Author Archives: admin

Changes to the alcohol ordinance @ LCC 2012-12-10

Being curious about the

changes to the alcohol ordinance,


I had the opportunity to talk with a county staff member
who said that the changes were to incorporate recent
amendments regarding

brown bagging, social hosts (serving
alcohol at private events to underage drinkers), and
the

Sunday package sales
into the body of the ordinance,
rather than having those items as amendments to the document.
Also, the setting of the license fees for Sunday
sales will be established

(from the referendum that passed 59.80% to 40.20%).

-gretchen

Legislative Luncheon at Wiregrass Tech by Chamber and Rotaries @ VLCoC 2012-12-05



No questions and no mention of Moody AFB at the Legislative Luncheon at
the
Legislative Luncheon at Wiregrass Technical College Wednesday by
the Chamber of Commerce and the three

Rotary Clubs.

State Sen. Tim Golden R-08,
and

State Rep. Ellis Black R-174
plus
incoming

State Rep. Dexter Sharper D-177 spoke
(Reps. Amy Carter R-175 and Jason Shaw R-176 were not present).


But they didn’t answer any questions.
The organizers didn’t even
take questions on cards from the 75 or so people in the room.
It’s nice they’re going around to all the organizations and talking to them,
but it might be more helpful if they listened to the concerns of their
constituents all at once.
Lowndes County Commissioners Joyce Evans and Richard Raines were there,
but they did not speak,
and none of the state legislative delegation said anything
about Moody Air Force Base encroachment,
unlike

Houston County where their state rep. helped organize
“$7.5 million to
help resolve the encroachment issue affecting Robins Air Force Base.”

Ron Borders
on behalf of the Chamber’s
Governmental Affairs Council (GAC) did

invite people to a
Members to the Heard session
Monday 7 January 2012 at Valdosta City Hall Annex Multi-Purpose Room.
Waiting a month to provide feedback to legislators through the Chamber
does seem a tad indirect.
Overall, it would be nice if the legislators would at least actually listen to
(even if they don’t want to answer) questions and concerns from citizens without
those citizens having go go through some filtering system (ie chamber legislative affairs
or county commissioner).


With a room full of 75 or more people, wouldn’t it be refreshing for
elected officials to say “We can’t necessarily answer all your questions
today, but we would like to know what they are. Please come to the
microphone and ask your question or state your concern”.
Citizens Wishing to be Heard in the County Commission meetings
is not really the same as having a session dedicated to listening to citizens’ concerns.


The Chamber’s pre-announcment of this meeting said:

The Chamber’s Government Affairs Council will present its top
business issues to elected officials.

Yet though the GAC the previous day in a contentious meeting

voted to oppose encroachment on Moody Air Force Base,
he said not a word about that at the Legislative Luncheon.



In his keynote,

Sen. Tim Golden said

Continue reading →

Veolia bought by Advanced Disposal Services of Alabama, owned by Highstar Capital of New York City @ LCC 2012-12-10

Received today on

Solid Waste, Developer Favors, Dollar General, Library, and Alcohol: Agenda @ LCC 2012-12-10:

Veolia was acquired by Advanced Disposal, there is no conspiracy theory
here or a change of vendor than was previously voted for.

http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/article/20121120/NEWS01/121129990/advanced-disposal-closes-veolia-deal,

Continue reading →

Houston County and Georgia buying houses in Warner Robins AFB encroachment zone

Update 8 December 2012: Actually,

Houston County does have enforceable encroachment zones around RAFB.

Houston County hasn’t had a enforceable encroachment zone around
Warner Robins Air Force Base (RAFB) and is now fixing the problem
after the fact by using state money to buy up houses near the base.

Tommy Stalnaker

Houston County Commission Chairman Tommy Stalnaker labelled encroachment
his number one priority, in stark contrast to Lowndes County Commission
Chairman Ashley Paulk, who has put

two items on the agenda for Monday and Tuesday
related to a proposed rezoning next to Moody Air Force Base,
and already at a previous Work Session

invited the developer to speak
without letting anyone else speak.

Gene Rector wrote for WRWR “10 months ago”,

Stalnaker ‘ecstatic’ over state action on Robins encroachment issue,

In a word, Houston County Commission Chairman Tommy Stalnaker was
“ecstatic” last week when he learned state officials

Warner Robins Air Force Base encroachment buy-back map
will allocate $7.5 million to help resolve the encroachment issue
affecting Robins Air Force Base.

