Tag Archives: Withlacoochee River

Videos: Colquitt EMC, Conference Center, 2 rezonings, 2 water, HVAC, Solar, Controls @ LCC Work 2023-10-09

Update 2023-10-10: Colquitt EMC, Conference Center, 2 rezonings, 2 water, HVAC, Solar, Controls @ LCC Packet 2023-10-09.

The two special presentations only took about six minutes total, and most other items took half a minute each, so the entire Lowndes County Commission Work Session only took fourteen minutes yesterday.

Lowndes County Fire Chief Billy Young opened the check from Colquitt EMC after the meeting: it was for $35,000.

Only Commissioners Joyce Evans and Mark Wisenbaker and Chairman Bill Slaughter attended. Commissioners Scottie Orenstein, Demarcus Marshall, and Clay Griner were absent.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Colquitt EMC, Conference Center, 2 rezonings, 2 water, HVAC, Solar, Controls @ LCC Agenda 2023-10-09

Update 2023-10-10: Videos: Colquitt EMC, Conference Center, 2 rezonings, 2 water, HVAC, Solar, Controls @ LCC Work 2023-10-09.

Despite four working days to do it, more than the three days allowed by the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA), Lowndes County has not returned the board packet for this week’s Lowndes County Commission meetings.

However, most of the materials for the two rezonings will probably be similar to what the county put in the preceding Planning Commission packet.

They also plan to spend a third of a million dollars, most of it on heating and air conditioning maintenance. The agenda sheet says, “Attached in your packet is an equipment list for each building to be maintained.”

But we the taxpayers don’t get to see that list, because the county does not publish its own board packets and, despite the state open records law, has not returned it so LAKE can publish it.

Cost	What
$255,029.00	HVAC Maintenance Agreement
$24,825.00	Joint Funding Agreement with USGS for Stream Gauge Maintenance
$23,370.00	Water Treatment Agreement
$0.00	Solar Panel Maintenance Agreement
$0.00	Quarterly Controls Inspection Agreement
$303,224.00	Total

Collage @ LCC Agenda 2023-10-09

Here is the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2023, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: Surprise One Valdosta-Lowndes presentation, and executive session to discuss personnel @ LCC Work 2023-06-26

Update 2023-07-10: Videos: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prison Details @ LCC Regular 2023-06-27.

Update 2023-06-29: Slides: One Valdosta-Lowndes @ LCC Work 2023-06-26.

People might have come to see if they knew One Valdosta-Lowndes was going to present at Monday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session. Instead, County Manager Paige Dukes announced it during her County Manager Report, and then OVL Executive Director Mary Beth Brownlee presented. Thanks to Mary Beth for sending LAKE her presentation slides.

Collage @ LCC 26 June 2023

At the end of the meeting, the Commissioners held an executive session to discuss personnel. There is only one personnel directly managed by the Commissioners: the County Manager.

The second longest item at 4 minutes was 5. Fire Officer of the Year – Fire Fighter of the Year Recognition.

Next longest at two and a third minutes was 7.a. Lowndes County Accountability Court Grant Approval and Cash Match.

Everything passed unanimously, including the adoption of the FY 2024 Operating Budget and the reappointments to three boards.

Once the county finishes taking over its own permitting, the 6.c. Valdosta Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals won’t exist, and Lowndes County will have to appoint its own. The new one could have the same county members.

Were you invited to the stakeholder meetings the County Manager announced for “the development community”? Maybe taxpayers and citizens are not stakeholders.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Videos: Dollar General Defeated, VLDA appointment, subdivision infrastructure, VOCA, server blades @ LCC Regular 2023-01-24

Update 2023-05-06: Dollar General developer and property owner sue Lowndes County about rezoning denial –VDT 2023-05-03.

Update 2023-01-29: Lowndes County nixes planned Dollar General –VDT 2023-01-26.

Much to the surprise of the several dozen opponents of the Dollar General rezoning, and even after the DG developer attorney attempted to tell his version of the Lowndes County Commission’s legal responsibilities, all the Commissioners voted to deny the rezoning.

Collage @ LCC 24 January 2023

The audience laughed at the Dollar General’s offer of an “enhanced facade,” as conveyed by County Planner JD Dillard. Even after Chairman Bill Slaughter limited each side to ten minutes, the opposition gave excellent summaries.

Heath Dawson, who is the nearest neighbor to the north and a commercial banker, attested Continue reading →

Videos: new attorney, VLDA appointment, Dollar General rezoning, 2 infrastructure, special assessment rate, VOCA @ LCC Work 2023-01-23

Update 2023-01-28: Videos: Dollar General Defeated, VLDA appointment, subdivision infrastructure, VOCA, server blades @ LCC Regular 2023-01-24.

The second-longest item at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session this morning was the proposed rezoning for a Dollar General at GA 122 and Skipper Bridge Road, slightly uphill from the Withlacoochee River. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM. You can still call your Commissioner or send email, or speak in the Public Hearing this evening.

The two subdivision infrastructure acceptances on or near Val Del Road remind us all of what happens when the county pushes development onto a road, as they did back in 2007 by running water and sewer to Nelson Hill on Val Del Road.

The longest item at almost three minutes was 7.c. Special Assessment Rate for 2023, which has to be set every year, even though it hasn’t been used in decades.

Collage @ LCC 23 January 2023

About the rezoning, County Planner JD Dillard said another letter opposing the rezoning had been received, from someone about three quarters of a mile north on Skipper Bridge, but he did not say who it was nor what they wrote.

For no apparent reason, he put up a map showing nearest distances to residences. Continue reading →

Packet: Dollar General rezoning again, VLDA appointment, 2 subdivision infrastructure, special assessment rate, DA VOCA, server blades @ LCC 2023-01-23

Update 2023-01-24: Videos: new attorney, VLDA appointment, Dollar General rezoning, 2 infrastructure, special assessment rate, VOCA @ LCC Work 2023-01-23.

Update 2023-01-23: Please deny Dollar General rezoning, GA 122 @ Skipper Bridge Road –WWALS to Lowndes County 2023-01-23.

The rezoning for a Dollar General is back on the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission to review Monday morning and to decide Tuesday evening.

Agenda, Dollar General rezoning

They will also decide on reappointing Brad Folsom to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority. interest rate for paving and utility assessments, authorization for D.A. to accept federal VOCA grant funds. and the only thing listed as costing money: server blades replacing those at end of life.

Reminding us what happens when the development camel gets its head under the agriculture and forestry tent, there are two acceptances of subdivision infrastructure over on and near Val Del Road, some of the numerous developments since the county ran water and sewer to Nelson Hill on Val Del.

Meanwhile, Dollar General does not seem to know where its stores are, and the lot layout it submitted is not binding, yet we should trust them to handle wetlands appropriately, just uphill of Poley Creek and the Withlacoochee River? Continue reading →

Survey, petition, letters, speak against conmmercial development on GA 122 at Skipper Bridge Road

Update 2023-01-21: Packet: Dollar General rezoning again, VLDA appointment, 2 subdivision infrastructure, special assessment rate, DA VOCA, server blades @ LCC 2023-01-23.

If you do not think “commercial and shopping options in Lowndes County” should include a development foothold in an agricultural and forestry area, here are ways you can oppose it: a survey, a petition, letters, call your Commissioner, and speak in the Public Hearing.

Trash bags across GA 122 from the rezoning notice sign

Somebody identified only as “Joe w/ WG Research” is sending text messages with a survey that includes this question:

4. Would you be in favor of a new and architecturally enhanced Dollar General in North Lowndes County located on GA Hwy 122?

No doubt they want to hear from everybody. So please answer the survey and get friends and relatives who oppose that rezoning to answer it.
https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7170646/Lowndes-County?x=2DCD7BDE9 Continue reading →

Public Notice: Rezoning REZ-2022-20, GA 122 @ Skipper Bridge Road for a Dollar General 2023-01-08

Update 2023-01-13: Survey, petition, letters, speak against conmmercial development on GA 122 at Skipper Bridge Road.

That’s sixteen days before the January 24th Public Hearing about the proposed rezoning for a Dollar General at GA 122 and Skipper Bridge Road by the Lowndes County Commission.

Public Notice and Future Development Map, REZ-2022-20, GA 122 @ Skipper Bridge Road

Which appears to be sufficient notice according to O.C.G.A. 36-66-4(a): “A local government taking action resulting in a zoning decision shall provide for a hearing on the proposed action. At least 15 but not more than 45 days prior to the date of the hearing, the local government shall cause to be published within a newspaper of general circulation within the territorial boundaries of the local government a notice of the hearing. The notice shall state the time, place, and purpose of the hearing.”

The notice says opponents of the rezoning have to file a disclosure report about campaign contributions. The same law, O.C.G.A. 36-67A-3 (2010) says the applicant must also file a disclosure report. I will include a request for that in the LAKE open records request before the January 24th Public Hearing.

Valdosta Daily Times, City and Public Notices, January 8, 2023,

PUBLIC NOTICE TO THE CITIZENS OF LOWNDES COUNTY, Continue reading →

Correspondence: Proposed Rezoning on GA 122 at Skipper Bridge Road 2022-12-12

Update 2022-12-20: Videos: Dollar General rezoning tabled, Troupville Nature Park land purchased @ LCC 2022-12-13.

All letters were opposed, of those sent to GLPC or LCC by December 12, 2022, about the rezoning for a Dollar General on GA 122 at Skipper Bridge Road.

Thanks to Lowndes County Planner JD Dillard for sending this correspondence on REZ-2022-20 last Monday in response to an open records request, before I mentioned it in the Lowndes County Commission meeting Tuesday.

Map, Letters, REZ-2022-20, GA 122 & Skipper Bridge Road

Letters

There are letters from Joyce Jones, Jamie Rowntree, and Gwen Rowntree. Gwen Rowntree sent a letter to the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) and followed up with a similar letter to the Lowndes County Commission (LCC).

It appears that while there may be people who have spoken to Commissioners in support of the rezoning, as of Monday a week ago nobody had written in support. All the letters are in opposition.

As you can see, Continue reading →

Videos: Opposition gets Dollar General on GA 122 & Skipper Bridge voted down @ GLPC 2022-11-28

Update 2022-12-09: Agenda: Sprawl on Skipper Bridge Road and Purchase of Land Between the Rivers @ LCC 2022-12-12.

Update 2022-12-09: Massive citizen opposition to development foothold in agricultural and forestry area @ GLPC 2022-12-08.

The eight citizens who spoke against the Dollar General rezoning at GA 122 and Skipper Bridge Road get star billing.

Collage @ GLPC 28 November 2022

“We don’t need to have new commercial zoning in our area.” —Gretchen Quarterman

“We have no interest in adding convenience to our peaceful little community.” —Becky Rowntree Harris

“The river is literally my back yard.” —Danielle Jackson

“Ten-day is an absolute joke.” —Samuel Heath Dawson

“And the other 112 acres would be the next battle.” —William Pope

“Put it across from Ashley Paulk’s development.” —Roxanne Newton

“Even with the goose egg [?] it’s still a Dollar General and I do not want this.” —Dan Richardson

“Please take the wishes of the many, versus the dollars of the few.” —Last Speaker

GLPC voted 7:1 to recommend disapproval. The actual rezoning decision will be made by the Lowndes County Commission at its Regular Session, Tuesday, December 13th, 2022, 5:30 PM. If you don’t want that store in an agricultural area, attracting still more subdivisions still farther north in the county, call or write your county commissioner or come speak against at that meeting. If somebody wants to start a petition, that might also help.

Or you can jump to the full meeting, in which you’ll learn the Hahira deannexation was unanimously voted against, GLPC has a new board member, Ron Bythwood, and a new Chair and Vice-Chair starting in January.

So, about 5. REZ-2022-20 Teramore, Hwy 122/Skipper Bridge Rd, 0067 051, 3.0 ac.E-A to C-C. Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange