Author Archives: John S. Quarterman

Packet: Valdosta-Lowndes County Board of Appeals, including VAR-2023-13 Arglass 2023-06-06

They granted all three variances, for exterior building materials,
for signs, and Arglass wants to expand for a second furnace,
in their phase 2 planned since at least 2016.

Here are
the board packet and the minutes of the June 6, 2023, meeting of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA),
received in response to open records request to Valdosta and Lowndes County.

For Arglass, see also the WWALS blog post,

Arglass GA-EPD air permit application for a second facility to produce glass containers 2023-07-17.

Arglass maps

Continue reading →

Videos: Boat Ramps, Okefenokee Swamp, LMIG, Taxes @ Clinch County Commission 2023-08-07

Update 2023-09-12:
Videos: Grant match for Dark Sky and resolution against mine too near Okefenokee Swamp @ Clinch County Commission 2023-09-11

Update 2023-08-10:
Chainsaw cleanup, Outings, Boat Ramps, Okefenokee Swamp –Suwannee Riverkeeper @ Clinch County Commission 2023-08-07.

It was a brief agenda at the Clinch County Commission,
with roads and taxes, plus boat ramps and a proposed resolution against the strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp.

Collage @ Clinch County Commission 2023-08-07

Below are pictures, LAKE videos of each agenda item, and links to documents, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Continue reading →

Videos: Four Citizens, Permitting and Inspections Ordinances and fees, Water main extension, Service contracts, court grants, and a fire truck @ LCC Regular

The July 25, 2023, Lowndes County Commission Regular Session took half an hour,
only because four citizens spoke:
one about

tax assessments,
one about

youth advisory council,
and

two about

voting machines.

Collage @ LCC 25 July 2023

Commissioners approved every item unanimously, spending
more than $10 million, mostly on

7.a. Exit 13 Touchton Road Water Main Extension.

The only discussion was when Commissioner Scottie Orenstein asked if it was the original
Engine 10
and Commissioner Wisenbaker asked how the exhaust could fail.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall was absent.

County Manager Paige Dukes

8. Reports – County Manager
praised staff for the new

Permitting and Inspections Ordinances,
but did not say where they might be found on lowndescounty.com.
She also extolled the rollout of the new county website at the same URL.
Maybe permitting is on there under Services, which leads to

Technical Standards under Engineering.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item,
with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Lowndes County Commission Meetings Cancelled 2023-08-07

We don’t know why.

This is all they wrote: “The August 7, 2023 Work Session and the August 8, 2023 Regular Session meetings have been cancelled.”

August 7-8, 2023 Commission Meetings Cancelled

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Packet: One Valdosta item for expansion of a Child Daycare and School facility @ GLPC 2023-07-31

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission only has one case for Monday,
a Planned Development amendment for a mixed-use Child Daycare and School facility in Valdosta.

Collage, GLPC Packet 2023-07-31

The GLPC board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request,
is
on the LAKE website.

Here is the
agenda.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~

~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

Monday, July 24, 2023 5:30 P.M. Work Session

Monday, July 31, 2023 5:30 P.M. Regular Session

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading →

Videos: Probate, Permitting and Inspections Ordinances and fees, Water main extension, Service contracts, court grants, and a fire truck

Update 2023-08-07:
Videos: Four Citizens, Permitting and Inspections Ordinances and fees, Water main extension, Service contracts, court grants, and a fire truck @ LCC Regular 2023-07-25.

By far the longest item at yesterday morning’s Work Session
of the Lowndes County Commission was

4. Recognition of Pretrial, Probation, – Parole Supervision.
That item accounted for about five minutes of the sixteen-minute meeting.

They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.

Collage @ LCC 24 July 2023

They didn’t say where the

Permitting and Inspections Ordinances
might be found on lowndescounty.com.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item,
with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.

Permitting and Inspections Ordinances and fees, Water main extension, Service contracts, court grants, and a fire truck @ LCC Packet 2023-07-24

Update 2023-07-25:
Videos: Probate, Permitting and Inspections Ordinances and fees, Water main extension, Service contracts, court grants, and a fire truck 2023-07-24.

