The Lowndes County Commission passed everything unanimously. Plus they had a proclamation about 811, two citizens spoke about datacenters, one about an alleged sinkhole, one invitation to a fair, and one talked about Southern Georgia Black Chambers.
Vice-Chair Mark Wisenbaker again presided, this time over the Regular Session.
Here are the LAKE videos of this Regular Session, with a few notes by John S. Quarterman.
See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session and the agenda and the The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request.
For the rezoning, see also the LAKE videos of the preceding Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting.
- 1. Order 2. Invocation 3. Pledge (155M)
- Leadership Lowndes (not on the agenda) (39M)
- 5. Minutes For Approval a. Work Session – July 27, 2026 & Regular Session – July 28, 2026 (35M)
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6. Public Hearing a. REZ-2026-15 Mardun Ventures, LLC, 6434 Lake Alapaha Blvd, ~10.7ac, R-21 to E-A, County Water & Septic (580M)
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall wanted to know if R-A or E-A zoning would allow a conservation easement.
Answer from County Planner JD Dillard: that’s really more a question for the Tax Assessors, but yes.
Like Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker at the Work Session, Commissioner Marshall didn’t understand silviculture; he looked it up, and thought it sounded suspicious.
The only difference from forestry is that silviculture is more about planting stands of trees to yield a product, while forestry includes natural forests. You’d think county commissioners would know that.
Nobody spoke against this rezoning. Only the applicant, Michael Jones, spoke for.
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4. Lowndes County 811 Day Proclamation Presentation (235M)
Vice-Chair Wisenbaker forgot this one and came back to it.
Utilities Director Steve Stalvey read the proclamation.
- 7.a. Jail Door Locking Control System Replacement (112M)
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7.b. Jail Skylight Replacement (96M)
Commissioner Michael Smith wanted to know if this was for a whole section of skylights.
Answer from Finance Director Stephanie Black: yes.
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7.c. Acceptance of Infrastructure for Hunting Lodge Trail Subdivision (275M)
They always list these subdivision infrastructure acceptance items as having no effect on the budget.
Commissioner Michael Smith wanted to know if this step was required before Georgia Power could connect.
Answer from Director of Engineering Services Chad McLeod: yes. And there are more steps.
Commissioner Smith wanted to know (he also asked about this in the Work Session) was the developer required to have a one-year bond?
Answer: yes.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall wanted to know if the school zone would be moved.
Answer: Director McLeod said he would look into it. He also mentioned a lot of upcoming proposed development for that area.
Commissioner Scottie Orenstein asked something inaudible.
Apparently he liked the answer.
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8.a. 2026 Local Maintenance and Improvements Grant (LMIG) Local Road Assistance (LRA) Resurfacing Bids (126M)
Commissioners had no questions.
Commissioner Orenstein moved, Commissioner Marshall seconded, all aye.
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9. Reports – County Manager (261M)
County Manager Paige Dukes talked about disaster recovery block grants, including meetings with citizens and heavy rain effects.
She expects staff will have a millage rollback for approval at the next County Commission meeting.
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10. CWTBH George Fisher alleged a sinkhole in Foxborough subdivision (696M)
George Fisher alleged that at 4637 Rustic Ridge Road a sinkhole was growing, and had doubled in size.
He called it a fluvial pipe.
He said he would provide Commissioners related terminology.
His point was that there are underground channels all around, including on the site just south of Foxborough that was rezoned in July 2025, part of it intended for a datacenter. He said there was a danger of heavy rains causing silt to run off that site into the Withlacoochee River.
He recommended including in a datacenter ordinance that this is unstable ground and the river should be protected.
After the meeting, Commissioner Scottie Orenstein yelled at Fisher from the podium, saying Fisher should apologize because it was actually a water leak.
More on that later.
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10. CWTBH Dr. Treva Gear, Dogwood Alliance, recommended a datacenter moratorium (618M)
She said hyper-scale AI datacenters were bigger and had more ill effects than traditional datacenters.
She mentioned some of the numerous Georgia legislature bills that would have reined in datacenters but did not pass.
She talked about bringing water in from somewhere else; I don’t know what that was about.
She also talked about water use and trees.
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10. CWTBH Dr. Michael Noll recounted what his LCAD had done. (658M)
He recommended the Adel datacenter moratorium as a model.
This, even though it does not have his name on it, and does not say who “we” is, appears to be the script he was reading from. It appears to have links to the handouts he gave to the Commissioners, but did not offer to the citizens in the room.
- 10. Kelly Saxon invited attendance at a Council for Human Resources and Environment Fair at VLPRA HQ.
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10. Christina Cheek, Southern Georgia Black Chambers, aims for access to capital.
She talked about numerous partnerships.
- 11. Adjourned (3.4M)
Here is the LAKE video playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOtTal2_kklM&si=LcCQSDGMoGp_xYDi
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