Received today, and I saw the owl chortling with glee at the prospect
of reports on another local council. -jsq

The LAKE blog has been doing an excellent job of publishing what
is happening in various Valdosta and Lowndes County public meetings. I
have been attending the Hahira City Council meetings for several months
now and decided I would start posting a monthly blog summary of council
meetings so Hahira residents will be aware of what is happening in
their city. This is not intended to be an official documentation and
citizens should depend on the

official meeting minutes and/or discuss
issues with

city officials.

It was announced that a hearing had been advertised to discuss
changing the millage rate for the city and it was decided the mileage
rate would remain the same with no increase.

The review of bills/budget overages were approved by the council.

Addendum to the summary – Per history records,

on Feb. 15, 2011
the Valdosta Daily Times printed an article about a special meeting of
concerned citizens and Hahira city officials
which discussed several
agenda items relating to the city’s trash services. During the
meeting citizens were not allowed to speak. Mayer Wayne Bullard
recused himself after stating he was employed by All Green Services
which could be a

conflict of interest.


Councilman Bruce Cain filled
the mayor pro-tem position when Mayor Bullard was in the audience.


During this meeting the city attorney, Robert Plumb, reported that the
contract for curbside pickup with Griffin Waste Services, LLC would
complete three years on December 31, 2011. He also stated that if the
services were going to change or terminate Griffin Waste Services, LLC
would have to be given notice of the intent 90 days prior to Dec. 31,
2011. The issue had been discussed and postponed in the July meeting.

At the August meeting Councilwoman Rose Adams added to the agenda
a request that the service be put out for bid because she felt the city
would save a considerable amount of money with another company.
Councilman Ralph Clendenin asked the mayor if he was still employed by
the garbage company so he could recuse himself again. Mayor Bullard
stated he does not work for the garbage company and that it did not
matter on this issue so he did not recuse himself. During the


discussion it was stated that both Councilman Clendenin and
Councilwoman Adams thought the city would benefit financially by
putting out a request for proposals to begin the bidding process.
Councilman Clendenin reminded the council that a decision would have to
be reached at this meeting in order to meet the 90 day deadline for
notifying Griffin Waste Services, LLC. A vote was taken with
Councilman Clendenin and Councilwoman Adams voting to request proposals
so bidding could be accomplished to see if money could be saved.
Councilmen Allen Cain and Terry Benjamin voted nay creating a tie which
Mayor Bullard broke by going with the nays. Since Griffin Waste
Services would have to be notified by Sept 30, and it will take time to
receive bids before the notification deadline the solid waste and
disposal within the city will have to remain with the current contract.

The other main discussion concerned the Gateway Pines Retirement
Community being constructed off Union Road.


Matt Martin, Lowndes Co zoning commissioner
[Actually,
Matt Martin is Valdosta’s Planning and Zoning Administrator
-jsq ]
was present to speak on behalf of the developer,

Investors Management Company of Valdosta.
The project manager for the
developer, Joe Chambers also spoke. During the discussion it was
admitted that the plans submitted to and approved by the Hahira City
Council had been changed in several areas. Mr. Chambers was asked why
the changes were not brought back to the council for approval and
Councilman Clendenin stated that he felt like the council had wasted
their time considering and approving plans that were not followed.
Among the changes were trees that were supposed to remain had already
been cut down, less space was left between the buildings and the
neighboring properties, and there was confusion about what type of
fence would now be put up. Mr. Chambers stated when the council
approved plans were submitted to the state some EPA changes were
required. He also stated that part of the reason for the changes was
because the design had been changed from 72 units in two story
buildings to 56 units in single story buildings. No definable answer
was given for why the changed plans were never discussed with the
council before construction began. Mr. Chambers stated he did not
realize council should have been consulted about changes to their
approved plans and apologized.

As a lay person in the audience I had to assume that the change
from two story to single story units meant that the building footprint
changed from 36 buildings (if all were two story) to 56 single story
buildings which would be a much larger footprint on the property. My
assumption did not seem feasible even with changes, so I decided the
original plan Mr. Chambers was referring to contained some mixture of
two story and single story buildings which would equal less than 20
additional buildings. I thought I remembered someone on the council
telling me that the buildings would all be single story after the plans
were approved, so I was totally confused. Citizens are not allowed to
speak or ask questions unless they sign up before the meeting stating
what they want to discuss. If questions come up during the course of
the meeting citizens are not allowed to participate. Since the
current construction is for Phase I and Phase II has already been
approved, surely there will be more approval communication between the
council and the developer before Phase II construction begins.

I don’t remember seeing Mr. Chambers present at any meetings dealing
with the approval of the plans & it seemed to me he should not have
been the one that had to defend the changed plans. I feel that he
followed the plans he was given to conduct the site construction and
that the persons who were responsible for the approval process &
internally aware of the changes should have been there to be questioned
instead of Mr. Chambers.

As a citizen I have a concern that there seems to be a wide spread
history of developer’s interests being catered to over the rights &
interests of the citizens within Lowndes County. I also have a
personal concern with the fact the housing project is a “Certified
EarthCraft Community” which when researched has direct ties with UN
Agenda 21 initiatives. Since it is a government subsidized project
there are multiple avenues for consolidating government and private
business concerns through grant monies, which is an open door to
socialism initiatives.

As always, posts on this blog are the opinions of the authors,
unless specifically labeled as by LAKE, which seldom happens,
since that requires a meeting of the LAKE politburo.
Anyway, in this post, I have added some pictures of the people named,
some links to related material, and I’ve made one correction of fact.
It certainly is hard to keep track of all the people around here
who pop up at one meeting or another. With Barbara’s help, the owl can see more of them!

-jsq