No rezonings, but something much more pervasive at this week’s Lowndes County Commission meetings:
Permitting and Inspections Ordinances
and
a Building Permit Fee Schedule.

Collage, LCC Packet, 2023-07-24

And $10 million in expenditures,
mostly on a water main extension.

Cost	What
$9,754,718.88	Exit 13 Touchton Road Water Main Extension
$489,310.00	Motorola SUAII (Evergreen)
$346,372.00	Acceptance of FY24 Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant Funding
$64,205.17	Fire Rescue Engine 10 Emergency Repair
$50,000.00	Approval of FY24 Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Grant Application
$28,892.56	Vertiv Service Contract for the Liebert UPS at the 911 Center & the Four Tower Sites
$10,733,498.61	Total

Here is the
agenda.www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2023-07-24–lcc-packet”>on the LAKE website.

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request is
on the LAKE website.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 24, 2023, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2023, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: ULDC amendments, Voting machine security, Library Board, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Regular 2023-07-11

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked for clarifications on chickens
being excluded from conservation in

6.a. TXT-2023-01 ULDC Text Amendments,
County Manager Bill Slaughter said there were two kinds of conservation: land use and taxes,
and the exclusion only applied to one of them; not clear which one.

Collage @ LCC 11 July 2023

Gretchen Quarterman spoke against the amendments being voted on without more time
for the general public to review and comment,
as she did at the preceding Planning Commission meeting.
She pointed out she still could not find the amendments on the county’s website,
there had been only one county announcement of these changes,
and no listing of the changes.
Nobody spoke for.
The Chairman asked for rebuttal, but there was none.

Commissioners had no discussion, and voted unanimously to approve the ULDC text amendments.

They unanimously approved everything else, except Continue reading →

Videos: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Work 2023-07-10

Update 2023-10-16:
Videos: ULDC amendments, Voting machine security, Library Board, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Regular 2023-07-11.

This time the ULDC text amendments are on the agenda as a Public Hearing.

Collage @ LCC 10 July 2023

However, Lowndes County still has not put the proposed amendments on

its website.
You can see them in the board packet
on the LAKE website (they are different from the draft that was in the Planning Commission packet).

But that’s only because LAKE sent an open records request for that packet and posted it.
Why should the general public have to do that,
when the county already showed draft amendments to the Homebuilders Association more than a month ago?
We know this because
the the County Manager said so
in the

June 12th County Commission meeting:
“In addition to the Planning Commission,
the amendments have also been shared with the Homebuilders Association,
as our largest group of stakeholders,
we’d like for them to be able to give us some feedback.” Continue reading →

Videos: Adoption of Budget, Appointments to DFACS, VLPRA, Construction Board, Courts, Prison Details @ LCC Regular 2023-06-27

They approved everything unanimously, the Lowndes County Commission two weeks ago,
with another surprise presentation in County Manager Reports.

Collage @ LCC 27 June 2023

They approved the Hotel-Motel Budget Plan and the FY 2024 Operating Budget.

They reappointed Elsie Napier to DFACS, Suzan Garnett to VLPRA, and Tripp Howell to the Construction Board.

They passed a

stopgap resolution to delay approving changes to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC).
So there’s no need to approve any changes at

the July 11th County Commission meeting.

Remember, the public has hardly seen any of the proposed ULDC changes,
while the

County Manager announced two weeks ago that
“tomorrow we have the stakeholder meetings at 12:30 and 2 PM that I mentioned to you yesterday, with permits and inspections, and that is all going fantastically well, and I’m interesting in getting the feedback from our development community so we can make any changes that they may need prior to going live July 1.”
Curious how the county government is not so solicitous of feedback from the general public as it is of feedback from “our development community”.

In response to a question by Commissioner Demarcus Marshall,
Public Works Director Robin Cumbus clarified that the county since COVID
has only been paying for

one prisoon detail
even though the contract says they can use up to three.

About

Reports: County Manager,
Gretchen Quarterman remarks: Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange