Only four voting Commissioners Monday @ LCC 2014-03-10

With only four voting Commissioners left, and two of those lame ducks, it should be an interesting set of Lowndes County Commission meetings this week. On the agenda is adoption of infrastructure for the Nelson Hill subdivision; the one with all the waivers by staff with no public hearings. Plus four rezonings, one for a former County Commissioner and another for a community well for a development. And the annual contract renewal for the MIDS on-call bus system.

While the VDT headline yesterday said Political shuffle continues: County commissioner resigns to run for state Senate seat, actually former Commissioner John Page didn’t resign: he vacated his seat the moment he signed the qualifying papers to run for state Senator. That’s why the Board of Elections has already called a special election that

shall be held in Lowndes County on May 20, 2014, to fill a vacancy in the office of Lowndes County Commissioner representing District 5 formerly held by John Page for a term to expire December 31, 2016.

Qualifying for District 5 will be from 9AM Wednesday to noon Friday 14 March 2014.

The Board of Elections already before that reopened qualifying for District 3 because Crawford Powell qualified for Georgia House District 174, thereby voiding his previous qualifying for his County Commission seat.

Qualifying for District 3 will be from 9AM Monday through 5PM Tuesday 11 March 2014. So we’ll know before Tuesday’s Regular Session who’s running for District 3.

And Richard Raines already said two months ago he wasn’t running again for District 2. It turns out he’s running for state Senate; the same seat John Page just quit his Commission seat to run for. So for GA Senate we have running Raines (R), Page (R), Ellis Black (R) currently House 174, and Bikram Mohanty (D). Black running for Senate opened his House seat; the one Crawford Powell decided to run for instead of County Commission. See Musical chairs in local qualifying.

Well, now maybe we can elect some County Commissioners who maybe don’t think “there’s nothing you can do” about the pipeline, or about quite a few other things. See First round of qualifying for who’s currently running. We’ll know more about Districts 3 and 5 by the end of the week. And Monday and Tuesday’s Commission meetings should be interesting.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation

    Only in the Regular Session, Tuesday at 5:30 PM

  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

    Only in the Regular Session, Tuesday at 5:30 PM

  4. Recognize Firefighter of the Year
  5. Purple Heart Proclamation
  6. Distinguished Budget Presentation Award
  7. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — February 24, 2014
    2. Regular Session — February 25, 2014
  8. Public Hearings
    1. REZ-2014-04 Bennett Property, 7295 Hall Webb Rd E-A to R-1, Well and Septic, ~1.1 acres
    2. REZ-2014-05 Ruth L. Nutt Estate, 5935 Bird Hall Rd E-A to R-A, Well and Septic, ~2.61 acres
    3. REZ-2014-06 Cobb Property, 4799 Hickory Grove Rd E-A to R-A, Well and Septic, 3.65 acres
    4. REZ-2014-07 Ed and Evelyn Lund, 4701 Knights Ferry Rd E-A to PD-R, Community Well and Septic, ~15 acres
    5. Grant Re-Application for the Rural Transportation Program and Associated Resolution
  9. For Consideration
    1. Adopt Resolution Accepting Infrastructure for Nelson Hill Subdivision Phase II
    2. iVision Master Service Agreement
  10. Reports-County Manager
  11. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

    Only in the Regular Session, Tuesday at 5:30 PM

-jsq