State Rep. Larry O’Neal called and gave him a heads-up before Gov.
Nathan Deal made the announcement on Friday.

“I felt like jumping up and down and screaming and
hollering,” Stalnaker admitted. “But then I remembered
we hadn’t done our part yet.”

Encroachment has dogged Robins for a number of years. Some 250
parcels — mostly private residences — spread over 1,600
acres in south Bibb and north Houston counties fall within the
base’s noise or potential mishap zone.

That risk to homes in the designated region could restrict or limit
current operations or force the Air Force to look elsewhere for
future workload and mission growth.

Stalnaker has labeled resolving encroachment his number one
priority.

Mike Stucka wrote for the Telegraph 31 May 2012,

Interactive map: Robins AFB encroachment and property purchases,

Continue reading →

Text Amendment —Richard Raines

Received yesterday, referring to
TXT-2012-02, which is on the agenda for

Monday morning’s Work Session and Tuesday evening’s Regular Session
of the Lowndes County Commission.
-jsq

From: Richard Raines

To: Gretchen Quarterman

Subject: RE: Text Amendment

Gretchen,

Based on a conversation with the Chairman yesterday, it is my


understanding that this issue will be tabled until sometime next
year (Chairman-elect Slaughter will decide when to put it back on
the agenda) because we are working with MAFB on a compromise as they
are well aware of our mandate to balance property rights with
protecting against base encroachment.

Since I’ve been on the County Commission we have made it a priority
to constantly evaluate the ULDC and all zoning districts. MAZ 1-3
is no exception and must be evaluated to make sure that it is
balanced and consistent.

We have discovered

Continue reading →

Solid Waste, Developer Favors, Dollar General, Library, and Alcohol: Agenda @ LCC 2012-12-10

Updates 9 Dec 2012: Marked with *.

Will the Lowndes County Commission Tuesday evening
finish railroading through their non-solution to solid waste disposal,


without shouldering its legal responsibility to protect
the environment and the public health, safety, and well-being from solid waste,
and what’s this about a vendor change?
Will the Chairman once again invite a developer to speak in Monday morning’s
Work Session without letting anyone else speak?
Will the Commission change the zoning code and rezone inside and against
the Moody Exclusion Zone for that same developer they already
provided $130,000 in road construction labor to back in 2007?
Does Naylor need the area’s nineteenth Dollar General, and who’s behind it, anyway?
How come the Five Points library is still on the agenda even though SPLOST VII failed?
And what are they doing to the Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance this time?
Come Monday morning at 8:30 AM and Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM and see!
Better yet, also call or write your Commissioner before then.

Trash

6.b. Solid Waste Ordinance

Will the Commissioners finish

railroading through their



already-failing non-solution to solid waste disposal
in the last session of this Chairman?
The plan for which they held

zero public hearings while any of
the Commissioners who voted on it this October were on the Commission,
yet someone down there feels free to

anonymously ridicule concerns about that plan failing?
Two citizens

spoke up anyway,
even though

Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
was after the scheduled vote last time,
and

another on this blog,
all willing to state their names, unlike the anonymous pro-trash-railroad
ridiculer.
What was that

unspecified new information
that caused them to table it last time, anyway?

8.b. Exclusive Franchise Agreement for Residential Solid Waste Collection Services with Advanced Disposal Services of Central Alabama, Inc.

What happened to Veolia;

Continue reading →

Lowndes County’s 2007 and 2012 favors for the same developer

According to the Lowndes County Commission’s minutes,
the developer for whom the Commission now proposes
to change the zoning code back in 2007 got $130,000 in road
construction labor from the Commission.

In the

26 June 2007 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session Minutes:

County Engineer, Mike Fletcher, presented an item that was brought
to the Commission during the previous work session regarding the


paving of Davidson Road. Further, Mr. Clint Joyner was in the
process of building a previously approved development that was being
affected by an unforeseen Department of Transportation requirement
regarding a costly intersection improvement. Mr. Fletcher further
stated that Mr. Joyner was required to pave a portion of Davidson
Road; however, due to the intersection cost he was offering to
purchase the materials for the funding of the entire road, if the
county would provide the road construction labor at a cost of
approximately $130,000.00. Commissioner Lee made a motion to approve
the request, Vice Chairman Carter and Commissioner Roberts offered a
second. Motion carried.



Somebody help me here, is not that the same Clint Joyner back in 2007
getting a $130,000 subsidy from the County Commission
who last month

got invited to talk to the Commission in a Work Session
with nobody else invited to speak?
The same one for whom

the same Commission is now proposing to change the zoning code?
For another development on the same Davidson Road?
A development

the Chamber and Moody and the Planning Commission
are all opposing, while the VDT channels Ashley Paulk in promoting it?

What is it about this Clint Joyner or Joyner Realty or Davidson Road
that the County Commission should favor him or them so?
It can’t be the individual Commissioners: not a one of them is the
same now from 2007.
What is the same then and now?

Maybe we should find out before the Commission grants any more favors.

-jsq

Land Development For Future Industries —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA

Executive Director Andrea Schruijer explained the Industrial Authority’s
theory behind all those industrial parks.
And she mentioned market analysis for a sustainable local economy.
Nothing about market analysis about whether industrial parks actually
bring in new businesses….

Valdosta CEO posted 28 NOvember 2012,

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Invests in Land Development For Future Industries,



Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta Lowndes County
Industrial Authority. A few years ago the community had the
foresight to approve a mill that they would set aside for the
Industrial Authority to provide for economic development. And
because the community did that, the industrial authority is able to
better plan for the future in growing our opportunities for economic
development. One of the things that we noticed a few years ago is
that we didn’t have enough land for development. And we didn’t have
the right sized tracks in case we had a large user coming in looking
at the community, where would we put them?



She says “the community did that”?
That’s funny,

Gary Minchew said he organized that.
Kari L. Sands wrote for VDT 20 June 2007,

Lowndes preps for vote on budget,

Continue reading →

Financing solar energy: Georgia’s special problem

In most states, financing solar energy is largely a matter of learning
all the local ropes.
In Georgia, there’s a bigger problem.

Michael Mendelsohn
wrote for RMI 5 December 2012,

How Do We Lower Solar Installation Costs and Open the Market to Securitized Portfolios: Standardize and Harmonize,

Soft costs can be pretty tough. The cost of solar installations can
be generally separated into “hard” costs — representing
primary components such as modules, racking, inverters — and
soft costs including legal, permitting, and financing. While the
former group — particularly modules — have dropped
dramatically over the last several years, the latter have not.
According to a recent NREL analysis, these costs represent roughly
30% of both residential and utility installations (slightly less for
commercial-host systems). See Figure 1.


In fact, soft costs are so critical to the overall success of solar
adoption, their reduction is a primary focus of the Department of
Energy’s SunShot Initiative to make solar energy cost-competitive.
In order to reduce the cost of financing, NREL recently completed
and continues to work on various efforts to tap public capital
markets and enable other vehicles that securitize project
portfolios.

We’ll come back to tapping public capital markets and the like,
because that’s the key to what

Georgia Solar Utilities (GaSU) is trying to do.
But there’s a special problem in Georgia, buried in the next paragraph:

Continue reading →

Chamber opposes zoning code change for developer near Moody

Apparently it’s the Chamber and Moody and the Planning Commission

Red arrows on MAZ
and the TRC all against Ashley Paulk
on the Moody rezoning-and-zoning-code case, with the VDT sidling towards Paulk.
The VDT claimed Lowndes County Chairman stated something that’s
not true according to the agenda and LAKE’s videos of the
recent Planning Commission meeting.
And the VDT buried opposition by the Chamber of Commerce’s relevant committee
at the end of its article.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today,

County disagrees with proposed zoning amendment,
Paulk: Military intervention could prevent development near base,
and the caption of the picture on the right says:

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission proposed a text amendment to
the Unified Land Development Code in November that would reduce lot
density restrictions from 2.5 acres to one acre, allowing landowners
within the Moody Activity Zoning (MAZ) district “more
flexibility” to parcel off their land holdings, Paulk said.

The Planning Commission’s own agenda says TEX-2012-02 was proposed by
“Lowndes County Board of Commissioners”.
And the Planning Commission

voted to recommend against approving that
text amendment to the ULDC.
According to Planning Commissioner John Page,
that vote was following the recommendation of the Technical Review Committee (TRC),
which consists of staff of Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta.
Page is also an incoming Lowndes County Commissioner, to take office
next month.
So either Paulk said something he as the Chairman of the Lowndes
County Commission should know not to be true, or the VDT wrote erroneously.

The VDT also seemed to indicate that Paulk was speaking for

Continue reading →