Videos: Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11

They vote this evening on what you can see them discussing yesterday morning in these LAKE videos of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session. The longest business item was not even a minute and a half on REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park.

By far the longest item was not on the agenda: 11. Reports – County Manager a. Steve Gupton- LODAC Presentation, about a local drug counseling organization, originally private, but for long now funded by Valdosta and Lowndes County plus grants. As one of the presenters noted, probably only Commissioner Joyce Evans was thoroughly familiar with LODAC.

Below are Continue reading →

Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11

A very busy agenda this morning, including the controversial REZ-2017-14 Cothron, Tucker Rd rezoning.

They’ll probably reappoint Commissioner Joyce Evans and Gerone Anderson to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority, although Robert Jefferson and Ellen Hill have also applied.

Mary Gooding is retiring from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development (Industrial) Authority, and four people have applied: Ed Hightower Jr., Brad Folsom, John (Mac) McCall (currently on ZBOA) and Giovanni Panizzi.

Mary Gooding, VLCIA

Nevermind the REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park rezoning had nothing to do with the Industrial Authority that I know of.

No meeting would be complete without Continue reading →

Videos: Office rezoning, Georgia Power, Alcohol, and road abandomnent @ LCC 2017-11-14

They added and agenda item for 7.p. Solicitor-General’s VOCA Grant Renewal; yes, really, the agenda was so long that’s sub-item letter P and the meeting was 51 and a half minutes long.

Longest at seven minutes was 6a. REZ-2017-11 Arrow Engineering, in which the County Commissioners ignored the Planning Commission’s recommendation to deny, and the County Planner’s observation the previous morning that the applicants would accept one acre. Instead they approved 2.5 acres with no conditions as Office Institutional (OI) in an area with no other instances of that.

At six minutes, 7.n. Georgia Power- VisionFirst was about putting $25,000 to hire an unnamed consultant for a joint project for unspecified results.

Update 2017-11-22: According to Chairman Bill Slaughter, the consultant is VisionFirst Advisors out of Tallahassee.

Did they mean the sinkhole-infested Mission Creek instead of 7.k. Grant of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Mission Point?

Five minutes included questions from the Chairman and resulted in a split vote and a stern warning on 7.i. Beer, Wine & Liquor License – Liquor Barn, 3990 N. Valdosta Rd.

One of the two road abandonments, 7.a. Abandonment of Lane Road and a Portion of Sheavette Road, got a very rare split vote, with Commissioner Clay Griner voting alone against.

Below are Continue reading →

Development Authority sells land for solar arrays

Next to ERCO Worldwide, one of the few tenants in VLCIA’s “eight industrial parks”, SolAmerica is buying land for a solar farm that will take up most of the rest of the Perimeter East Business Park.

Site Layout, East of Valdosta
Site Layout submitted by SolAmerica to VLCIA in 14 November 2017 meeting.

Jason A. Smith, VDT, 15 November 2017, Solar arrays planned for land,

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority voted Tuesday to approve the sale of 27.42 acres for $137,100 to be used for solar arrays.

Continue reading →

Update: Chemical smell, schools, and industry on Clay Road

Maybe ask the company that adopted Clay Road? Response yesterday from the EMA Lowndes facebook page:

Hi, as a point of clarification emergency personnel responded to reports of an odor; however, after thorough investigation no evidence of a chemical leak or release could be identified or confirmed. As a precaution, the Board of Education property was accessed by responders. No evidence of contamination was present. A follow up visit to the area later this morning reports the odor was no longer present.

Thank you, EMA Lowndes, for responding, and on a weekend, too.

However, people couldn’t get home that night.

ADM Adopt-A-Street, From Howell Road
Adopt-A-Street ADM, Clay Road north from Howell Road google street view.

I still think it would be good to check with nearby industry. Maybe start with Continue reading →

Videos: Bids for emergency road repair! Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage @ LCC 2017-08-21

Bids for an emergency repair! This could be a first, instead of their usual sole source approve-it-right now method. See the County Manager’s Report, in which County Engineer Mike Fletcher describes bids incoming from both Scruggs and Reames for temporary repair to Rocky Ford Road.

Below are links to each LAKE video of yesterday morning’s Work Session with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda with notes about appointments and millage. And see also the 5 PM today Millage Rate Meeting.

Continue reading →

Appointments: Library Board, Development Authority, millage, cameras @ LCC 2017-08-21

Maybe the county would have enough applicants their Work Session, Monday morning at 8:30 AM, if they advertised for applicants for open board seats, such as on the Development Authority of Lowndes County, And if they posted the application sheets for the applicants they did get, such as for the Lowndes County Library Board, we’d have some idea of who they are. They could even say whether the millage is going up or down.

According to the agenda sheet for the appointment to the Lowndes County Library Board,

There is a vacant seat on the Lowndes County Library Board. The Board of Trustees of the South Georgia Regional Library System respectfully requests the appointment of Mr. Gene Toffolo to fill the vacant seat.

They don’t say who applicant Gene Toffolo is. According to the South Georgia Regional Library he’s a 2016 Friends of the Library Board member:


Front Left to Right: Kay Scott, Janet Toffolo, Mary Helen Watson (President), Merrilee Casady, Sarah Smart (Vice President), Robert DeVan (Treasurer)
Back Left to Right: Gene Toffolo, Patricia Marks, Riley Howard, Karl Osmus, John Swiderski (Secretary)

The county’s agenda and agenda sheet for the Lowndes County Library Board don’t say whose seat expired or maybe somebody resigned. The county’s web page for this board is no more helpful, listing these members and expirations, none of which expires in 2017: Continue reading →

Nature Nates parking and mailbox @ VLCIA 2016-11-15

5:30PM today, Nature Nate’s parking lot expansion and the never-ending mailbox controversy are back on the agenda for the Development Authority.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 5:30 pm
Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda

Continue reading →