Brett Huntley responded to the Commission's mysterious ruling against the public at the 26 Febuary 2013 Lowndes County Commission meeting, to close the only public access to the Alapaha River in Lowndes County. Neither County Manager Joe Pritchard nor County Engineer Mike Fletcher were paying any attention.

I would like to publicly say that I am shocked with the decision. I feel the decision was in favor of a sole person, and not in the interests of the community and the citizens. We tried to speak and explain our side of the story. And the county road has not ceased to be used. It's been being used in our county for over 100 years. I feel your guys just made a decision that will have an impact on our culture and heritage in the community that is not good. It's a bad decision, I feel.

I kind of feel hurt. I feel it's a personal thing for our community. That whole road abandonment idea stems from one sole person

that seemed to have a problem with some in the community. And I feel that he was obviously listened to a lot more than the citizens were. And I take that personally and feel that was a poor decision, and I hope there is some way that we might be able to turn this around.

As the 2030 plan is in the county's interests, there's also easements and stuff, a lot of technical things involved in this. And going into a new area will be damaging the environment even more. Whereas this place has been there for over 100 years, it would be the easiest and less expensive way for the county to build something. You guys are going to spend more money to do it somewhere else whereas you've got a place that's been there with heritage and history for over a hundred years. That would have been the ideal, in the previous place to do it. Next to a big ugly bridge on US 84 with cars driving by and semi-trucks, it's not going to be the same. That's something that has been taken away from the citizens of our community.

And I personally feel that this whole experience has motivated me to be involved in more decisions that our county makes. Because I feel that there are all kinds of different things that people should be standing up for and making decisions on. This has really made me realize this.

It's also made me realize that the people in my age group are the next people that will be running this county. And I'm going to do my best to make sure that the people in my age group know who they're voting for.

Here's the video:

Make sure that the people in my age group know who they're voting for —Brett Huntley
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 February 2013.

-jsq

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