It’s back: the
Howell Road halfway house rezoning,
after being tabled last time,
waiting for a full Commission.
The Lowndes County Commission will vote on it tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM.
All the same opposition letters and petition signatures are included in the board packet.
Staff still recommends approval, although the Planning Commission recommended denial by 7:3.
![[Collage, LCC Packet 2023-04-10]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2023-04-10--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
Collage, LCC Packet 2023-04-10
The Letter of Intent from Redeemed Living includes this:
“Redeemed Residents are required to maintain full time
employment, attend weekly recovery meetings, and become an active member at a
Church of their choosing.”
Is that establishment of religion?
| Cost | What |
|---|---|
| $647,831.28 | Brookridge Drive Grading, Drainage, Base, and Paving |
| $36,750.00 | Bid for a Crop Sprayer for the Utilities Department |
| $684,581.28 | Total |
The highest-dollar item is for
paving one road near Hahira.
The other item with a “BUDGET IMPACT” is
Bid for a Crop Sprayer for the Utilities Department,
to maintain the hayfield at the Land Application System (LAS).
Last meeting they renewed the waste collection franchises by
Deep South Sanitation (DSS) and Waste Management (WM).
This time they’re raising the rates for residential waste collection,
from $20 to $25, and reducing collection site hours,
as requested by the two franchisees.
Let’s see, Deep South Sanitation has 6,900 customers and Advanced Disposal Services has 9,000.
At $5 increase each, that’s $79,500 more subscribers will be paying.
Let me quote
former County Commissioner Richard Lee, back on April 14, 2015,
when he opposed a previous rate increase, after rates had already increased 40%:
“You’ve messed up, guys and gals.”
He also mentioned recycling as a benefit of curbside waste collection.
That benefit has also fallen by the way, as Richard Lee mentioned eight years ago.
As I pointed out in that same 2015-04-14 LCC meeting,
the $200/year ADS and DSS were charging then was more than twice what
we previously paid for use of the collection centers.
And that the excuse for changing to curbside collection was that the
collection centers had a 50% cash shortfall.
So going back to the collection centers and charging 50% more would
cost only $150 a year, less than the then-current curbside collection rates.
Which are going up again.
Here is the
agenda.
The board packet is on the LAKE website,
received in response to a LAKE open records request.
For the rezoning, see also
Videos: Howell Road Halfway House tabled @ LCC Regular 2023-03-28,
and follow links from there backwards.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2023, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
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